Thursday, February 08, 2007:
At the end of a slow sappy LP leading me to think I'd misspent my $1, there was this disco track, which is quite enjoyable provided you don't have a Pavlovian aversion to disco. Apparently there's a 10-minute version of it which is expensive and highly regarded among DJs. Alas, all I have is the LP version, clocking in at just under 6 minutes.
I don't know much about Roussos, except that if you rearrange the letters in his name you can spell "Soused Morris" and that I doubt I'll be buying anything more by him.
[out of print]
Demis Roussos -- L.O.V.E. Got a Hold of Me
Demis Roussos -- L.O.V.E. Got a Hold of MeAt the end of a slow sappy LP leading me to think I'd misspent my $1, there was this disco track, which is quite enjoyable provided you don't have a Pavlovian aversion to disco. Apparently there's a 10-minute version of it which is expensive and highly regarded among DJs. Alas, all I have is the LP version, clocking in at just under 6 minutes.
I don't know much about Roussos, except that if you rearrange the letters in his name you can spell "Soused Morris" and that I doubt I'll be buying anything more by him.
[out of print]
Labels: disco, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
13:23 | permalink |
1 comments
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Friday, December 02, 2005:
Funky guitars, hand claps, horns, strings, and a beautiful melody laying out terms and conditions. For me, this would have been a contender for Sister Sledge's Best Of comp, but it didn't make it--it's available on their All American Girls album, which was re-released on CD in the mid-90s and seems to have gone out of print since, and on a compilation of 80s club music, but that seems to be it. So here it is from vinyl.
[All American Girls @ amazon.com]
Sister Sledge -- If You Really Want Me
Sister Sledge -- If You Really Want MeFunky guitars, hand claps, horns, strings, and a beautiful melody laying out terms and conditions. For me, this would have been a contender for Sister Sledge's Best Of comp, but it didn't make it--it's available on their All American Girls album, which was re-released on CD in the mid-90s and seems to have gone out of print since, and on a compilation of 80s club music, but that seems to be it. So here it is from vinyl.
[All American Girls @ amazon.com]
Labels: disco
posted by Tuwa @
11:50 | permalink |
1 comments
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005:
Gwen McCrae -- Keep the Fire Burning
These tracks today are off Gwen McCrae's 1982 LP On My Way, released some time after she and George had called it quits. I'm tempted to read into some of the lyrics more than I probably should, but let's just say Gwen sounds confident and happy enough throughout the LP. "Hang In" is a great track, an Ann Peebles cover, and "Doin' It" is great also. But "I Didn't Take Your Man" strikes me as more intriguing, more real somehow, and "Keep the Fire Burning" strikes me as more fun than any of those three, as great as they are.
"I Didn't Take Your Man" is (like "Hang In") an Ann Peebles cover; this one explains that it was the other woman's bad choices that led to her man running off: "If you had taken the time to treat him with a little respect / he wouldn't be out here looking for love somewhere else." Oh man. And then, the gloating at the end? The lyrics are from the "stab, then twist" school; still, the song is forty shades of awesome.
"Keep the Fire Burning" is (like "Doin' It") a saucy dance number that should get you all loose-limbed and joyful. Go on, give it a shot.
"Keep the Fire Burning" seems to be on CD on Natural High: 2-Step Soul, Boogie Fusion & Rare Groove (Amazon.com page) and on Club Connection (also availabler at amazon.com), but as a "UK Club remix," which may or may not be what you're after. So caveat emptor and all that.
I'm starting to love finding all these great LPs (or, sometimes, just a few great tracks on them) that are out of print. To me, at least, posting them stands as sort of a means of keeping the music alive, giving it more social currency. They're great songs in the first place, but there's also just something fascinating about them as cultural artefacts. Yet there's any number of different sets of circumstances that can lead to something with obvious merit being cast off and forgotten.
An interview with Gwen McCrae
A writeup of her work
Gwen McCrae
Gwen McCrae -- I Didn't Take Your ManGwen McCrae -- Keep the Fire Burning
These tracks today are off Gwen McCrae's 1982 LP On My Way, released some time after she and George had called it quits. I'm tempted to read into some of the lyrics more than I probably should, but let's just say Gwen sounds confident and happy enough throughout the LP. "Hang In" is a great track, an Ann Peebles cover, and "Doin' It" is great also. But "I Didn't Take Your Man" strikes me as more intriguing, more real somehow, and "Keep the Fire Burning" strikes me as more fun than any of those three, as great as they are.
