High On Jello

For a mix I'm putting together, inspired by The Cosby Show, called Hello Jello!



My lady friend Margeaux loves The Cosby Show, so I am making this mix for her. Still crafting it though: I will post songs that have the right sound here first, until I shove the full, fully finished mix on you.

And what is that "Right Sound?" It will be dentist-office funk: smooth (or even shmoove) jazzy things. Describable as slinky maybe. "Easy, not Cheesy." (that should be trademarked, yeah?)
The songs are having fun, without being outright silly. Loose-limbed, they will make a nice background as we shift into early summer.
Sade could go on there, although maybe she won't. Why?: because I want it to sound Cosby-era, so 70's and 80's gems.

( Although technically Sade's 1st US single came out at the end of 1984*, to me, Sade feels like 90's music. And although technically Cosby show started just a few months before that**, since I don't remember watching it much [although I did watch it plenty- when I watch it now, I can recall the plots as they are unfolding], it feels 70's-80's to me. )

* had to look it up
** also had to look that up, believe it


Enough about the mix; how about the song and band?

The Commodores do "Brick House": you know that song. It would totally play at a wonderful summer wedding reception:





The Commodores also had Lionel Richie in their band for a minute. Weirdly, after he left, they got more mellow. Once he was gone, they started to sound, well, like Lionel Richie. Before that, they were this hard-driving 'fonk' machine.

De La Soul sampled this song, on the Stakes Is High album. That is a feloniously undervalued record, like all of their records (except for 3 Feet High... And Rising: that gets about the right amount of praise).

( First De La album I ever bought- a little late to these fellows... 2000? also, I have it on vinyl, AND, after the above Commodores song, De La Soul came next on my iTunes random. F'serious! )

What I was initially leaning toward putting on Margeaux's mix was the Commodores song, "Girl, I Think the World About You" (obv), which I will:

1) maybe still put on the mix
and
2) maybe put up on to Youtube, where it cannot yet be found. Can it really be all that tough to post to YouTube?

De La also sampled"Girl, I...", for "Hey Buddy;" so you can see where their heads are at, right?
Tricky sampled The Commodores too!: info for the samples got drawn from this detailed site, Sample Spotters. 19 songs- nineteen- are listed for sampling (just the drums) from a single Commodores track.
Wow.

Together Soon: Teddy & Sharon ( & Harold ?! )

This one's a duet.
From the random selection on my IPhone which I brought to Portland- and will shortly bring to Houston.



Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes: Hope That We Can Be Together Soon
AKA "Teddy Pendergrass Feat. Sharon Paige: "Hope That...."
Teddy and Harold had a little spat, see- Harold founded the group, but by the time they were successful, well see, Teddy was doing all the lead singing.
(And How!)
Teddy wanted his name added to the existing group-name, which would have produced the titular monstrosity of
"Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Featuring Teddy Pendergrass".

"No dice", says Harold; Teddy says "I quit".
But not before recording this song with Sharon Paige (and the rest of the Blue Notes); she too was a Blue Note at the time, so this track really only needs the title "HM & BN: 'HWCBTS'",
not "TP FT SP (AKA HM & BN FT TP & FT SP): 'HTWCBTS'".

Clarifying, I'm sure.
I think we all learned a lot today.

I Like to Boogie; I Like the Bee Gees

Another song off my IPod: Jive Talkin', by Los Bee Gees.
Oh sure, you want to knock the Bee Gees. Yeah yeah, you think you are too slick for all that. "Pfff", is what you say.
Well, I say, "Pffffff" back to you, sucker. Listen here:



Bee Gees' " Jive Talkin' "

Welcome Back

I am now back in Portland, and listening to my IPhone's mp3s. A very loose collection of stuff made it onto my phone's IPod.
I'll post up those songs which I think you all could make friends with: post them as I hear them, more or less.

Here is one such tune, and very appropriate to start off with:



Evidently, this is the theme song to "Welcome Back Kotter", which I have never really seen. Which means that, while you can get multiple videos of "theme song" length -- including one with footage from Grand Theft Auto!? and another from Final Fantasy VII!?! -- I could not find any longer* version.
(Note that the above video does not even mention the name of the artist who sang it!: John Sebastian. I'd be insulted- but then, he's prob dead.)

S'okay- all I really needed, which is included in both short videos, are the lines:

"Well, we tease him a lot/
'cos we got him on the spot;
Welcome Back."



* ! Newsflash! This Just In!
My Mom has just cracked an egg of knowledge all over the place: back in the 70's, some theme songs were written special for the show. "Kotter" is such a theme. So, the original version is the above short version! And what I have on my IPod is a later version, which they lengthened some, to 2:40-ish. So while the above videos for John Sebastian's "Welcome Back" are odd -- deeply odd -- they do in fact give you the original version.

(I prefer the extra minute, tbf ['to be frank'].)

Purify Your Puppet

James and Bobby Purify: "I'm Your Puppet"
on YouTube

G'wan, download it, if you please. A nice old version from my record collection.

Another YouTube version from a TV show, circa 1966
(more fun to watch, but, sadly, I cannot embed it directly)

I love this song. In all honesty, I never knew I could love like this.
(I don't care if they are brothers)- I am going to marry it, I love it so much.

Skuffled Mammajamma

Went digging through CDs to find something to listen to the other day. Felt in a particular kind of mood, so grabbed some Drum and Bass CDs I hadn't listened to recently, including....
the classic...



Metalheadz two-disc of golden-era Junglist anthems.


(if you are impatient, go to about 1:30 for the big drop...)


