listening to every record i own

[daily-records]

Impressions -- One by One in

I always forget Curtis Mayfield was (in) the Impressions. Just such different styles, especially at this early point in 1965. Lots of fun strings on this record. It opens with one of my favorite songs ever (by the Impressions or otherwise) "Twilight Time".

There's nothing particularly fantastic about this record of mostly standards (there are three Mayfield originals), however, you can really hear certain inflections and turns we'll hear later in Mayfield's career.

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Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

This is one of the few records where I feel like the skits add something to the record. They act as sort of a reset to the tone of the songs.

Anyway, I can't listen to this record without thinking of my friend Jordan, who literally listened to this record for like three months straight. Our friend Gabrielle (who lived and worked with him at the time, I think) was going insane. I think they had to hide it from him at work

I actually couldn't listen this this record for a long time because I heard it so much, but I bought it last year at Greville Records (in Melbourne, Australia) and it is still such an amazing record. Just a perfect 10 of 10.

Also, is this soul, R&B, or hip hop? It really sits right in the middle.

[daily-records]

Such a great record. I bought it for $10, apparently. Not sure where. Maybe this little shop in Old Town Sacramento (you know, the kind of place with people playing pioneers or whatever. Looks like a movie set). It was a cool store.

Anyway, the first song I ever heard from Donny Hathaway was his duet with Roberta Flack, "You've Got a Friend." What a sincere and earnest song and topic. "Where is the Love" is another song I had heard, and sort of dismissed as 70s schlock, but their voices sound so good together, and when I really listened to the lyrics, I was like, "damn, this is sort of sad." Plus, there's this weird thing going on with the orchestration--I sort of thought I had put my record player on a higher speed.

The first song I ever LOVED by Donny Hathaway was "The Ghetto." It's a song with a real sense of space, if you know what I mean. This version is from his live album, which I have not listened to, but have heard was revelatory.

Enjoy.

[daily-records]

Van McCoy — The Hustle

I found this gem tucked into my Donny Hathaway record and it was the burst of serotonin I needed.

Here’s an instructional video:

[daily-records]

Donny Hathaway - Extension of a Man

I was listening to this and thinking about how hard it must have been to find joy in the Jim Crow era United States, and how much music played a part in that. And I was thinking about how much the world as a whole has seemed to regress, to close off even as we have more access to people, music, food, film and art from other cultures. It’s important to keep an open mind, you know?

Anyway, the opening tracks to this record, really lends itself to this sort of introspection, and by the time “Someday We’ll All Be Free” ended I was thinking, Jeez Donny, you really sound like you’re barely holding it together, but I’m glad you did.

Then I figured I should look up his biography. This was the last record he put out, though he did continue to write, notably Roberta Flack’s “the Closer I get to You”. Hathaway had battled with depression his whole life, and after the release of this record was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He ended up stopping his medication. He ended up dying in 1979, presumably from suicide.

Mental illness is terrible, and I’m so glad he had some relief in translating these feelings into music.

[daily-records]

Al Green - Greatest Hits

I actually love a greatest hits album. The greats are the greats for a reason, so no snobbery there.

This is a particularly great one, though. When I worked at Rasputin's Records, this was one of the top selling R&B CDs.

I was lucky enough to see Al Green at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. He was more in his preacher days but he was still singing his hits. And they were great

Al Green's always seemed so hopeful, so it's not a surprise he went on to preaching. I'd hope his services are less 'you're going to hell' and more 'let's all go to heaven together.'

He was also one of the few people Don Cornelius let play live on Soul Train. Here's a link to a video. With a broken arm nonetheless! They used to show old episodes late a night, and it's one of my favorite memories, seeing this.

Anyway, nothing but hits on this greatest hits.

[daily-records]

Al Green — Let’s Stay Together (1972)

"Let's Stay Together" is such a realistic love song. Like, yeah, sometimes things are hard and shitty, but part of being love is trying to overcome hardship.

I also love the other hit on this record, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" which I don't think I realized was Barry and Robin Gibb (of the Bee Gees) song, but always loved it's sort of Roy Orbison desperation, so I shouldn't be surprised. The strings in the song are create this real sense Green is going to fall apart.

I also really enjoyed "I've Never Found a Girl" on this listen.

[daily-records]

Birthdays and other bummers

The extremes of the birthday spectrum are people who want to celebrate their birthdays for a whole months and those who wish the whole thing would go away. I'm much closer to the grumpy camp, but whatever.

I do have two songs I listen to every year, and as maudlin as I'm feeling now, I'm really enjoying them.

