ERE MELA MELA

Listen to ERE MELA MELA by Mahmoud Ahmed.

From Rastafari to Haile Sellassie, here is some wonderful music from East Africa. I had a hard time picking a track for today because (solely thanks to the quality of the Ethiopiques series) almost every song I own is a brilliant piece of work.

I settled on Ere Mela Mela by Mahmoud Ahmed because it is especially otherworldly and creepy sounding, up to the very moment you get used to the Amharic scale and phrasings, then you realize it's simply gorgeous, and why it was a pop hit in the early 1970s. Well, pop hit may be stretching it (or may be not, I have no idea!), but Mahmoud Ahmed was and "a true icon of East African music." Ahmed's voice is so hard to describe without hearing him, but John Dougan did well enough for me: "it's Ahmed voice: swirling high notes that sound as if they're chasing one another, impeccable tone and phrasing that is the distinguishing element."

I hope you like it & see you again in December!

Photo: Silver Towers (3).

List of "Top 100" Oklahoma musicians

My Dad just sent me this list that OklahomaRock.com put together, of the Top 100 musicians from Oklahoma. Definitely worth checking out.

Just on first pass, Bob Wills (9!), Jimmy Webb (58), and Henson Cargill (71) are way too low (especially Bob Wills wtf?), but everybody is entitled to their opinion. I can't think of anyone off the top of my head they completely left out but I know there's one or two.

Interesting facts I just learned: Neal Schon from Journey (who my friend Chris memorably described as having a guitar tone "like a wet bar of soap") was born in Oklahoma City; Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains lives on a ranch outside Atoka; The Gap Band is from Tulsa, and their name was originally the "Greenwood, Archer, and Pine Street [i.e. Black Wall Street. Great book here if you're unfamiliar] Band;" and Spade Cooley brutally stomped his wife to death.

I may return to this list some week in the future!

ARK OF THE COVENANT (Original Mix)

Listen to ARK OF THE COVENANT (Original Mix) by The Congos.

For a week I've immersed myself in the world of the ancient Hebrews reading this fantastic book, "How To Read The Bible," by Harvard's James Kugel. It's a one volume survey course on biblical studies, just like the ones we had to take at Baylor. I can't recommend it enough. The text (for the generalist) is excellent, but the endnotes (for the academic) are wild. I'd occasionally flip back to them and the amount of scholarship that goes into any given biblical verse is heavy, man.

You might think it's an awkward pivot from Bible studies to Jamaican music, but only if you had never listened to roots reggae. And in particular, "Heart Of The Congos" by the Congos. This album is drenched. Drenched in echo, drenched in haunting vocal harmonies, drenched in Rastafarian religious imagery.

"Even the ants / Safe in a Noah sugar-pan"

Ark Of The Covenant has been my favorite track from this album for a few years. Roy Johnson's conflation of the "Ark of the Covenant" (Numbers 10:33) with "Noah's Ark" (Deuteronomy 31:26) would be a little daft to somebody like Professor Kugel, but to me it's seamless and inventive. That's mainly because of the way his pleading tenor interweaves with Cedric Myton's falsetto. Not to mention Lee Perry's oft-mentioned production...

It's a beautiful song. And for most of you, this mix is totally new. It's shorter, relatively austere compared to the definitive Blood and Fire issue. Have at it, Ark Of The Covenant, highlight from the best album ever released in Jamaica. Possibly.

Photo: Silver Towers (2).

Arsenal post: feel free to skip!

Well, interesting game, shame to lose, but it's not a surprise. It's difficult to go with a weakened team, nothing (or very little) to play for, against a team that raises its game against big teams, and who would be especially motivated against us.

It would probably be unfair to criticize any individual players, but what you can say at the very least is that few of them that came in did their cause much good. With the possible exception of Eduardo, they all had mediocre games.

Traore never ever got forward or did anything (though he was against Alves); Senderos was poor, almost as poor as his reputation (which I've felt is undeserved but not on today's evidence!); Hoyte was rightfully substituted; Gilberto was sluggish, laid Seville's first goal on a plate; Denilson was just okay.

As for Bendtner, I have to admit to having it in for him a little bit. He's a popular alternative among forum denizens who think Adebayor isn't good enough. I think those people are crazy. Bendtner did some good things in the box, and he has qualities Adebayor doesn't have.

But the latter would never give the ball away on his halfway line like Bendtner did three times in the second half. It really put us under pressure, whereas Adebayor keeps possession as well as anyone in the league.

Anyway, I'm not bothered about this match at all. I would have liked to see individuals performing better, but it's good experience for all involved. Let's hope Fabregas isn't too badly injured and move on to the Villa match!

