Soul for Sickies

So I'm on my third day of having this horrible cold/cough/stuffy ears and head.  I can barely breathe, and it's hard to think.  But above all, it's hard to listen to music!  Isn't that the worst!  There isn't anything worse than wanting to crank up the volume on a Bobby Womack compilation that I was grooving to the other day, but now I can't handle it because the music and vocals are just too noisy for me right now.  I tried listening to a Dixie Hummingbirds gospel-soul album that I bought last week and had to turn it off immediately because the vocals were pushed too far up in the mix and it started giving me a headache. 

This problem got me thinking more about the music I enjoy and the music I can't enjoy right now due to not feeling 100%.  In between my frequent naps I've begun noticing what soul music works for the sickie and what doesn't (I think you could also exchange "sickie" for "hangover" and it would work just as well!)

What doesn't work:  Too loud of vocals.  O.k., I LOVE Etta James!  She is one of my five favorite female singers of all-time.  I love the passion and intensity in her vocals, but unfortunately her vocals are too much for the sickie soul.  Even on albums like At Last where some of the music and songs are relatively quiet, Etta just doesn't work for the sickie soul because that voice, as wonderful as it is, is just too powerful for the sickie soul to handle.  Tell Mama:  The Muscle Shoals Sessions really doesn't work either, as both the vocals and music are loud.  You could put in Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, and Donny Hathaway in there as well (all up there as my favorite singers--maybe because I love them so much it makes more focus and listen to their vocals more which is tough to do when sick?).  

What works:  Soothing vocals.  Bill Withers works on so many levels in regards to this.  Besides Withers possessing a soothing voice, he is also one of the best songwriters ever.  The man never wrote a bad song, Really, a sickie can listen to his first three albums, Just as I am, Still Bill, and 'Justments all the way through and even though there are songs that are more upbeat than others, they never overpower and bother a sickie's headache.  I would also put Lou Bond's album Lou Bond up there, as well as any of Terry Callier's albums, specifically Occasional Rain or What Color is Love?  Soothing vocals are the key that soul singers like Callier, Bond, and Withers all possess to a T.  Also, I could throw in Marvin Gaye as well, even though maybe it's a bit unexpected.  I was suprised to notice that I could listen to Marvin Gaye yesterday with ease (Let's Get It On), but later I did think about the fact that his vocals are somewhat soothing, even if the orchestration and music of some of his songs can overpower at times.

What doesn't work:  Busy orchestration/overpowering music.  Any of the Gamble/Huff Philly Soul-style music does not soothe the sickie soul.  It's fabulous music, and on an average day I love to listen to these albums, but they don't work on a sick day.  The O'Jays Backstabbers?  No.  Jerry Butler The Iceman Cometh?  Hell no.   Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes?  I said NO!   

This concludes our talk about what to listen to, and what not to listen to, if you're a soul sickie.  Hopefully, you found this to be enlightening, and if you have any further suggestions, feel free to do so!  In the meantime, here are a few tracks that are soothing for sickie soul, in case you are struggling as I am, as I am now heading back to bed.  Enjoy!

Best Albums/Singles of 2010

Steven Ellison/Flying Lotus contemplating his next masterpiece

OK, I admit that I don't listen to much new music.  Something about the production gets to me, as it's usually so slick and overproduced.  Honestly, I just like the way music from the 60's and 70's sounds much more.  It's more raw, organic, and feels real.  Don't get me wrong--I'm sure there is good music out there these days, but when someone tells me "oh, if you like 'fill-in-the blank (great 60's/70's soul singer)'  then you should definitely check out 'fill-in-the-blank (new retro soul singer)" and I'll almost always be disappointed and I end up turning off the new album and end up putting on Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers or something like that.

Nevertheless, even though I'm severely late on a best of 2010 album list, I thought enough of these albums to mention them in this blog:

1.  Flying Lotus "Cosmogramma"---This is really the only masterpiece album of 2010.  Steven Ellison has created a brilliant work, a beautiful mixture of equal parts J Dilla and Alice Coltrane (he is her nephew).  It's electronic, but organic as well.  Instrumental hip hop/jazz/electronic at it's finest.  Actually, Flying Lotus is really their own musical genre. 

2.  Four Tet "There is Love in You"---One of the few electronic artists I truly enjoy.  Great beats, meditative, good head music, great to listen to on headphones.  Their best album since "Rounds".  

3.  Spoon "Transference"---I've been a Spoon fan for years, and this one doesn't disappoint.  I'm glad they went back to the more lo-fi approach of some of their earlier albums.  Still similar influences (Wire, 60's garage), and still great.

