Here's a Saturday morning treat for y'all! Forty minutes of fierce and funky R&B from the Queen of New Orleans Deep Soul. These songs are raw and heartfelt and Betty's incredible voice are perfectly complimented by Allen Toussaint's gritty production.
Tracklist:
01 Ride Your Pony
02 Show It
03 What A Sad Feeling
04 Take Care Of Your Love
05 I'm Gonna Git Ya
06 Nearer To You
07 What'd I Do Wrong
08 Trouble With My Lover
09 Twelve Red Roses
10 I'm Evil Tonight
11 Cry To Me
12 I'll Be A Liar
13 There's A Break In The Road
14 All I Want Is You
15 I Can't Last Much Longer
16 Mean Man
This is a really classy collection of hot electro-funk tunes from 1984. Should bring back some sweet memories for all you folks old enough to remember Afrika Bambaataa, polyester tracksuits and body popping.
This music sounds so fresh, futuristic and progressive its easy to forget that these tracks were produced in some of America's most impoverished ghettos - the Bronx, Detroit, Washington D.C. - at a time when the Reagan's brutal individualism and predatory capitalism were deepening the divisions between communities and between the haves and have-nots. Fortunately, people find ways to express themselves even in the most desperate of times and this music is a testament to that; as Twilight 22 put it:
Huh, deep in the city people live in the streets You got to be careful of everyone you meet There’s lootin and shootin’, people stabbin’ and grabbin’ The innocent bystander the police are grabbin’
Ain’t it a pity ‘cause you hate the city But the way you feel ain’t no big deal You’ve got to survive and that the real nitty gritty You go uptown, downtown, you’ve got to turn your life around (Huh)
Back in the jungle a man is free Free from the street, from captivity Break out, break in, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been Snake pit, lion’s den, you need someone to be your friend
My first exposure to this stuff came when I was a schoolboy in 1984 when Channel 4 (I think) showed this fabulous documentary:
Tracklist:
01 Tyrone - Brunson The Smurf 02 Warp 9 - Light Years Away 03 Warp 9 - Nunk (New Wave Funk) 04 Man Parrish - Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop) 05 Herbie Hancock - Rockit 06 Twilight 22 - Electric Kingdom 07 Cybotron - Clear 08 Hashim - Al-Naafiysh (The Soul) 09 Captain Rock - Return Of Captain Rock 10 Time Zone - Wild Style
It's strange how elastic time has become, or maybe has always been. I've been posting here at Snap, Crackle and Pop for just over three years now so I thought it was HIGH TIME for a little mix - around my musical world in 75 minutes or so.
Here is the tracklist, and you'll find that clicking on the artist's name will take you to the original post. Handy eh?
The music is, of course, for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear then go out and try and buy stuff...or something, give money to a down on his luck musician, or sponsor a good busker, it may be the start of something beautiful.
If any of the zips die, then post a comment and i'll try to repost. And leave comments, abuse, name calling, any response is welcome.
I think all of the albums posted are currently unavailable, but if this is not the case we'll remove the offending files.
