We'll Be There If You Will...

Sundays don't get much better when you have this track blasting and you're throwing shapes like a tribal priest in the rain. Epic.

"Will You Be There" - The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit)

Summer Summer Summertime

The sun is shining over here and thus I felt inspired to bring you a selection of sunshine songs that are on repeat across the channel. 

Freddie Scott, apparently called The Gentle Giant Of Soul which is a descriptive moniker, "You Got What I Need".

The Gladiators,  "Soul Rebel", the title pretty much sums up my aim in life.

Bobby Caldwell, "Open Your Eyes", sampled by Common on 'The Light' the original never fails to make me feel better though I do have a real soft spot for the Dwele version.

Gwen McCrae, "Rockin' Chair". She needs no introduction.

And finally one of the most ridiculously happy music videos I have see in a long time. Could they look like they're having any more fun? Plus I defy you not to want to dance to this...

King Ayisoba, Mokin, Wanlov the Kubolor & Kwaw Kesse, "Look Ma Shoe"

NEWSFLASH

WELL HELLO and welcome to my newsflash! 

Breaking and Amazing News: Starting on June 9, 2009 a re-edited "Welcome To My Home" will be sold exclusively on brenda dickson.com.

Here's Brenda with the official scoop:

"Eight minutes have been added with never-before-seen outtakes. The film is brought up to 2009, with current fashions. Much of the film holds true today. It was just touted as a "cult classic and must see" by New York magazine, it's a clear master copy, with beautiful saturated color frames."

I wonder if/hope you can pre-order. Incase you haven't seen it (though why wouldn't you have forraged incessantly to find it?), here is a link to the much sought after part two of Welcome To My Home. 

Postcard from New Orleans

Summer's here and that means the time is right for dancing in the streets.

Huuuuh.

Also I was at a skate festival yesterday and among the many blasts from the pasts I got whilst drinking warm beer sitting on a concrete ramp watching grown-up boys fall off wheeled objects, one of them was hearing the DJ drop this...

RUN DMC vs. Jason Nevins - "It's Like That"

When this came out I wanted to be one of those girls so bad, they were cool as.

Cold Game. Warm Heart.

One of life's happy songs. When this arrived in my inbox the other day it almost made my heart explode. Since then it has been on repeat. Thank you Gabriel. 

Myron & E with The Soul Investigators - "Cold Game"

Turn it on, turn it up, and take 3:49 minutes off everything.

Catting..

I found this on one of my favourite music sites 'soul-sides'. Oliver Wang is a bit of a legend. 

Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens - "What Have You Done"

Besides having a killer name they evoke some of the best things about 60's soul and his voice is just beautiful and more than a little Sam Cooke as Mr. Luecking down at SoulSides pointed out. I won't go into too much detail as it would just be their words, but read his post it's better worded than mine would have been anyway.

The debut album is out 26th May. 

Q-T's

Plus I know this is no longer appropriate as the US elections are long gone but if this doesn't make you smile on a Sunday I don't know what will. I love it when the kids get totally into it at the front. 

You Can Vote However You Like

Bright Light From A Distant Star.

I haven't been this excited for the release of a new album since last year and Erykah's come-back. It seems that for a year or so there has been a bit of resurgence of intelligent hip-hop and soul, what with "New Amerykah" by the afore-mentioned Miss Badu, "The Renaissance" Q-Tip's long-awaited second studio album and Raphael Saadiq showing everyone how to make a modern motown record with "The Way I See It. My excitement and anticipation for those albums however has been far eclipsed by the news that Dante Terrell Smith aka Mos Def's new album is due to be released on the 9th of June of this year. Since his announcement in November of 2007 that a new album would be being released and Mos himself throwing crumbs of information to crowds at gigs, such as playing new songs produced by Madlib and hinting at collaborations with Kanye, hip-hop fans have been eagerly awaiting a release date and a first single. Finally though we have a new song and video and I can happily say that I think it's him back to his best. A sparse opening relys on the rhythmic power of his voice with a killer looping horn line and a smattering of him singing, the instrumentation behind him then builds up in layers throughout the song ending in a lovely piano and strings section that tip to just the right side of up-beat. It is pretty great and the video is pretty cool too.

Mos Def - "Casa Bey"

Then you've got "Flowers" which is off his myspace. A cross between spoken word and a rap, all acapella. Intelligent hip-hop has returned. Plus the video contains the only thing better than Mos Def, 6 Mos Def's.

Mos Def - "Flowers"

9th of June is the date. I'll see you by the record shop counter and I warn you if there's only one left I will hurt you for it.

Tingling

Some songs are just magical...

Seems I'm Never Tired Of Loving You - Nina Simone

Musical Memories part 2

Josie’s post struck a chord. I am never able to disentangle songs from their time and place – a song always comes with a memory, and a memory always comes with a song. The moment I hear Lauryn Hill chanting the opening of The Fugees’ ‘Killing Me Softly,’ the accompanying image is as vivid and instant as a slide – sitting on the park railings with my best friend Matilda, racer-back Speedo swimsuits, licking Twisters, and cackling at the lyrics (“You can’t kill someone with a song!” – innocence or common sense?).

This is the only way I can describe music I like; a backdrop scene which might be imaginary or remembered. When it comes to exchanges of musical revelry and analysis of technical mastery, I am totally inarticulate, and unable to wax lyrical. I don’t mind really – keeping it tied up leaves its spell unmeddled, like a secret crush or one of those dreams that is impossible to describe out loud. That moment you first heard it and you left your imagination to it’s own devices is sometimes the best explanation of why it has stayed with you for the long haul.

