Nov. 1st,
Well, Gus and I have spoken about doing something around here for a while now. The blog has no archive, and therefore no history available to any newcomers (not that we assume such a proposterous event!!) That said, we decided to celebrate our rich and beloved history by digging back... waaaaaay back - to the very beginning infact. It will take 3 or 4 volumes to catch up, but we will be sharing several mixes taken from the great posts here at the Cult. Once we move onto the next mix, we will archive this and all subsequent mixes for download. I will personally see to it that they remain archived, active and available. Hope everybody enjoys the idea!!
Cult Of Analog: Mixed And Revisited Vol.1 by Poppachubby on Mixcloud
94 comments:
Thanks for the new blog Poppachubby. Starting with two of my favourite albums - White Trash and Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall promises great things to come.
Hey, Poppa! This is a great idea. Many thanks in advance for what's to come. I look forward to reading everyone's comments. Great way to learn.
PK
Thanks for the support guys, it means alot! I hope we can provide some new tunes for you...
glad I found you again! I used to really dig the Krypt. it was a great blog while it lasted. Buddy Bolden, Analog and Chitlin Circuit seem very cool though too!!! looking forward to following...
Anybody who puts Taste in the early rounds of a new site deserves an oft-visited bookmark. And I'm very intrigued by what I've heard so far of Yoke Shire. Thank you for opening a door I never would have found by myself! I will peek in here regularly! You are appreciated. I tip my growler to you and turn up the volume.
Thanks blueneptune for your appreciation and time
Comments keep a blog alive ! I used to be a fanatic d/l and hardly ever left a comment - Then I realised it was all the blog existed for to hear from you guys, me ! To get a response and create a like minded community - So just leave a comment let us know you're here - Nuff Said !
Ahhhhh.... the signs of life!! blueneptune, I never inflate a review as a means of fooling people into downloading something. Although I am usually excited about sharing, when I go to extremes to tell you something is good... it's good!!!! Yoke Shire is a band that every music lover should listen to and at the very least, be aware of.
As for Taste, that is all my co-author Gus' input. Thanks for the motivating comments, combined with a couple others, there is now some fuel in the tank. People don't realise how inspiring comments are - enjoy the music friend.
Hi Poppa, was looking for Mitoo but can not find the champion around anymore. I have such a good time with the arena and found myself blasting it in the kitchen this afternoon - dancing along while preparing a birthday cake. I realy love when he is singing along with the keys. Thanks for the good vibes!
Hello PC . . . have gotten a thing or two from Analog. I almost always relate to your jazz shares. I would have guessed you to be more of my age; in 1977 I was just coming in the fusion door to discover jazz. Stanley Clarke's School Days was one of my first acquisitions. At that time I was living in Austin, Texas going to college and having WAY too much fun! Thanks for your efforts to share good and rare tunes. Music is essential to life . . . mine anyway!!!
Steve I am 35 with a wife and three young kids. I love my family to death and as such I am the world's happiest man. My father is Parisian and immigrated to Canada, where he met my moms. My mother loves opera, musicals, 60's pop and reggae/ska. Now my old man loved jazz, modern rock and of course all the oldies he grew up with.
They used to make me nuts as a kid, but of course I grew into all of their tastes. I have memories of my mom blasting opera on my dads stereo, tears streaming. She took music really seriously.
Anyhow, now I get to torture my kids!!
Great to have nobody and grumpy abroad
Looking forward to some interesting eclectic posts
Nobody is already Somebody in my book for the great Toronto reggae selection. If Grumpy's taste in the music he selects for this blog approaches even half of the excellence he consistently shows in his selections for Buddy Bolden's and the Crypt Redux, I'll be appreciative of whatever he posts. You all are doing yeoman's work in shuffling between blogs.
Hey thanks alot for all the support Feilimid... guys like you give these places a life's breath, and make it something more than just a blog. About as close to a club as a bunch of similar minded people - on all ends of the world - are gonna get. Bravo to you friend!!
Any blog that features the great Rory Gallagher as a member of Taste, Johnny Winter, the underrated Bill Withers, Augustus Pablo, Jackie Mitoo, Valerie Carter and the subdudes deserves the highest praise in my opinion. Much as I love jazz and blues, this blog covers part of the music terrain with which I am most familiar. I first heard the subdudes in the late eighties and nineties when I was living in Texas which isn't a stretch distance-wise from their hometown so I was surprised and thrilled by Guitar Gus' selection from Ebgland. Because of my hometown Boston's large Caribbean population, I have been listening to and buying reggae, rock steady, rockers, and ska since 1972, saw The Harder They Come six times when it ran at midnight at the Welles, and Rockers twice. I was lucky enough to see Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots, Winston Rodney as Burning Spear, Max Romeo and local reggae bands all play in small clubs and venues in Massachusetts in the 1970s. Of course, the highlight was seeing Marley in 1975 and one needed no herb because it rolled like ocean waves from the stage and audience over the crowd. The music, Marley's charisma and spirituality, and the contact high from sitting in the audience made one euphoric for the entire night. As a bonus, a very young Ziggy and his sisters came out on stage and danced to his father's music. This blog covers all the bases for me and makes me yearn for a ginger beer and pattie or a warm Guiness or Jameson on this bleak, cold Maryland day. As I've written on the other blogs, I feel as if I should be paying tuition to reimburse you all for the information and music provided and hard work necessary to maintain these blogs, so the thanks is all mine especially when I consider that so many blogs that I once enjoyed are now gone and merely memories. The best part with this blog is that I seh even better soon come.
Man... Marley huh? Amazing show I bet. Yes Gus' presence here will mean many bands which I wouldn't even know about. I plan on sharing a pile of hip hop, rock and other "obnoxious" music in the more modern realm. I would like to pull in a good cross section of people, but hopefully most will enjoy switchin up genres.
