Imagine that you were talking with someone who’d been blind all his life.
How would you describe this guy’s act?
Wayne Cochran & the C.C. Riders, live (TV broadcast [The Jackie Gleason Show]), 1968
Last night, drifting off to sleep, I heard (or dreamed) a commercial for a new cable TV channel:
The Jackie Wilson Channel
All Jackie, All the Time
Jackie Wilson, “Baby, Work Out” (AKA “Baby Workout”), live (TV broadcast), 1963
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reading table
I threw a party, wore a very sharp suit. My wife had out all sorts of hors d’oeuvres, some ordered from long off—little briny peppery seafoods you wouldn’t have thought of as something to eat. We waited for the guests. Some of the food went bad. Hardly anybody came. It was the night of the lunar eclipse, I think. Underwood, the pianist, showed up and maybe twelve other people. Three I never invited were there. We’d planned on sixty-five.
I guess this was the signal we weren’t liked anymore in town.
—Barry Hannah (April 23, 1942-March 1, 2010), “Our Secret Home,” in Airships (1978)
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Thanks for linking—very much appreciated!
—Tim
(Tim Lawrence, author of Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92 [2009], in response to Tuesday’s post )
Unlike Aretha Franklin, she doesn’t have a big, commanding voice. But just as some actors are able to do as much (or more) with less, so, too, with singers. And when it comes to expressing heartache and vulnerability, a voice that’s smaller, less powerful isn’t necessarily a liability—it can be a strength.
Ann Peebles
“(You Keep Me) Hanging On” (1973 [album], 1974 [single])
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“I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody’s Home” (1972)
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“I Can’t Stand The Rain” (1973)
(Yeah, I posted this last clip before, when Willie Mitchell passed away. [And the next day I posted a track that samples it.])
If it wasn’t for the music, I don’t know what I’d do.
Indeep, “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” (1982)
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Cool. Thanks! — Bill
(email from Bill Ryan, Director of the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, in response to a message letting him know that his ensemble was featured here yesterday; their 2007 recording of this piece was lauded by the New York Times as one of the notable classical CDs of the year and by WNYC’s John Schaefer as one of the five best classical CDs of the decade)
something you cannot do
Watch this guy and not feel better about, well, pretty much everything.
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Jackie Wilson, “You Better Know It,” 1959
Take 1: TV broadcast
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Take 2: Movie (Go, Johnny, Go!)
Want more? Here (“Lonely Teardrops” [11/20/09]).
From Reminders for Daily Living (3d ed. 2007):
Always keep a cape handy.
James Brown, “Please, Please, Please,” live, 1964, California (Santa Monica), The T.A.M.I. Show
Listen to “Sunny Day” by Akon and Wyclef.—Luke (my 18-year-old son, on the phone the other night)
Akon with Wyclef Jean, “Sunny Day” (2008)
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One of the things I find intriguing about contemporary popular music is the widespread practice (particularly in hip-hop) of featuring guest artists, usually, it seems, people whose style and approach are very different from one’s own. Implicit in this is the notion that hearing two different musical personalities can make for a more interesting and rewarding experience than hearing just one. And including another artist opens a song up, making it less a fixed, static thing and more a vehicle for improvisation and variation, something subject to different takes, whose content and texture ultimately depend to a large extent on the identity and contributions of the featured guest.
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My son called from Minnesota the other day to tell me that the weather was terrible, his car had been towed, he didn’t like his job, and he had a cold and a sore throat. Is it bad that the only motherly advice I could think to give him was to listen to Fats Waller [2/9/10]?
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The drummer’s comments were great [Brian Blade, 2/13/10]. You layin’ down a pretty good groove your own self, Richard.
Sometimes you’re not in the mood for subtlety.
Or complexity.
Or anything else that’s got more than one syllable.
You want sweat.
Funk.
That clenched scream: “Uhowwwww!”
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Wilson Pickett, live, Germany, 1968
“Everybody Needs Someone To Love”
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“I’m In Love”
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“Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)”
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“Mustang Sally”
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“We didn’t make enough money to press our suits,” Pickett reminisced when asked about the Violinaires, the gospel group he formed shortly after moving to Detroit from his native Alabama. “We would sing three programs a Sunday at different churches. We’d sing our hearts out, and so we done sweated up that suit three times — from the socks all the way up.
“The sisters would get up and they’d put a penny or a dime on the table and say ‘Ya’ll boys sho’ can sing.’ And we’d come in the back, and they got all the chicken baskets and pies and stuff to eat, and even occasionally one of the sisters would take you home.”
The young Pickett soon caught the eye not only of a sister or two, but also of the Falcons, a local R&B group with whom he later wrote and sang his first hit song, “I Found a Love,” in 1962.
“I was scared because these people says that if you leave God and go to the devil, you’re going to go to hell. You see, I wanted to sing gospel, but I wanted to make some money, too. So I said, ‘No I’ll never leave, I’ll never leave God.’ Until that evening that one of the Falcons came by and I was sitting on the back porch and I went down and tried it out. And from then on I told God, I looked up and I said, ‘I’m on my way this way — would You care to go with me? I’d really appreciate Your being with me. It’d make me feel better.’—Ken Emerson, “Wilson Pickett: Soul Man On Ice”
Presence, immediacy, feeling: the way his records sound, you’d swear they were nailed in just one take.
What higher compliment could you pay a record producer?
Willie Mitchell (March 23, 1928 – January 5, 2010)
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O.V. Wright, “A Nickel and A Nail” (1971)
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Ann Peebles, “I Can’t Stand the Rain” (1973)
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Syl Johnson, “Take Me To The River” (1975)
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Al Green, “Love and Happiness” (1977)
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Thank you so much, Richard. . . . Stay well and Happy New Year. Love, Sheila
(Sheila Jordan, 1/6/10, 9/28/09 [in response to an email letting her know she was being featured here])
Here’s one of the more intriguing, and inspiring, music videos I’ve ever seen.
Various Artists (Roger Ridley, Grandpa Elliott, Washboard Chaz, Clarence Bekker, Twin Eagle Drum Group, Francois Viguie, Cesar Pope, Dimitri Dolganov, Roberto Luti, Geraldo & Dionisio, Junior Kissangwa Mbouta, Pokei Klass, Django Degen, Sinamuva, Stefano Tomaselli, Vusi Mahlasela), “Stand By Me,” live, various locations
music clip of the day 