Stevie Wonder - Living for the City

So much of what I see in the media regarding music/black culture/black music suggest that there's an agenda to fool people who don't know any better & future generations into thinking that either nothing existed before hiphop or that nothing else mattered. Watching recent PBS programs like Black America Since MLK & Soundbreaking, there is a bombardment of rap, but no mention of Prince or George Clinton. (Oh, BTW, we didn't need N.W.A or Tupac & their "reality rap" Stevie already sung about the realities in Living For The City)


Pardon me, I just remembered that snippets of a P-Funk song were played on the Black America series, but in that same series, we had people like Ava DeVerney (sorry, not a priority to get the correct spelling for her name) acting like all they ever listened to or connected with, was rap. And in the Soundbreaking series, there were segments on Stevie, James Brown, & Sly Stone but there was still MORE time spent on hiphop on various episodes.  Last time I checked, Sly Stone  was homeless, while Dr. Dre probably lives in a mansion....

Early Cameo funk..

"Its only mountains and the sea"

So, here's another post for a song from Parade.




I just remembered that when Prince was doing his most interesting music( befitting for a genius), 1986-1989 - he was getting more attention in Europe then in the U.S. . Frankly, if you wanna take it a step further, I think, at this point, of the Americans who were bothering to listen to him, there was a higher percentage of white Americans than black Americans listening to him ( except for me, D'Angelo & a couple other people ), despite the popularity & airplay of Adore on R&B radio.


Why listen to music with intoxicating musicianship, lyrics glorifying love & romance & sound like they come from a man with a working brain, when you can listen to vile things like N.W.A......






I also remember reading that a lot of what he was doing in the 90s was about getting more people in the black community to listen to him again.  I hope that's not true- with all the cartoonish "gangsta glam" of that era.  More Parade, less Diamond & Pearls/Symbol album please.

The Revolution's touching tribute....

Actually its only Wendy & Lisa on this one.....

What a Wonderful World (U.S. Foreign Policy)

And, this continues in Brazil & Ukraine.....

Jesse Johnson's Revue - Be Your Man (1985)

I've noticed that when a song is playing - that actually has instruments in it- most people don't seem to hear or aren't paying any attention to what the instruments are doing, its like their brain is telling them,  "ONLY listen to the singing.............everything else , just ignore!"
To their ears, everything is acappella!


Don't play an instrumental around most people, their brains will explode.........
or they'll just say "that's boring". 
The instruments can move you as much as the vocals, what do you think they are there for?

"They seem so removed from romance"

"They've been broken in churches and schools,
And molded to middle-class circumstance"




Some of the most truthful lyrics ever written...

Rufus feat. Chaka Khan-Pack'd My Bags

http://music.blog.myajc.com/2016/08/03/chaka-khan-talks-from-rehab-about-atlanta-concert-prince/






Just once, I would like to hear  Miles Davis, or Joni Mitchell or Chaka - for that matter- BLASTING in one of the endless cars that ride past my bedroom window, instead of the usual vile, gangsta or whatever  music.....


(Chaka mentioned Miles & Joni when talking about what she listens to in her car)

"Family"

No one in my family even knows I have a blog.
Not the only thing they don't know about me. 




Why should I tell them... they don't deserve to know the real me.......

S.O.S. Band - Tell Me If You Still Care

This song gets better & better, the more you listen, &  you just want it to go on & on......

Tim Buckley- Jungle Fire

The Police - When The World Is Running Down HD

"Turn on my VCR
Same one I've had for years
James Brown on the T.A.M.I. show
Same tape I've had for years"

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

"In World War 2, this country could use its news media to propagandize & make the whole  American public love the Russians & the Chinese, & hate the Germans & the Japanese, &  then after the war, they changed it & made the American public love the Germans & the Japanese & HATE the Russians & the Chinese, which shows they can make the American public love whom they will & hate whom they will. "           Malcolm X




Edited Dec. 2018-  2018 & this is still true.  Russia & China aren't the problem!

Miles Davis- Dolores

Prince- Christopher Tracy's Parade

Yes, its another Prince post...... he deserves it! 
If anyone has a problem with that, you can always go to someone else's blog.




