The year was 1968. The Jackson 5 was the opening act for Etta’s Apollo Theater performance, Aretha Franklin received the cover of TIME magazine and Leonard Chess was looking for the right song to get Etta back on the charts. Created to pit against Aretha’s current success was the classic soul, blues, pop single, Tell Mama. While Etta received much acclaim for this song and it posed her first Top 10 on Billboard since 1964, it was a song Etta NEVER liked and NEVER liked singing. She personally thought the song gave her the association of being “the gal you come to for comfort and easy sex.” Despite Etta’s disdain, the song was greatly admired by artists like Janis Joplin who highly esteemed Etta and later rerecorded the single.
One of the most enigmatic and talented Soul men of all time, Bobby Womack has been a sort of Soul Forrest Gump, serving as a link from 50s Gospel to 60s Soul to 70s Rock and to some of the greatest musicians in each genre. Born in an extremely devout religious family, he was singing Gospel with his brothers Cecil, Friendly, Harry and Curtis as the Womack Brothers while he was still a child. The talented group was discovered by Gospel/Soul legend Sam Cooke, who redubbed them the Valentinos and transformed them into a teenage secular vocal group. By the early 60s they were touring with James Brown and scoring on the R&B charts with their first hit, “Lookin’ For A Love.” Cooke’s death in 1964 sent the group on a spiral from which it would never recover. Also, Womack encountered some public fallout when married Cooke’s widow less than a year later (even more ironic was that brother Cecil ultimately married Cooke’s daughter, Linda, who became his partner in the popular writing/singing group Womack & Womack). (more…)
Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Luther brought his heart felt respect for this time-honored song and his ultimate influence Ms. Dionne Warwick, who originally recorded A House Is Not A Home for her 1964 album, Make Way for Dionne Warwick. As the fate of any great composition, this single has been rotated through the voices of Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and many other icons. However on the flip side, this song has also been “punked” by Twista featuring Kanye West & Jamie Foxx so it hasn’t gone unscathed. But despite it’s musical travel, this song holds an emotional agony that I absolutely love to hear through the riffs, runs and “on the edge of your seat” anticipation of Luther. While I respect the original version from Dionne, the song seems to find “a home” in the expression of the late Luther Vandross.
Here is Luther giving a well deserved tribute to his idol with that wonderful song. Oh and by the way, you new artists and BET, let this be a teachable moment. This is what a real tribute looks like. Those Trey Songz and Tamar Braxton performances you’re passing off as tributes ain’t cutting it. Please take note and properly execute.
Both fitting and ironic that two of our greatest talents were born on the same day. We’re blessed to have experienced their genius and still have them here. Can we live in peace?
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Yeah, we know it’s “Valentine’s Day” but who said we gotta pay Cupid some damn tribute!!!! If you’re one of those lovesick puppies and hopeless romantics looking for your fix on V-Day, we got your fix but it sure as hell ain’t what you think!!! On this day of love, we wanted to send Cupid a special mixtape! A list of songs that really express our deep passion in the subject of amour. So if love has kicked you in the ass, made a complete fool of you, had you crying like Lenny Williams and broadcasted your shame all over Facebook and Twitter, then welcome my friends to our official “F!ck, Cupid,!!” mixtape!! A Valentine’s mix that is sure to have you burning down someone’s car and lighting a cigarette afterward!!!
And Cupid, in case you missed our sentiments, let us say it again……….”F**K YOU!!!” (in my Cee-Lo voice) (more…)
Written by Stevie Wonder/Clarence Paul and Morris Broadnax and definitively recorded by The Queen of Soul this might be one of my favorite recordings from that 1970′s wellspring of Soul known as Atlantic Records. I love the Funk Brothers, Booker T. Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and Al Jackson Jr., and Muscle Shoals backing bands as much as anyone but the folks that show up on some of those Atlantic recording dates like this one… (more…)
In addition to music, I adore fashion! and here’s a conspicuously modish example of young men representing DAPPER to the fullest. Take a look at http://streetetiquette.com/ and their introduction to The Black Ivy.
p.s. If you look close you’ll also see a familiar “Prototype” in the vimeo.
