Goin' back to my roots

Deep down I am a black man. I have always believed this. There are certain ‘facts’ that unscrupulous types would disseminate in an attempt to disprove this. My mother grew up Chiswick and my father in Kew and, yes, they are both themselves white. I was not adopted and to the untrained eye I do appear to be ‘caucasian’.

DO NOT BE DECEIVED!

I have been trained to feel the funk, to have soul, to be down! Essentially I was raised on Blues and Soul and very little else. Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Otis Reading, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Wilson Picket, BB King were played throughout my childhood and to this day, I say that they have had a lasting effect. Later on I moved to Funk, Disco and Hip-Hop and its this Music of Black Origin (oh yes!) that has always been my first love.

This all means that despite Graham and Ellie being uber trendy electro-trash-hip-hop-pop-rock lovers I’m going to have to add a slice of my own musical heritage as a black man. However to appease you blog-browsing music elites I’ve chosen 7 rarer tracks so this post doesn’t feel too much like the end of an Ally McBeal episode.

Al Green - Love and Happiness

The Reverend Al Green should be known to many of you but this song is far and away one of his best but never seems to get as much recognition as Lets Stay Together, Tired Of Being Alone et all. Besides being light years better than most of his other work Love and Happiness is straight up Al Green; electric organ, punctuating horns and a voice that many have said could recite the phonebook and still sound amazing. Trivia time: This is Nick Hornby’s favourite ever track – and he knows a little about music methinks.

Felice Taylor - I Can Feel Your Love

I Can Feel Your Love by Felice Taylor is a song that I’ve been waiting to appear in some KFC/Baileys advert for the last two years since a friend put it on a mix-cd for me and when you hear you’ll understand why. The track is immediate uplifting soul straight out of 1967, produced and written by a pre-stardom Barry White. Taylor didn’t do too well in the US but had some small success in the UK, sadly though she’s not a name that gets talked about much these days, (that is until she gets used for a advert which is inevitable says I).

Francine King - Two Fools (feat. Sax Kari)

Some songs just end up in my laptop and I have no idea how they get there but praise the Lord that they are there. Francine King’s Two Fools featuring Sax Kari is definitely one of those songs. I can find so little information about this lady, she seems to be a soul singer from Mobile, Alabama but its New Orleans’s Sax Kari, who plays guitar on this hook-happy, cymbal-splashing, funk-ridden track, seems to be the driving force behind the outfit, only hooking up with King to do this one track. Sax Kari seems to be another unsung hero, a prolific writer and big band leader; he was signed to States and later Chess records. Not heard much else of his but this song alone is a warm blanket of early Funky Soul with comforting crackles of vinyl and loose-living lyrics of the South.

Parliament - Come In Out of the Rain

I cannot say enough about Parliament. If you think you don’t know them you probably do. Sampled by anyone who’s anyone these guys, under the leadership of the weird and wonderful George Clinton, are the most spectacular pioneers of the funk. Under the guises of Parliament, Funkadelic, Parliament Funkadelic, P-Funk, P-Funk All Stars they have produced some of the most seminal albums of the genre and took funk to a more experimental, political and generally more engaging level than other exponents like James Brown ever did. This track Come in Out of the Rain is from one of their earlier albums Osmium (but only on a very rare pressing worth thousands today!) and its one of my favourite ever protests songs. It should knock the socks off anyone with ears basically. I doubt this will be the last time Parliament/Funkadelic will be posted by me on here but if you can’t wait for more buy Funkadelic’s 1971 album, Maggot Brain, TODAY!

Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle
Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane
Gil Scott-Heron - Pieces of a Man

GIL SCOTT-HERON!!! Shouted by James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem 6 minutes and 17 seconds into I’m Losing My Edge, from their self titled album of 2005, when Murphy is listing some of the coolest underground acts ever to have existed. A tentative link to what this blog is usually concerned with but frankly it doesn’t need one, this could be a blog about German industrial metal or Buddhist prayer chants and I think there’d always be a case to put some Gil Scott-Heron in there. Introduced to me by my friend Dom about 4 years ago (for which I am eternally grateful) there was no denying this guy is amazing. Gill Scott mixes poetry, jazz, soul and funk beautifully and effortlessly. Considered a racist in the 70s by many of the whites in the music industry due to his outspoken and uncompromising political views he never crossed over into the mainstream sadly but I think its clear its not what he wanted. DAMN! I’m listening to some Gil Scott right now I can’t just give you one track so you’re getting three and here’s a video of his best known poem The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

I feel like I’ve got something out of my system. I can continue blogging about fey indie bands from Montreal and Sweden now and not feel like I’ve overlooked my past. Time will tell if I'll be returning to my roots.

One love.