Y’all. A long time goal of mine is starting to wrap up as we close out the second decade of this century. If you’ve been with me, following and listening, you know that heart & soul of what I love doing is highlighting the efforts by women, primarily Black Women, that crafted and created music…
Tag: The Royalettes
Mickey’s Mojo: The Extensive Talents of Motown’s A&R Magician
As Motown continues to roll out celebrations of its 60th anniversary, it’s extremely curious who doesn’t get attention for their hard work and extraordinary talents getting the label underway. There’s plenty of names that get lost today behind the glittering legacy of Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and the mourning of Marvin Gaye. Indeed if it…
For The Venus Retrograde Part II: 36 Faces To Do Love’s Review To
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a Venus Retrograde, and it’s been a long long time since I’ve written extensively at looking at Astrology through music. However, this potent Season of the Witch in which we’ll be dealing with Venus in Scorpio retracing steps back to Venus in Libra, it seemed high time to pull…
Love-o-matic: Your Mid Century Auditory Personal Lubricant For Horizontal Dancing
Spring in the air, filled with love, there’s magic everywhere. Okay, we’re not all young and in love as Van McCoy wrote, but we all like to be amorous, and there’s no season like the blossoms of Spring, and Venus in Taurus season to get us to want to make like the birds and bees…
Strings And Things Pt.1: 36 Orchestral Soul Gems
I’ve been told by fellow DJs on the soul scene, quite derisively sometimes, that the soul music that I spin is too *sweet.* Not Funky, nitty or gritty, I tend towards pretty melodies, and… frankly, string sections. Violins? Cellos? Upright Bass? Why?!?! As I try to lean back into live DJing in a new town,…
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…
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not – 38 Vintage Charms To Hold In Our Dystopian Arms
We all need a little bit of love in this new reality we find ourselves in. It would be rather selfish and greedy of me not to craft a mix of the rollercoaster of our most direct and valid emotional experience, right? Right. Of course, classic consistent Venus in Taurus me went for a full…
Black Magic: Girl Group Solidarity, Queer Love and Black Lives Remembered – A Mixtape
I’ve said quite often, for little Black Queer Boys 20 something years ago like myself, Girl Group Songs saved a life quite often. Well, mine. I should really speak for myself. In the weird role play between gender expression and having even in the 1990’s so few cultural placeholders to identify with, I grasped full-hearted…
The Royalettes “Can’t Stop Running Away” (From the LP The Elegant Sounds Of The Royalettes, 1966)
The Royalettes “Can’t Stop Running Away” (From the LP The Elegant Sounds Of The Royalettes, 1966) We’re on the 5th day of Record Of The Day Week. It would be impossible for me to ignore one of the first records I discussed in front of a public audience. This past January, I was one of the guest…