"I Didn't Take Your Man" is (like "Hang In") an Ann Peebles cover; this one explains that it was the other woman's bad choices that led to her man running off: "If you had taken the time to treat him with a little respect / he wouldn't be out here looking for love somewhere else." Oh man. And then, the gloating at the end? The lyrics are from the "stab, then twist" school; still, the song is forty shades of awesome.
"Keep the Fire Burning" is (like "Doin' It") a saucy dance number that should get you all loose-limbed and joyful. Go on, give it a shot.
"Keep the Fire Burning" seems to be on CD on Natural High: 2-Step Soul, Boogie Fusion & Rare Groove (Amazon.com page) and on Club Connection (also availabler at amazon.com), but as a "UK Club remix," which may or may not be what you're after. So caveat emptor and all that.
I'm starting to love finding all these great LPs (or, sometimes, just a few great tracks on them) that are out of print. To me, at least, posting them stands as sort of a means of keeping the music alive, giving it more social currency. They're great songs in the first place, but there's also just something fascinating about them as cultural artefacts. Yet there's any number of different sets of circumstances that can lead to something with obvious merit being cast off and forgotten.
An interview with Gwen McCrae
A writeup of her work
Labels: disco, out of print, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
00:22 | permalink |
0 comments
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005:
Brides of Funkenstein -- Nappy
Brides of Funkenstein -- Amorous
Brides of Funkenstein was one of many George Clinton/P-Funk offshoots, featuring Lynn Mabry and Bernie Worrell (who you might also have seen on Stop Making Sense), as well as other bits of the Clinton crew, including Phelps Collins, Gary Shider, Michael Hampton, and Bootsy Collins.
The Funk or Walk LP is good for the most part, with a few standouts and one stinker ("Just Like You," a nine minute soul track that's so soft it makes Pee Wee Herman look like a contender).
"Disco to Go," the album's opener, was a hit for the Brides, but it was the only one they had. Personally I think that "Nappy" and "Amorous" might be a bit better. "Nappy" isn't very danceable, but "Amorous" is.
I love the sort of gently-delirious tone to "Nappy." Allmusic.com says it sounds like something by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, which it does: it's got a chilled-out jazz-tinged festive atmosphere to it, like something off a high-society musical in an alternate history New Orleans. Odd and fun work.
"Amorous" closes the album and is more conventionally funky. Pluses: the vocals (the melody, the delivery, the growl), the bassline (thumps, slides, growls back), the horns, the composition as a whole (including the lulls--very nice). Minuses: N/A.
The LP is out of print, though you can get "Disco to Go" on two different concert albums available on amazon.com.
Allmusic.com review
...
In other news, I don't think these trackback links are working. I've seen links to the site in the referer log that aren't being picked up (one I can think of was in French, talking about Steinski & Double Dee). If anyone has any idea what's gone wrong with the "auto-detect," I'd love to know; otherwise I'll just remove the trackback links so there's less clutter.
Brides of Funkenstein
Brides of Funkenstein -- Nappy
Brides of Funkenstein -- Amorous
Brides of Funkenstein was one of many George Clinton/P-Funk offshoots, featuring Lynn Mabry and Bernie Worrell (who you might also have seen on Stop Making Sense), as well as other bits of the Clinton crew, including Phelps Collins, Gary Shider, Michael Hampton, and Bootsy Collins.
The Funk or Walk LP is good for the most part, with a few standouts and one stinker ("Just Like You," a nine minute soul track that's so soft it makes Pee Wee Herman look like a contender).
"Disco to Go," the album's opener, was a hit for the Brides, but it was the only one they had. Personally I think that "Nappy" and "Amorous" might be a bit better. "Nappy" isn't very danceable, but "Amorous" is.
I love the sort of gently-delirious tone to "Nappy." Allmusic.com says it sounds like something by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, which it does: it's got a chilled-out jazz-tinged festive atmosphere to it, like something off a high-society musical in an alternate history New Orleans. Odd and fun work.