To me, the modern playlist is a glorious and powerful tool which defeats mixed cassettes with ease - although they had a beauty to them. I love nothing more than mixing it all up.
I should also add that I plan to always have something island related active on this page. With "nobody" around, shouldn't be too difficult. I have a nice Jimmy Cliff LP comin up for ya Feilimid...
Hey Feilimid, you check out any of those interviews at the LOC?
I did, thanks. Any Jimmy Cliff, Gregory Isaacs, or Sugar Minott to add to what I have would be welcome and you can take it up to contemporary times with Buju Banton, Lady Saw, and the late Lucky Dube from South Africa and I'll enjoy it if I don't already have it. The FM music of my youth played music as you described. Exuma's Attica would be followed by Bad Company, by Marley and the Wailers, Coltrane, Osibisa, Linda Lewis, Rory Gallagher, Free, Otis Redding, Gil Scott Heron, Donna Summers, and so many others. When they began segregating music into genres and targeted audiences and Disco Sucks signs and stickers started appearing among reactionary white rockers, the heyday ended. Fortunately a couple of stations, including the PBS radio station in Dallas played eclectic mixes well into the late 1990s but I listen to the music stations to which my daughters listen and shake my heads. When my twenty one year informs people that she loves jazz, in particular Ellington and Armstrong, they are astonished and ask her where's she hear their music. I am usually not nostalgic for the old days; they weren't better overall. But in music they were because one acquired a diverse taste and awareness of many genres. Hip-hop is mighty fine if it's good. I'm 58 but I'll listen to Public Enemy and definitely Robert Glasper's jazz hip-hop fusion as easily as I listen to the Last Poets or Scott Heron or those from whom they borrowed from listening to the music of Jamaica in the ethnically rich neighborhoods of New York and other cities but let's give homage to the genre's fathers Big Youth, I-Roy, U-Roy and others recording in Kingston. As for radio and the studios, I wonder if Ray Charles would have studio support to record country now or get airplay for it and know he wouldn't.
Fortunately the music industry hasn't succeeded in destroying blogs and in some countries like Brazil, France, and Russia, the bloggers know no restrictions. I just wonder when the music execs will begin attacking libraries, such as mine from which I ripped Miles David five disc live set and so much other great music. But in the meantime, it's all available if one is persistent and, even with six thousand bought, burned or stored on my computer discs, I need more for my music jones because each new discovery incarnates joy and passion. That's enough rambling for one Saturday morning, I have to return to listening to CocoRosie, Morphine, and Aster Aweke, today's agenda. Thanks so much for York Shire. I enjoyed it but couldn't find any information about them on the 'Net.
Superb Feilimid!! I have a hip hop album with you in mind. Infact I have a couple which are from a UK artist who infuses his sound heavily with dance hall and patoi lyrics. I think you'll love him. He's cut from the real hip hop cloth. A genre which focuses on the art rather than "bitches, ho's and cash". Honestly, how tired is everybody of all that??!!??
I had the distinct privelege of being the perfect age for the golden age of hip hop. It was as much a privelege as a curse, for now my ears are highly scrutinizing. I know exactly how the teens of the 50's felt moving forward. However there is still a contemporary and forward thinking hip hop scene. I will try and bring some of the more premier artists to the Cult, as well as those who laid the precious foundation. A foundation rooted in intelligence as opposed to ignorance.
It was only a couple months ago, I was chatting to a twenty-something at my work about hip hop. He was surprised to find out I was a fan. As I began to engage him in a meaningful discussion, I found out his interpretation of "old school" was Dr. Dre's - The Chronic!!! He had never heard of Eric B. and Rakim!!! Now the tables were turned and I was contemplating how this guy could consider himself a fan.
I think this ties in nicely to my point about modern radio. There are very little mainstream ways to find the "real deal". So kids are left with Lil (insert name) as a representation of what's happening; or even worse, as the core of the music. I should take this opportunity to exclaim that GZA's "Liquid Swords" is being reissued on vinyl come Record Store Day!!!
Peace Out...
Hi guys missed out on this chat - I'm 7/8 hours ahead of y'all ... but only in time ! I'm really not a hip hop fan - Sure I like the rhythmic side (often lifted from past classic funk etc) but often is banal (to me) However there are exceptions , I like US3 on their Blue Note album ... The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was a great record (which I bought on 7" vinyl) - But I'm sure Chubbs - with his jazz/blues educated young mind/ears will challenge any of my prejudices or old-fart ways ! Cheers for now buddies and anyone here
Hi Chubbs, I've got plenty of music - especially reggae, which I've been collecting since the year dot - that falls outside the remit of all our jazz blogs, and could perhaps add a little colour here. If you wanna add me as an author, I'd be only pleased to post the occasional choice morsel.
The rock stuff here is less appealing to me, but great job with the blog so far!
@Feilimid: There are some "Yoke shire" links on youtube.
email me JD... poppachubby1@hotmail.com
Seeing as you ended your comments in patois, mi wan fi tell a yu and all oder contribyeetor-dem, "Much t'anks and praise fi' wot unu mek an di tyiam unu done spen a dyownloadin-sharin unu favorit artist-dem wit' we. Word-dem cyan nebba t'ank all unu enuf but mi hope-seh eben a likkele t'anks better den none, nah tru?. In de meeyantyiam, me always dey lissen fi tru wot eba don pos' in dis 'eeyah blog coz mi seh better always soon come. Dis 'eayah a buosi blog-ting fi try and it prove greyat music no cyahn dead.
