Welcome to Summer 2021 y’all. Welcome to the oceanic emotionality of Cancer Season. Let’s make it saucy with some special soulful birthday tributes as we try to resist the urge to be productive and bask in the sun for these long, long days in the northern hemisphere. We’ve got Eddie Floyd, Martha Reeves, Lena Horne…
Tag: The Temptations
Listening with Larsupreme Episode 20: Love Covered Volume II
Spring’s in the air, and it’s filled with love… …yet we aren’t listening to the cover of “When You’re Young And In Love” for this episode of love covered through cover songs. We’ll save that for another time. Meanwhile, we have a fresh 90 minutes of love for you to flirt and frolic with as…
Playing Favorites: A Top 40 Selection of Your DJ’s Favorite Singers
Here we are, winding down the mixes and the decade that brought them to life. For the penultimate mix in the old format, we’re gonna go with voices that have brought me the most joy over the years. In our current world, people aren’t really allowed to ‘play favorites.’ I’m sorry. But not. I do….
The Candy Bowl: 31 Flavors of Men to Savor
As I head towards the finish line of mixes, I do realize that my homage to women in music history through the mid-century and beyond has dominated the proceedings. I am also a queer that loves a good man. Whether that’s one that’s easy on the eyes or easy on the ears (preferably both) I’ve…
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…
Everybody Sings Smokey: Motown’s Poet Laureate 50 times Over
It wouldn’t be Motown’s 60th Anniversary without visiting their premiere singer, songwriter and producer. As legend goes, Smokey Robinson met Berry Gordy with a notebook of songs, of which maybe one or two Gordy considered viable, yet he was impressed with the teenager’s moxie. So goes the template of who Gordy accepted into the fold,…
Season Of The Bliss: An Almost Top Forty Of Swoonful Tunes
People really fucking love Fall. It’s interesting because I commented a few weeks ago to someone that all of the celebration of beauty of this particular season is also a celebration of death. As September folds into Oct to Nov to December vibrant trees and flowers react to the waning sunlight and shorter days in…
Under The Covers: 33 Outsourced Covers From The Golden Age of Motown
Berry Gordy was slightly notorious for being adverse to seeking outside material for hit songs for his singers. Very rare during the Motown classic hit era were any of the major hits for artists from the pens of someone that wasn’t attached to the Motown Family. I can only think of two off the top…
Don’t Trust The Weatherman, And Always Carry Your Umbrella: 35 Tunes For That Rainy Day Feeling
Nobody really warned me that summer ends right after Labor Day in the Pacific Northwest. After a long (short) Summer of 2 months, it’s been mostly rain, rain (please go away) in the Portland Metropolitan area. This is truly bizarre to me, living in the Bay Area, splendid, vaguely summery weather lasts all the way…
Guys Gone Uptown: 32 Sophisticated Soul Tunes from Stylish Gents
I definitely spend more time in terms of creating mixes that explore the vast contributions that women, particularly Black women, have made to popular music. Every once in a while tho, I feel a bit guilty for ignoring the legacy of the legions of handsome men that worked tirelessly in the studio and stage crafting…
