duaneiac

I enjoyed listening to (most) of this compilation: I could not get into what Con-Funk-Shun was doing on "Mr. T", so I bailed on that track pretty quick. Then I think I just was not up to sitting through all of the downer which is "M o W", so the Staple Singers were put in the unusual position of being given short shrift in my CD player. The rest of the the tracks are all at least "good" and many are "great". Solomon Burke delivers solidly as always, as do Nina Simone, O.V. Wright and The Persuasions. I've never been a big fan of the Neville Brothers, but I liked them on this track. Brook Benton does a kind of Vegas soul lounge spin and it works because -- hey, Brook Benton and when you're Brook Benton, well, I think the title speaks for itself. Patti LaBelle proves disco Dylan could be a viable genre if some one put their creative energy to the task (but don't hurry on my account, guys. I can wait. Really.). Some may call the O'Jays performance on the closing track "over the top"; I'd call it "sublime".

Thanks, soulpope. Now playing:

Today is the 40th anniversary of my 18th birthday, so the first song that came to mind today was: Then, for a picker-upper, I revisited this album: I've played this a couple of times the past few weeks and just love it. For an album I never even knew existed, it has become my favorite solo piano album of the year so far! It's a sheer delight from start to finish.

The video is pretty dark, but that apparently because Leon Redbone insisted that the stage be lit with only a single light bulb. The audio is fine and the video is cued up to a very entertaining segment featuring hand shadow puppets! Maybe if more jazz concerts included hand shadow puppets, jazz would be more popular these days . . .

Hey -- this is my post number 4,444!

Wow! That was great! This was the Louis Armstrong i knew as a kid. I knew nothing about him, but whenever he showed up as a guest on some TV variety show, I was glued to the screen with a huge smile on my face. Funny how the same thing happened again today. Louis is looking sharp and he sounds in good shape both instrumentally and vocally. The video and audio quality is terrific for 50 year old tape; thank you, BBC. I'd never really paid attention to Jewel Brown before. She was good. Whatever became of her?

I seem to recall one track on a Verve/Polygram/Phillips/? Harry James compilation CD that featured Ernie Andrews from his stint with that band. Perhaps it was this disc:

4/20 starts with Satchmo!

Well, the Yankees apparently were not afraid of offending atheists by playing "God Bless America" in the first place.

This is just silly. Kate Smith would never make my list of Top 500 favorite singers, but come on. If you were a pop singer in the 1930's, there's a huge likelihood that you recorded some racist material because racist stereotypes and imagery permeated pop culture in that era. To the best of my knowledge, Kate Smith did not make a career out of recording racist material, nor was she some leader in a white supremacist movement. She sang songs, some of which are blatantly offensive by today's standards. Do we also ban Louis Armstrong for singing "Shine"? You know, this -- Do we also go beyond the realm of pop music? Do we ban the Little Rascals for that one film with the cannibal and his "Yum, yum! Eat 'em up!" catch phrase? Do we ban "Gone With The Wind" or all movies in which Stepin Fetchit or Mantan Moreland appeared? Should all known recordings of the "Amos & Andy" radio show be destroyed? These things existed. They reflected the American consciousness (or lack thereof) of the era. It's unfair to judge the performers or the material based on the social standards of today.

Disc 3 of 4.

Just saw where Jonathan Richman will will be playing in Oakland next month. Hope I can make it to that show. While he doesn't usually perform any of these songs any longer, I got a hankerin' for some early Jojo and this video is great.

Discs 1 and 2 of 4. The humor of Bob & Ray just hits my funny bone dead target. I have a lot of their stuff which has been released on CD and this set has all the memorable characters like Harry & Mary Backstayge, Mr. Science, Biff Burns, Wally Ballou, Ralph R. Kreuger, Jr. and Elmer W. Litzinger, Spy.