So, You Think Your Soul Can Float?

Photo taken in Barcelona of the Gaudi project.

So, You Think Your Soul Can Float? Track Listing:

    1.    Donny Hathaway:  GIVING UP - This single reached #81 on the US pop charts in 1972, seven years before Mr. Hathaway was found dead outside his home at the Essex House in NYC - which they ruled a suicide.  Hathaway was said to have taken up to 14 pills a day to counter his schizophrenia.
    2.    Marvin Gaye:  INNER CITY BLUES (MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER) - Off his monumental album, What's Going On, from 1971.  Gaye was a part of the group The Moonglows, and was also a session drummer.  Two of his drum tracks can be heard on the #1 singles 'Please Mr. Postman' by The Marvelettes, and Stevie Wonder's live version of 'Fingertips Pt.2'.  Gaye added the 'e' to the end of his last name to separate himself from his father, and taboo-ridden questions of his sexual orientation, and to pay homage to his idol Sam Cooke who did the same.  Ironically, Mr. Gaye died at the hands of his father 4 months after giving him a gun as a present.  Gaye had moved in with his parents after suffering bouts with depression.  Gaye intervened in an argument between his mother and father over business documents, and his father accidentally shot and killed him a day before his birthday on April 1, 1984. 
    3.    Soul Children:  I'LL BE THE OTHER WOMAN - Stax Records artists formed by Norman West, with J. Blackfoot, Anita Louis, and Shelbra Bennett.   This track has some of the most confessional lyrics I've heard about being the mistress in a relationship.  The lines, 'I'll be your part time love, but that's as far as I go/To be your part time fool, would be stooping a little too low/Loving a married man, this I really don't mind/But a married Cassanova, is a little out of my line,' are just so amazing to me.  I don't know, what do you think?
    4.    The Beatles:  DON'T LET ME DOWN - Released in 1969 off the Get Back (Let It Be) sessions.  John Lennon giving his all to Yoko Ono on this one.  He opens his vocals to restrain unmatched to emphasize his love to Ono.  Here, all 4 Beatles are in perfect form - George's wonderful ethereal blues, McCartney's deep bass with perfect harmonies over Lennon's cries, and Ringo's syncopation and cymbal work  (crashes especially on Lennon's 'Don't let me down...' are exceptional to the vocal phrasing, increasing in power as his cries grow throughout the track).  This blues gem by The Beatles is hard to believe that this was a B-side!
    5.    Raphael Saadiq:  100 YARD DASH - Oh yes!  Mr. Saadiq has truly completed one of my favorite albums of 2008, taking it back to the Stax Records sounds of the '60s.  After leaving Tony! Toni! Tone! as lead vocalist and bass player, he produced 4 studio solo albums.  He has been quoted saying The Way I See It was the most difficult album he has produced - studying old records and old styles.
    6.    Jethro Tull:  LOCOMOTIVE BREATH - From 1971 album, Aqualung.  This entire track was pieced together from overdubs, similar to most every album made today in the music industry with Pro Tools, etc. 
    7.    Stevie Wonder:  KEEP ON RUNNING - Track off of 1972 hit, Music Of My Mind, the first of 5 classic Stevie albums (Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisons, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs In The Key Of Life).  Stevie ain't know joke, seriously, and if you don't believe me, just YouTube him live, playing every instrument on most of his records - check out his drum solos!!!
    8.    The Quantic Soul Orchestra:  TERRAPIN - Will Holland of the UK, also known as Quantic, produces some of the funkiest music right now, and often collaborates with Alice Russell (see below) and Spanky Wilson.  He's a multi-instrumentalist, and works to revamp funk, salsa, bossa nova, soul, and jazz.
    9.    Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds:  TUPELO - This Aussie eccentric is one damned creative dude, period.  Just go see the movie, The Proposition, which he wrote and developed the score for.  This is a crazy track from the 1993 album, Live Seeds...say what you want, but this track has crazy improv and energy.
    10.    Alicia Keys:  ROCK WIT U - Off of Alicia's debut, Songs In A Minor.  You can definitely feel the Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye influence in this funky song.  I completely dig her earlier style, and this goes against the pop grain clocking in at 5:37. 
    11.    Benny Sings & The Rednose District:  MISS MORAL - Dutch pop artist who also plays bass in the hip hop group, Abstract Dialect. 
    12.    Amy Winehouse:  SOME UNHOLY WAR - This is a crazy beeootcchhh, no question.  Wherever she goes, she's drunk...if she goes!  I mean, coming out with your first worldly-major album entitled (after limited release of Frank) Back to Black and the first track talking about how she's not going back to rehab.  Haha!  However, you have to dig her great voice, but her backing band, The Dap Kings, who also backs Brooklyn-based throwback vocalist, Sharon Jones.
    13.    Marya Josie:  HE DOES IT BETTER - This track is dope.  Stolen off of Gilles Peterson's Brownswood USA compilation - Mr. Peterson is a hero of mine!  Don't have too much information, partially because Gilles did all the dirty work!  The way she ends her vocals in this track is just brilliant with the lyrics and the music...love it!
    14.    Alice Russell:  MEAN TO ME - One of my all-time favorite artists.  UK throwback to the '60s and beyond, to me, blows Winehouse out of the water!   This is from her acoustic version off the Under the Munka Moon II release.  I will be having much more of her featured (on the New Year's mix as well), because she just dropped a new album, Pot Of Gold.  She also works closely with Will Holland/Quantic, and has worked with another fav of mine, Fat Freddy's Drop...
    15.    Duffy:  MERCY - Thanks to my friend George for introducing this young talent to me.  Quite poppy, but in the same vein as Amy W., Alice Russell and Sharon Jones.  She has also been criticized for 'misinterpreting' proper soul music, which she slightly agrees on...who cares?  This 24 year old Welsh singer has been nominated for 3 Grammies with this brilliant album, Rockferry.
    16.    Cee-Lo:  CLOSET FREAK - Before this pop icon became so widely known, he produced, well, just as good as music, including this track from his classic debut, Cee-Lo Green & His Perfect Imperfections.  Cee-Lo was a part of the Dungeon Family (consisting of Big Rube, Freddie Calhoun, Outkast, and the rest of the original Goodie Mob), but has since split (personalities) and pursued his own endeavors - like writing songs for acts like The Pussycat Dolls...oh yeah, who the hell you think wrote their only hit, 'Don't Cha'???
    17.    Solange:  SANDCASTLE DISCO - I don't know what to say, other than this is the second track I've used off of Sister Beyonce's album, Sol-Angel & The Hadley St. Dreams, and I have yet to include Beyonce's music.  Hmmm...I dig her style a bit more, and prefer her music much more...not that Beyonce's not talented, but let's give her sis' a bit of light, too, you know?