When Ciara and then-Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson first let it be known they were abstaining from sex before (eventually) getting married, there was lots of talk about it, especially in and around the testosterone-fueled world of the NFL.
People really shouldn’t have been so shook. She told everyone who she was 20 years ago with her first (and #1) single, “Goodies”.
“If you’re looking for the goodies,
Keep on looking ’cause they stay in the jar…”
It’s hard to think of an artist who has more fully probed the nooks and crannies and depths and heights of love and relationships over the past half-century than Joan Armatrading.
And her powers remain undiminished. Already There”, released in 2022 and sung from the perspective of a “love at first sight” person to a partner who needed time to realize, and grow into, what was happening between them is gorgeous, tender, humorous, uplifting, and exultant.
In all, a solid base for a great song…and relationship.
It only recently came to the attention of this little blog that Donald Trump has for years been reciting the lyrics to Oscar Brown Jr.’s song, “The Snake” at his rallies and campaign speeches. Brown, an ex-communist and lifelong civil rights activist, would be (as his children are) horrified that Trump is using his song to stir up anti-immigrant sentiment. (Meanwhile, when the typically soft-spoken older members of the Music, Politics, and History Departments got together for lunch yesterday here at MassCommons World Headquarters, they were practically rolling on the floor with laughter. We’re not quite sure why.)
“The Snake” is a retelling of Aesop’s fable, “The Farmer & The Viper”, and Brown originally released it in 1963, at the flood tide of the civil rights movement, as a finger-popping hipster-jazz song. Al Wilson made it a Top 40 hit with his soulful cover in 1974. Let’s hear this funky version of the cautionary tale about not trusting backstabbing lowlifes…no matter how sweet they talk.
Elvis Costello’s “Welcome To The Working Week” doesn’t, as best I can tell, make any critic’s list of “Top 25 First Song/First Album Songs”, but as an attention-grabbing introduction to who the skinny, bespectacled, awkward-looking Declan McManus would become as an artist, it’s pretty darn good.
And to the point.
Just 1:22(!) long, and all jangly guitars, straight-ahead drums, and Costello’s whip-smart, cinematic lyrics sung with his sneering, acerbic, in-your-face voice, “Welcome To The Working Week” not only helps kick off the late ’70s/early ‘803s New Wave revitalization of rock & roll, it still will get you up and moving on a sleepy Monday morning.
Repetitively praying the same few words or phrases is an ancient spiritual practice. (A few examples off the top of my head: some Japanese Buddhists daily chant the title of the Lotus Sutra, Namu myoho renge kyo; the Jesus prayer–Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Have mercy on me, a sinner—has its origins in Egyptian monasticism and is a regular practice in the Eastern Orthodox tradition; the Hare Krishna mantra in Hinduism was first written down over 2,500 years ago; the ecumenical Taize community has built their communal prayer life and their worldwide youth ministry around their contemporary chants (often using ancient texts).
So Andrae Crouch is not only in good company, he’s also deeply rooted in both Christian and global religious practice with “Bless His Holy Name”, a gorgeous and uplifting gospel/baroque (listen to that trumpet in the background) hymn of praise, inspired by the opening line of Psalm 103.
Philly Joe Jones (not to be confused with Papa Jo Jones) was Miles Davis’ favorite drummer, which is about as good a bebop credential as there is. (Jones drummed in Davis’ First Great Quintet.)
Here he is in 1959 leading his own band, playing “Battery* Blues” and doing things with his seven piece kit that other drummers are still trying to learn.
Enjoy.
*Almost certainly the downtown Manhattan neighborhood, not the power source that converts chemical energy into electricity.
Songs are turned into advertising jingles to sell stuff so commonly it can be easy to forget that sometimes inspiration goes the other way.
Alka-Seltzer’s 1972 “I Can’t Believe I Ate The Whole Thing” television commercial was a cultural phenomenon—winning a Clio (the ad industry’s Oscars), making Newsweek magazine’s list of the top 10 quotes of the decade, going viral before memes existed, and entering everyday conversation for tens of millions of Americans.
Chicago-based producer/arranger Willie Henderson and DJ E. Rodney Jones saw the ad, heard a chorus for a funky, funny, proto-rap, soul food block party story-song, and went into the studio to make it happen.
The rest is this little bit of musical history.
“Vaseline Machine Gun” is reportedly the first song virtuoso Leo Kottke wrote for 12 string slide guitar, and in this aged early ’70s TV video clip, you can see—and hear—all the delight and boldness of a young artist growing into the full power of his talents.
So, we initially cued up one-hit wonder Bobby Hebb’s 1966 hit (#2 on the Billboard Pop chart), “Sunny” because yesterday was the first truly sunny day of spring here at MassCommons World Headquarters, the kind of day that starts off a bit cool then rises high into the 70s so that by midday you have people dressed in crop tops and shorts walking past people in 3/4 winter coats. Basically, it’s the first day of spring.
But with all the furor created over who and what defines “country” music (and who gets to sing/write/play/listen to it) provoked by Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album, it’s also an opportunity to highlight the boundary-breaking nature of music.
You can’t get more “country” in the music industry sense of the word than Nashville, and that’s where Bobby Hebb was born and first gained attention as half of a child song-and-dance act with his older brother. In short order Hebb secured gigs working for Roy Acuff (country), Johnny Bragg and The Prisonaires (rhythm and blues), Bo Diddley (rock and roll), and the US Navy (jazz), before replacing Mickey Baker in Mickey & Sylvia, thus dueting with Sylvia Robinson who later founded Sugar Hill Records (hip hop).
All those influences and experiences came together in the aftermath of the back-to-back killings of President John F. Kennedy and Hebb’s brother Harold in November 1963 with the writing of “Sunny” as part of Hebb’s determination “just to think of happier times – basically looking for a brighter day – because times were at a low tide.“
So, don’t let those clouds moving in and the rainstorm projected for this afternoon get you too far down.
P. S. Also check out this fantastic live duet version with Hebb on guitar and the legendary Ron Carter on bass.
“Proud Mary” has been recorded hundreds of times by everyone from Clara Ward to The Leningrad Cowboys and it’s still the unanimous consensus of the Music Department here at MassCommons World Headquarters that Creedence Clearwater Revival’s original recording remains the second best version ever.
(Hey, with what Ike & Tina Turner did to that song, there’s no shame in finishing second.)
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