When one takes into account how ridiculous the past year has been, it’s hard to put into reference or frame of mind that the world has always been a bit bent out of shape. One of the preferred ways of coping is turning one’s stress about strife to the songs and singers that keep us…
Tag: Maxine Brown
Languishing On An LP: 33 Revolutions Not Found In Your Platter Pack
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…
Swinging Sweet ’63: A Soirée of Sister Soul
As you may know by now, Girl Group and Femme Soul songs are my bible. My first Astrology lecture is dedicated to this particular genre of music and how it unfolded around the Virgo maiden archetype during the 1960’s. Critically ignored by the dominance of white male musicians and music critics, the “girl group” genre…
The Telephone Game: 30 Gabbing Soul Classics From The Land Before Text Messaging
What is a telephone in this modern world of 2017? Most of us use them as Cameras, Newspapers and Western Union Telegrams. What we rarely use them for at this stage of evolution is to actually directly talk to people. Rare it seems for people born after the Baby Boom to engage with the ritual…
Live! Live! Live! Soul From The Stage To Your Stereo 1963-71
We’re decidedly blessed with continuous access to acres of studio recordings of our favorite soul artists. There’s the hits we know, and then even there’s alternate takes. Nevermind the LPs they released, the B-sides that end up being true gems, or the unreleased material that sees light of day more than a half century later….
Your Sister Soul Ones For ’61: A Ladies List Of Uncovered Pearls from 55 years ago.
The further we inch away from the Mid Century Modern era in time, the more we try to unravel the gems of that era as well. 1961 was a pretty big breakthrough year in terms of Pop Music for women, and women of color in particular. I’ve presented at The 2nd Queer Astrology Conference and…
Delicious Together: The Delectable Art of the Duet 1952-1973
The other component of Libra season, beyond balance and justice, is relationships and partnerships. Who are your others? Seems a perfect time to round up a bounty of the beauty of the duet. The call & response between two players on Vinyl goes further back that Vinyl itself of course, as singing is basically the…
So You Wanna Be Dionne Warwick? 30 Tribute Tunes To The Titan Of Sophisticated Soul
The influence of Dionne Warwick is one of the most underappreciated in 1960’s Soul Music. Her smooth, sophisticated work on Scepter Records, especially with Burt Bacharach and Hal David showed a mature, nuanced and complex way that many soul stars imitated. Coast to Coast after she flew in on the spaceship that was “Don’t Make…
Standard Snuggles, Classic Cuddles: Late Summer After Midnight Merging of Classic Soul and Songs of Old
It wasn’t just Berry Gordy’s dream to cross over to the meat of the performance market during the 1960s. R&B singers early as Ruth Brown and Dinah Washington took to covering songs associated with Tin Pan Alley pretty early in their careers. The natural relationship between musical genres has always been an orgy; Jazz informed…
♌ A Lady Leo:A Long Long List of Feline Gems from the Heart ♌
We enter the dog days of summer. These long, luxuriant days are ruled by Leo, the sign that rules the sun and the heart. So I dive into the heart of the matter, what’s better than a radiant lady of the stage? Fixed Fire lights up the stage with an extended romp with some of…
DJ Larsupreme 