CHOCOLATE MILK / “Action Speaks Louder Than Words”
What’s up, people?! It’s the third anniversary of Breath of Life. It’s taken me this long to notice, but the anniversary of our blog will always fall on Father’s Day; and, it will always fall just a couple months before the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Hopefully, there will be a day sometime soon when ‘Katrina’ will go back to be nothing more than a girl’s name instead of an active and still painful part of the daily vocabulary of everyone from New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast area. On the other hand, I’m happy that we share our anniversary with Father’s Day. And given that BoL is a father/son undertaking, it’s particularly appropriate. As we’ve done the last couple of years, we’re going to pick our favorite tunes from the last 52 week’s worth of posts. Mtume will be picking from Kalamu’s selections and Kalamu will be picking from Mtume’s.
This is some of that good ol’ seventies-era music. Solid music. Funky music. Real music. Music that I grew up on. It’s like solid-wood furniture, hand-written letters and stove-cooked popcorn: one of those things that we all know was better back in the day but for some reason, we barely ever do anymore.
Kalamu originally posted this one as a cover. I’m not sure what it’s a cover of, but it’s damn sure a classic!
February 18th was a hilarious week. Kalamu decided to post his favorite Isley Brothers slow jams. Before seeing his list, I made a list of my own favorites. I thought I was being thorough, but once we got through going back and forth and after a couple of people wrote in to name songs that we both missed, I realized there’s no way to do a short list of best Isley Brothers slow jams. It’s just not doable. Anyway, I could’ve picked any of about ten records for this slot but I decided to go with “You’re Beside Me” for two reasons. One, it’s one of the records I missed and two, it’s sweet instead of lascivious.
—Mtume ya Salaam
Kalamu’s Picks
Artist: Black Uhuru
Song: “Emotional Slaughter”
Album: Chill Out (Island - 1982)
Originally posted September 16th, 2007
Being number two ain’t bad when number one is Bob Marley. While Jimmy Cliff (via The Harder They Come movie) was the first reggae artist in my ear and while Toots & The Maytals, with their Otis Redding vibe, deeply appeals to me, and while Burning Spear remains a reference for my roots reggae preferences, still (other than Bob Marley) it is Black Uhuru I return to mostly. And particularly to the Chill Out album (and its dub sibling). I, of course, was delighted when Mtume decided to feature “Emotional Slaughter.”
Moreover: aren’t the very words “Emotional Slaughter” a poetic image of devastating impact?
* * *
Artist: Aretha Franklin Song: "Daydreaming" Album: Young, Gifted And Black (Atlantic – 1972) Originally posted September 2nd, 2007
This is the “Re” that’s alright with me. All the way. Her most relevant period beyond the blues into the red, black and greens (and if you don’t know what that means, you got a hole in your Black history!).
I refer you to my words when we first posted this cut. “Soft Aretha voice. Aretha’s voice soft reaching into us. Into the softness of us. Touching us softly. Forever.”
This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 12:56 am and is filed under Classic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to “CHOCOLATE MILK / “Action Speaks Louder Than Words””
June 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Can someone please explain to me the last few bars of Franklin’s “Daydreaming?” I understand that it mimics the opening and, therefore, sounds like actual (day)daydreaming, but it’s always sounded quite sudden to me…
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