DANSE KALINDA BA DOOM

Listen to DANSE KALINDA BA DOOM by Dr. John.

How to describe Danse Kalinda Ba Doom? Do you say that it is in a near-perfect groove as soon as it wants to be? That it's one of the eeriest, creepiest pieces of music you'll hear? That its first 25 seconds are almost completely disorienting, and that it is still revealing its secrets 40 years after it was recorded? How can we market this boogaloo crap? (Those first questions are mine, the last one reportedly what Ahmet Ertegun asked when first presented with the "Gris-Gris" album.)

I have this image of wandering into a voodoo back alley swamp where you're not supposed to be under the influence of something or another. In other words, what New Orleans is "supposed" to be like. But after Katrina everybody knows that's not the case and besides, Danse Kalinda and the rest of the album was recorded in L.A.--on studio time borrowed from Sonny & Cher!

I've done my best not to simply throw this song to the audience and beg you to listen to it, but you really should listen to it. (And adjust the balance so you don't have the always annoying late-60s aggressive stereo separation.)

***

A bit of signposting for you. This week the theme is a few songs with an "otherworldly" sound. Next week Corbett has been invited back to do some more of his songs. Then the following week we're going to roll out this year's Holiday Mix, which is already 95% done! Have a good Monday!

Photo: Silver Towers (1).

JUST TO KEEP YOU SATISFIED (Alternate Vocal)

Listen to JUST TO KEEP YOU SATISFIED (Alternate Vocal) by Marvin Gaye.

Hi there, hope all of you had a good Thanksgiving! Here's a track for both veteran and casual Marvin Gaye fans. Recall a few months ago we posted one other Marvin Gaye track, I Met A Little Girl, from the psychodramatic "Here, My Dear." As we were saying, that entire album was a disturbingly candid commentary on Marvin's divorce from Anna Gordy.

"Though the many happy times we had / could really never outweigh the bad."

This was a concept from out of nowhere...except that it had been hinted at four years previously with Just To Keep You Satisfied, the final song on "Let's Get It On." Everyone knows the title track, and the rest of the album is just as sex-crazed...except for Just To Keep You Satisfied! ...Satisfied is frank, ironical, bitter, emphatically not an easygoing sex jam. It recasts Let's Get it On (both the song and the album) in an entirely different light. But there's no real way to understand Marvin Gaye without understanding his obsessions with sex and regret, so ...Satisfied is a key track.

Until the "Let's Get It On" deluxe edition came out, I was really intrigued as to how Marvin was able to shoehorn such a revealing and honest (and so bitter) lyric into this relatively conventional music. It's like one of those pop songs that sound all happy until you listen to the lyrics and their about jumping off a bridge. As it turns, out, ...Satisfied originally was a conventional ballad about being a good husband that Marvin (and Anna!) had written a few years back but never recorded. The deluxe edition has earlier cover versions with the original, "normal" lyrics.

But to close "Let's Get It On," with his marriage now in shambles, headed eventually to divorce, Marvin took the song and gave it a new arrangement and new lyrics to reflect his disappointment and disillusionment. The version we're posting today is an alternate vocal (for those of you already familiar with the album version), also available on the Deluxe Edition.

That's all we have for you today, so have a good weekend!

Photo: Fishermen below Overholser (3).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Be thankful for what you've got.

GONNA GIVE HER ALL THE LOVE I'VE GOT

Listen to GONNA GIVE HER ALL THE LOVE I'VE GOT by Marvin Gaye.

This Care Of Cell 44 analog is maybe not a lost classic, but it's an indicator of Marvin Gaye's quality that it's not considered a lost classic. If that makes any sense, which I doubt it does.

Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got is the opening track from "That's The Way Love Is," released at the beginning of 1970. It's mostly covers, very conservative arrangements, and tasteful performances from Marvin. Yet it's a fascinating album, because it was recorded and released in the middle of tremendous personal turmoil (Tammi Terrell would finally die in March of that year from brain cancer, and professional turmoil (this was the last album released before "What's Going On," a project he had already begun at this point). So "That's The Way Love Is" marks the end of an era. Yet songs like Gonna Give Her evince no apparent tension or strife. Like I said, fascinating.

Photo: Fishermen below Overholser (1).

I got nothin.

I've recently come to the conclusion that with nearly a year down on this blog venture that I really should be efficient enough to be posting something every day. Whether that's a song every day or just content, I don't know, but today I got nothin. Just so you know. Back tomorrow with a very nice song though!

IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE

Listen to IF THIS WORLD WERE MINE by Marvin Gaye.

If This World Were Mine is from 1967's "United," Marvin Gaye's first duet album with Tammi Terrell. Originally released as a B-Side to If I Could Build My Whole World Around You, it has since become something of a standard. Unusually, it was written and produced by Marvin himself, and it has to rate with his best original compositions.

