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.......