Peggy Lee's "Is that All There Is" is one of those songs that really seems to be looking up from the bottom of the well. The circus-like music combined with her 'been there, done that' speak-singing delivery is just perfect. It's all very Fosse. I actually hadn't heard this song until my friend Gabrielle showed me. It's sort of funny, because my dad and I would listen to her all the time when I was a kid.

Gabrielle and I shared a real love of crooners, so it's no wonder my second song is "It was a Very Good Year" by Frank Sinatra. This song is great for a million reasons, the highly expressive strings, the scope, the way Sinatra is really selling the story.

I actually really love Stevie Wonder's "Birthday Song" but I don't own the album so I feel a little funny adding it. 50 Cent's "In da Club" is another birthday banger, plus I love that he decided he was gonna sing about birthdays because he knew people would sing the song forever (I have no proof of this, but someone told me that years ago, and I choose to believe it. It's my truth!). Maybe the worst birthday song of all is the Beatles's "Birthday," though I kinda like that middle bit. The Ting Tings were on Yo Gabba Gabba for Brobee's birthday, and their "Happy Birthday" is so joyful.

[daily-records]

Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

That's my listening partner for the day, Eddie.

I'll say it until I'm blue in the face, but record covers and liner notes are one of the best things about listening to LPs. Compact Discs had them too, but there's something so satisfying about holding a cover while listening to a record.

And, sometimes you read something really lovely in them, like this quote from Gaye:

I can't see anything wrong with sex between two consenting anybodies.

Say it louder for the people in the back, Marvin.

It's a banging record that opens with the lovely "Let's Get It One." The first side ends with a sort of reprise, "Keep Gettin' It On" which feel so satisfying. Side two features the incredible "Distant Lover," which sounds both old fashioned and futuristic to me (I can't explain why). Something about the feel of the song really makes you feel the distance. It's also one of those love songs that also sounds kinda sinister/stalker like "Every Breath You Take" or that Maroon 5 song I can't remember the name of and am not gonna go through the trouble of looking up because you know the one. "You Sure Love to Ball" features some racy breathing that could've made Diana Ross or Serge Gainsbourg blush.

There's also something incredibly sad about this record. As much as Gaye is espousing sexual freedom, there's something in his delivery that just hurts my heart a little.

[daily-records]

Marvin Gaye — What’s Going On

This album is another gatefold, with a cute little message from Marvin inside:

After several days of reflecting and pondering and general thought (which is very unusual), I still can't think of any non-complimentary things to write about myself.

Ha!

This record is pretty fantastic all around, and the hits are, of course, hits for a reason ("What's Going On", "Mercy Mercy Me" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)").

What strikes me most, though, is how Gaye's message of acceptance, hope for change, helplessness vs. empowerment, is still so relevant to our lives. Maybe I'm feeling a little maudlin, but things do feel fucked, and this album is striking a chord with me today. "Save the Children" really straddles that line between fuck it and we have to do better.

Enjoy.

[daily-records]

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - GREATEST HITS

Man, it's hard to believe Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell weren't in love. The way their voices play off each other in recordings, the way their emotions shine through in their performances. Really, just so lovely.

I knew Terrell died young, but didn't know much else about her life. She toured with James Brown, and was reportedly in a relationship with him until he beat her up for not watching the entirety of one of his concerts. She was also in a relationship with David Ruffin, from the Temptations, which I think I about from a made for TV movie.

She ended up dying from a brain tumor in 1970 at age 24. She had collapsed into Marvin Gaye's arms at a concert in 1967, leading to the diagnosis. She recorded two albums with Gaye--You're All I Need and Easy, and they produced some hits with songwriters Ashford & Simpson.

"Your Precious Love" and "You're All I Need to Get By" are two of my favorite songs, ever.

Anyway, people say she helped Gaye get over some of his stage shyness, and her death might have set the tone for his 1971 album What's Going On.

I'm gonna go ahead and attach the Method Man/Mary J Blige song, because I want you to hear it.

[daily-records]

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

Okay. I finally looked into something, and the answer was about what I expected. Funkadelic was basically the moniker for George Clinton's more rock/psychedelic/experimental work while Parliment was more mainstream and funky band. Just take my word for it, but go ahead and compare Parliment's "Flash Light" with Funkadelic's "Can You Get to That."

"Can You Get to That" is probably one of the more accessible songs on this album, and probably one of favorites. I probably love it so much because it reminds me of Sly and the Family Stone (who are one of my favorites). I just read it features Hot Buttered Soul, Isaac Hayes' backing vocal band! Anyway, the song sits comfortably against any of your standard songs you'd find in a movie about growing up during the period of the Vietnam War.

