We lost one of our greats. The other night I was not myself. And then I turned to find that Gil Scott-Heron is dead. My hero. Our American hero. Now even more so, not myself.
I spoke on his impact and legacy, both personal and in a broader sense, and shared some of his music here in this post from March of last year. At this point there’s not much more that I can say myself, or that I even feel needs to be said. I’ve been a very big fan of Gil for many years now. That’s the wrong way of putting it. His music was pretty much the music of my teenage and early adult years. He is the voice of the city, he is the voice of the everyman, the voice of struggle and desperation, he is the voice of my youth, the voice of the tragedy of the game. He was our flawed, fragile Superman (although the brother himself would say there ain’t no such thing.) Honestly, I’m still in awe of the honesty and sincerity of his work, not just the body but the depth . I am not worthy to even speak about him. I’m not worthy to write about him. I’m just not worthy, I’m still just standing in his shadow. We all are. And we will not see another like him, not ever.
Ayres wrote a very nice piece on The Rub site, and Chairman Mao wrote a great piece as well as a mini tribute mix on the Ego Trip Blog. And to paraphrase Ayres, this loss hurts more than most because Gil was ours. And today me and Kenan will be doing a very special 2 hour Gil Scott-Heron tribute show on Chances With Wolves on East Village Radio. Tune in at 4 PM East Coast Time.
Edited because I forgot about the big news which is I will be guesting today with my homies on what is one of the best places for music on the planet – EastVillageRadio.com with the one and only Chances With Wolves show. Kenan, Kray and Mikey Palms with every so often surprise guest Ricky Powell, and today featuring special guests Cosmo Baker (that is me) and the legendary Steve Arrington. We’re going to be playing LOVE SONGS, SON. And we are also going to be rapping with Steve about all sorts of cool stuff, including his new project on Stones Throw.
So I’ve been working on this year’s Valentines themed mix and, because I’ve tried a completely different approach to it I wasn’t able to complete it for the 14th (today, eeesh, sorry Vicky!) It should be up soon and I hope it will still be as relevant to this year’s “love” theme – cause it’s relevant to me. This one is like pulling teeth to make it EXACTLY what I want it to be like, the picture in my head that is. With that being said, this is a day for love and for lovers so I couldn’t let it slip by me. You guys know ME by now. So here’s my Valentines Roll from a few years ago, just for posterity’s sake.
I saw a TV commercial the other day and it said something that really struck a chord. Something along the lines of this holiday isn’t about you, it’s about us. I like that, I like that a lot. So hopefully you can enjoy this and listen to it with that certain special someone that warms a every single corner of your heart. And if you can’t be with them, listen to this and think about them. Any way you want to cut it, Here’s to us…
The Friends Of Distinction “Going In Circles”
Aretha Franlkin “Call Me”
Donny Hathaway “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know”
Rick James & Teena Marie “Fire & Desire”
Curtis Mayfield “Sweet Exorcist”
James Brown “That’s My Desire”
Otis Redding “That’s How Strong My Love Is”
Sam Cooke “Bring It On Home To Me”
Irma Thomas “Ruler Of My Heart”
Al Green “Simply Beautiful”
The Isley Brothers “Voyage To Atlantis”
George Harrison “I’d Have You Anytime”
Stevie Wonder “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)”
Patrice Rushen “Settle For My Love”
Prince “Adore”
Quincy Jones “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)”
René & Angela “Your Smile”
The Isley Brothers “Fire & Rain”
The Smith Connection “Rainy Days & Mondays”
Darondo “Listen To My Song”
The Beach Boys “Forever”
Rita Wright “I Can’t Give Back The Love I Feel For You”
Black Ivory “Got To Be There”
Brenda Russell “So Good, So Right”
Bonnie Pointer “More And More”
David Bowie “Can You Hear Me”
Earth, Wind & Fire “Can’t Hide Love”
The Rolling Stones “Let It Loose”
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “If This World Were Mine”
East Of Underground “I Love You”
The Delfonics “Walk Right Up To The Sun”
The New Birth “You Are What I’m All About”
Steely Dan “Any Major Dude”
Bill Withers “Can We Pretend”
Last January the earth opened up and swallowed part of Port-au-Prince, Haiti and leaving a country and a people in dire straits. The good people over at Soulstrutdecided to hold a “Heatrocks For Haiti” campaign, where the members of the site would donate some of their most prized pieces of vinyl for auction, with all the proceeds going towards several different charitable foundations. We had done the same thing for our folks in New Orleans when Katrina hit, and both times we raised a massive amount of money, helped people, and shared our love of music and vinyl in the process.
