I almost didn’t have a theme this week, as I was trying to decide whether this mix this week was to be either slow grooves or mid-to-uptempo. After an informal poll, mid-to-uptempo won by a landslide. So, without further ado:
Old School Wednesday: Mid-to-uptempo grooves.
We were starting off on both sides of the Atlantic…
01 – Soul II Soul – Keep On Movin’
02 – Aaliyah – Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.
03 – Vesta Williams – Don’t Blow A Good Thing
04 – Swing Out Sister – Notgonnachange
..but then some Minneapolis came into play yet again….
05 – Mint Condition – Try My Love
06 – Sheila E – The Glamorous Life – Extended Version.
07 – The Family – High Fashion.
….and then some inspiration from Timi came through…
08 – Steely Dan – Do It Again.
…and then I got onto the 80’s/early 90’s vibe, with no particular groove in mind.
09 – Dazz Band – Joystick
10 – Cameo – Single Life
11 – Juliet Roberts – Tell Me
12 – EX Girlfriend – Why Don’t You Come Home
13 – Guy – I Like
14 – Tom Browne – Funkin’ For Jamaica
15 – Brick – Dazz
Enjoy.

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This Old School Wednesday was a lot of fun for me, I gotta say. The emphasis this week is the Minneapolis vibe, with a twist: there’s no purple here, only the ones who grooved around him and vibed through Prince. May I present:
Old School Wednesday: The Non-Purple Minneapolis.
Many of these tracks were unreleased, and almost all but forgotten. Check it:
01 – TaMara and the Seen – Everybody Dance. The only single significantly played; there were really no hits after this single. Produced by Jesse Johnson.
02 – Mazarati – Suzy. Remember Mark Brown from Purple Rain?
03 – Jesse Johnson – Be Your Man.
04 – TaMara and the Seen – Affecttion [sic]. Guitar by Jesse. An absolute classic.
05 – Morris Day and the Time – Jungle Love.
06 – Mazarati – 100 MPH.
07 – Janet Jackson – You Can Be Mine. Guitar and production by Jellybean Johnson, the drummer from The Time. You gotta love it.
08 – Lisa Keith – I’m In Love. Lisa Keith was the premiere background vocalist back in the day for Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Think Alexander O’Neal’s Criticize. She had her own solo album, Walkin’ In The Sun.
09 – Lo-Key – More Ways Than One. Produced by Lance Alexander and Tony Tolbert, Flytetyme personnel.
10 – Lisa Keith – Love Isn’t Body, It’s Soul.
11 – Angel Grant – Hey You. From Perspective Records, Jam and Lewis’ first record label.
12 – Lo-Key – I Got A Thang For Ya. Also from Perspective Records.
13 – Lisa Keith/Janet Jackson – Making Love In The Rain. The principal vocalist on this track is Lisa Keith, but wasn’t really labeled as such on the single’s release.
14 – Janet Jackson – He Doesn’t Even Know That I’m Alive. Background vocals? You guessed it…Lisa Keith.
15 – Lo-Key – Hey There Pretty Lady. This track was on their album, “Where Dey At?”; however, the one you’re listening to was taken from a Flytetyme compilation and had a wonderful muted trumpet solo at the end. I can’t be quoted on this, but I believe it’s Herb Alpert.

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Todd asked for it.
Fresh! dropped
a surprise track on me a little while ago.
Me? Well, I live in their hometown. Who am I talking about? The S.O.S.
Band.

Old
School Wednesday: The S.O.S. Band.

01 – Take Your Time Do It Right
02 – SOS Theme Song
03 – High Hopes
04 – Tell Me If You Still Care
05 – Just Be Good To Me
06 – For Your Love
07 – No One’s Gonna Love You
08 – Weekend Girl
09 – Just The Way You Like It
10 – Break Up
11 – Even When You Sleep
12 – Sands Of Time
13 – The Finest
14 – Nothing But The Best

Each album is well represented here, except for Too
(which I haven’t picked up yet), Diamonds
In The Raw (which has come up missing), and One
Of Many Nights, which is technically not old school, much to my chagrin.
Seeing as I have every album except Too, I feel like this is
not as comprehensive as it could have been, but there’s enough representation
here. While the majority of this playlist was produced by Jam
and Lewis (specifically tracks 4-14), the band, both in the recording studio
and live on stage, has mostly been overlooked. There’s something to be said
about live horns and percussion- it keeps the realness intact. I also could have talked more about the first two (which had no production by Jam and Lewis) and the final two (which also had no Jam and Lewis production and was without Mary Davis). For more info, check here.

