12/1/2005 - One Mo'gin

Song: One Mo'gin
Artist: D'Angelo
Why this song is the current jam: This song is so good I wrote a bad poem about it:

Everytime I play this song, I have to let it play all the way through, no stopping.
Let it play.
Listen.
Even when I am late or tired or not in the mood.
Nuances and depth sneak up on me with each listen, and all of the sudden I am in a room where the air is dense and steamy with the sound of it.

This album just grows up around you from the dirt underneath your feet. I know this sounds like high praise (or maybe just low prose) but the point is, this is an album that you should know about, and moreover, one that you should listen to all the way through, and often. It took me about 4 years to really get down with this one. I was so into D'Angelo's first album Brown Sugar that when I first heard Voodoo I dug it, but didn't really appreciate it except for some of the more bangin tracks and the lead single. (which was accompanied by perhaps the sexiest video ever made by a male artist - at least that features a male artists. Ladies, go find "untitled (how does it feel?)" and enjoy [did I mention that I am straight - because I am.] anyways) I would listen to the album occasionally over the next few years, but it wasn't until my boy Dave asked me to put "Feel Like Makin' Love" on a CD for his wedding reception this spring that I really started listening to the album. Then I got hooked. First with that song, and then with others. As Naomi knows well, I played that fuckin song everyday in Herrang upon waking, before bed, and usually several times in between. I also closed down the Herrang soul party on that memorable Tuesday night this summer with "Feel Like Makin' Love" and it was good.

So then I got a tip from a student at a workshop in Nashville that her favorite cut on that album was "One Mo'gin" (or track 7 as she called it). So I checked it out and guess what - hooked all over again. I have since been hooked on most every song on the album, and I really urge you all to go pay money for this one because it really is something special, although some of what makes it special may take some time to reveal itself. I found an interesting interview of D'Angelo by ?uestlove, drummer for the Roots and bad ass producer (that is him playing those tight ass drums on the whole Voodoo album) that was from the night before Voodoo was released, I think it is worth checking out. Also of interest is an interview I found with ?uestlove himself, about music in general, hip hop, and Voodoo and D'Angelo. I wish I could hang out and talk music and life with ?uestlove, he sounds like a smart, sensitive dude, and lord knows he is talented and knows his stuff. (look at all of your favorite Neo Soul artists and he will be involved somewhere along the line) It is really interesting to hear how ?uest talks about D'Angelo before and after the release of Voodoo.

As of now, the word on the street is that D'Angelo is in bad shape, having had some trouble with drugs and stuff. I hope he can get his stuff together, cuz I think the world would be a better place with an album to follow up Voodoo.

When I teach I often talk about the difference between simple and easy. This song is a perfect example of how something simple can be so much more sometimes than something complicated. There are only a few elements to this song, it is not complicated, and yet there is a synergy in the simplicity of it, and the music they are making is not "easy" to make, regardless of how simple it is. Like James Brown and Prince, D'Angelo (and ?uest) are able to make something trascendent out of only a few simple parts. This song (and most of the album) represent what I like most about music that I can dance to: a groove, a pocket, or some other description of the overall feeling that drives the song. I am all for cute breaks and bullshit like that, but it is the root of the song, the bottom that really moves me.