4.  Madlib "Medicine Show 3:  Beat Konducta in Africa"---Really, I've gotta give major props to Madlib, and most of the Medicine Show albums (he's been releasing one a month!) have been entertaining, but this one is definitely my favorite.  Good samples of 60's/70's Afro-pop songs with Madlib beats, spliced with what sounds like an advertisement on African tourism.  Great stuff!

5.  Strong Arm Steady "In Search of Stoney Jackson"---Almost everything Madlib produces is gold, and I've got to give the nod this one over the Madlib-produced Guilty Simpson album earlier this year.  Madlib uses great soul samples, along with great beats.  Not hugely into the rapping style of the mc's, but I've grown to like them the more I listen to them.

6.  The Black Keys "Brothers"---These two dudes almost never disappoint.  This is probably their most soulful, and diverse album.  I love that they recorded this at the famed Muscle Shoals studios, and they cover one of my favorite Jerry Butler tracks "Never Gonna Give You Up". 

7.  Kanye West "My Beautiful Dark, Twisted Fantasy"---I wanted to not like this album because I'm not a fan of Kanye West the person, but no one can deny that this is a very good album,and that Kanye is a great producer and rapper.   I don't agree with the masterpiece tag being thrown around by critics in regards to this album, but I would call it a very solid album.  "Power" is my favorite track, as I gotta give props to Kanye sampling my favorite King Crimson track.

8.  Cee-Lo Green "F**k U" single---"The Ladykiller" is a pretty spotty album overall.  I would say I really enjoy about 4 of the tracks (including the single, and probably the ones most 60's/70's soul influenced).  However,  "F**K U" is definitely the single of the year, just a brilliant pop song.  Who could not like this track? 

I listened to many, many more albums in 2010, but these are the albums I've listened to more than 10 times in 2010, which obviously meant they stuck out more than the other releases this year.

Song o' the day (pt. 2)

The Impressions are one of my favorite vocal groups ever, of any genre...period.  They produced two great talents in Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler, who both later had great solo careers.  In The Impressions mid-60's heyday, there are only a few vocal groups to match the harmonizing, songwriting (actually, not a lot of groups were writing their own songs, so maybe songwriting-wise, none can compare to The Impressions), and lyrics, which as the mid-60's moved into the late-60's, they became more politically oriented (probably of Curtis Mayfield's influence more than anything else, as seen by his first few solo albums).  They had some huge hits in their day, like "People Get Ready" (covered by the likes of the Chambers Brothers), "You Must Believe Me" (later covered by Don Covay), "Gypsy Woman" (later covered by Joe Bataan).  The track, "This Is My Country", is a later period Impressions song, largely composed by Mayfield, and even though it wasn't one of their biggest hits, somehow it's always been one of my favorites of theirs.  I love the horns that introduce the song, the "woo-hoo-hoo's" vocals that follow, and Curtis's statement that regardless of your gender, color, or where you came from, we should all consider this as "my country".   "This is My Country" was a strong statement for an African-American to make at that time in song, and it was needed, as for many decades, most felt they didn't have a voice in our country.  "This is My Country" went along with the civil rights movement during this time, so it's a strong statement, and a wonderful song.   Enjoy one of my favorite tracks by The Impressions! 

Stevie Wonder: Under Review

As anyone with an interest in music knows, Stevie Wonder is one of soul music's greats.  Stevie had a string of hits in the early 60's as "Little Stevie Wonder", and a few very solid albums in the mid 60's such as "Down to Earth" and "For Once In My Life".  Here's a track off of "Down to Earth" called "Hey Love", which is actually one of my favorite Stevie Wonder tracks, and probably my favorite of his earlier period.

It was around 1971 when he began an amazing string of five consecutive albums from 1971-76 that are all arguably considered masterpieces to many individuals.  The first great Stevie album is "Music of My Mind".

It's amazing to think that by this time Stevie was in the music business for over 10 years, as he was still only 21 years old.  By this time, Stevie was largely writing/recording all of his own music, and for the most part, he played every instrument on this album.  "Music of My Mind" is an extremely funky album, and is one of my favorite of Stevie's albums (though that opinion changes by the month, depending what mood I am in). 

One of my favorite tracks off this album is "Happier than the Morning Sun".

Next came Stevie's second masterpiece, the 1972 album "Talking Book", which contained hits like "Superstition", "You are the Sunshine of My Life", among others.  This is an amazing album that probably had more commercial appeal than his previous album.   Actually, if I had to take one Stevie Wonder album to a desert island, it would probably be this one.  "Talking Book" is a sentimental favorite of mine, as a child this was an album that my family spun quite frequently, so it was the one I was most familiar with for many years.  Check out Stevie playing "Superstition" live on Sesame Street!