Hahaha
My childhood was full of music. My parents both played guitar and I remember my mother singing "house of the rising sun" - my favourite song - whenever I wanted to hear it. She allways told me about jazz music and that Monk was the greatest pianist ever. But she would also give me headphones and play "whole lotta love" for me to enjoy the Rock`n`Roll with the overwhelming stereo effects. I had this little orange mono record player with a loudspeaker in the top that you had to take of to play something. I would sit there and listen to my mother`s 45`s from the fifties. Years later I found them and realized that it was a pretty hip mix including singles by Quincy, Bostic, Blakey or Goodman. Growing older she gave me cornerstone albums like "Bitches Brew", "The shape of Jazz to come" or "Moanin`" for christmas or my birthday. My father would blast Wagner in the living room on sunday mornings and I realy mean "blast". He would fell asleep in his rocker istening to opera the libretto on his knees, headphones screaming and vibrating under some serious soprano voice. Today he has two hearing devices but I still try to be as open minded to all kinds of music as possible and still have the same passionate feelings when I listen to something realy good. Here at the cult I sometimes feel like a little boy digging in a gold mine unearthing wonderful new things and so many great memories. Putting this together takes a lot of dedication and generosity: A group of real people with great knowledge of music, taste and highest spirit. Thank you all for your beautiful work!
Jd, thanks for sharing and I'm thrilled that you felt inspired enough to do so. I grew up with music too, although not quite as hip as you had it. Funny enough, my mother is an opera and musical fan. I have memories of her listening to an opera record, glass of wine in hand with perhaps a tear streaming down her cheek. Of course as a kid I didn't get it, but I grew to respect her love of the music even if it never grew on me. My father was an audiophile and music lover, but he was more into rock and pop of the day. He had a penchant for early rock with Buddy Holly being his favorite.
It all surely helped to shape my tastes and love for music in general. I'm glad you are enjoying the blog, to be honest, I am too!! I didn't know what to expect in terms of response but it turns out I have a great crew of authors, and an equally amazing core of followers. What more can a guy ask for??!!??
We have some really cool stuff planned JD, you know, to keep it interesting. And of course, I think we can always rely on great music being unveiled. Your enthusiasm is truly fuel for the whole gang here, so i sincerely thank you and your kids!!
OK Guys Here's a debate - As I said in one of Chubby's post - Rap/Hip-Hop just doesn't touch me -
Yeah I'm an old geezer But should that matter ? I love music ! Rap seems so cliche I'm astounded by it's vast international popularity - Hardly any That I've heard deviates from the template - One guy raps, another says yeah in unison after a few lines - Musically, it's usually just a studio produced backing track - At it's best ripping off past classic funk/jazz etc ( especially Blue Note ) - So tell me what makes this genre so widespread ? - I know many musos ( mostly from my era admittedly ) and hardly any have a good word for this form of musical expression.
Is it just the words - I need enlightening (apparently) = So here's your soapbox - Nuff Said
Sigh... ok Gus I'll bite. The most important thing to understand hip hop is to know its roots. The music has long since been co-opted by the status quo, and now alot of what you are hearing is simply commercial drivel. "My bitch, my ho, my ho, my bitch"... " Money, money, money, money".... etc, etc.
While this stuff serves its purpose to amuse the small minded, ignorant and club going masses... there is still a strong movement dedicated to the artform. At it's greatest, the MC delivers a message using lyrical wit. Aside from that challenge alone, he must serve the beat and therein lies the skill.
I'm not sure there's anything I can say that's going to "wake you up" to hip hop. However I am quite certain that you haven't heard the real thing as what's being played on the radio these days is simply garbage for the most part. It's really not unlike rock music Gus. Rock was derided as a fad... noise. Look how far rock came as both a commercially viable music and expressive artform. Much like hip hop has done today, rock took over popular culture as a whole.
Today, if someone wanted to understand rock, or hear something relevant - where would they turn?? The radio?? Much like this dilemna, hip hop is in the same boat. It has been grossly commercialized and the music which was once mostly dedicated to an artform is now used to sell products, etc, etc.
As far as sampling goes... what can I say? Samples aren't all bad. In many ways they serve as a musical doorway for many people who otherwise would never hear anything old or rooted. The thing I don't like is that hip hop has a long standing culture of not properly crediting the original artists. The best example of this would be the use of Clyde Stubblefield's "Funky Drummer" break. At best, James Brown is credited but the reality is that Stubblefield came up with that groove. It's probably the most sampled beat ever and for a time in hip ho, EVERYBODY was using it.
Gus, I will be posting some great albums but frankly they are with the hip hop fan in mind. Let me think of something that a newbie may be able to grasp. I have the vantage of knowing everything from the old school up to now.
Thanks for the response Chubbs
I'm not against this genre - It seems to speak for a generation - And you're right people said similar things about rock and especially blues (ie it's boring...it's all the same...it's depressing etc)- I realize you have to have the ears for it but I'll doubt I'll ever be a fan - As I've said previously I'm impressed with your enthusiasm and can't help feeling I'm missing out on something...?...Anyone else have a view ?
Y'know gus, I see your comments in the Liquid Swords post asking if you're an ignoramus. That's a strong sentiment but I do think this - nobody has to like the music, but how can you not respect the artform at this point? I can't take anybody seriously when they start talking about hip hop saying that it has no musical credibility, etc, etc.
To revisit the point about rock... where is rock these days anyhow?? For the most part it's been dilluted and has become horrendously predictable and boring. Sure, there's lots of great bands out there but when you look at the popular charts... it's a joke. Not only that but how much garbage has rock produced over the years? Almost entire decades spent pumping out 80's hair bands or 60's Monkees clones.
I guess what I am saying is that somehow rock has all of this credibility but has commited many crimes against music. Hip hop is a logical extension of several forms, rock included and yet many people refuse to embrace it. Frankly, turntablism is about as modern a musical statement as one can make - a sign of the technological times we live in, but still retains much musical skill to be a practitioner. Leave it to African American urban youth culture to develop a relevant and hip means of expression, they have been showing us how since slaves were brought to this continent. There were no turntables in Congo Square, but I think you get my drift.
