First up we’ve got The Blow Monkeys with Digging Your Scene:
General Public with Tenderness:
Marvin Gaye – a talent that is sorely missed with Mercy Mercy Me:
Marvin Gaye with What’s Going On:
Marvin Gaye with Got to Give it Up:
That’s just a small smattering of what got added to my library this week. Just filling in gaps in my library there. And The Blow Monkeys that was just something YouTube recommended to me. I remember it back in the day.
First the Mamas and the Papas with California Dreamin’
Ides of March with Vehicle
Redbone with Come and Get Your Love – the surprising part they were all Native American
Isaac Hayes with the Theme from Shaft
Now don’t laugh – Barry Manilow with Copacabana.
So the above are the new tracks I’ve added to my music library this week.
So to wrap up Pride month at least for the north eastern United States here’s my musical tribute. All gay artists to my knowledge. What inspired this is my Amazon music player – it was on a roll playing a bunch of different gay artists.
Let’s start with Bronski Beat.
Smalltown Boy:
And just because Jimmy Sommerville is the lead in Bronski Beat here’s the Communards.
Never Can Say Goodbye:
Here’s Patrick Crowley.
The song is Menergy – and yeah it works:
Then of course there’s Modern Rocketry.
Homosexuality:
And I cannot forget Erasure.
Chains of Love:
That one above brings back memories of my friend Ron. He passed away in 1993. But prior to that I can recall hearing this in a little gay club called Galaxy in Providence. And the lyrics – well just listen and you get it.
Then of course there’s:
A Little Respect
First up is Connie with Funky Little Beat from 1985:
Then there’s Cybotron with Clear from 1983:
Next up there’s Strafe with Set It Off from 1984:
Next up Nocera with Summertime, Summertime from 1986:
And finally Freeez with IOU from 1983.
You’ve probably noticed a few things if you listened to all of this. The first is this is all from a period of 1983 to 1986 – that was the true rise of the synthesizer – analog and digital as well as drum machines. Having spun, created and done things with synthesizers I highly approve.
This entire music set was arrived at from wanting to replace the last track. That’s how Nocera, Strafe, Cybotron and Connie were suggested on YouTube.
So I’ve loved Gorillaz for some time, ever since I heard this song:
I mean come on, the video itself is pretty good. Cars with blowers aka superchargers. Great fun. Plus the nitrous oxide button. Having had experience with nitrous systems it’s too awesome.
And then there’s On Melancholy Hill:
Feels Good Inc.
What’s most fascinating about the group is that they have never gotten together to play. It’s an amlagam of a bunch of artists all done over the net.
Well after six years and a whole bunch of good stuff their sophomore album is out. Here’s Charger featuring Grace Jones (Strangay herself!) Yes he’s gay!
Lots of electronica and sampling too in Momentz:
They have a pretty wide range too, here’s Submission:
Got the meme from Polt’s Palace.
Anyhow I’ll start with number one and you get video on these:
1) Brazilian Love Affair – George Duke
2) Brother Man – The Brothers Johnson
Interestingly YouTube doesn’t have a clean version of this. Weird.
3) I’m In Love – Evelyn “Champagne” King
4) Fantastic Voyage – Lakeside
5) Across 110th Street – Bobby Womack and Peace
6) Your Love Is On the One – Lakeside
7) Slide – Slave
8) Ridin’ High – Platinum Pied Pipers (A remake of the Faze-O classic)
9) Dubfunk – Shur-I-Kan
10) Time for some Fun – Central Line
11) Freddie’s Dead – Curtis Mayfield
12) Juicy Fruit – Mtume
13) Haven’t You Head – Patrice Rushen (Probably know her from Forget Me Nots)
14) Far Beyond – Sunburst Band
15) Summer Madness – Kool & The Gang (Now you know where DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince got theirs)
16) The Groove Line – Heatwave
17) Mercy Mercy Mercy – Philip Bailey
18) Pick Up the Pieces – Average White Band
19) Ffun – Con Funk Shun
20) Too Tight – Con Funk Shun
21) Street Dance – The Fatback Band
22) Pull Up to the Bumper – Grace Jones
23) Saturday Love – Cherelle feat. Alexander O’Neal
24) Snap Shot – Slave
25) Another Man – Barbara Mason
Now the thing is, I haven’t listened to iTunes all that much lately. It’s either Pandora, TuneIn, etc. on my phone or computer.
