by Barbara Lynn (1962)Barbara Lynn played guitar like a boss, wrote her own songs, and gave us the wonderful You’ll Lose a Good Thing. She’s like a hero I never knew before and her hit song is the kind that makes the world stop for a few minutes then seem like a better place when it ends.
by Prince (1984)Prince has been filling our apartment with his grooves. From his self titled album and even the Batman soundtrack Van and I have been enjoying his oeuvre.
One of his most fully satisfying albums is the Purple Rain Soundtrack which features so many huge hits that we all know from growing up in the 80s:
The raucous Let’s Go Crazy, the poppy I Would Die 4 U, the amazing titular slow jam (which is a toss up for my favorite) but the incomparable When Doves Cry would have to be my favorite. There’s no way, just no way, to listen to this song and not feel elated.
But this king of soundtracks isn’t just top forty – there are less played songs just as deserving of note.
Darling Nikki is one of Prince’s most joyfully, profoundly dirty while Computer Blue makes me want to star in a roller skating movie or strut a catwalk wearing a mini skirt power suit.
It’s no new news that this is an exceptional album (although people are getting younger all the time and know nothing!) but it’s fun to revisit albums, even those we know by heart especially if it gets a toddler to dance wildly.
by Monica (1995)90’s radio R&B is one of my favorite genres and Monica’s Don’t Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days) is one of the best examples.
I love that it feels like a teenage girl wrote the lyrics, its incredibly catchy and no one makes hit songs about their sensitive BFs getting all whiny anytime a lady needs her space.
Girl’s got to get cranky sometimes!
by Jaheim (2009)Synchronicity is a wondrous thing. Van’s obsessed with our clock radio, so decides he must play with it the very moment the R. Kelley-esque Ain’t Leaving Without You is on Hot 97.
I would have otherwise probably never heard it.
Jaheim, a Jersey native, presents here a passionate tale of a man in a club enraptured with a woman’s sexy body. Well worn territory for an r&b song? Perhaps. But I promise you’ll still enjoy it.
Jaheim, a Jersey native, presents here a passionate tale of a man in a club enraptured with a woman’s sexy body. Well worn territory for an r&b song? Perhaps. But I promise you’ll still enjoy it.
by Marvin GayeI was excited to broaden my horizons with Spotify. Friends know that give or take a few artists I am hopelessly ignorant of most new “cool” music (LCD Soundsystem, Beirut, Animal Collective… the list goes on and on and on).
I also have a lot of catching up to do with bands from the past (was curious to finally give a good listen to XTC, Husker Du, Mission of Burma… again the list goes on and on).
So what do I do with the few hours of work time I have to discover a new album? Spend it grooving to Marvin Gaye Live in Miami. What can I say, I know what I like and may just be stuck in my ways more than I’d like to admit.
I can’t find much information about these performances which seem to be cobbled together from several dates. Even the year is unclear, though a very touching medley sung for Tammi Terrell indicates its after her tragic death in 1967.
The recordings themselves are not very professional, they’re noisy and muffled but Gaye is vibrant, charming, and heartfelt.
He ends Let’s Get It On with a plea to turn the lights off and get busy that aches with sexed up desperation and woos the crowd by taking breaks to sip honey tea and asking women from the audience to dance with him.
Daughters of the nineties (and particularly sassy sons too), please don’t tell me I am the only one whose inner Funky Diva was let loose when En Vogue hit the airwaves.
With My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It), Something He Can Feel, and Free Your Mind, the Oakland foursome invaded suburbia and no girl was left without day dreams of herself sashaying down a disutopian runway in a push up bra top, or seducing dapper boys in a push up bra top, or denying boys your love in…a push up bra top.
Oh and sampling In Living Color? Hipster bands wish they had thought of it first!
30 Day Song Challenge – Day Twenty Seven: Best Song for Summer Strutting Through Queens:Round the Way Girl by LL Cool J (1991)
30 Day Song Challenge – Day Twenty Four: Best Song for Kicking Your Man to the Curb:
at NPRHaving not found a babysitter (and honestly, being ok not leaving Van with a stranger) we probably do not have a Raphael Saadiq concert on our horizon (though fans, take note! – he will be playing Webster Hall May 10th).
Lucky for us NPR came to the rescue with this SXSW set that includes rocking tunes from the new album Stone Rollin, some from his breakout solo hit Instant Vintage and a couple from that loveliest of soul revival albums, The Way I See It.
The showmanship is lively, exciting and perfected. Do enjoy!
by Bloodstone (1973)While Bloodstone might sound like a current goth pop outfit, it’s actually a Kansas City R&B, funk soul band who hit a career high with Natural High. The doo wop ballad is lovely and surely got lots of girls to go to the back seats in 1973.
Van and I were grooving to this on a classic soul internet station called Got Radio R&B Classics. It is probably well known from its inclusion in the Jackie Brown soundtrack. You have to admit Tarantino knows how to put some good tunes together.