Last month, my boss Mark recommended that I pick up the new issue of The Oxford American. It's the annual music issue, and being the 10th anniversary of the music issue, it includes two fantastic CDs of southern music. I finally got around to picking it up last weekend, and I have been listening to the discs non-stop.
My favorite song on the CDs is this cut from the "5" Royales. I had already owned a CD and an LP from the "5" Royales, but had never heard this landmark song. Just listen to the squawkin' guitar!
The magazine is great, the CDs are great... head down to your local bookstore or magazine stand now to pick this up. It will be the best $10 you'll spend all month.
Sweet lord, I love the Temptations. Sorry about the sporadic posting these last few days. The power cord on my laptop died. I'm borrowing my mom's computer for a few days while I wait for the new one to arrive. We should be back to normal by the end of the week.
Yes, I know the song is about a dance, but I've learned that I have a tendency to interpret titles literally when selecting the Song of the Day. The past two days have been perfect dog-walking weather, even despite all the unmelted ice sheets passing for sidewalks in my neighborhood. Sophie has been a very happy puppy.
This wonderful single from Chicago soul group The Steelers is another song that was introduced to me by the Kent's Cellar of Soul compilation CD (which has previously been represented on Song of the Day by Homer Banks, back in November). The disc really is essential for anyone with an interest in great and relatively obscure '60s soul.
And, of course, it is today's Song of the Day because it is by a group who shares it's name with today's Super Bowl champions.
I have always loved the Pittsburgh Steelers. While my relationship with my hometown Minnesota Vikings has been admittedly fair-weather over my lifetime, I have always been fascinated by the Steelers. I think this fascination must have started when I was about four years old.
In 1980, Coca Cola ran this classic commercial of Pittsburgh's Mean Joe Greene being offered a bottle of Coke by a young fan, and returning the favor by throwing the kid his jersey. The following year, building on the massive success of that ad, Coke introduced a new promotion that featured vinyl bottle caps of various NFL stars. Each one was grey with a black headshot of the player. It was underneath the actual bottle cap, so every time you opened a bottle of Coke, you would peel this collectible from the cap. The deal was that once you collected all the different caps, you could send them in and receive your very own Mean Joe replica jersey. My whole family and extended family was obsessed with this over 1981, and my Mean Joe jersey became my first sports jersey.
Anyway, over the years the Steelers have been a model of consistency. They have employed only three different head coaches over the last 40 years, and each one has now won a Super Bowl. They have been owned by the Rooney family since their inception in 1933 (and owner Dan Rooney is one of the most philanthropic professional sports owners of all time). They now have more Super Bowl titles than any other team, and they have constantly personified their city more than any other team in any other sport -- a blue-collar team for a blue-collar town.
Yes, tonight may have showcased the finest Super Bowl I have ever watched. Needless to say, I am thrilled with the result.
As for the accompanying video, it's a promo video from season four of Six Feet Under. It had nothing to do with my choice for Song of the Day, but I found it when scouring for a video, and now I feel ever better! (And, of course, I now crave another run of Six Feet Under).
It's my favorite Four Tops song, and one of my very favorite Motown songs. It randomly got stuck in my head early this afternoon, and stayed there all day.
Earlier this decade, there was sort of a mini-revolution of R&B legends making "back to basics," old-school type albums. At the forefront, was Solomon Burke's 2002 album Don't Give Up On Me on Epitaph/Fat Possum. Produced by Joe Henry, it featured new recordings of the "king of rock and soul" on songs written by the likes of some guys named Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, and Dan Penn, among others.
The album won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album, and kickstarted a resurgence of interest in King Solomon, as well as a second career for Henry as a producer-for-hire for soul icons. While Henry's following production endeavors felt, frankly, nothing more than masturbatory, and Solomon's future releases suffered from inferior material and production, there was undeniable magic taking place on Don't Give Up On Me.
It's a tough call, but if I had to choose, my choice for the best cut on the album - even amongst all those songwriting luminaries - would be the Joe Henry-penned "Flesh and Blood."
Long day today, and an even longer one is in store for tomorrow, so I don't feel much like writing. Click the link to read the fascinating and tragic story of the incredible James Booker.
I'm going to miss 2008. I know a lot of people can not wait to bid it farewell, but I have to say it was the greatest year of my life.
Three monumental things stand out... things I can now call myself that I could not when the year began: homeowner, dog owner, and - most importantly - husband.
