musicology #447

NewYork NewYork #6

(Curtis Mayfield – We’re A Winner)

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Monday morning, (and I mean morning !), in the Big A and my mind has been spinning like a whirling dervish trying to make some sense of this thing we call life. Was out all day yesterday and didn’t find the time and space to throw down a cut and today’s my last day so I’m determined to lay a farewell slice of the NewYork pie on the line…was all over Manhattan like a rash yesterday starting in a well known electronic/photographic retail emporium in search of a Lumix GF1 camera after being well and truly bitten by it’s amazing reviews but no dice as they are continually out of stock such is it’s popularity, making the desire to own one even greater. Then a short walk through Hells Kitchen on a mission to find a cupcake shop for Lucy’s friend where we breezed through a flea market. Nothing really took my eye enough for me to put my hand in my ’sky’ other than a small photograph which will serve as a visual reminder. a short walk through Times Square and onto lunch at Cipriani’s in Grand Central where we indulged in their famed Bellini..I’m not used to eating in the afternoon and after a cauliflower soup and a serving of Eggs Benedict I was well and truly stuffed and so we waddled down to the subway to take a ride downtown for a bit of retail therapy..truth was that nothing inspired me enough to buy other than a small gift a piece for Con and Fabes..I need to feel the vibes to shop and yesterday didn’t have that flavour. 4 days hasn’t been enough, I haven’t even begun to speak about what’s in my heart and on my mind. Didn’t sleep much last night and find myself standing on a crossroads..might step out? walking the streets often helps me to find the way.

The cut today has major significence for me as, (according to my dad), it was the tune that he used to rock me to sleep as a babe in arms, many moons have waned since then but my deep appreciation for Curtis continues and will remain until the ‘12th of never’. Recorded live at New York’s ‘Bitter End’ in 1970 regulars on themusicologist may be aware that pieces from the set have already featured here over the years and that not only is it my oldest musical memory but also my most treasured. from the Intro on side 1 right through to the outro on side 2 every recorded moment hangs off the top branch of the musicology tree.

LISTEN TUNE

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musicology #446

NewYork NewYork #5

(9th Wonder feat ??? - New New York)

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Saturday morning in the big A...and the city that never sleeps is snoring like a baby..I have been awake since 5:30 and looking out the window I don't see a soul ! from where i'm plotted (the corner of 56 and Lex) and I'm itching to get out and tread some pavement....
Arrived in Manhattan yesterday afternoon after shooting the breeze all the way from JFK with a driver who hustled the fare between me and some Irish kid..which as it turned out was perfect because we spoke first about cricket, (he is from Trinidad), and then moved onto politricks, a topic I always enjoy. The fare was the same as I would have paid in a yellow so all good..although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. Unlicensed cars are dangerous and should never really be taken especially 'up a foreign'.

Went to see a Bauhaus exhibition at the MoMa which was great due purely to the company I'm keeping on this whistle stop visit. Don't get me wrong I am a big fan of the movement especially the photography and the architecture and it was nice to visit the MoMa but my primary reason for being here is to spend some QT with someone I have deep but as yet unpronounced feelings for..don't worry I'm working up the courage to express myself in person but fear of rejection is the river I have always found hardest to cross but my will to succeed is growing stronger as I absorb my experiences along the way so I am determined to cross by any means neccessary after all what could be worse than drowning in fear?

Anyway, before I wander off into my all too frequent ramblings let's get back to the music. Today's cut is a wicked slice of what I have always known and will continue to call Hip-Hop...shows my age no doubt but I remember the inspirational call to arms when it sounded in the early 80's and I marched right along with it until1985 when something else caught my ear.

Them early cuts hold great memories for me and one day I'm planning on rolling out a selection on themusicologist to pay tribute to cats like Whodini, Grandmaster Flash, Marley Marl, The Soul Sonic Force, Newcleus, The Wrecking Cru, UTFO, Run Dmc etc, ( to name but a few), for pioneering a NEW modernist sound..which along with 'House', (another musical product of the generation I am proud to have been on the vanguard of), have been the two most influential movements of the last 30 years. I look and listen around now and all I see and hear are variations on recurring themes that make me wonder if we have arrived at a point where 'cultural history' is on a loop?

So here without delay is a top ranking cut that is inspiring a rennaisance in the genre for themusicologist..extra BIG shout of love going out to our two children especially Fabian who likes this one. Haven't got all my details here so i'm a bit lost regarding the details...all I do know off the top of my head is that it's a 9th Wonder production and it's absolutely top class that for me has the lot..lyrics, music and delivery.