"Amorous" closes the album and is more conventionally funky. Pluses: the vocals (the melody, the delivery, the growl), the bassline (thumps, slides, growls back), the horns, the composition as a whole (including the lulls--very nice). Minuses: N/A.
The LP is out of print, though you can get "Disco to Go" on two different concert albums available on amazon.com.
Allmusic.com review
...
In other news, I don't think these trackback links are working. I've seen links to the site in the referer log that aren't being picked up (one I can think of was in French, talking about Steinski & Double Dee). If anyone has any idea what's gone wrong with the "auto-detect," I'd love to know; otherwise I'll just remove the trackback links so there's less clutter.
Labels: disco, funk, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
23:09 | permalink |
0 comments
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Tuesday, June 14, 2005:
The Changing of the Gard -- 1979/Warner Bros.
Stargard -- Take Me Back
Stargard -- Lowdown Dancing
Two disco tracks today from Stargard's 1979 album The Changing of the Gard. "Take Me Back" is happy and chipper, made with an eye on the dancefloor, daring you not to feel it.
"Lowdown Dancing" is slower, with a laid-back funk: chicka-chicka guitars, sliding/thumping/bumping bass line, horns. You know the drill. Good stuff.
On another note, Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing was recently raving about Party Ben's mix "Led Snooppelin." It's not bad, but I really can't get behind heavily censored lyrics. My money's on "Gorilla Cake" and the Killer Killers EP; check them out.
Spread the Good Word is killing it lately. Have you been? Go. ^_^
software rant below; feel free to ignore
I am trying to figure out the Hello program for posting photos to Blogger. As far as I can tell, either it's brain-damaged or I am. Why is there no immediately and blindingly obvious option to write a decent-sized titled post and include a photo with it? Is that unheard of? Where is the übersecret helpful help-file? 'Cause the one they have isn't always even right (e.g. double clicking on the Blogger icon does not always take you to a screen with a link labeled 'web link' on it).
Currently I have to:
a) write the post but not post it
b) post the photo
c) go modify the photo post, pasting in the text.
I must be missing something obvious. Or perhaps the GoogleLords are.
I was also quite annoyed at having that little bar keeping popping up, over whatever I was doing, about the program scanning my photos. I already told it to go ahead; that bar needs to do its work in the background.
Right now the UI on this program looks like a low C. I'm surprised it's proved as clunky and annoying as Mozilla's calendar app.
Stargard taking it back, lowdown dancing. And Hello.
The Changing of the Gard -- 1979/Warner Bros.
Stargard -- Take Me Back
Stargard -- Lowdown Dancing
Two disco tracks today from Stargard's 1979 album The Changing of the Gard. "Take Me Back" is happy and chipper, made with an eye on the dancefloor, daring you not to feel it.
"Lowdown Dancing" is slower, with a laid-back funk: chicka-chicka guitars, sliding/thumping/bumping bass line, horns. You know the drill. Good stuff.
On another note, Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing was recently raving about Party Ben's mix "Led Snooppelin." It's not bad, but I really can't get behind heavily censored lyrics. My money's on "Gorilla Cake" and the Killer Killers EP; check them out.
Spread the Good Word is killing it lately. Have you been? Go. ^_^
software rant below; feel free to ignore
I am trying to figure out the Hello program for posting photos to Blogger. As far as I can tell, either it's brain-damaged or I am. Why is there no immediately and blindingly obvious option to write a decent-sized titled post and include a photo with it? Is that unheard of? Where is the übersecret helpful help-file? 'Cause the one they have isn't always even right (e.g. double clicking on the Blogger icon does not always take you to a screen with a link labeled 'web link' on it).
Currently I have to:
a) write the post but not post it
b) post the photo
c) go modify the photo post, pasting in the text.
I must be missing something obvious. Or perhaps the GoogleLords are.
I was also quite annoyed at having that little bar keeping popping up, over whatever I was doing, about the program scanning my photos. I already told it to go ahead; that bar needs to do its work in the background.
Right now the UI on this program looks like a low C. I'm surprised it's proved as clunky and annoying as Mozilla's calendar app.
Labels: disco, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
22:44 | permalink |
1 comments
|
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