We all went on a furious bidding war to grab records but there was one in particular that basically smacked me over the head and that I was determined to grab. I WANT IT NOW. And so I bid and I upped my bid and I upped it a little more. Once it got into the 3 figures price range I was pretty sure that I was coasting towards victory, but at the very last moment (as too often is the case) someone snuck by me and came out on the other side, victorious. Thwarted, I vowed that one day I would own that record. That record is the Karen Records version of Betty (Bettye) Lavette’s “Let Me Down Easy” B/W “Ticket To The Moon” – and to use some of the most apt (yet absurd) vernacular to describe this record, “shit is hard body as a motherfucker.” Especially the flipside, “Ticket…” just reeks of nastiness.
The Bettye Lavette story is quite interesting. Basically a detroit girl, she started her singing career very young, performing with a variety of artists including the James Brown review as well as a young up and coming soul singer from Georgie, Otis Redding. Having enjoyed a relatively healthy career touring and recording all throughout the 60s, it was during this time she recorded what many soul music aficionados refer to as “one of the greatest soul recordings of all time,” the original 1965 Calla Records version of “Let Me Down Easy.” I know at least one hip-hop producer agreed with how ill the song is, but I can’t remember who that was at the moment (feel free to chime in, folks.)
In the early 70s she signed with Atlantic / Atco and went down to Alabama to record an album (“Child Of The Seventies”) at the legendary Muscle Shoals. For reasons still unexplained, the project was cancelled and, other than 1 single, the album was shelved. Disillusioned, she continued on with her career releasing a few disco records and even singing on Broadway until 1999 when a French record collector found the master tapes for “Child Of The Seventies” and released it on his own imprint (under the new title “Souvenirs.”) This began an upsurge in her popularity and, coupled with a gang of newly recorded material over the past decade, Bettye is as popular than ever, having won awards and selling records like crazy. Don’t call it a comeback!
A couple months after I lost that bid for the record, I found another copy on eBay and was determined to get this one. Don’t ask me how much it cost but for sure it was a pretty penny. You know I was psyched when I got the 7″ package in my mailbox and opened it up, finally having this banger. One of the first things that I noticed when I looked at the label was the words “Arranged By Dale Warren.” Now I honestly do not know the back story on how all of this went down, as I’m not really as deep in the digging game as a lot of other dudes, but I figured it had to be the only other Dale Warren that I had heard about in the soul music scene at that time. Dale Warren was a musician and arranger for Motown in the 60s, and he’s the man behind the original arrangement of “Let Me Down Easy.” Being the classically trained violinist it makes sense, as the OG version’s pizzicato is so powerful. In the early 70s Warren moved over to the Stax label to join up with Isaac Hayes as the label’s in-house arranger. In 1973 he released a concept album dealing with the effects of American poverty. That album is “Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth” by 24 Carat Black, a magnum opus that, while it didn’t sell well at the time, is considered a masterpiece and touchstone in soul and funk music.
That album is dark and gritty and brooding… and booming. There’s really nothing quite like it. And listening to the 45 I had just got, one can hear that it was the direction that he was moving towards. Desperation funk. Combined with the unmatched intensity of Bettye’s voice and the longing and pain in it, it’s rawer than almost anything. That’s HARD BODY. For my money, when it comes to describing something as “hardcore” I will put this A and B side doubleshot up against any record by Slayer or M.O.P. It sounded like it was recorded somewhere in a cave in Hades. Unbelievably powerful and moving. And YES, both sides have drums, hence this record being a no-brainer for Breakbeat Tuesdays. I hope you enjoy it, as I have the A-Side as a Youtube clip so you can hear it, and the B-Side as the WMD. Peace!
I wrote this thing like 3 times and then trashed it, just trying to figure out the right way of putting it. I’m not really good at this type of thing – eulogizing people I guess – and it’s also still kinda fresh up in the mix. But Teena Marie left the planet today. She’s one of my most favorite R&B singers of all time. But to actually just refer to her as just an R&B singer really doesn’t do her justice. Through the string of pop hits and chart dominance of her time, it’s often overlooked that she was one of the finest female singer / songwriters of a generation. And I don’t know… I know there’s always a lot of talk about her being a “white girl with a black voice” and, while I know what they’re saying but also in a sense I think that marginalizes things. It wasn’t a “white voice” or a “black voice” it was HER voice. Truly unique, and absolutely brilliant. And her voice rang out for so much more than just music, but also for the rights for artists to do what they do naturally – to create and to be not hindered by label politics. Her internal conflict with her label Motown helped lay the framework for what is called The Brockert Initiative (after her born name, Mary Christine Brockert) which makes it illegal for a record company to keep an artist under contract without releasing new material for that artist, helping not just her deal but many more after the fact. She was a gifted singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. She also was a strong independent woman who made strides in having control and independence over her career at a time when that was tough for any artist, not to mention for a female artist.
I told a friend lately that for 2011, I resolve myself to be able to say more with less. So I think I will start tonight, and instead of speaking about the woman, allow her to speak to all of us through her work. RIP Teena Marie.
Dante’s Hifi – Miami – April 20 