Therefore it is fitting that the Greatest Song of the Year is the first song Maria and I danced to as husband and wife. I dedicate it to her, the great love of my life.
Ernestine Anderson is a jazz vocalist first and foremost, but my introduction to her was this delightful northern soul tune that I first heard on The Sue Records Story compilation CD - a wonderful collection of soul, blues, and pop songs from the famed UK label. It's a collection well worth picking up.
I dedicate the Greatest Song of Today to the NFC North Champion Minnesota Vikings, who managed to make the playoffs without backing in.
As for Danny White, he is a true legend of New Orleans R&B and, of course, virtually unknown outside of soul music nerd circles. This particular song appears on two essential collections: the New Orleans Funk Vol. 1 compilation on Soul Jazz Records and the Danny White singles collection Natural Soul Brother on Kent Records.
I slept in a little late this morning and was busy all day, so my apologies for not getting a song of the day out until now. By request, I give you Screamin' Jay's version of "I Love Paris."
Five feet and four inches of pure badass, Little Willie John was, for my money, the most under-appreciated of the rock 'n' roll pioneers. Despite his... uh... shortcomings (alcoholic, stabbed a man to death, died in prison at age 29, etc.), it's a shame his immense talent failed to garner more attention back in the day, and it's a tragedy that he has been almost entirely ignored by the last couple generations of music fans.
I knew when I woke up this morning that today's Song of the Day would be a Little Willie John song. I couldn't decide which one, though. I went to a doctor's appointment, came back, and still couldn't choose. Finally, I took my puppy for an hour-long walk down Minnehaha Creek. I walked in the door and said, "I'm shakin'!"
There's no long story with today's song. It's a Motown classic that came on while my wife and I were doing housework on Friday afternoon and managed to stay in my head all day.
The other day I called Bobbie Gentry's "Mississippi Delta" the funkiest song I had ever heard a white woman record. So, who is the funkiest woman to make a record, period? That would be the incredible Betty Davis.
Betty Davis, ex-wife of Miles, is credited with introducing her legendary husband to funk and rock, and personally introducing him to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. She laid the foundation for his jazz-fusion masterpiece Bitches Brew, and is widely speculated as being the subject in the album title.
"If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up" leads off Betty's self-titled 1973 debut LP, which utilized Larry Graham and the rest of the Sly & The Family Stone rhythm section. As with all three of her albums, it was completely written and produced by Betty. Despite her star-studded supporting cast and background, the world was apparently not ready for Betty's controversial, sexually charged music and image in the early '70s, as none of her releases achieved anything more than cult-classic status at the time.
Last year, Light In the Attic Records reissued Betty's first two albums (Betty Davis and They Say I'm Different). The third, Nasty Gal, remains out of print. According to the Light In the Attic website at the time of reissues' release, Betty was broke on the streets of Pittsburgh. So, if you like what you're hearing, do her a favor and buy a record or two.
I first came across Homer Banks' "A Lot of Love" as a standout track on the excellent Kent's Cellar of Soul compilation CD. Instantly, it was one of my all time favorite soul burners. For about two years, this song went on just about every mix tape I made. I tracked down the original Minit 45 on eBay, and spin it at nearly all of my DJ gigs. With the funky, propulsive opening riff giving way to the majestic horns, and Homer's great voice carrying the tune all the way through, it's a damn shame this was never a massive hit.
According to the liner notes on the Hooked By Love: The Best of Homer Banks CD (released by Stateside Records in the UK in 2005, compiling Banks' recorded output for Minit Records), Banks cut a demo for Stax Records with Steve Cropper, only to have it rejected by label owner Jim Stewart. Eventually, after releasing a slew of singles for Minit, Banks was hired by Stax, but as a writer rather than a recording artist.
Along with many others, I would love to hear his Stax demo, but I have to think that Stewart made the right decision. Banks penned some classic hits for artists such as Johnnie Taylor, Sam & Dave, and The Staple Singers, but his own recordings on Hooked By Love are rather uneven. "A Lot of Love," "60 Minutes Of Your Love," and "Hooked By Love" - sense a theme here? - are all stone classics. There are a few other highlights, but roughly half the disc is pretty mundane.
All that aside, the greatness of "A Lot of Love" is undeniable, and I am very happy to share it with you.
Last month, my boss Mark recommended that I pick up the new issue of The Oxford American. It's the annual music issue, and being the 10th anniversary of the music issue, it includes two fantastic CDs of southern music. I finally got around to picking it up last weekend, and I have been listening to the discs non-stop.
