I don’t mean to make a political post but, in America, there is a growing group of people that would dismiss this altogether as a “white band appropriating black music” … Let’s just say that if you don’t think this is “real” Funk, there’s not much I can do for you.

• Jamiroquai – Bad Girls (Live in Verona)

No fucking about, pure Funk.

• George Benson – Turn Your Love Around

Different level of musicians on this one

• Teddy Pendergrass – You Can’t Hide From Yourself (Dimitri From Paris Super Disco Blend)

• Jorge Ben – Mais Que Nada
• Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66

“By the time we felt ready to release the album, and went back to listen to it, we all agreed that we liked it a lot, but that it came up short in the way we wanted it to sound. There was a kind of disconnect there. It did not measure up to what we wanted it to be. Initially we thought of simply remastering the album, but then we decided that we wanted someone to remix it. We thought of Philippe [Zdar], because we were familiar with some of his work, but we had never met him and did not know whether it would work …”

Must read this article:
https://www.soundonsound.com/people/inside-track-beastie-boys-make-some-noise

• Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise

I can’t believe that for 76 weeks, I have not posted a single Deodato song … No fucking about: Deodato Week starts today.

• Deodato – Super Strut

The complaints of older people regarding what the kids are doing musically are often dismissed— correctly so—as nostalgia or conservatism masked as cultural commentary. The answer to those complaints is basically that older people are always complaining about new music, they complained about Blues, Jazz, Rock, Funk, et cetera, et cetera, so it doesn’t really matter if they understand the new music. We don’t expect them to understand it. Some older people—the younger older people—will usually say something like “But that was different. My parents really were too conservative and didn’t understand what Rock was doing but you can’t compare Rock to Rap, Rock took real skill, you had to learn to play an instrument, Rap is just … ”.

Old people don’t get it; duly noted.

I’m old; duly noted.

I still think that I’m objectively correct when I say that mainstream music is trash and that kids don’t know which way is up and which way is down. Despite all the possible old-guy-hating-on-new-music counter-arguments, something is different in this world we live in. Something has been breaking in these past 20 years with the acceleration of the internet; and the damage is even worse within the past 8 years …

I’ll just sum it up like this:

Up to a certain point you can trace the heritage of black music within popular music—I don’t just mean in terms of “spotting the sample”—at a certain point you can’t. And when black music is less relevant to popular music than social media, reality shows, plastic surgeries, and face tattoos, there’s a serious problem, an existential problem. I’m thinking that the reason I don’t like the kids’ music is actually because the kids have no music.

• Bill Withers – Grandma’s Hands

Despite a reflex developed during the 90’s (i.e. thinking “This song again?, They’ve played it a million times this week”), the actual song is undeniable.

• Oasis – Wonderwall

I don’t mean to make this about identity politics, more like a House music lover thinking out-loud …

This is the first time in a long time that I’ve seen talented black women have an opportunity to do their thing.

I don’t mean some token “celebration” in the sense of “I like you, let’s talk for an hour (minus commercial breaks) about how you’re a woman and how your skin is dark and how you’re ‘uplifting'”.

I mean a real opportunity in the sense of “OK, show the world what you can do. Show the world that you have a musical heritage, that you’ve been here, that you’ve been putting in work, and that you had an impact on music, show that Black women were doing music earlier than last week—when Ms. Popstar put out a single in between taking her clothes off on instagram.” [At least for this six minute performance, I haven’t watched the rest of the unfortunately titled affair.]

Robin S. just needed five words to get it started “THIS IS HOW I DO!”

• Robin S. – Show Me Love
• Crystal Waters – Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)
• CeCe Peniston – Finally

• The Clash – London Calling

“Manchester, from the Sex Pistols’ gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, right to whenever Oasis took too many drugs to make sense, for nearly 20 years, Manchester was THE music city in the world.” — Tony Wilson

• Oasis – Champagne Supernova

White youth, black youth, better find another solution.
Why not phone up a Robin Hood and ask him for some wealth distribution?

• The Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais

Yes, I’ve posted this before; it’s that good.

• George Benson – Give Me The Night

If I had songs that sounded like that, I would wear those pants too.

I had the thesis that when people TRY to play “Funk” as a genre, it sounds like shit; but when someone’s funky, whatever they play has Da Funk. I present this as proof positive. And this should also prove that there’s only two kinds of music: good and bad.

• Juan Gabriel – Hasta Que Te Conocí (En Vivo [Desde el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes])

Every time I take a look inside that old and fabled book I’m blinded and reminded of the pain caused by some old man in the sky …

• Sturgill Simpson — Turtles All the Way Down

• KC and The Sunshine Band – I’m Your Boogie Man

There are many things (80’s crap) that distract from the fact that this was a real Rock band but give it a chance. I was lucky to hear this for the first time in a car radio—which is always a special experience since it catches you at an unexpected time, in an unexpected place—and it sounded like the Blues had caught on fire. Setting the Blues alight is about the only thing that Rock is SUPPOSED to do; everything else is probably unnecessary.

• Van Halen – Hot For Teacher

If you weren’t doing it already, it’s time to play music on proper speakers because this doesn’t make sense on a mobile phone.

• Roy Davis Jr — “Watch Them Come” (Feat. Peven Everett)

“I never preached anarchy, it was just a novelty in a song. I always thought anarchy was a mindgame for the middle classes. Anarchists can’t get anywhere without motorways … ” — John Lydon

• Sex Pistols — Anarchy In The UK

There’s a moment in every music genre when the game changes. The genre stays recognizable and carries all the heritage but something happens to where it goes mainstream, in a good way. Something adjusts, modernizes whatever’s going on, and takes it to the outside world. I’d have to do a little research to see what specific tunes did it in the different genres but Dylan did it to Folk, The Beatles did it to Rock, Bob Marley to Reggae, Run DMC to Rap, Daft Punk to Electronic music, etc. Ruben Blades, with this tune, did it to Salsa. (It’s a NYC/Latin version of Mack The Knife from the Threepenny Opera.)

• Ruben Blades – Pedro Navaja