This is the kind of CD that nobody sells used. You don't just accidentally end up buying this- so nobody is selling it used, because they happened into it with no idea what it was.



(although the tracklisting for it on amazon.com is incorrect, so maybe 'no idea' is true, in a wholly different sense. The right tracks are listed on Discogs.com.)

You also don't get tired of it, unless you just get tired of whole genres of music. All the reviews of this state accurately: peak tunes; never tire of these; "don't make 'em like this no more"; sick wicked dope; etc. For this genre of music (drum 'n' bass, aka jungle), this would be like a Led Zeppelin greatest-hits package: if you ever like it, you always will, and never any less.
So nobody ever bought this and liked it, and then eventually soured on it, bored of it, overplayed and so played-out it.



But how did I get it used then?
Well, Everyday Music in Portland sells used CDs, and they will sell you scratched CDs.
Sounds bad: is good.
They mark out the scratched ones; they sell them for less; and they even will take them back if they skip. You know how almost all of your CDs are scratched, somewhat at least, and how many of those never ever skip.
SKUFFS, they call them.
Well, this mamajamma was skuffed pretty bad. Two whole tracks just ain't played right, ever. Or at least, ever for me, since I bought it scratched.
One that never got all the way through, was Dillinja's "Angels Fell", above. Obviously, the YouTube version no skuff.

But what you can do, see, is copy a scratched CD. Because while the CD player has to deal with scratches in real time, your computer's CD-ROM does not- it will keep patiently scanning, scanning, re-scanning-- until it can find out just what 0s and 1s made up that track, in its prediluvian state. So usually, the copy will be a like-new, scratchless, unskuffled version. That beats a lossless copy- it actually improves your version.

So now, for the first time ever, I can listen to this track all the way through-
And so can you.

Danzig's Mother is a suggested video,
so is Halo Benders (the laziest band in rock and roll!).
What is funny, is that my dad has something to say about both lazy bands, and drum n bass. He said (says) that Pavement et al. "aren't even trying" when they sing.
It's true!
He also once said a drum and bass song was "Ferris Bueller music", which I took to mean: sounds like that Ferrari music in the movie.
Which is false;
But what he meant was, it sounded like another drum and bass song
Which in fact!
Sampled a line from the movie.

I must have got my "right all the damn time" gene from my pops.

Slave's Slide

Here is a quick blast for the weekend:



The band Slave on Youtube, performing their classic laidback funk "Slide"

Man, I'm sitting down, but that can't stop me from twisting around in my seat-
that's how good this song is. Little blasts of horns, guitars all slinking around. They keep the words few, so you can just ride the beat. Words like "I ain't gonna bite ya, I just want you to hang on [or out?]."

This album is really great. I think it is also called "Slave", which makes this hard stuff to search for on the internet.
Much of it isn't on Youtube (only this song, as far as I can see); I know, I know, that seems impossible. But trust me, looking around for Youtube clips to post, for some of this stuff, just doesn't do nuthin'.
This is not even some way-out-there obscure stuff.

(See explanation below...)

I mean, look at where this song is from, at least for this particular clip: from a "pure funk classics" mix, right? So not underground like moles or anything. But still, the other songs I love off this record, like "Screw Your Wig On Tite", "Son of Slide", "Separated"- not to be found.
In fact, YouTube has a clip about slaves being separated, but not "Separated" by Slave. Not real slaves- it is some contest to edit Prince of Persia, King of Pharaoh type stuff. ??!??

I don't get it; maybe one of you 4chan types can explain this. Also, could someone explain why "4chan" does not get spell-checked, but "Youtube" (and even "YouTube") does?

WHAT KIND OF CRZEE WORLD IS THIS?
And Crazy Continues: here is the explaino-convo about "bersenberber" above--> 4Chan-esque funny-esque fud mzspillin, aka internet food misspellings.



ha huh huh !

Don't Misunderstand! Or Else!

Quickly now- let's have another brief blast from the most recent mix, which includes the song below.



Turns out this was in Kill Bill:
do not recall.

I of course did not pinch my version from some Quentin Tarantino-sanctioned mix.
I do the sanctioning around here, thanks.
Instead, I found this song by what you might call the "lost-wax casting method". That is the "method" whereby one seeks records, sees records, and gets divinely inspired to snap some particular one up. In this case, inspiration struck because of this fairly intriguing record cover.



Will it be Canticles for Catholics? (Santa = Saint)
Cha-Cha, or (Two-to-) Tango?
Spanish Goth for Goya fans? (check the "Castlevania" style font)
Erotic fiction en Espagnol?

More apt pictures, here:









I think this song may have launched Ruth and I into a long little game: in which songs does the singer name herself/himself?
(An example: in "What My Woman Can't Do Can't Be Done" by Jerry Lee Lewis, he says, "If ever there's been a baby/ Jerry Lee has found him one")

No hip-hop obviously -that wouldn't be a challenging game- unless maybe you had to rap the line yourself, and actually do a decent job of it.

And since you are listening to the above song already, you probably can see the related event in that song. In probably the only lyrical derivation from the Animals' track (originally written for Nina Simone- who knew?),
a line is (for no clear reason) added: "Oh, Esmeralda". I imagine that is who he does not wish to be misunderstood by?
Anyhow, since he says "Esmeralda", and the band's name is "Santa Esmeralda", you know, it got me thinking.

Any other examples of singers naming themselves in lyrics; or saying their own band name in the lyrics? I won't say the ones we've already thought of- that way you can play the game too.
In the comments of course.

(you can still download the mix- a summery, disco-filled and disco-infused little scorcher, here- of course, it includes this song. Of Course!)