sweet soul music
Otis Redding (1941-1967), with Booker T. & the M.G.’s* and The Mar-Keys,** “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” (O. Redding & J. Butler), live, Monterey Pop Festival, 1967
*****
*Booker T. Jones, organ; Steve Cropper, guitar; Donald “Duck” Dunn, bass; Al Jackson, Jr., drums.
**Wayne Jackson, trumpet; Joe Arnold, alto saxophone; Andrew Love, tenor saxophone.
passings
Gerry Goffin, lyricist, February 11, 1939-June 19, 2014
The Shirelles, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (G. Goffin, C. King), 1961
***
The Drifters, “Up on the Roof” (G. Goffin, C. King), 1962
***
Aretha Franklin, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (G. Goffin, C. King, J. Wexler), 1967
passings
Bob Abrahamian, soul music DJ (WHPK, Sitting in the Park), historian, archivist, September 25, 1978-June 5, 2014
Dolores Gibson, “I Got A Feeling,” 1960
*****
Byrdie Green, “Tremblin’,” 1962
*****
Deanie Parker, “Each Step I Take,” 1964
*****
These tracks opened his last radio show (5/4/14).
basement jukebox
The Five Jets, “Down Slow,” 1954
what’s new
Where would Western civilization be without the invention of the three-minute pop song?
Dream Chart Top 40 Songs: May 2014 (5/24/14)
basement jukebox
J. B. Lenoir (1929-1967), “Mama Talk To Your Daughter,” 1954
**********
lagniappe
reading table
In the hospital yard stands a small annex surrounded by a whole forest of burdock, nettles, and wild hemp. The roof is rusty, the chimney is half fallen down, the porch steps are rotten and overgrown with grass, and only a few traces of stucco remain. The front facade faces the hospital, the back looks onto a field, from which it is separated by the gray hospital fence topped with nails. These nails, turned point up, and the fence, and the annex itself have that special despondent and accursed look that only our hospitals and prisons have.
—Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), “Ward No. 6” (opening paragraph; translated from Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky)
sounds of Chicago
Specter (AKA Spekter, Andres Ordanez), “Pipe Bomb,” 2011
**********
lagniappe
reading table
[N]othing enhances pleasures and blocks guilt like a looming cataclysm.
—Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives
passings
DJ Rashad, October 9, 1979-April 26, 2014
Live, Chicago (Pitchfork Music Festival), 2013
*****
“I Don’t Give A Fuck” (sampling Tupac Shakur’s dialogue in Juice), 2013
*****
“I’m Gone” (remixing Gil Scott-Heron’s “Home Is Where The Hatred Is”), 2011
sounds of New Orleans
Let Me Do My Thang: Rebirth Brass Band (Keith Reynaud, 2000)
**********
lagniappe
random thoughts
Day after day tiptoeing through minefields, until finally our luck runs out.
music clip of the day 