In it's purest form, hip hop is one of the greatest artforms going - and still remains relevant. I scoff at those who think what they hear on the radio is representative of the music. I mean honestly gus, how fair an indictment is that? I think what we may be able to accomplish here at the Cult for a guy like yourself, is a look at the artistically greatest hip hop. You may not like it, but perhaps you can gain some appreciation of the art - enough to respect it as such.
Okay, Guitar Gus, I’ll give it a try. But first a couple of caveats, I am expressing my opinions only and my opinion is shaped by my upbringing as an Irish American Catholic in a project in one of Boston’s Irish ghettoized neighborhoods and then a working class suburb, so I don’t expect wide agreement with them. Second, I am not a musician or a historian of music, I’m just as slob who loves music and tries to make sense of why it affects me so deeply. First, let’s agree that music in the United States is by definition the developed and evolved inheritance of the descendants of Europeans, Africans, Asians, and indigenous peoples. However, as reflected in the quartet of blogs of which this is a member and the two adjunct blogs, Africans, their descendents, and their music traditions have had a hugely disproportionate impact on music in this country. Absent the musical genius and genesis of Africa, there is no modern American music. As an aside, the other ethnicities that have had a hugely disproportionate influence are the Scots-Irish and the Irish. Bluegrass, country, and folk reflect that influence and, to a lesser extent, the influence of the larger British Isles.
I doubt you will agree with my next point but music in this country is inherently political and often an expression of protest. In the spirituals and gospel songs of the African diaspora, metaphors from the Torah are used to express the struggle for freedom. Go Down Moses and so many other early songs used the metaphor of exodus and the freedom of the Israelites from slavery as covert code to communicate hope and eventual victory against oppression. The blues that you love is replete with coded idioms reflecting struggle, oppression, and a desire for freedom. Jazz was loathed by the National alleged-Socialists in Germany because they recognized in what they perceived as its discordance and cacophony the irony of synthesis and rebellion against classical European music and use of instruments by what they deemed an inferior race. For that matter, Bob Marley named one of his albums Exodus and he and other Caribbean- Africans frequently used biblical metaphors to express their vision for freedom and advancement. I am not religious in any way, but I will be the first to tell you that the music of the diaspora is overtly spiritual and especially powerful because of it.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, youth in this country have always seized upon the rebelliousness of new genres to express their uniqueness, discontent, and urge to be separate from the staid views of the elders. During the mid-twentieth century a mass exodus of African Americans from the rural south to the urban centers of the north occurred. Many were seeing better economic opportunities in the North and wanted to escape Jim Crow and the overt racism of the south. However, as with any migration, there is a sense of being uprooted and estranged from one’s roots and the North was less overtly codified in law, but not necessarily less racist than the South. At the same time the changes in the fifties and sixties promised hope for change that was extinguished by the reactionary governments of Reagan in the 1980s in the same way that Thatcher’s government constituted reaction against the liberalism and social unrest of the 1960s and early 1970s in your country. From such political regression and stagnation in Britain rose the Clash, the Sex Pistol, and other bands to protest the Iron Lady’s anti-social social vision.
Continued:
Whether consciously or subconsciously, youth in this country have always seized upon the rebelliousness of new genres to express their uniqueness, discontent, and urge to be separate from the staid views of the elders. During the mid-twentieth century a mass exodus of African Americans from the rural south to the urban centers of the north occurred. Many were seeing better economic opportunities in the North and wanted to escape Jim Crow and the overt racism of the south. However, as with any migration, there is a sense of being uprooted and estranged from one’s roots and the North was less overtly codified in law, but not necessarily less racist than the South. At the same time the changes in the fifties and sixties promised hope for change that was extinguished by the reactionary governments of Reagan in the 1980s in the same way that Thatcher’s government constituted reaction against the liberalism and social unrest of the 1960s and early 1970s in your country. From such political regression and stagnation in Britain rose the Clash, the Sex Pistol, and other bands to protest the Iron Lady’s anti-social social vision.
In this country whites and a smaller percentage of blacks of means emigrated to the suburbs and the urban centers became newly, and sometimes more, segregated and impoverished as industries also relocated to the suburbs. One can see in the television dramas of this country the depiction of cities as drug-infested centers of poverty and crime with populations largely comprised of minorities, a term I loathe in a country in which no group forms a majority. One can also see on our news and television shows the stereotyping of young black males as anti-social and innately criminal. What does this have to do with hip hop? It would be ludicrous to believe that the youth living in a re-segregated urban environment were oblivious to what was occurring and would remain silent. The influence of the black church had eroded as had the influence of organized religion in the country at large and many African American communities, especially in smaller cities like Boston, were proximate to wealthy neighborhoods. As noted above, white youth expressed their dissatisfaction with social torpor and stagnation through punk. In New York, the Caribbean neighborhoods were adjacent to the African American neighborhoods. Moreover, musicians like Gil Scott Heron had at least one parent from the Caribbean. Hearing the protest expressed through the music and rhythms of I-Roy, Big Youth, and others vernacular poet-musicians, African American youth in New York borrowed some features and New York created hip-hip initially at house parties, and then on the streets. Through it, they articulated their despair and anger at economic oppression, and systemic racism, and embraced pan-Africanism, a resurgence in the philosophies of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael), and other outspoken critics of this society and culture, and an awareness that the continent of Africa had been home to great civilizations which overtly contradicted traditional education’s depiction of African societies as primitive and undeveloped. Coincidentally, American Indian musicians like John Trudell were also borrowing from different genres to express protests against traditional depictions of indigenous societies in this country. It’s no accident that the classics of early hip hop were songs such as Grandmaster Flash’s The Message and Public Enemy’s Fight The Power.