My fondest memories of the SOS Band had to be when I was in high school and
tracks like Tell Me If You Still Care, No One’s Gonna
Love You, and Weekend Girl were constantly being played
during makeout sessions, prom, and during Quiet Storm. It didn’t help that I
was a percussionist in high school. That’s probably why I had so many cuts and
scrapes on furniture, and tables, and floors….

Enjoy it. Share your vibe.

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Great minds think alike. Sometimes it’s even scary. This OSW was almost a given, considering that Trader Mike and I shared the same vibe. Check it:
Old School Wednesday: Loose Ends- The Collaboration..
01 – Hanging On A String (Contemplating)*
02 – Nights of Pleasure**
03 – Ooh, You Make Me Feel**
04 – Watching You***
05 – Don’t You Ever (Try To Change Me)****
06 – Easier Said Than Done***
07 – Slow Down**
08 – Time Is Ticking****
09 – Dial 999*
10 – A Little Spice*
11 – You Can’t Stop The Rain**
12 – Sweetest Pain**
13 – Stay A Litte While, Child (Remix)**
14 – Remote Control***
15 – Cheap Talk****
16 – The Real Chuckeeboo (Tomorrow, Mr. Bachelor, You’ve Just Gotta Have It All)***
17 – Tell Me What You Want*
18 – I Don’t Need To Love****
19 – Don’t Be A Fool****
* From A Little Spice
** From Zagora
*** From The Real Chuckeeboo
**** From Look How Long
If I tried to enter an all-encompassing playlist (which would be around 30 songs- including remixes), my thoughts about every song listed here, every album (which I do own), and comments about each of the group members, background vocalists, producers, and remixers, it would be like reading a small book. I’m a major fan, for sure. I’m not the only one. Check out how the collaboration with the one and only Trader Mike came about…

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KB has spoken. It’s time, my friends, for his Parliament-iary procedure.
OSW: Make my funk the P-Funk..
Check out the dialogue…..

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Last week hit home for quite a few people, so we’re going to continue the formula
here. There were quite a few exclamations of gratitude, and along with it some
requests. Striving for perfection, I had to call in reinforcements, ’cause we
wanted to get this right. I get by with a little help from my friends.

OSW:
Euro Groovin’, Volume II.

Check it:

Special Notes:

Paul Young’s Everytime You Go Away and Culture Club’s Do
You Really Want To Hurt Me was graciously contributed by the one and
only KB. He and Fredamae also
requested Twilight World, and I was happy to place it in the
mix here, since that’s one of my alltime favorite songs.

Cecily and Monique
both dropped their Scritti Politti knowledge on me, and let me know that while
Perfect Way was cool, Wood Beez would be even
better. Cecily did even better and dropped the tune to me, which I had (admittedly)
never heard before.

Phil Collins is represented here not once, not twice, but three times, as I
present two of his singles, preceded by former Abba member Frida. Check him
out on the background vocals and the drums.

Enough talk. Let’s groove.

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You know, when we talk about Old School all the time, we think of anything on
the Black hand side, right? Well, that may be the case, but sometimes you have
to give a nod to the grooves that didn’t have to be melanin-infused.

When I starting putting together this Old School Wednesday, my thought was to
put together something I was going to call The 80s British Invasion. The more I started listening
and picking, spinning, and reflecting, I started to realize that hey, back
then there may have been a melanin influence everywhere we walked, but
we can’t fake it – we know we heard these tunes, and as much as some of us hate
to admit it- we vibed to ’em on the regular. We listened to these and never told anyone how cool these songs were. The only time we dared speak of these tunes were when our friends were around
and they proclaimed them to be cool. The fact that they were even played by
our radio stations were a definite plus.

