Showing posts with label 1968. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1968. Show all posts

Thursday, 11 March 2010

musicology #514

Duets2 #4

(Lee Dorsey and Betty Harris – Love Lots of Lovin’)

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Slipping out of Jamaica and back to America with this 1968 piece of New Orleans Soul courtesy of Deep Soul songstress Betty Harris in harmony with Crescent City native and Mod/ernist favourite Lee Dorsey. Produced by a man who has featured many times on themusicologist; Mr New Orleans….Allen Toussaint and released on his and Marshall Sehorn’s Sansu label. I’ll take an educated guess and say that it’s The Meters providing the funk but one thing is for sure and that is the contribution Allen Toussaint made to delivering some of the cream of Crescent City musicology throughout the 60’s and into the 70’s. Respect is always due.

Monday, 4 May 2009

musicology #367

SuchIsLife #1

(Lord Creator - Such Is Life)

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As promised, new theme kicks off today concerning musical wisdom as laid down by various Cats from across the musical spectrum, inspired by today's slice of incredible musicology from Trinidadian singer, songwriter and sufferer,Kentrick Patrick, (A.K.A Lord Creator), who penned this unbelievable 1968 marrow trembler while down on his luck living in a tree!! in Jamaica having found himself 'on the floor' after a career stretching back to the dawn of Ska recording for the likes of Sir Coxsone and more prominently the producer Vincent 'Randy' Chin. In answer to his downturn in fortunes..Creator had this pearl of wisdom to say

"That is in my days of suffereation and alcohol, when I had nothing, when I could not pay rent, when I could not find food for me and my children to eat. While sleeping up in a plum tree with a pregnant woman, I put together a melody, and that is how I recorded the song called, 'Such Is Life'. It was not a hit, it did not get much airplay, but it meant a lot to me"

For me this cut sums up the essence of music's incredible power to communicate emotions..Respect is due to Alan from musical storeroom Honest Jon's who brought me in on this one a few weeks back after a dialogue concerning music and the 'Project'. I am eternally greatful..

"One day you got plenty money yeah...such is life, such is life,
Sometimes you ain't got a penny no, such is life, such is life.....

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

musicology #364

Ideology&Philosophy #5

(The Wailers - The World Is Changing)

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Out of the Tao and into the next phase in the wanderings with a slice of spoken word from a next facilitator of learning on the journey to the self. But as we move out of Classical Antiquity and into the modern world I would just like to add that a few minutes from each of these Cats is nowhere near enough to do such an important subject justice but doors are made to be opened and Philosophy along with music is, for me, a door to knowledge that has resonated loud and clear on the quest for 'meaning'.

The music is yet another slice courtesy of The Wailers but this time it's a later cut, (1968), on Danny Sim's JAD label featuring the hard hitting Peter Tosh on lead with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer harmonising.

today

Monday, 19 January 2009

musicology #290

JamaicanVocalGroupAction #1

(Johnny & The Attractions - Young Wings Can Fly)

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New theme on themusicologist featuring some of the cream of the Island’s musicologists. The music of Jamaica has been a feature of my musical education from my earliest days thanks, especially to two of my uncles, Dell and ‘Johnny One Stop’. Like many a youngblood growing up on the streets of London through the Seventies and Eighties Jamaican music loomed large. Starting in the early Seventies with groups like the Wailers and the Heptones, (both will be featured), and evolving backwards with the inner sanctum of Rocksteady and Roots as the Seventies moved into the Eighties Reggae has always been close to my heart. I learnt a lot about life through the sounds of the Groups, Artists and Producers whose music touched my soul with their authentic cries of ‘the struggle’ for survival and freedom.

Many’s the time I have turned to and found solace in the sounds of Jamaica, from Independence Ska all the way through to ‘Computerised’. So this week is a tribute to a small selection of the Cats who have shaped my life with their ‘weeping and a wailing’

First up is one from the second half of the sixties, released in the UK on Doctor Bird during 1968. Produced by Sonia Pottingers Gayfeet team delivered in a Rock Steady style by a group called Johnny & The Attractions….doesn’t get much better than this as far as I’m concerned.