So we were in Trader Joe’s in Warwick, RI today.
And as we’re gathering items I note the music playing in the background. It’s Abbey Lincoln’s “Throw it Away”.
I wonder where I get my love of jazz tunes. I believe that would be my grandfather. Plus the fact that the music I listen to always tended more toward the jazzy (and the funk) than anything else.
But it was just such a surprise to hear that Abbey Lincoln tune on the Muzak at a Trader Joe’s.
Nice isn’t it?
Here’s just a little more with “First Song”
And yet another by Abbey Lincoln, “Nature Boy”
Which brings me to the Phillip Bailey cover of the same exact track:
Music gets recycled, that’s one thing I’ve noticed.
Some other jazz I like, more jazz fusion but I seriously dig George Duke’s music, for example, here’s “Chillin”
Come on, if that one doesn’t put a smile on your face then you should check your heart. You’re probably dead if it doesn’t.
“No Rhyme, No Reason”
Something a little more mainstream, Quincy Jones “The Dude”
Then there’s Ramsey Lewis with “Brazillica”
You may recognize the sound, Earth Wind and Fire did a lot of work with Ramsey Lewis back in the day and the above song shows it.
Speaking of Brazil, here’s another nice George Duke tune titled “Brazilian Love Affair”
But then I like the wild, experimental stuff. For example, recall Minnie Ripperton. Most of us know her from her song titled “Loving You”. But here’s something she did with a group called Rotary Connection, this one is called “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun”
Kind of jazz sliding into psychedelic. Which now loops us through to Funkadelic, and I present thee “Maggot Brain”
Yes, yes, I know, more funk but this borrows jazz elements and the psychedelic too!
And then there’s Funkadelic with “Cosmic Slop”
And on to the more funkalicious:
Parliament with “Not Just Knee Deep”
Funny what hearing a song on a music service in a commercial space will trigger.
I just discovered the new Pandora.
It’s awesome, even better than last.fm if you want to listen to music. First of all no custom player, just a web interface but it’s flash based.
First all, it’s music recommendation. I keyed in The Brothers Johnson and I just heard Ray Parker’s “Jack and Jill” Wild shit, and right now it’s the Gap Band with “Steppin”. I’m totally loving this.
Check it out.
It gets better, it even knows about the original Full Force. Oh glory be!
Some good news from NASA regarding the Mars Rovers.
I still find it amazing that those rovers were only supposed to be on the surface of Mars for 90 sols (Martian Days). They’ve now been up for 1,271 sols, or 14.1 times longer than they were supposed to be active.
Those rovers are a testament to engineering at its very best. It is nice to see that it still exists somewhere in the U.S. and NASA still pulls it off.
What I can’t imagine is the excess data being sent by the rovers. They had their hands full with 90 sols of info, now they’ve got much more than that. While the Viking landers may have found life, the rovers Opportunity and Spirit may help us get a much more focused picture of what that life on Mars actually happens to be.
So kudos to NASA and Steve Squyres on the re-starting of the rovers. For a while there I thought all was lost but it isn’t.
—————-
Now playing: Jack Johnson – Better Together
via FoxyTunes
Polt turned me on to this so I decided to paste mine up here:
Rank Name Artist Album
When I look at it, the only recent artists in there are Sunburst Band, Philip Bailey (Still part of EW&F I might add.), Incognito, Shur-I-Kan, and Jamie Foxx.
Another treat is Barbara Mason singing “Another Man”. This was a tune from the late 70’s or early 80’s that details her having been left, for another man. Interesting song.
And some of those tracks, like those of the Brothers Johnson? I actually have the vinyl. Yes I’m a dinosaur. Actually Ride-O-Rocket is pretty damned funky. Take a listen for yourself and visit my profile on last.fm.
Spewing Truth in the face of Lies 