Happy Valentines Day

Today is a day for what you make it, how you make it, with whom you either choose or have no choice but to be drawn to. For that by design, default of destiny, if anything today is a celebrate that intangible thing that  goes beyond pencil, word or thought. So I turn to music. An oldie but goodie, I hope you enjoy this one, and this Valentine’s Day, with that certain special someone that makes you feel big, valued, cherished, and most of all loved. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Cosmo Baker “Love Break Three – The Heart’s Final Chapter”

Love’s Intro
Ace Spectrum “I Don’t Want To Play Around”
Banks & Hampton “I’m Gonna Have To Tell Her”
Major Harris “I Got Over Love”
New BIrth “It’s Been A Long Time”
Eddie Holman “It’s Over”
Black Ivory “(It’s) Time To Say Goodbye”
Marvin Gaye “Is That Enough”
Top Shelf “Let Them Keep On Talking”
Lloyd Price “What Did You Do With My Love”
Jerry Butler “No Money Down”
The Moments “Love On A Two-Way Street”
Steve Parks “Still Thinking Of You”
Solomon Burke “Everlasting Love”
Clay Hunt “(I’m Claimin’) FInders Keepers”
Angela Winbush “Angel”
The Isley Brothers “Ain’t I Been Good To You”
Sweet Blindness “Ain’t No Use”
Billy Stewart “Cross My Heart”
The Delfonics “Trying To Make A Fool Out Of Me”
Freddie Hughes “Sarah Mae”
The Three Degrees “Collage”
Nancy Wilson “I’m In Love”
Patrice Rushen “Where There Is Love”
Joann Garett “It’s No Secret”
Bobby Womack “Woman’s Gotta Have It”
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles “A Legend In It’s Own Time”
Ben Vereen “I’ll Keep A Light In My Window”
Teddy Pendergrass “I’ll Never See Heaven Again”
Diana Ross “One Love In My Lifetime”
Brothers By Choice “Baby, You Really Got me Going”
Mary Wells “Two Lovers History”

I <3 U So

There are some things that I just love. And when I say I love I mean like I extra-extra full on go blind L.O.V.E. love with a capital <3 complete with funny little cupid arrows through it. What do I love? Well there’s a lot of things. I could run down the laundry list of the things that I just absolutely am nutso about, but here are just a few. For example:

I love olives.

I love baseball. Particularly, I love my Philadelphia Phillies, win or lose.

I love the entire Addams Family series. Raul Julia as Gomez is suave as it comes.

And I love the music by the French electronic duo Cassius.

 I got hip to them under the guise Cassius back when the first big wave of French electronic music had already been a couple years old, but actually I never realized until recently that I was a fan of their work under the pseudonym La Funk Mob. This is back in my acid-jazz adoring, baggy houndstooth print trouser and floppy apple jack wearing, “everything sounds better with a flute on top” loving halcyon days of youth in the early 90s. But when I was a tad bit older and a quite a bit more in touch with my soul, the dance music that Cassius was making struck a particular chord with me. It was fun a playful but not trite. It was funky and moving but it was also somewhat very emotional to me. I don’t know why I was able to tap into the particular emotion of the right combination of samples and synthesizers and patterns from various drum machines. The “soul in the machine” per se…

One of the things that I find most interesting in the way that modern day hip-hop has progressed with sound is with the way it has incorporated modern day dance music. Two of the songs off of the Kanye West & Jay-Z “Watch The Throne” album really serve as perfect examples of this trend as it stands in 2011. The two are the “Dubstep Run Through A Carwash In East Texas” sounding “Who Gon’ Stop Me” and “Why I Love You,” both produced by the legendary yet somewhat unheralded in the mainstream genius Mike Dean.

It’s just so refreshing to hear these two worlds collide in the way that it does. And also refreshing to hear Cassius “I <3 U SO” re-envisioned in this way. This is one of my favorite songs, and it brings up such deep emotion for me. Why, I’ll never know. But nonetheless, I love you so. And why I love you, I’ll never know…

Cassius “I <3 U SO” (Ed Banger, 2010)

Valentines Day

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…

Cosmo Baker “Valentines Roll”

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”