One of my favorites from the captivating Parade album!








https://movingtheriver.com/2016/03/31/princes-parade-30-years-old-today/

Prince songs you NEED to hear right now:

Christopher Tracy's Parade
Play In The Sunshine
The Question of U
Anotherloverholenyohead
Housequake
If I Was Your Girlfriend
Mountains
I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man (album version)
Anna Stesia
Life Can Be So Nice
Get It Up- this song appears on The Time's first album, but Prince plays all the instruments on this extraordinary, extended jam
4- from Madhouse 8

Prince R.I.P.

Don't know  what to say....

Gene Simmon's comments & music for the masses...

Here we go again.... channel surfing again & found more mediocrity. First, turned on some mess called The Real, & they were boohooing about Gene Simmons' comments about rap. And of course, because he said something negative about it, these silly chicks say he's not open-minded, among other things, for not embracing ALL music. One of these chicks, another day, was singing a "song" called Pat My Weave or whatever- before hip hop, no one was making vile, repulsive songs like that. And, I seriously doubt these women listen to EVERY musical genre. Its funny when someone says they don't like jazz, or country, or the blues or a gazillion other things,
no one calls them closed-minded or small- minded or whatever.. but soon as you have the balls to even slightly criticize rap, everybody wants to burn you at the stake. I'm no fan of Gene Simmons, but to accuse him of not being open-minded, just for that?




Meanwhile....guess what I found when I changed the channel.. an episode of Judge Karen with some sorority bimbo who got in trouble for using the n-word in a tweet, with the sorority president. So I watched & waited for what I knew was coming & of course, she did it, she actually said that SHE DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS WRONG, BECAUSE- "They use that word in all the songs I like" & "Drake said it, in one of his songs. " Wish one of those brain-dead hosts of The Real was watching THAT. EVERYONE wants to defend music that encourages people to use that word, & this also reminds me of a few days before when Melissa Mccarthy was on a show & made a point to tell everyone that she listens to "a lot of rap". Great, another dumb-ass actor has her "street-cred." Betcha, there are plenty of genres she doesn't like , which makes her "closed-minded" ! HA!                    


Back to the court-show simpleton for a moment- its not enough that her empty-headed parents & the so-called education system didn't teach her about the history of the n-word, she actually "thinks" that word is ok, because of its use in that street-cred music that her peers & most people of her generation listen to. See, what kind of influence most of this stuff has. And what is up with all these celebs going on tv always raving about rappers or one of today's crappy autotune singers? Just once, it would be nice to hear one of them talking about John Coltrane or Laura Nyro, but they use their platform to prove they're just like the masses, instead of elevating their fans to seek out something different than what their- gossiping at the water cooler co-workers- listen to. But, hey why listen to A Love Supreme when you can be more popular by listening to  a dumbed-down genre that attracts the kind of nitwits who call themselves Yo Gotti?!
Most people these days listen to ONLY what their friends & celebs listen to , you know some throwaway tunes that all sound the same that don't require more than background listening, & are only good for - looking "cool" to stupid people.




All the time you wasted proving how much street-cred you have, you could've read Misogyny & The Emcee- Sex, Race & Hip Hop by Esware X. Owsalde

Laura Nyro - The Morning News Live - Season of Lights

"War and business make the man"






"Two worlds spin in time, one around you, one inside."

Parliament Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove (docu 2005)

Journey - Who's Crying Now (Audio)

This song reminds me of riding in my daddy's car in the early 80s, when listening to the radio was fun.




And the guitar at the end is haunting........

The Worst Stereotype

"All the images of black sexuality that you were seeing were so negative, libidos running wild, people with no self -control  And there's no BEAUTY in that or ROMANCE in it." Ayana Mathis






Yes, and decades later..... how many are willing to play into this image? To be the real life embodiment of this image, to be walking genitalia...




Without challenge.

Escape...

I need to live by the ocean or a rambling river
Just my home surrounded by the river
And a soul mate will be the driver for groceries & such
So I can stay in with my music & books
Only go out to look at the water
  






Tired, so tired.....






Tired of crowds, traffic
Tired of people who "hang out"

John Coltrane-A Love Supreme, Pt. 3 - Pursuance

This is my favorite track from an album EVERYONE should own.




I notice this got less "views" than other posts I've made lately..... I'm not surprised.... the sheeple can't handle, one of the best(maybe THE BEST) drum solos in music history, a piano solo for the ages ending with a crescendo of chords that make you wanna fly. And THEN a bass solo that sounds like you're between planets.
