Continued: Before I continue this rambling response, let me address a couple of issues that I have with hip hop for my admiration is tempered and I don’t like all of it. However, we first need to admit that all music produced by African Americans in this country has been derided as primitive, jungle music, and overtly sexual whether we are talking about jazz or hip-hop. I have considerable problems with the misogyny, homophobia, and overt materialism in much of hop-hop but rock, punk, and other genres exhibit the same prejudices and perspectives. Moreover, we live at a time when a nearly decrepit Steven Tyler of Aerosmith is still proclaiming sexism and misogyny through his music and an elderly Mick Jagger’s laments about being a beast of burden and craving brown sugar border on parody. Reggae, too, reflects paternalism, sexism, and misogyny but then again there are Judy Mowatt and Lady Saw, and others to challenge it. Likewise, hip hop had Queen Latifah and others who rebutted and refuted the overtly male perspective of the genre just as Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie sang protests against the misogyny of much blues and conveyed their own sexuality and desires in different metaphors.
The reality is that all music genres are comprised of over commercialized crap. As Waylon Jennings piquantly noted more than two decades ago, “Do you think Hank done it this way? “ No, Hank didn’t but the current over-commercialized crap that passes for country on our airwaves doesn’t diminish Hank Williams’ or Woody Guthrie’s contribution and genius. On public television here a special hosted by Peter Noone pays homage to Freddie and The Dreamers and Herman Hermits so out of shape sops in their late fifties like me can relive the freedom of their youth and wax nostalgically for a simpler, better time that existed largely in their minds. There is a lot of punk, new wave, rock, and other genres that is mediocre, banal, and boring but we overlook it if we like the genre and remember the greats.
My second problem with some hip-hop is that I despise the “N” word. I concede that making “bad ‘ an adjective to describe good or great is part of a linguistic tradition in some communities but I am old enough to remember Selma, Little Rock, Mississippi, the eastern shore of the state in which I now live, and the urban riots in Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities. I don’t care how hip hop artists rationalize that the word is spelled differently or not used in the same way. Violence, such as lynching, against African Americans and the racism directed toward our current president have all been predicated on regarding descendants of the diaspora as inferior and not entitled to the same human rights as the descendants of Europeans in this country, and the “N” word has been used to covey that perception of inferiority and justify oppressions and violence. My ancestors were labeled as white “Ni**ers” and Micks when they arrived here impoverished, uneducated, starving, and unwelcome, and , and sadly too many have forgotten their history or ignored it to assimilate to whiteness, a political construct conferring power, rather than a skin color, in this country. A Jamaican coworker and friend informed me that she and other West Indians had been called “black paddies” in England. The path to assimilation in this country for the Irish, and southern and eastern Europeans was predicated in part on accepting U.S. racial mores and incorporating that word into their vocabulary.
Continued: One of the worst aspects of the new spelling of the word which supposedly confers hip-hop ownership and distinguishes it from the word I loathe is that it is identical to the spelling used by some uneducated, racist graffiti artists in my home city where we routinely drop our ‘r’s at the end of words. Such graffiti was in full display during Boston’s busing crisis in which poor whites and poor blacks were bused to each others schools while the wealthier urban neighborhoods and suburbs were exempt. But it is easier for many to blame and hate than it is to acknowledge that we are all dogs fighting for scraps off the table. Much as I enjoy Wu Tang and other groups, at age 58, I will always detest that word. Too many of my friends and coworkers who are my age attended segregated schools and facilities, even here in our nations capital, and that word was used to encapsulate the racists’ ideology and poisoned views that “justified” such discrimination and racism. Our current president, a moderate conservative, has had more death threats directed towards him than any other other president in our country’s history and that word is frequently used to denigrate the achievements of a man who is Harvard-educated, a constitutional law professor, and clearly more intelligent and articulate than many of us. Racism is more subtle and systemic here and the days of Jim Crow are past, but there is an ongoing effort to suppress voting rights and deprive people of hard-fought gains in having a voice in this country. As long as the state of the racial “union” remains what it is, I don’t care what Jay-Z or anyone else say to try to justify the use of the word. I respect that he has aright to his views and recognized that the word has been used as an epithet in the African American communities here since the days of slavery but I wonder how his grandparents or great-grandparents would react. Enough said….
Continued: My reservations notwithstanding, to me, hip-hop at its best expresses our history and present from the perspective of our disenfranchise youth, their rage and discontent, love and passion, and the need to free Africans, African Americans and other members of the diaspora from the distortions of racist histories of the past and assumptions of inferiority and inherent inequality in the present. It expresses hope that consciousness can liberate and knowledge of history can effect change for a more equal and better society. It demands respect and awareness. I am probably wrong in my characterization and these are clearly my own opinions but I believe that my characterization of hip-hop is what made it so compelling to my best friend from Kenya, to Algerian youth in France, and
youth elsewhere. The compelling and entrancing beat of house music from Chicago has
influenced kwaito in South Africa, jazz and other genres in this country, and music elsewhere. The great Chuck Brown blended it with funk, rhythm and blues, and Latin rhythms to create go-go here in the nation’s capital. In effect, he created dance hall music that relied on call and response as much as other African-based music traditions.
Above all, hip hop is our version of dub and street poetry and reflects a continuation of and development of the traditions adhered to by the Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, and other spoken word artists. It is expressed in Kreyol in Haiti, in Spanish in this country and elsewhere, in Portuguese in Brazil, and many other languages because it serves as a mesmerizing voice of protest and hope. Like all new genres, it is misunderstood and attacked. In my view it garners the same opprobrium that rai in Algeria and Rastafarian-influence reggae in Jamaica did for largely the same reasons. I don’t expect everyone will like hip hop but I am weary of hearing the canards that I addressed above because those same bigoted or reactionary canards and criticisms that have been levied against rock, reggae, and new genres adopted by youth seeking a new voice in which to express itself and announce its presence and desire to respected as a force for change. Moreover, many of the criticisms have been most often cited as critiques of all genres of African American music in this country. Jazz was chaotic and unstructured, blues was the devil’s music, rock and roll lead to our moral decline, and so on.