There is the Bob Dylan whose lyrics journalists pour sweat over, sorting the good from the bad, the bad from the sad, and there is the Bob Dylan of my Dad’s car; like a sort of curmudgeonly distant relative in the back seat, who is sometimes lucid, sometimes incoherent but I’ll always listen.

My favourite Bob Dylan song :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSGDoNbKy_s

(Just don’t ask me to explain why…)

Amendment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV8KvKYRxig

(I think I need a master class covering the basics if anyone is offering)

Sunday Song

It is still a mystery to me how to embed videos but here is a song for your Sunday, sung by a woeful looking man with a tambourine. Sway along like it's the sixties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV8KvKYRxig

minor error

http://www.band-of-gypsies.blogpsot.com/

Don't make the same mistake as I just did.

Friday Night

Ostrich feathers, anyone?

WELL HELLO and welcome to the world of Brenda Dickson. Lacking inspiration for your summer style? Don't worry, because "in shopping, you'll find your eye will be drawn to the things you like". Teleport into Brenda's closet now and absorb some other essential pearls of wisdom. This is a very dramatic video, full of style ideas and hundreds of quotes. I can't decide if my favourite ensemble is the lace dress (it's a nice look, isn't it?) or the bugle beads (notice the slit?).

I feel a new obsession arising. If you do too, I recommend her blog. The new video, Brenda's Back In Hollywood makes for interesting viewing, and her advice on combatting suicide is enlightening...

"One of my fans has written a suicidal help note!!! That's an urgent matter. I do happen to have some good advice (this advice can be used by all my fans). It will work if you do it, and, you must promise to try. Ready? First stop by your nearest GNC Store, buy a box of vitamins, the kind they sell in packets..."

Quarteto Em Cy

Quarteto Em Cy was a Brazilian girl group formed by four sisters, Cybele, Cylene, Cynara and Cyra in the early 1960s. The group is still together, but one of them has been replaced by someone called Sonya. 

Link: Tudo Que Você Podia Ser.

Wicked She Wicked

"Mi favourite game, always bingo"

Gee Whizz

Following my earlier post on love songs, I have since found what I think is one of the best love songs ever written. And when I say love song this time I mean a song about love and being in love, the good side. "There's A Difference" is sung by William Edward John, better known as Little Willie John a baby faced 5ft 4 American soul singer from the 1950's and early 60's. He is best known for the song "I'm Shakin' " though his biggest hit was the song "Fever" which was later made famous by Peggy Lee. Fleetwood Mac also recorded a version of "Need Your Love So Bad".

Signed to King Records at the age of 18 he went on to have a string of succesful songs in the R&B charts over the next 6 years. His recording career was cut short when at the age of 29 he was convicted of manslaughter after being involved in a fatal stabbing after a show in Seattle. He was subsequently sent to Washington State Prison where he sadly died two years later of a heart attack. Due to this short career span he is one of the lesser known soul singers of his time however he inspired some of the best such as Sam Cooke and James Brown, who recorded a tribute album to him, to name but a few.  

"There's A Difference" is my favourite of all his songs I've heard, partly because I think it showcases his voice beautifully, partly because I'm a sucker for a good horn section but mainly because of the lyrics which though short and simple are possibly some of the most romantic ever. Besides anyone who can sing "geewhizz" with such panache is a winner in my book. 

I wanted to insert a video but unfortunately my technical know-how is limited and I can't do that however click here to listen to "There's A Difference". Listen out also for the casual slip in of "honeychild" a lovely term of endearment if ever there was one.

Musical Memories

Everyone remembers the first album they bought themselves, mine was a tape of Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' that I got on one of my Dad and I's Saturday adventures. Adventures with Dad always meant a little treat at some point bought conspiratorially together, whether it was a slice from Pizza Maletti's or something made of plaster, glitter and sea shells. I remember that thrill the day, aged 8, I chose "Thriller from the box of tapes by the counter of one of the second hand record shops on Berrick St. The start of my musical collection.

To this day the tape still resides in on of the shoe boxes of tapes my hoarding family haven't thrown out. Over christmas I was home and staying in the spare room where the sound system has all but broken except for the tape deck. So it was that I found myself on Christmas Eve wrapping presents to the sounds of 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'', 'P.Y.T', 'Beat It' and the rest. The whole box was full of sounds of my childhood, everything from my Dad's BB King and Paul Weller  to my mum's Joan Osbourne and a Lady Sings the Blues tape that was a summer holiday car essential. Listening to the these once such loved songs I was taken aback by how strong the memories triggered by each of them were. Also at how to this day I still know all the words to Simply Red's Fairground due to my Mum's minor obsession at one point, despite the fact that Mick Hucknall is arguably the most repulsive man ever. Rodriguez was summer in France, Van Morrison rainy sundays making dens, The Lion King soundtrack recalling my sister's epic reenactments of the scene where baby Simba is held aloft before all the animals.

These tapes with their cracked plastic cases and little plastic cogs that I now can only wind up with my little finger are tiny glimpses at childhood. This is the same for so many albums, songs or snippets of music. Cat Power's 'The Greatest' reminds me of my halls in first year. Usher 'You Make Me Wanna' the beginning of secondary school, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Toni Braxton the start of an ongoing obsession with female vocalists. This the sound of a friday night. 

That's partly what makes music powerful, what it triggers, what it evokes. Yeah, so The Spice Girls weren't exactly lyrical or muscial geniuses but you start singing 'Wannabe' to any girl between the ages of 24 and 20 and they will join in and be able to finish off the line. Music's not just about the best guitar line ever written or a killer vocal, it's also that song that comes on someone else's itunes that you haven't heard in years, an album playing in a shop that reminds you of home, hell it might even be the jazzy tones of a ginger dreadlocked lothario.