Listen tune..

musicology #445

NewYork NewYork #4

(Leadbelly – New York City)

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Ranking slice of New York musicology from the man known as Leadbelly. Much speculation as to the origin of the name but my money is on his fellow inmates in ‘Angola’ mispronouncing it. The two others that I like the sound of are his ability to drink hardcore moonshine and the belly full of lead he apparently took from a 12 bore shotgun…

Not sure where I’ll be posting from tomorrow..as I’m landing in JFK around 1pm but I’ll try my best to keep up the flow..

musicology #444

NewYork NewYork #3

(Gil Scott Heron – Madison Avenue)

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Bit late with today’s cut..such is life.
So without further delay hold this piece, (from his 1978 set ‘Secrets’ from Gil Scott Heron, a Cat who speaks.

Of interest, (at least to the football lovers among us), is that his father is the acclaimed footballer Giles Heron..the first Jamaican to play for Celtic in the 1950’s !!

musicology #443

NewYork NewYork #2

(Bob Dylan – Talkin’ New York)

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Highlighted from his first LP. Recorded in late 1961 but released in March 1962. One of only two songs written by him, (the rest being interpretations). This cut describes his feelings on his arrival and subsequent early days in the big apple. Produced by the legendary John Hammond only two months after their first meeting…Didn’t receive much attention in America but went down well over here in England.

musicology #442

NewYork NewYork #1

(Kool G Rap – Streets Of New York)

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This week it’s all about NYC..The Big Apple. Why? because I’m going there on Friday to spend a few days with someone very special who is and has been an inspiration. Words don’t tend to do feelings justice so I’ll leave it at that…regular visitors to themusicologist will know that I have a tendency to wax lyrical and believe me I would like to continue in that tradition but being a dyed in the wool romantic the poetry could run away with me so I’ll do me best to rein it in before I get all 18th Century on yer arse and end up prancing about in velvet suits, curling up my ‘locks’ and spouting Wordsworth and Coleridge poems !!

So to balance that out hold this piece of 21st Century hip-hop from one of New York City’s legendary lyricists, the trail blazing, Kool G Rap .. one of the greatest rappers to have ever graced the M.I.C whose legacy runs deep. Member of Marley Marl’s Juice Crew, (along with MC Shan, Roxanne Shante, Big Daddy Kane and BizMarkie), the Cat has influenced many a BIG name and is highly regarded and respected by those in the know as a progenitor of the style which now dominates. A man whose authenticity regarding street narrative is beyond doubt..one final piece of information..he was born in 1968 which seems to be a significant year for many reasons.

musicology #0441

Fragments #7

(Gil Scott Heron – Inner City Blues)

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“Four vital functions as basic as the four elements: Sexuality, sociality, ideation and glory. Or: pleasure, speech, thought and prestige.
Being deprived of any of the four leads to stupor and death.”

Final piece of the Fragments selection..could have gone on for a while longer but new inspiration is knocking on themusicologist’s door so tomorrow I’m rolling out a new theme…just like to finish the ‘Fragments’ by paying a final tribute to Baudrillard for delivering such profound insights into the age of banality that we find ourselves inhabiting..for me the Cat penetrates some dark corners with illuminating observations.

What better way to wind up this session than with a combination of Marvin Gaye and Gil Scott Heron..I’ll say no more and just leave it up to the two of them to lay it on you.

musicology #440

Fragments #6

(New Power Generation – Guess Who’s Knockin’)

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“The objective is always to pull out the tablecloth without in any way changing the arrangement of the table“

Short but so sweet. Scathing social critique from a master of suspicion.

The cut is courtesy of Prince project The New Power Generation. Featuring lead vocals from original member Tony M. Just like to add that by laying this one down I’m risking the wrath of a certain musician whose name I shall refrain from mentioning because rumour has it that he had it removed from this, the original 1993, set due to an unlicensed sample…so do me a favour and keep it on the ‘DL’.

The connection? .. The set was released in the same year that Baudrillard penned the fragment above.

musicology #439

Fragments #5

(Junior Byles - Fade Away)

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"There is nothing left to protect us from the scene of the real. Nothing left to protect us from the obscenity of the virtual, (of information, transparency etc). We are no longer the actors of the real but the double agents of the virtual"

Baudrillard, (among others), spoke of the 'Hyper - Real'. Which, as I have understood/interpreted it, is the place where reality, (of human contact, emotion, character and such things that used to define being human), is replaced by the virtual, (particularly visual media). Almost everything in the virtual is created, faked or at least edited to present and maintain the illusion of progress..politics and the news are clear examples...both offer but deliver nothing real.