When I lived in Texas, I learned to love the alternative country of Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, and others after loving the music of Nanci Griffith in Boston. To some friends in New England, my enjoyment of that music is incomprehensible. For that matter, my love of traditional Irish music and music in other languages, even those I don’t speak are equally incomprehensible to many of my friends. Similarly, one of my daughter’s friends, a native Marylander and so by definition a Southerner, recently told me that he doesn’t like the blues and loves country. He was shocked when I told him that country was white southern blues, and had much in common with and borrowed from African American traditions as country blues borrowed from it. I recommended that he listen to Ray Charles’ country album, an album about which he was unaware. Conversely, a black coworker once informed me that “our people don’t like country”.
I responded that she needed to tell that to many of my African American friends in Texas to whom country spoke as directly as did the blues. Likewise, I recommend to anyone to listen to the best of hip-hop, not the commercial mass-produced crap that is prevalent on the airways and is often clichéd, before deciding what he or she thinks about it
Continued: I’ve rambled long enough and probably not achieved my point in writing but I approach all music with an open mind so, while many of my friends lament the state of modern music, by which they usually mean white rock, in this country I’m enjoying Bon Ivers, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, and other contemporary bands. One’s taste in music inherently subjective so I never tell anyone that they are wrong but I do ask that they listen to the best of any genre before dismissing it out of hand. I was lucky to grow up in a city comprised of distinct ethnic neighborhoods, dominated by the Irish passion for politics, and containing or near to a huge number of colleges and universities so I discovered reggae and African music in the late sixties and early seventies, grew up on folk, jazz, country, Irish music, and pop at home, and listened, for example, to Exuma the Obeah Man as readily as I listened to Creedence Clearwater. Moreover, Boston was a working class city and blues and soul were as popular and influential then and now as rock was and is. I decided early on that I would never grow so old that I shut my ears to change and variation in music and dismissed any genre outright. Such open-mindedness is obviously costly when one wants a decent record collection, in no small part, because much of what one likes doesn’t receive airplay so one has to buy it. I was also fortunate that Boston had Pall’s Mall and the Jazz workshop and they let one sit through multiple sets so I was able to sit through three sets of Miles Davis in 1974 and multiple sets of other jazz greats, such as Sonny Stitt.
We have previously discussed ad nauseum the sad state of today’s musically segregated radio. No matter what one likes, listening exclusively to it overloads one with a great deal of banal filler music in any given genre. It’s a sad state of affairs that deprives young people like my daughters and their friends of the ability to listen to and hear the differences and similarities in multiple genres. Worse, for hip hop, the same fascination with crime that compelled people to watch The Godfather trilogy and be fascinated by the stories of Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and in my own city the notorious informer Whitey Bulger manifests itself in gangsta hip hop. But when one watches crime drama after crime drama and simulated murder after murder for entertainment on U. S. television, to denounce gangsta hip hop for glorifying violence and antisocial values is at a minimum hypocritical. I can’t even enumerate how many American Indians were killed in the westerns of my youth. To quote Peter Tosh, you can’t blame the youth and hip hop embodies all aspects, positive and negative, of our culture as does any other popular genre.
Continued: I’ll close with my own bigoted observations. Although Aerosmith hails from my own home region and a neighboring state, I think Walk This Way was a much better song for Run DMC’s contribution. Hip hop is vital and still growing; it is a young genre. I have heard my share of bad or, at best, mediocre rock, soul, rhythm and blues, disco, reggae, Irish music, pop, and jazz to know that once the recording industry recognizes the popularity of and the profit potential in marketing a genre it, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery and doesn’t produce quality but it is used to capitalize on a phenomenon. For that matter, how many movie or television spinoffs are worthwhile? To me, the key is to have discerning taste in all of the music (books, or movies) that one likes and avoid generalizations. However, the best of hip hop as a means of expressing protest and dissatisfaction with the status quo and deep passion is equal to any other music I have heard. I’m much more long-winded than Poppachubby and I’d just as soon not discuss the issue of hip hop because everyone has and is entitled to their opinions. I have tried to express mine with some coherency and context, Guitar Gus, and defer to you to judge the result.
I've expounded long enough here and no doubt have been redundant so I think I will refrain from commenting on new posts for a while; however, I want to try to respond and explain to you why one resident of the U.S. enjoys and finds intriguing a genre that developed in this country. My own failed Notes Of A Native Son, so to speak. Thanks for indulging me.
Well many thanks FOB - That must have exhausted you ( the typing alone !) Bravo ! I started this debate hoping to get responses and you and Chubbs have truly taken up the gauntlet and shown great passion and persuasion - I am deeply aware of the past/present history of 'minorities' in the USA and that came from my love of black music which in turn led to my interest and hatred of prejudices
It existed everywhere in my youth but I'm glad to say it is slowly but surely eroding - I myself have a United Nations of friends ( yes even Irish my friend !) and enjoy other cultures and attitudes - ( with the exception of religious bigots !)
But the point was Rap/Hip Hop - I realize there are good and bad in all genres and it's very subjective - I'm no expert so I can't knock it all but in general it doesn't move me - I'm a musician and I look for interesting players preferably in bands and I rarely hear a rap record that interests me musically .... Chubbs has vowed to put this right and will post music that will challenge my crticisms/ignorance/reluctances - So this may prove very interesting
Thanks again FOB - Please don't stop commenting ( we can go back to just enjoying good music 1) I/We truly appreciate your intelligent viewpoint and opinions - Have a cold draught Guinness on me ! ( I know you like it room temp but I like it cold !) Cheers
Check out Robert Glasper's music and see what you think about the ability of the music to move you. I assumed most folks are aware of the history in this country but wanted to emphasize that hip-hop represents rebellion against a particular time in which the aspirations and hopes for change in the sixties were discarded for reactionary individualism and overt materialism, and a new music medium was needed to convey renewed discontent, frustration, and rage about the state of the union. Notwithstanding hip hop is directly related to other music genres, such as R & B, soul, and jazz, that preceded it and routinely samples from those genres. What I tried unsuccessfully to highlight was the continuum in musical traditions here.
