Claydes Charles Smith, cofounder and lead guitarist of Kool & The Gang, passed away this week, so it's only due justice to throw down with a:
Old School Wednesday : Kool & The Gang.
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Podcast coming soon. Watch for it.
01 - Hollywood Swinging
02 - Jungle Boogie
03 - Open Sesame
04 - Sea of Tranquility
05 - Summer Madness
06 - Celebration
07 - Ladies Night
08 - Too Hot
09 - Take My Heart (You Can Have It If You Want It)
10 - Big Fun
11 - Get Down On It
12 - Joanna
13 - Cherish
14 - Fresh
15 - Misled
When I hear tracks like Summer Madness and Take My Heart, there's no doubt in my mind that this man was a great man and that he will definitely be missed. I'm sure heads will nod to Sea of Tranquility, whose melodies has been sampled to by another R&B singer. Special shout out to Obi (who does it mad wikked like dat) and my main man KB.
Our condolences go out to the Smith Family. Listen and reminisce. Send it on.
Arif, a famous producer who's generated a string of hits for a number of artists, died this week at the age of 74. Working with artists from the Bee Gees to Aretha Franklin, and Bette Midler to Chaka Khan, he's managed to garner 11 Grammys and major respect from both the pop and R&B genres. Presenting
Old School Wednesday, Part II: Arif Mardin.
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Podcast coming soon. Watch for it.
01 - Chaka Khan - Clouds
02 - Chaka Khan - What Cha Gonna Do For Me
03 - Culture Club - Move Away
04 - Howard Jones - You Know I Love You Don't You?
05 - Chaka Khan - A Night In Tunisia
06 - Bee Gees - Jive Talkin'
07 - Average White Band - A Love Of Your Own
08 - Howard Jones - No One Is To Blame
09 - Phil Collins - Against All Odds
10 - Aretha Franklin - Love All The Hurt Away
11 - Miki Howard - You've Changed
12 - Aretha Franklin - Call Me
13 - Donny Hathaway - A Song For You
There's plenty of Chaka up there, including Clouds, and there's some Aretha Franklin there with Love All The Hurt Away. He's also touched Donny Hathaway and even Miki Howard and Howard Jones.
Condolences go out to the Mardin family. Special thanks to Wayne A. for keepin' me in the loop.
Finally got it together....sorry for the wait. Network problems kept me frustrated throughout the night.
Old School Wednesday : The Crash, Volume 2.
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Podcast/mix available here. Click to play or right click-save as to download.]
01 - Brainstorm - We're On Our Way Home
02 - High Fashion - Hold On
03 - Jermaine Stewart - Jody
04 - Shalamar - My Girl Loves Me
05 - Vesta Williams - Once Bitten Twice Shy
06 - Gladys Knight & The Pips - Save The Overtime (For Me)
07 - Norma Jean Wright - Saturday
08 - Sting - If You Love Somebody (Set Them Free)
09 - Naked Eyes - Promises, Promises
10 - Steve Arrington - Last Nite/Nite Before
11 - Mica Paris - I Can't Stop Loving You
12 - Madonna - Love Tried to Welcome Me
13 - Evelyn "Champagne" King - The Show Is Over (Feat. Dexter Wansel)
14 - Commodores - Sail On
Brainstorm got me grooving this week with We're On Our Way Home, and I particularly like this groove because of its intensity that starts you nodding your head and has you energized by the end of the cut. Hold On is from another Jacques Fred-Petrus creation, High Fashion (think Change and BBQ Band). High Fashion was a trio that consisted of a male vocalist Eric McClinton (who you may not be familiar with) and female vocalists Me'lisa Morgan and Alyson Williams (who you should definitely be familiar with).
Everyone should know about Jermaine Stewart. This cut, Jody, was written with no other than Jody Watley in mind. My Girl Loves Me by Shalamar is arguably one of the few great cuts released by Shalamar after the departure of Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniels.
