“Born under a bad sign I been down since I begin to crawl If it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have no luck at all” Music, of course, started to expand and change throughout the Sixties. In fact, at least in America, everything started … Continue reading My Musical Journey in 25 Songs (Part 2)
Do you like good music? Huh, that sweet soul music Just as long as it’s swinging Oh yeah Oh yeah Peter Guralnick is arguably the most important, best writer we have on American roots and soul music. He wrote the two-volume series on Elvis Presley’s … Continue reading Book Review – Sweet Soul Music – Peter Guralnick
Wherein I provide three versions of a song to see how it can be (sometimes radically) reinterpreted …. Even though I wrote a series about Ray Charles at the end of last year, I’d somehow gotten it into my head that Willie Nelson wrote this … Continue reading One Song/Three Versions – Hard Times
Pictured: Aretha singing at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Her hat got about as much press as her performance. Aretha, like her father, was a die-hard Democrat and like a lot of us who were hopelessly naive, saw Obama’s inauguration as the possible beginning of a … Continue reading Aretha Franklin (final of 4) – Amazing Grace
We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It’s our basic human right.” – Aretha Franklin. Otis Redding wrote and released “Respect” in the summer of 1965. It had some level of success (Top Five on Billboard’s Black Singles Chart, and crossed over … Continue reading Aretha Franklin (Part 3) – Respect
Wikipedia: The now-defunct Regal Theater in Chicago was part of the so-called “chitlin circuit,” that “provided commercial and cultural acceptance for African-American musicians, comedians, and other entertainers during the era of racial segregation in the United States (from at least the early 19th century through the 1960s.) Sometime in … Continue reading Aretha Franklin (Part 2) – The Queen of Soul
Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” died on August 16, 2018 at the age of 76. This is her story. If you think know Aretha, you probably don’t. Read on. I think that, to make sense of Aretha – “Ree” to her friends and family … Continue reading Aretha Franklin – (Part 1) The Sacred and the Profane
Music Enthusiast - At the junction of rock, blues, R&B, jazz, pop,and soul 