Meanwhile, I'm sitting next to some fool -watching some Meek Mill crap and then, some worldstarhiphop nonsense...these are the MAJORITY.. on tv... in my neighborhood... they're everywhere....surrounding me...


The MAJORITY- the kind of people that wouldn't appreciate a genius like John Coltrane.






Speaking of worldstarhiphop or whatever...why do so many people in my "community" participate in such simpleton activities as filming friends, family members, classmates, co-workers or even, strangers, fighting, for the purpose of putting it up on youtube or stupid world star hiphop?! Why would you even "think" of something like that, unless you're a complete MORON..... ... when they're not doing that, they're hanging out, (outside) gossiping or talking about stupid things. One of these airheads was on a court show the other day, & when the judge criticized him for taking a camera with him- cause he knew his cousin was about to fight & wanted to film it- he looked at the judge like she was speaking a foreign language. Once again, this is the majority!


Here's an idea, you waste of oxygen, with what to do with your free time..... READ A BOOK!

Steely Dan-Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More

Those synthesizers make me wanna cry.






Lucy still loves her Coke and rum
but she sits alone
cause her Daddy can't come

THINK! It Ain't Illegal! Yet!

While  NATO bombs people based on lies, (see Libya & Yugoslavia) the BBC, CNN, France24, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Guardian, MSNBC, Fox News, Radio Free Europe, etc. are incessantly trying to turn us against Russia.




Don't miss the part where one of the guests mentions that a Washington newspaper censored his article, cause it didn't fit into the anti-Russian agenda.










https://www.rt.com/op-edge/178352-western-media-putin-fault/

‘We’re in a new Cold War’ – Stephen Cohen on mounting US-NATO military o...

Someone in a documentary about Yugoslavia, once said about NATO- "Nato should stand for New American Terrorist Organization!"

Maurice White R.I.P. Part 2

Maurice White R.I.P.

Found out about this first, on France24..... wondering why no one else on tv, was talking about it, considering it was the time when the evening news was on.






When they talked about him later on the news, the amount of time they spent on him was pretty pathetic, if he was some ignorant rapper who goes on twitter, saying vile things, they would've went into more detail about his career.  Dumb millenials , are probably in charge, so they don't care about real musicians!

Straight Outta Compton NEVER spoke for me!

Aisha Tyler just offended me with her idiotic, nonsensical complaining on The Talk (Jan. 19th) about Straight Outta Compton not being nominated for an Oscar or whatever.... she said something like, about how this movie or the so-called music of N.W.A represents people like her as an African-American, in her 40s, growing up in that era. Rubbish!
I'm also in my 40s, African-American, & from the hood, & Straight Outta Compton doesn't speak for me , I was NEVER an N.W.A fan, and I refuse to see that crap. I can't stand N.W.A & their disgustingly misogynistic lyrics.  And I know for a fact that there are plenty of people of our demographic who HATE gangsta rap & don't wanna see a movie glorifying it.
And there are also plenty of black people in their 40s, who are discerning listeners who would rather hear jazz, funk or rock, instead of thugs rapping over samples of SOMEBODY ELSE's music.


Aisha Tyler shouldn't get on tv, acting like she speaks for everyone who is in their 40s or African-American, I'm sick of people acting like all members of the black community under the age of 50, are "all hiphop"!

Flashback to Let's Dance...

So the story goes, when David Bowie called on Nile Rodgers to produce his Let's Dance album in the early 80s, he wanted "guaranteed hits" or something like that, now, that tells you how much music has changed since then...   in the early 80s, you could have radio-friendly hits & still have fantastic musicianship.
Both the title track & China Girl have gorgeous guitar work, while Modern Love has some sexy saxophone during the coda. Now, fast-forward a few decades later, & if you want to get played on the radio- FORGET the guitars & saxophones, & replace it with beats & autotune!




And now, people go to see DJs in concert(!)

David Bowie R.I.P.

James Brown - Get Up, Get Into It And Get Involved (Parts 1 & 2)

One of the most original & wonderfully weird horn arrangements in music history!




And when he says "Hit me".... they really  GET INTO IT!

Ohio Players - I Want To Be Free

What's in the water in Ohio, that makes people so FUNKY..... Ohio Players, Bootsy & Catfish, Slave, etc.