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

musicology #201

teachings of billionaire YenTzu #11

(Ernest Wilson - Undying Love)

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penultimate cut of the Yen Tzu selection…

Kissing The Scorpion (following your true nature)

‘This will be ideal for my meditations,’ thought a wandering sage, seeking a cave in the wilderness. Upon entering it, however, he noticed the skeletal remains of many human corpses. Unconcerned, he sat down on a rock to rest from his travels.

‘How you answer will seal your fate!’ boomed a voice, and turning the sage saw that before him was a gigantic scorpion, the size of a large man.

‘As your questions have undoubtedly sealed yours,’ replied the sage calmly.

‘What manner of Man are you to be without trace of fear?’ demanded the giant scorpion. ‘For the nature of Man is to be afraid.’

‘Not so,’ answered the sage. ‘For in truth the nature of Man is to be in balance, and such a state comes when he has no fear of what life may confront him with, because he is in love with the true meaning of life. As my thoughts and actions have led me to this place, how can I fear it? To do so is to fear myself, which I do not, for I have only love for the person that I am.’

‘Then you are rare indeed,’ said the scorpion, ‘for the men who have come before you have been escaping from themselves, as one seeks to leave another within a loveless relationship.’

‘You speak as one who has experienced such,’ said the sage intuitively, ‘for your visage is not strong enough to hide the pain, frustration and indeed anger that you exude.’

‘It would seem that truthful perception is yours to command,’ answered the fearsome creature. ‘Because in truth I was as a man once, long ago, until my ruthlessness attracted a demon seeking a disciple. My resistance to it resulted in having my current condition cast upon me. But because what was left of my original nature was able to resist, the demon was compelled to allow my situation a reversal. Though little use it has been. For of all those who have approached my lair these past long years, none have caused the spell to be reversed.’

‘Because no doubt they must answer of their own accord and without direction,’ said the sage. ‘An accord distorted by their fear.’

‘Exactly so! and now you will forgive me if I become impatient to address the riddle I must ask of you!’ said the scorpion. ‘If you refuse to answer, cannot or your answer is wrong, then I thank you in advance for our debate, for afterwards it will be too late.’

‘Proceed as you wish,’ the sage said, ‘for it is of little consequence.’

‘Take heed though,’ advised the scorpion ‘that immediately after I have incanted my words I will be rendered helpless in order to allow you to make your choice. Although you are weaponless, there are many swords around you that are sharp enough to enable even the weakest of arms to slice off my deadly tail. And so:

‘When you embrace the most deadly, you overcome your worst fears;
When you act the least likely, there can be nothing but tears;
When you act from the heart and engage worthy might,
Then to the end from the start, you have held to what’s right;
Your balance to death will be as it is for your life,
To do one over the other, can bring sorrow and strife;
when you act as you do because you are as you be,
You will know if a kiss or a strike is the key.

‘Quickly!’ added the now motionless scorpion looking menacingly into the eyes of the sage. ‘You have the opportunity to strike me.’

‘My answer is as my action,’ said the sage and calmly outstretched his arms and kissed the creature on it’s evil-looking head. Immediately the scorpion was transformed and it was now a man that stood before him. With the spell broken, tears flowed freely down the large man’s cheeks and he fell at the feet of the sage in gratitude. As the sage helped him up, the large man said,

‘You chose correctly, yet why were you so sure, when the nature of a scorpion is to strike when face to face with it’s adversary?’

‘Because deep down you were still a man,’ said the sage, ‘and it is the true-nature of a man to love, not strike. And as the riddle implied, transforming you back into a man is the greatest risk to overcome, because Man can be more deadly than any scorpion. Acting in the least likely way of not seemingly protecting myself could only release your tears. Those tears a man has prior to his transformation and the tears of happiness that follow it. Furthermore because I am in a state of balance I can but only act in a right manner.’

‘I am indeed fortunate to have found such a natural individual to release me from my predicament,’ said the man.

‘Fortune has nothing to do with it,’ replied the sage with finality. ‘It was your own need to return to your true vocation that attracted you to me, and it was my own thoughts to test my own vocation that led me to you. All of us are interdependent of others whether we are aware of it or not. As such, all of us are both teachers and students, appearing as appropriate to one another when each is ready. That is how we can fulfil our true vocation. Learning how to express it effectively requires a state of balance. For only in such a state can we act as our true nature intended.’