There were other ones also, back when we were in high school and college, that
we heard and we nodded to, because we loved ’em. We couldn’t deny it. These tunes were performed by,
as I remember them being referred to back then, people who were ‘short on melanin
but heavy on groove’. Nod your heads, ladies and gentlemen:

Old
School Wednesday: Euro Groovin’ Volume I: On the Light Hand Side.

There’s only one song on this radio.blog where all the members were Black. I’ll
let you figure out which one.

01 – "Situation" by Yaz. The precursor to Alison Moyet and
Erasure.
02 – "Take On Me" by a-ha. Norway in the house.
03 – "One Thing Leads to Another" by The Fixx.
04 – "The Reflex" by Duran Duran. You know, a playlist with
nothing but Duran Duran would be very cool. Any takers?
05 – "It’s My Life" by Talk Talk. They were all over the place
with their music, but this one was played prominently when I was in high school. Just ask No Doubt/Gwen Stefani.

06 – "Owner of A Lonely Heart" by Yes, produced by Trevor Horn,
who also produced:
07 – "Close (to the Edit)" by The Art Of Noise.
08 – "Perfect Way" by Scritti Politti.
09 – "Be Near Me" by ABC. What’s your reputation? Ecstacy.
10 – "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama, one of the plentiful Stock
Aiken Waterman tracks that was so prevalent in the 80s. They also produced:
11 – "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. I believe they
called him the blue-eyed soulster.
12 – "Hanging on A String (Contemplating)" by Loose Ends.
13 – "Digging Your Scene" by Blow Monkeys. The background vocals
alone were infectious.
14 – "Things Will Only Get Better" by Howard Jones
15 – "Call Me" by Go West. One of my favorite duos.

Groove on. You know you want to.

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I’m passing the baton to The Rogue Angel today, since it’s been a heck of a week. Not only that, but I’ve gotta play photographer for the rest of the week. Damn that meme.
Enjoy Rogue’s House Party. Tell her I sent you.

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Link for radio blog fixed by KB because I’m such a good friend…

An interesting question came about yesterday: what’s the definition of old-school?
Our standing definition of old school are soulful, heartfelt songs that are more
than 10 years old. That’s our loose definition of it, so we’d like to hear other
opinions. What’s your definition?

Old
School Wednesday: Introducting The A Side/The B Side.

I kept vaccillating between slow, midtempo, and fast cuts, and since I couldn’t
decide (testosterone beats out melancholy most of the time, you see), I decided
to construct this OSW like a doublesided cassette: uptempo on one side, downtempo
on the the other. This week’s tracks:

Side A:
01 – "After You" by Bernard Wright. Again, from the cassette.
02 – "Got To Have Your Love" by Mantronix.
03 – "Just To Be With You" by Mica Paris. Also produced by
Mantronix.
04 – "A Lover’s Holiday" by Change.
05 – "Change of Heart" by Change.
06 – "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby.
07 – "The Breaks" by Kurtis Blow.
08 – "Around the Way Girl by LL Cool J.

Side B:
09 – "I’ll Always Love You" by Taylor Dayne.
10 – "Everything I Miss At Home" by Cherrelle.
11 – "Sunshine" by Alexander O’Neal.
12 – "Slow Wine" by Tony! Toni! Tone!
13 – "No One’s Gonna Love You by The SOS Band.
14 – "Strawberry Letter 23" by The Brothers Johnson.
15 – "Ready or Not" by After 7.
16 – "Wet My Whistle" by Midnight Star.

Enjoy.

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Vote,
damnit.

I could have done a Monday morning Bakers Dozen. but I literally couldn’t come up with
12 entries. Work. It be’s that way sometimes. I’m able to come up with the tunes though.

Old School Wednesday: The Request Line.

