Vinyl DJs swear by the portability of the 45 rpm single. In a platter pack or any sundry 45 carrier, you’ve got up to 100 tunes, since most of those boxes can accommodate 50 of those little plastic discs. Most of my fellow DJs decry LPs, especially Soul LPs of the 1960’s as full of…
Author: Laurence Jones
Time Capsule or actual human being, who knows. Laurence Jones has been sifting through ephemera of the past seemingly forever, spinning vinyl for you, taking film photography and entertaining you with instagram posts of the decrepit old cars they own. You can find previous writing by them at djlarsupreme.com and medium.com
Heaven Must Have Sent You: Your Holland-Dozier-Holland History Lesson
I’ve been prone to these songwriter series playlists moreso. This time we make a visit to our first team. While Burt Bacharach’s mix featured him not exclusively tethered to Hal David, and Sylvia Moy found herself working with a round robin of partners, this one solely focuses on Holland-Dozier-Holland. Brothers Eddie and Brian Holland and…
Mo’West: The Evolution Of Bay Area Soul
The San Francisco Bay Area is known as a cultural center for the West Coast. Legions of artists found docks of the bay to unleash their creativity for over 150 years. However, with the increased importance of Los Angeles as a multimedia capitol, with Film, Music and Television growing and rivaling the might of New…
With This Song, I Be Wed: 30 Songs On The Pains and Pleasure of The Wedding Day
Marriage is a particularly curious item in American society. The combinations of romanticism, pragmatism and patriarchy inform an ever shifting social condition. As long as there’s been the concept of a popular song, anyone that got a chance to record more than 10 songs somehow deals with the concept in some circular way. As we…
Mary – Very – Proud: Late Sixties into Seventies Sister Soul
When we look back at late 60’s Soul Music in terms of a transitional period that saw the rise of women’s liberation, we know one name in particular: Aretha. True to life, from 1967 through 1974, she sat on multiple thrones. She had major hit singles on both the R&B and Pop charts, critically acclaimed…
Better Luck Next Time: 40 Hits that happened for someone else
Sometimes, it’s like, with a song, dust yourself off and try again. The perfect moment for a tune to become a success entrenched in the Pop Culture lexicon sometimes isn’t its first time up to bat. Sometimes it takes competition and revision to get things right. With this, I’ve gone a bit overboard, giving you…
Jazz For A Summer’s Day: 28 Tunes To Close Out The Season
Yet another season is nearly behind us. As summer winds down and we find ourselves firmly planted in the 2nd half of the year, I find myself wanting to gather up and go out to every type of event to live up these blanket warm days before Fall is upon us. One thing sorely lacking…
The Dramuh: 32 Divinely Dramatic Sister Soul Show Tunes
It’s felt weird not doing a new round of Astrological Playlists since the Aries one at the dawn of Spring. Of course *LEO* season would beckon me to dedicate some energy with a playlist dedicated to the season in the sky. Leo energy is know for, how can we say, a bit of flair for the….well, dramatic….
Who Needs A Time Machine? – 22 Modern Soul Tunes 1996-2016
Some will say you can’t really re-invent the wheel. In Soul Music, there’s been a wall between the end of the 1960’s and modern R&B decidedly. As Funk gave way to Disco during the 1970, it laid out the carpet for Hip Hop and New Jack Swing to come along in the 1980’s and 1990’s….
Sylvia’s Work: Sister Soul Songwriter Standing In The Shadows of Motown 1964-1975
The music industry isn’t a kind place to women. Even now, there’s more hurdles that keep women mostly out of control of their artistic output rather than giving them the full creative reign of their male counterparts. The situation is more heightened for Women of Color, especially Black women. Often, and yet still, you are…
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