If you like Grandmaster Flash's The Message, then you're not as blase about hip hop as you think. It's a question of searching for the quality stuff as it is any music. But I also recall that many musicians also dismissed punk but the Nuns, the Pogues, the Clash, and other groups are well worth listening to. I was initially lukewarm about punk but listened to it until I developed an appreciation for what the musicians and lyricists were trying to convey.
At this point, I'll trust Poppachubby to truly draw your interest to hip-hop; however, I think the difference between us is that the message is just as important to me as the music. I can only listen to so many songs about relationships gone bad and am inherently political so I listen to folk, Irish music, punk, reggae and all of its variants, blues, jazz, and other genres used to express protest and aspiration for change, along with other human emotions.
I should have better articulated that my background and ethnicity are only significant in this regard: as someone who grew up in a poor neighborhood in the city and was six when the first president of my ethnicity and religious upbringing was elected despite the virulent bigotry of a significant part of the population, especially in the South, I find that hip hop speaks to me. I was also raised with Irish songs of rebellion and protest at home. As an aside, my father served in and loved England so we always separated the government from the people and the present from the past. Consequently, I'll top a Guinness or Bass with you anytime. Still the history in Ireland was critical because it prepared my people well for what they initially encountered here, especially in Yankee-dominated Boston. In truth, my older people did not feel that they were accepted as equal citizens of this country prior to Kennedy's election. Al Smith's defeat in 1928, the year my father was born, was demoralizing and conveyed that they were regarded as different and threatening to WASP values. So I understand the particular excitement, distinct from my own excitement, among my African American friends after the presidential election in 2008 because many of us never thought we would see the day when an African-American could be elected to the highest office, just as prior to 1960, my people never thought they would see an Irish Catholic elected. Now all bets are off and my daughters will no doubt have opportunity to vote for and witness the election of a female president.
But to me, the historical context is crucial to understanding hip hop's role. After the assassination of any leader who spoke across class, ethnic, and racial lines during my teenage years, the struggle for equality and human rights was willfully impeded in this country and code language such as law and order was used to justify more reactionary authoritarian government in our major cities that oppressed their increasingly African American populations under the guise of "law and order". I'm not sure people living outside of this country can viscerally understand the loss of hope that followed Dr. Martin Luther King's and Robert Kennedy's assassinations, the almost immediate dying of the hope for progressive change and a country that no longer defined its citizens by their race, ethnicity, or religion. Don't get me wrong, you can intellectually appreciate it and empathize but I wouldn't pretend to understand the impact of IRA bombings in London in the same way that an English citizen does. So hip hop began by giving voice to the disenfranchised and disheartened in an era in which a progressive unifying vision was replaced by Nixon's began neglect and worse approaches to racial and class inequality after Reagan's election in 1980.
I think the important part for you as musician may be that hip hop began and continues in large part as spoken street poetry so the emphasis is on the lyrics and, if you will, the message more than the music. However, Wu Tang and other quality groups have also been exploring other genres and incorporating them in the music. The use of sampling has also been intriguing. Conversely Glasper and other young jazz artists have been incorporating hip hop in their music. I have no doubt that were he alive, Miles Davis would do the same given that he incorporated funk and rock rhythms in his music beginning in the late sixties.
I'll leave the heavy lifting to Poppachubby on this one. I tried and obviously didn't succeed but it didn't exhaust me. I wrote like I think so it just flows. Maybe FOB means full of bull after all.
Hi Everyone
Another topic that could do with an airing - What format do you guys want your d/ls in...? MP3 lossless or both ? I seem to get far more MP3 d/ls than lossless - So I'm wondering is it worth offering the larger lossless d/ls ? Your views would be appreciated ...
FOB send me an Email with your email address to GuitarGus@outlook.com so I can advise re music books
I convert lossless to MP3 to save space on my hard drives so either format is fine by me but I know many prefer lossless and conversion doesn't require much effort or time so if only one format is to be offered because folks want the additional quality, it most likely should be lossless.
I convert lossless to MP3 to save space on my hard drives so either format is fine by me but I know many prefer lossless and conversion doesn't require much effort or time so if only one format is to be offered because folks want the additional quality, it most likely should be lossless.
FLAC versus mp3 is a heated debate on virtually every forum or group I've been on. My own view is that unless you have 'golden ears' and/or a top of the range hifi set up you are unlikely to be able to distinguish between the two options consistently. 320 mp3 is always to be preferred however.
I know I am a little late on the topic but I realy liked rap music from the first day. "Raper`s delight" was a hammer and I remember me and my cousins freestyling in the living room like crazy blasting the gang. Grafitis, new dance styles, a complete street culture came up. Ultramagnetic Mc`s - ooooooh. I never realy followed it over the years but suddenly held "Back on the Block" in my hands. Quincy laying it down with Ice T, Kool Moe Dee and Big Daddy Kane, teaming them with Dizzy and Moody - unbelievable! What an album! And the few rap bars made it clear to me that Hip Hop was so there and like any other commercialy succesful art form it looked cheap every now and then. But I can have a good time with The Wu, 2Pac, Biggie, Eazy E, Chuck D, Scarface, Jeru, Bun B and so many others and it is still a growing field. Off course you have to be able to identify with the MC to like it. The samples alone don`t do it. It is all about the word. Word up! Thanks!