I tried to keep the tunes selected as ones from the 80’s, since that was the most
requested (thank you Studpoet). I tried to get as many requests in as I possibly
could, and there were quite a few. The IM sessions – they just didn’t stop….

1. Klymaxx – Wild Girls. This starts off the set, because I had to rip
this from vinyl. This is from Klymaxx’s first album, and also a single which was
produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – their very first production of a band. Warning: the song sounds a bit on the rough side, so if it gets to you, just jump to the next one.

2. Lushus Daim and the Pretty Vain – More Than You Can Handle. Second
one coming from vinyl. Same disclaimer as the first- a bit choppy. Produced by Leon Sylvers.
3. The Jets – Crush on You. I had to come up with tunes from the 80s
by request, so this is the first thing came to mind.
4. Mary Jane Girls – In My House.
5. Atlantic Starr – Circles.
6. New Edition – Cool It Now.
7. Shalamar – This Is For The Lover In You. Had a very specific request
for this one. Who am I to let the ladies down?
8. Robbie Nevil – C’est La Vie. Blue eyed soul.
9. Whodini – The Freaks Come Out At Night. I had to put them on. There
needs to be more hip hop on this mix though. Next time, people, next time.
10. Evelyn Champaigne King – Love Come Down.
11. The Jones Girls – You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else. While my
mother and her friends were singing this song with reckless abandon, I was more
in tune with the bass line. Still can’t get it out of my head.
12. Zapp Band – Doo Wa Ditty (Blow That Thang). There were a couple of
tunes to choose from, most notably Dance Floor. Only problem was, the single I
had was 8 minutes long. While I’m sure I would have grooved to it, I couldn’t
place it anywhere in the mix. Thus, Doo Waa Ditty.
13. Zapp and Roger – Computer Love. Featuring vocals from Shirley Murdock
and Charlie Wilson from…
14. The GAP Band – Outstanding. How many times have you heard samples
from this song? Better yet, name them all.
15. Pebbles – Mercedes Boy. With production and background
vocals from Charlie Wilson. Simplistic.
16. Patrice Rushen – Forget Me Nots. Still a classic.
17. Teena Marie – Portugese Love. A classic closer.

Giving love back. Hope y’all enjoy.

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We’ll have to interrupt Friday Melodies for this OSW (Old School Wednesday)
by request. This is how it went down:

ej: my Fridays one is a teaser.
kb: how so?
ej: …well, the old school Dynasty track is for a couple of people. remember
that one?
kb: gotta peep it
kb: oh yeah!
kb: old school
ej: yeahhhhhhh.
kb: I always thought of "And The Beat Goes On" when I heard this
ej: yeah me too. i had to get the cd, because "they" produced a track
on it.
kb: now u got me on this Dynasty vibe. Dang!
ej: it’s spreading like the plaaaague!
kb: Where’s a Whispers CD when I need it?
ej: i think you’ve got a theme for OSW, pal.
kb: do tell
ej: Whispers/Tavares/Bernard Wright/Dynasty/Oddysey……
kb: o..o..o..oooh
ej: 😉
kb: I may just have to give you the nod this week if you do that
ej: i was gonna throw you the ball and let you run with it, but if you wanna
collabo….
kb: nah nah nah. I want to see u pull this white rabbit out of yo hat. U go
boy. I’m just a guest star in this episode.

And that’s it went down. While he’s in the nation’s capital, I have to fill
in for him. Wanna hear it? Here it go…..

Old School Wednesday: The IM Session.

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KB sent a little query out for us yesterday and asked us to come up with one of our favorite disco cuts. Without hesitation, I came up with All Night Thang by Invisible Man’s Band. It was one of those songs that had superior instrumentaton, flowed, and the words were extremely seventies. If someone walked up to you and and said “sugar booga/honey could ya”, would you run? That’s all I’m sayin.
However my song is one of 27. With Vaughn Mason, Rick Dees, and The Villiage People (yeah, I had the cowboy outfit when I was growin’ up, alright?!) in the mix, it’s a stone groove, people.
And no, I’m not ignoring Disco Duck.
Bounce, skate, roll, bounce…..

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