And a great performance too. One thing to note is how restrained the two singers are. There's no trading vocal chops or dueling melismas, just a complete focus on the chemistry between Marvin and Tammi. This is Motown discipline at its finest.

If This World Were Mine is one of those songs you half expect to hear in some schlocky arrangement on American Idol or John Legend Unplugged, but that's not to say there aren't any good covers. In fact, for years my preferred take on the song has been Tyrone Evans's uptempo, urgent arrangement I got from the Trojan Singles box set. But that's for another day isn't it? Until then, enjoy your Monday!

Photo: Fishermen below Overholser (1).

Oklahoma pity party.

Phooey. Small consolation that I saw it coming...

Oklahoma birthday party.

The best part about yesterday is that Maddox called up and said he had tickets to the OU basketball game. The best part of that is that when we got there we found out that not only did we have tickets but they were in the second row courtside. And then when we got to our seats, someone was sitting in them, but the best part of that was that we just sat in the seats right in front of them! We did our best to have fun and not get kicked out (we were on our last warning with the security lady, and one of the Memphis players actually turned around during a free throw to tell Maddox to "shut the hell up") and just about managed it.

Then we went to a bar across the street, and the best part of that was that we saw Arizona beat Oregon.

But now I have a headache.

FEVER

Listen to FEVER by Jingo.

After two posts with no drums to speak of, the rhythm comes back in full force today. Fever is one of the heaviest tracks I know, a perfect fusion of James Brown and Fela [/african music cliche]. But it's a miracle I'm able to post it for you. Check out how the song was discovered:

In 1994, in an electrical shop that's now closed down, I found a copy of the single Fever by Ishmael Jingo. I had tried to find him on two previous visits to Africa and was unsuccessful. In 1998, I spent three weeks looking for him. I was told by people who said they had played with him that I should go to Mombasa. I finally found his village and his family, saw the garage where he had recorded the track, and met the bass player from the band, who gave me the photo of Jingo that features on the album. He granted me licence to use it.

The guy talking is Duncan Brooker, and the album he put out is a compilation called "Afro-Rock" [ed: apparently it's also now been put on the Last King Of Scotland soundtrack]. Fever is the opening track. I love the sound of the drum kit on this. It's probably something to do with the compression, but it sounds so hydraulic. From the massive break that opens the track to the way the musicians find space in the basic pattern to create all sorts of syncopations and polyrhythms and funk moments, you know these guys were huge James Brown fans. And we know this is the case, because one of the band's extant claims to fame is, get this, almost meeting James Brown:

For East Africans, their only real-life encounter with James Brown in person came in the late 1970s, and that too only at a distance, when the singer had a brief stopover at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and there to meet him in transit were the legendary nightclub band Gloria Africana with the late Ishmael Jingo, who had planned to pull off a surprise reception with a cover of one of Brown's songs.

"It was at the old airport; we played his timeless hit I Got You (I Feel Good). Alas, James Brown could not leave the plane, but he stepped out and waved," remembers Ali Kache, a Nairobi jazz musician who played with the band. The band was thrilled but desperately disappointed too as they had of course hoped to meet him in person.

That fleeting moment hence stands as East Africa's only real-life contact with James Brown, though the song played by the Nairobi group on that day is today the soundtrack for a Guinness Malt commercial on Kenya television.

Excellent. Do hit the link for this one, and have a good weekend!

[Note: I'm deleting the hyperlink that's usually here ("LISTEN") so it doesn't duplicate in the little player on the right. You can still download from the link at the top of this post.]

Photo: Street people (3).

All mod cons

I know a few of you would like to play music directly over the internet without worrying about downloading and importing and all that. To that end I added a music player on the right-hand side of the blog. Just click on whatever song and it should stream directly, if you have Flash capability. If it works for people, we'll keep it!

I neglected to do this earlier, but I also wanted to point people to my friend Kendal's essay on Oklahoma's 100th birthday (tomorrow!). It's thoroughly readable and original and for my money it gets at something important about the Oklahoma character.

Space is the place

We made a little progress with our ceiling today. Finally got our moisture meter and the plaster & concrete are bone dry. Yea! Now we finally have to make a decision on whether to re-plaster like it was or add a drop ceiling with lighting fixtures. And how much (if any) we'll do ourselves.

Last week we posted a youtube video of a dinner with the Grizzly Bear gang. Today we're sharing a video from later that night of Stu interviewing Of Montreal. Keep your eyes out (and ears open) for a (tired and emotional) appearance by Ed Grizzly, who in turn provokes an on-camera appearance from Stu. The Of Montreal boys look just as confused by it all as my description of it!