320 is fine for most things, although I've noticed that some big band music, like Supersax, sounds much better as lossless. Perhaps the dynamic range is just too much for lossy formats? I usually grab the lossless as if I'm going to the trouble to have it, why would I want anything else?
The formats on this blog are such a delight, - please do not change anything! Thanks!
I Know this might not be the right place for a video link but this is worshiping the analog times so much - I love it and I think it will make quite a few people here laugh out loud so I can`t hold back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI0rzXNEt5k
If you have a few minutes it is realy funny! And not because it is jazz and Konitz is playing with Parker - it is a deep analog statement.
And of course it is about sharing music!
Nice one G Man - Lee eventually got to show some pretty decent alto blowing after all those laughs !
Chubbs I think I'm gonna like Ozric Tentacles
So post soon please
Thanks for your enthusiasm and TIME ! With a family and all wanting Dad it's great that you supply so many goodies to us greedy d/ls
Cheers Buddy !
The Ozzie's are some pretty hip shit Gus, so cheers to you! I will line something up, in the meantime read up on them, wildly interesting.
BTW Gus, can you take over the Johnny Winter project? I had Second Winter ripped and then deleted it by accident. I think I would rather focus elsewhere for now, and I can't think of anyone more qualifuied than you.
OK Chubbs Will do in near future
Cheers
F O B - Hope all is well after all your troubles
Let us know the state of play !
Cheers
Heard from FOB - Looks like he's on the mend
Well done - You've been missed !
Great Chicago blues album here. I never heard of this guy. I don't agree with the review as only "decent".
http://dirtyfunky.blogspot.com/2013/07/not-to-be-missed-for-blues-lovers-john.html
Thanks for sharing deGallo!! Been on a "blogcation", but I am back!!
Welcome back, PC.
Glad to see the resurrection.
Good to have you hack bro...
I was starting to feel like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel ... and we all know how that ended
Let's get funky !....
Thanks for the love fellas... funky indeed Gus!!
So happy you are back on my favourite blog big Poppa!
Nice Chubbs !
To have the option to play or not to play ! I appreciate your selections as it educates me to new sounds even if I don't dig it (which is rare !)
Cheers again for your enthusiasm and eclectic taste ( just like me - but younger !)
Poppa...how can i contribute here?? I think i might have some albums left to post!
Wow, cool you stepped up here peer57! Sounds realy interesting!
thanks, G Man...do i know you from my blogs??
I konw your posts from the lair! I tried "Dutch Jazz" but I think what I saw was just the starting page. Is there more to check out?
C'mon guys ...give us some more feedback...You have some great posters and music here ... All we ask is a few comments in return ... And it costs nothing ! Cheers to y'all anyway
Chubbs is back ! So give us some comments guys ! I know it's a drag sometimes 'cause I do it myself at many blogs - But it's only a few moments in time and you become part of a community linked by sounds - Don't be shy (like I used to be) Say something even if it;s a knock - That's cool too !
My thanks too to peer
A music fanatic like us all with a wide eclectic taste in all things creative
Cheers Buddy
@G Man........the real address is dutchjazzz.blogspot.com (with 3x z) but it's a private blog...If you like to join, please send me a mail: peer57@live.nl
Guys - This is becoming a fun place to visit - Just need a bit more comments from our visitors = Hint! Hint!
Gus you're a trooper y'know that?? Love ya brother.
The new player is so cool! Thanks Poppa!
Love the discriminating playlist.
(An admission and an order!)
Lazz you are a mf - But I love you too ! Music unites the world on all levels - So continue to sing your heart out !
BTW - Love you to Chubbs !
BTW again ! Visit my personal blog as I intend to post music that I had some input as a player etc here :
http://guitargus-eclecticsoundz.blogspot.co.uk/
Glad everybody is enjoying the mix. there will be many more to come. Gus!!
poppa, i just LOVVVVVVVE this Gene Shaw album...Where can i download it? Or would you be so kind to pos it over at The Leftovers??
thanks in advance!
Yeah like the mix Chubbs - I have some of these tracks but like peer would appreciate a copy - Did you compile?
The tracks come from his three albums, I picked and mixed them personally. I can put something together for you guys to download...
That said, grumpy should have two albums and I think the third is still at Orgy In Rhythm.
Yeah the Carnival Sketches album is still available at OIR blog - The only one I didn't have - A beautiful record indeed ! Cheers Chubbs
Love the idea of archiving the Cult mixes.
Personally chosen and programmed mixes are so special and ...... personal.
Pleasure treasure.
Thanks.
Hi guys ... visit : http://guitargus-eclecticsoundz.blogspot.co.uk/
to see what I was up to musically in my past ...a continulling story ...
Chubbs has agreed to feature some of his past musical appearances here and I hope Lazz will also appear here in some unreleased recordings soon
No comments since my last...? OK.. Happy New Year to all ...Great to have the peerless peer57 here...and KC & LAZZ...making some nice sounds...but where are Chubbs...JD...JJ...grumpy...?... (I know...!)... planning their next great (nostalgic...?) post here... C'mon guys...we need you !...Nuff Said...for now...?
.....And I think we need a Chat Box here too ! ...Most of us chat at 'Chitlins' but it is often off-line so we need an extra option...We can also put on our 'eclectic hats'... to discuss our subjective views about the music posted here... Do I hear a 'Right On !'
I will get the Chat Box hooked up bruh. I haven't had the motivation for blogging over the past while. I keep trying to work up the steam but I am so crazy busy between work and home. The funny part is I have a huge pile of sides to share... it will happen soon. Love ya Gus keep up the enthusiasm. This blog thing works as long as ALL of us don't drop out at any given time. Looks like you're the carrier of the ring for now, Frodo.
'Right On !'
Sorry for being a little late on the topic but: "Right On!".
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