Let's also talk about this cover. I love a gate-fold anyway, but I love when a back and front cover have a bit of a conversation. The skull even looks like it's screaming, too. The cover sets this album to seem like it's ABOUT something, so I've always listened feeling like it's super serious.

Both the opening and closing tracks are super intense--I remember feeling especially challenged the first time I listened. The song "Maggot Brain" is particularly dark.

I feel like you should give the whole album a listen.

[daily-records]

Between 1967 and 1969, Aretha Franklin released SEVEN (7) albums. These albums include her hits "Respect," "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," "Chain of Fools," "Think," and "I Say a Little Prayer."

None of those songs are on this album. This covers' album is pretty good (it is Aretha, after all) but a lot of the songs lack the oomph of her other hits or the original versions of the songs. I mean, I would have been stoked to hear her sing them live at the time, but maybe not so album worthy. Anyway, we can forgive her a not perfect record because, damn was she prolific at the time. I checked, and most of these records were recorded during this period, too.

Her cover of Percy Mayfield's "River's Invitation" is a particular favorite. It sort of reminds me of Lou Donaldson (we will get to his record in, like, a million years).

This is a farewell to Aretha! I'm sad I don't have any of her 80's hits. In fact, I really don't have much 80s R&B and all, which is sort of sad.

[daily-records]

Aretha Franklin — Lady Soul

It's probably hard to make a song that's as tough as Aretha's "Chain of Fools". No matter what the lyrics tell you, Franklin is singing this song as as woman 100% in control. And you are cheering her on, so yeah, Dad, take it easy.

The rest of the album is great too. What's interesting about recordings from the pre-80s era, in whatever genre, is that they were recorded with the full band, live, and shit, you can really feel it. There's something pretty magical about having to get it right in one or two takes. Which is funny, because, in general, I hate concert recordings.

Anyway, she's called the Queen of Soul for a reason.

[daily-records]

Aretha Franklin — I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You

I love 'Dr. Feelgood" so much. I like to imagine it totally scandalized her family.

This album also features "Respect," which I'm pretty sure you've heard before. My second favorite song on this album is "Do Right Woman-Do Right Man" which seems like an ominous pairing with "Dr. Feelgood" but I'll let you decide.

[daily-records]

Roberta Flack — First Take

"It was a good thing that I'd found my seat before she took her place at the piano and sang her first note, because my knees would never have made it standing. Her voice touched, tapped, trapped and kicked over every emotion I've ever known. I laughed, cried and screamed for more. And more came--and more--and more--and more!

"When she sand a love song, I was in love, we were all in love, we all were singing, singing our love--she alone had the voice."

-- Les McCann, from the back cover of the album. Again, records are amazing for liner notes and artwork. McCann (a great artist of his own) writes nothing more than a glowing praise, and actually the whole thing is great.

Flack's voice is soft and warm and strong all at once. The arrangements are full of the right amount of space, intensity.

"Compared to What" may be my favorite song on the record, but I have a special place in my heart for "Angelitos Negros" and "That's No Way to Say Goodbye." The two latter songs I listened to with my dad. I first heard Eartha Kitt's version of "Angelitos Negros". I loved Kitt because she was Catwoman on the reruns of Batman I would watch when I was sick from elementary school. Flack's take is less aggressive than Kitts, but I love it nonetheless.

My dad and I used to play cards when I was older and listened to Leonard Cohen's record--he used to let me win and I'd have money to burn. Woohoo. Roberta Flack's version of "That's No Way to Say Goodbye" somehow seems more hopeful and joyful than Cohen's sad sack folk version, but hey... that's the joy of a cover.

[daily-records]

Earth, Wind & Fire — I Am

The art work for this album is extraordinary. Illustrated by Shushei Nagaoka, the cover if full of color and mystery and you can really feel the sort of collaboration of ideas with Maurice White. The gatefold (please click for the full image if you're not seeing it all) featuring the entire group, White at the top of the pyramid, is just so fun to look at.

Musically, this record is also pretty great, but sort of falls into that tinny disco production from the late 70s early 80s that's not my fave. (And I like disco, but it's like people were too caught up with technology to use it with warmth.)

"After the Love is Gone" and "Boogie Wonderland" are obvious hits, sounding new and really thought through. Other songs--I'm looking at you "Let Your Feelings Show"--aren't bad, but don't have that thing.