The headline death this past month was that at 75 of Sylvia Robinson, who featured on this blog before with her 1973 hit "Pillow Talk", a song taught Donna Summer all she needed to know about pleasured moaning to a disco beat. But Robinson was much more important than that. As the founder of Sugar Hill Records, she produced and released the first ever rap hit ("Rappers' Delight"). Robinson's label also released what I still regard as the greatest rap record of all time, Grandmaster Flash's monumental "The Message". Also notable is the death a day later of [...]
Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Rock Hall Getty Images After decades of churning out hits like 'I'm Walkin'' and 'Ain't That a Shame,' Fats Domino and composer/bandleader Dave Bartholomew will be honored during the 15th annual American Music Masters series at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "I am deeply appreciative and grateful to receive this prestigious honor," Domino told Cleveland radio station WTAM 1100 . [...]
Dateline 1987. Inspired by the huge success of Jackie Wilson's recently re-issued #1 smash Reet Petite - and accompanying claymation video - Telstar try cashing in on the winning formula by re-releasing Robert Parker's own 60s soul classic Barefootin' - complete with its own claymation video! I liked this song a lot (what's not to like?), but alas it wasn't destined to emulate the success of Reet Petite , and stalled well outside the top 40 in the UK. Not even my purchasing of it on [...]
Don't even think of missing the one and only Ponderosa Stomp next week. It's the swingin'-est, funkiest, rockin'-est musical entertainment show ever put on anywhere at anytime. It's only great. And it's blasting into New York City for three crazed nights of soul, rockabilly and swamp pop and most of it will fly out over the WFMU airwaves! For the uninitiated, in the past decade the Stomp has been responsible for celebrating the legacies and careers of the unsung heroes of rock & roll, soul, garage, swamp pop and the unnameable (i.e.: Legendary Stardust [...]
by Pete Wingfield I wrote and recorded "Scratchy 45s" in 1976, as a tribute to the New Orleans R&B that I loved then, and still do. The idea was to cram in as many crafty musical and lyrical allusions as possible, while still ending up with a proper original song! I'm sure fellow BWF-ers, being true cognoscenti, will have no trouble spotting them all. Yeah, I know the tempo is a bit too fast and the groove is hardly authentic, but hey, give me a break - it was 33 years ago, I was still kinda green behind [...]
While I've been familiar with the three songs in this post for many years and had along the line noticed some linkage among them, my decision to group them together for a post came about by accident, the usual haphazard modus operandi around here, it seems. My plans for better researched, more "in depth" features keep getting pushed aside in favor of this or that whim of a hunch, arcane digression, or diverting rhythmic tangent, which is why no one will ever accuse me of committing scholarship on HOTG. So, you might want to pass on by, if you are [...]
How does one make sense of an annoying, hours-long, Amoeba voyage? My approach: wine, cigs and a scattered bag of shit for y'all. Dig it. -- Let's lead off with a little Ike Turner. Ike was good at things. Yes, hurting women. But he also knew how to play some shit-funk guitar, tickle ivories and arrange what most of you may know as a J-5 joint. Let's hear it: Ike Turner and The Kings Of Rhythm—Getting Nasty [...]
Any Major Dude With Half A Heart
Spinner.com
Too Much Apple Pie
WFMU's Beware of the Blog
Boogie Woogie Flu
Home of the Groove
The Ear Hole
Loreen - Euphoria
Listen: Summer Camp – Always
Albums We Love: D'Angelo - "Voodoo"
Bobby Womack ft. Lana Del Rey – “Dayglo Reflection”