Vesta's Once Bitten Twice Shy is off of her debut album. Gladys' wonderful Save The Overtime For Me segues nicely into Norma Jean Wright's Saturday. If the name Norma Jean rings a bell to you, she should, as she was one of the lead singers of Chic. And yes, the cut was also produced by Nile Rodgers.
We then flip the script and drop some well known cuts, If You Need Somebody (Set Them Free) and Promises, Promises. Steve then drops Last Nite/Nite Before, a wonderful cut. Mica's cut from the CD Contribution is followed by Madonna's cut from Bedtime Stories, Love Tried To Welcome Me, produced by Dave Hall. Evelyn's smooth cut The Show Is Over is followed by one of those cuts that make you sway back and forth, Commodores' Sail On.
Enjoy.
I had to pull this out of, um...nowhere after the great crash. Just glad I could pull it together at the last minute. Thanks to KB for being my ace on this one.
Old School Wednesday : The Crash, Volume 1.
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Podcast/mix available here. Click to play or right click-save as to download.]
01 - Starpoint - Object Of My Desire
02 - Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science
03 - Steve Arrington - Way Out
04 - Thelma Houston - It Must Be Love
05 - Jacksons - Enjoy Yourself
06 - Billy Preston - Will It Go Round In Circles
07 - Billy Preston - Outta Space (Instrumental)
08 - EXTRA T'S - E. T. BOOGIE
09 - K.C. & The Sunshine Band - I Get Lifted
10 - Level 42 - Starchild
11 - Andy Gibb (with Bee Gees) - I Just Want to be Your Everything
12 - Hi-Five - I Like The Way (The Kissing Game)
13 - Midnight Star - Curious
14 - Billy Preston & Syreeta - With You I'm Born Again
RIP, Billy Preston. Enjoy.
ManNMotion is the supplier. I'm the provider.
Overtime.
I'm still doing it, and I've been trying to balance it and life in general. Life is back on track, and now go back to travelling, but something had to give, right?
Other Folk's Blogs
Man, I haven't read blogs in about a 8 days, literally. I probably missed out on something, because there's always something going on. I'm walking through Bloglines now being tasked to read 2000+ entries. It's like trying to read a novel in 7 hours. So hey, if you think I missed something, it's not 'cause I don't love you, it's because I've been going through a helluva time at work. Pure madness.
This Blog .
This blog turned 4 years old a couple of weeks ago. Four years of existence, 86 OSWs, and 54 rotations. Man, that's a lotta work. Where's the birthday cake?
Homeslices
While I was in The Work Inferno, KB took control of the OSWs and Todd had a birthday which I almost missed. On top of all that, Todd and Lynne did some serious change-ups. While I was laying in the cut trying to keep my head above water, Billy Preston died. Dag. Oh yeah, and then....
The Crash of Iapetus
On Wednesday, I started listening to some music at work, and then all of a sudden, my portable disk gave me an error message: The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable, which basically means: your 40GB of music is gone, and you, my friend, are royally screwed. I'll have to re-rip disks (40+), and as for music I used to have but can't find now? Well, I've either lost that music completely or call in favors to get the tracks back. I don't quite know what I'm going to do about the old-school Wednesday at this point. This week will hereby be called The Week Of Reconstruction. Damnit.
The Good Stuff.
There was some great stuff that came out last weekend, however. If you haven't checked out Flowink, specifically Music Lounge 06.05.06, don't worry, I have it here for you. Here's how the flow goes down.
Rotatin' : Volume 4.
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Podcast/mix available here. Click to play or right click-save as to download.]
Check out the tracks.
Today is Prince's birthday. KB celebrates it today, saying:
There’s no other artist that spans the spectrum of love songs like Prince. His Gemini-like ability to go from freaky to loving adoration. Today’s radio blog spotlights the love songs… and no one else hits all the spots quite like Prince.
Prince, Volume 2: The Love Songs.
Check it out, and stay tuned for volume 3.