"Innervisions", "Fulfillingness First Finale" (try saying that three times fast) and "Songs in the Key of Life" are the final three albums that complete Stevie's brilliant five year run of masterpiece albums.  As with many double albums, "Songs in the Key of Life" is a little over-indulgent, but so is "The White Album", and they are both brilliant albums, warts and all.  "Innervisions" is brilliant, as his "FFF", and "FFF" could be considered Stevie's most underrated album.

I've been thinking about Stevie Wonder's career a lot recently, mainly in that I was trying to think of another singer-songwriter that had as creative and successful of a five year period that Stevie had in the early to mid-70's, and could only think of a few:   1962-67 Dylan, 1970's Bowie (although that's debatable--"Aladdin Sane", and "Young Americans" are spotty albums through I enjoy both of them), and Miles Davis (the 50's period with Coltrane, through Gil Evans and even his group with Herbie Hancock) are the only three who could touch that creative of a five year period as Stevie Wonder in the 70's

After 1976, Stevie's career is more spotty.  He still had some good songs here and there, but could certainly get cheesy lyrically ("I Just Called to Say I Love You"), but so could Dylan in the 70's and Bowie in the 80's, and Miles in the 80's--but that's a whole other topic.  Nevertheless, considering Stevie's body of work--I mean, even if you took out this brilliant 1971-76 time period, he still would've been considered as a great Motown singer, but once Stevie reached his creative peak in the early 1970's, he went from being a great singer and musician to a great songwriter and artist--certainly one of the best in soul music history, and also in the history of great American singer-songwriters.  

                                                      STEVIE WONDER!

One of the best compilations I've heard in awhile....

Great, great late 60's NY Latin soul comp, quickly becoming at the top of my list of most played albums the past few weeks.  I've just gotten more into NY Latin Soul recently...It started with this:

Then this...

Then this and this...(both good comps of early latin funk and soul Joe Bataan)

Then finished off with this...

I love this Pete Rodriguez album, but I gotta say that I like the Bataan albums a bit more.  Bataan has a charming style to his music--songs are about going on a subway, getting Chinese food, checking out girls, etc.  Bataan also sings a bit off-key, which I find to be endearing as well.  But there's a real soulful funk to his music.  Rodriguez has a great groove, and of course, "I Like It Like That" is a great track--my Ecuadorian wife recalls hearing this song at a young age.   She prefers the Pete Rodriguez stuff--it is more polished though still really funky/soulful.  You can't go wrong with early Bataan or Rodriguez, and the "The Soul of Spanish Harlem" I recommend highly as well!  Here's a track clip of a Pete Rodriguez and Joe Bataan below.  Enjoy!!!

Song o' the day

I've been listening to The Intruders for a majority of the day today.  They have a good best of collection called "Cowboys to Girls" that I would recommend checking out.  First half of it I love, great Philly soul.  Second half, which focuses more on their later period, verges more into disco territory, which isn't my cup of coffee.   Although I wouldn't say The Intruders were a consistent band, and some of their songs are cringe worthy ("love is like a baseball game"--yikes!), but when they were on, they were among the best.  Here's one of my favorite songs of theirs, recorded in 1967, called "Together".  Enjoy!  

"The Iceman"--Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler, also known as "The Iceman",  is one of R&B's great singers of the 60's and 70's.  Growing up with Curtis Mayfield, they formed an early gospel group called the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, and they were influenced by the gospel/soul sound of Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers.  After Butler left, they later became the famed The Impressions, where Curtis Mayfield and company achieved many hits throughout the 1960's--but that's a whole other story.  Jerry Butler released his first album "The Iceman Cometh", in 1968.

 "The Iceman Cometh" is Butler's best album, as his voice works magic with  the Philadelphia songwriting duo Gamble and Huff.  Together with the famed Philly soul strings, backing vocals, and Butler's strong, assertive, yet smooth vocals, "The Iceman" never sounded so better.  My favorite track on the album is the first track, "Hey, Western Union Man", which is one of those tracks that I tend to play more than once in a sitting.  The vocals, the arching chorus, strings, "Hey, Western Union Man" is the gem of what is one of Philly soul's great albums:

"Never Gonna Give You Up" is a great track too.  This track was often covered in the soul circuit, from Eddie Floyd to Isaac Hayes.  Even as recently, The Black Keys covered this track as well.  Check it out below:

In 1971, Butler again teamed with Gamble and Huff and recorded his second album, "Ice On Ice".  Great album, though maybe doesn't quite reach the heights of his first album.

Here's one of my favorite tracks off of "Ice on Ice", "What's the Use of Breaking Up":

These days, you can buy these first two Jerry Butler albums combined on one cd, "The Iceman Cometh/Ice on Ice".

Jerry Butler, "The Iceman", one of soul's greats and certainly one worth checking out!