Society is rotten at the core, (maybe it has always been?), and to cover that truth/reality the hyper - real was created to take our 'eye off the game'. Look at the growth in so called social networking, (or to put it another way the network economy), which is clearly the brave new world of the hyper real...

almost everyone I know, (rebels..hold firm), is on facebook..my children included. It seems to be the place where people choose to 'communicate' to their 'friends' and more importantly colleagues on the banality that fills the post modern desert that has been created for and forced on us. Do a search and see for yourself what the champions of the hyper-real are trading in. My guess is that it's value-less mediocrity or in the case of politricks....tomorrow. the day that never comes.

Anyway...enough of the social comentary and on with the musicology...Today's cut is from the enigmatic Junior Byles..well known slice of the Channel 1 pie that has trembled my marrow for at least 25 years...Seems like the right time has come to throw it down.

musicology #438

Fragments #4

(The Stars Of Harmony - Rough & Rocky Road)

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"The advantage of being happy is that one is rid of the question of happiness> The advantage of being free is that one is rid of the question of freedom.

It is at this point that everything begins: when the concepts which existed only as questions appear as answers. It is the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new turning point: how can we rediscover the question behind the answer - how can we rediscover, behind happiness, the idea of happiness?"

The musicology is a piece of rip roaring gospel courtesy of a group that go by the appropriate name of 'The Stars Of Harmony'...enough said.

musicology #437

Fragments #3

(Akon, Feat T-Pain – U Got Me)

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The dialectic of the emotions is like that of the sign and the ascendant. The two may be in conjunction or opposed. The sign alone is not enough: you have to have the ascendant too. It is not enough just to be happy: this has to give you pleasure too. It is not enough just to be unhappy: this has to hurt. Without the aura of pleasure, happiness is sad indeed; without the idea of pleasure, there is mere mammalian enjoyment. But without the aura of suffering, unhappiness is also sad indeed.

There is always a transcendence of pleasure or unpleasure beyond the fact of being happy or unhappy.

The hypocritical accounts which set happiness and unhappiness in opposition miss this subtlety which unites them in a common division – in that reversibility of each which, in the end, constitutes our true happiness. We still have the freedom to use this and abuse it extravagently, and only what takes this freedom from us makes us truly unhappy beings.

The cut today is from a contemporary artist who for me is proof that music continues to transcend and inspire even in this age of banality where e-con-omics has reduced everything, (especially culture), to profit and loss..Of course this artist makes money, (and plenty of it), but the cat still delivers quality. I would imagine that part of this musical ability is his heritage..Akon’s pops is famed Senegalese percussionist and cultural historian Mor Thiam whose surname means “historian” in his native tongue and comes from a family whose members use drums to tell the story of Senegal’s Wolof people..

musicology #436

Fragments #2

(Marvin Gaye – In Our Lifetime)

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“The psychiatrists, analysts and all the psychological and social experts complain that they have to repair the immense damage done, to children in particular, by the social , parental and educational systems. But this human wastage is their stock in trade, whether they be therapists, politicians or social workers and the like. If everything only went well, the social welfare field would disappear, and all these fine people would be laid off. The system feeds, then, on its own misfortune. And every agonizing revision or alternative would involve an even more complicated, even more perverse machination”.

the musicology is courtesy of Marvin with a quality piece of 80’s Boogie from his final Motown set ‘In Our Lifetime’

musicology #435

Fragments #1

(Beres Hammond – Giving Thanks)

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New theme starts this week the title of which is owed to the small book that I have just read and been inspired by, (this theme could run for a while).The author is Jean Baudrillard and what I plan to do is highlight one ‘fragment’ every day and lay it down here. First up;

” History reproducing itself becomes farce. Farce reproducing itself becomes history”

backed up by a random slice of musicology that is not necessarily connected to the quote but has also ’spoken’ to me recently….

On the subject of inspiration I would like to take this opportunity to pay a special tribute to a true friend, (and they don’t grow on trees), whose company I had the PLEASURE of sharing on Friday night and well into Saturday morning who has been a constant source through these troubled times…and I hope will continue to be forever..you bring the sun out..thank you.

The cut is from the magnificent Hugh Beresford Hammond..Jamaican musicologist of the first degree..whose career stretches back into the 70’s and is yet another Jamaican singer and songwriter who deserves far more international exposure than he has received especially when there is so much po(o)p out there these days..anyway, rather than launch into a tirade about the state of the music industry I’ll just let Beres ’speak’