Monday, February 12, 2007

2/12/2007 - Richard Pryor Interview (again)

I just found myself listening to this little interview and I just keep listening to it. Sometimes it is just so good to hear someone talk. I have posted this before, but I am putting it up again. This is an interview of Richard Pryor and he is just talking. Not trying to be funny or anything, just trying to be honest. Listening to this makes me think hard about most of the talking and listening I do. It is surprising that we even get by, just surviving on such tiny scraps of eachother all the time, cuz when I listen to this interview I feel like he is just offering such a big hunk of himself. And not in the weird needy way that people do all the time when they are like, hey let me serve you a fancy-ass meal of me, with seven courses of what they consider their best shit. This is like hey, I am a buffet, take what you want from it. Here is what I posted abuot it last time.

As part of this post I am also including an interview of him off of his "Here & Now" album. It is really compelling to listen to Richard Pryor the man, not the comedian. He seems like someone whose soul is so shining and good that regardless of all of the weird shit that he does, or the bad shit that happens to him, or how sad or angry or hurt he is, it will always show through. This interview is kind of a big file cuz it is 20 minutes long, but I really encourage you to listen to it and get a taste of some of what is behind Richard Pryor. I listen to this interview like I listen most of my music (and I think like I listen to people in general a lot of times), I listen to the words and there meanings, but also I try to listen to the music and feeling underneath and surrounding the words. Richard is quoted in the NY Times article as saying "that he was proud that, 'like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people's hatred.'" RIP Rich.

So I dunno, I didnt have a song in mind today, but I was kinda touched by this interview and I wanted to share it but didnt have anyone handy so, here it is. I hope someone listens to this and it is special and kinda touching to them. It really is to me, so quiet, so not trying to be anything but himself. I admire the shit out of that. I want to just take some time to record everyone I know sometime and just hear them out until they start talking like this. I bet everyone would have some amazing things to say, given the space to do it in. Hm. Its funny cuz as much as I would love to hear the things people would have to say, I can find it so hard sometimes to listen to what people are comfortable saying. Did you ever feel like the things you hear people say are so full of things beyond what they are saying? Like there are all of these things that they want as a result from their speaking. David Mamet said one time that he sees all language not as just communicative or expressive, but actually coercive. That sense of speech definitely comes through in his writing, but he does have a knack for dialogue that sounds natural and real and compelling. And I can see where he is coming from, because there are so many little wants that go along with most everything that people say. But Richard talking in this interview, it is like he doesnt really want anything from the conversation, doesnt want anything in exchange for his words. It just sounds like he wants his words to be true. Of course the world generally isnt a great place to talk like Richard is talking, but man it would be great to hear it more often.

Friday, February 09, 2007

2007 Posts

As of now, the 2007 posts are available, but everything else you are gonna have to find on your own, I have had a lot of it up for a while now and I took it down tonight. If you are coming late to the blog, I still invite you to check out the old pages, I think at least that everything I post is worth buying and I usually have a link to somewhere where you can find it. Anyways, back to music posts, I am gonna try to be a little more regular here, I have been missing it.

-P

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

2/7/2007 - Good Rockin' Tonight

Song: Good Rockin' Tonight
Artist: James Brown
Why this song is the current jam: So James Brown is gone. It is kinda hard to believe, I mean I think there was such a permanence to him. He was so clearly a living legend, and such an icon, he stood for a lot of stuff that was bigger than him and stuff that doesnt go anywhere even after he passes on, but it makes it feel so abrupt and odd when he actually passed. He just wasnt someone I ever thought of as getting old or dying, I guess I just never took that much time to think of him as a man rather than as this figure who changed the face of music. Anyways, I wanted to share a song of his besides I Feel Good.

This track is off of his Messing With the Blues Album (which I found out about through Steven Watkins - thanks Steve!) it is the bomb and you should check it out. JB getting into it with some classic blues numbers. He really tears it up. As a bonus, here is the original big hit version by Wynonie Harris. (who kinda stole the song from Roy Brown who wrote it, but I dont have a good version of it to post here, and Harris's version made it a big hit)

James sings this with such intensity, I mean he just kicks the shit out of it right out of the gate. The intro always throws me, but then in comes James. It seriously sounds to me like James Brown has some poor guy in a headlock and everytime he starts belting it out he is just punching him straight in the face. Maybe it doesnt sound exactly like that to you, but the song is the bomb, you have to agree with that.

RIP James Brown.

Monday, February 05, 2007

2/5/2007 - Andre Remixes

Song: Millenium
Artist: Andre 3000
Why this song is the current jam: Ok for my 1st post of 2007, I am gonna dedicate the whole multi-song post to one artist. I wanna feature Andre 3000 here, but not in his solo capacity like in The Love Below. Not in his role as collaborator in any of the Outkast albums either. I wanna focus on a few recent guest spots he has done on some hot remixes.

First lets start with the REMIX of Lloyd's new song You. Andre doesnt really kill it on this one, he just kinda fucks around and phones in a talky rap that is kinda cute, but I do enjoy the disdain for rapping that it displays. I mean if I were him I would prob be tired of rapping too and want to portray something different. But I think it kinda misses on this one in terms of his verse, but luckily the track is hot. It is a beautiful bite of the classic Spandau Ballet ballad, True. (Which I just saw on this completely random Australian music video show - it was awesome to watch those guys and think, my god, those guys got laid! I am gonna start a fuckin band.) If you recognize the riff, but not the Spandau Ballet song, then perhaps you are just the right age/awareness to know it from this junior high (for me anyways) classic.

REMIX number 2 comes again straight from Atl. UNK had a big hit with his stripped down Walk it Out. Check out the dance. But Andre changes the whole thing up on his verse, basically shitting on the very dudes who he is doing this guest spot for, "Your white tee, well to me, looks like a nightgown. Do your mama proud, take that thing two sizes down." His flow here is tight, making the other dudes sound lame in comparison, and even the way he fucks with the "Walk it Out" chorus just shows how easily he makes music with his voice. It is cool to hear him rhyme to the rhythm with these sparse dirty south beats and still be trying to say something.

Finally we have my favorite recent Andre verse out of these 3 remixes. This is the REMIX of Rich Boy's jam Throw Some D's. Here Andre basically just makes amazing music with his words, I mean you cant ride the beat much tighter than that. (as is made clear the second Jim Jones bumbles through his sloppy fat-tongue verse - and isnt it sad that Jim Jones has to follow Dre on both of these tracks. It reminds me of when I was watching this TV special on soul music with my parents and they had Al Green come on in the middle of the show and he ran from the back of the theater, handing out roses to the women, in an all-white 3-piece suit and then kicked the shit out of Let's Stay Together and basically left everyone teary, and we all agreed, they should have just let Al go last)

These tracks, especially the last one just go to show that if he is even remotely interested in riding the beat, Andre is far and away my favorite rapper. His voice is so tight and he really just make his words sound like music more than anyone else I can think of, and he is actually trying to say something not completely ignorant. So much talent. I reinstate him officially as my favorite rapper, in case I had let him slip in my estimation in his absence from rapping recently. Fuck that, he is still the man as I see it.

Oh yeah, and Millenium is just a great example of how Andre can make anything sound good, evidenced in this song by the chorus which is just basically Andre going "uh" in a very cool way. Try it sometime. See if people think it sounds cool.