I really enjoyed the music thread last Saturday; even though I am not a big country fan it was fun to find some songs that I liked and interesting to see that the genre encompasses a lot more than what I would have previously called country music.
So I asked brendancalling if he could put together a little something about Motown – and a Motown playlist – to go along with tonight’s postcard thread. Here’s his playlist: Balloon Juice Motown.
Skip right to the music if that’s what you’re here for!
There’s probably enough money flying around for this election to eliminate world hunger, so we aren’t going to promote any fundraising for this election, but we do have a link in the sidebar under Fundraising 2023-24 for anyone who wants to donate to Wis*Dems anyway.
POSTCARDS / WISCONSIN ELECTION April 4
This time around, postcards are one way we can make a difference.
Addresses are from Voces de la Frontera. If you want to write postcards, send email to WaterGirl at balloon-juice.com and let us know your nym, which campaign you want to write for and how many addresses you would like to start with.
We Have 3 Postcard Campaigns
Wisconsin Senate (SD-8) Race – African Americans who vote Democratic 80-100% of the time. Writing in English.
Wisconsin Supreme Court – African Americans who vote Democratic 80-100% of the time. Writing in English
Wisconsin Supreme Court – Latinos who vote Democratic 80-100% of the time. Writing in Spanish.
You can start writing at any time. Details are at the link just below.
If you have any postcard questions, chime in with a comment, or send me email.
MUSIC !!
A note from brendancalling, who did such a great job with the playlist last week!
Y’all will have to give me a little grace, as we say in the education business. I have a guest this weekend and we went on a run before I started making the playlist and blurb for today’s post. Well, it took a little longer than expected—three miles suddenly became seven—and so I’m, ahem, running a little behind.
This blurb will be a little shorter than last week’s post. I love Motown, soul, and funk—but my background knowledge is much shallower than my country music knowledge.
In this list, I tried to avoid the obvious choices like Smokey Robinson, the Supremes, etc (although those bands are so so so great). Instead, I tried to go with some more obscure bands and performers. I also generally leaned more toward early Motown and B-sides (like Marvin Gaye’s “When I had Your Love”). I just love that giant reverb and all that bleed between instruments and singers. It’s just so… it’s so awesome.
Some of these I literally heard for the first time when I searched them up. Check out Junior Walker doing “I’m a Roadrunner”—that’s one deadly groove. Or The Monitors’ “Greetings (This is Uncle Sam).” It’s raw and will rip your heart out. Or Chris Clark—a rare white performer on the Motown label—doing “Love’s Gone Bad.” Or Eddie Holland’s “Leaving Here,” on eof many Motown songs covered by hard rock giants Motörhead.
Anyway, enjoy the tunes, write some postcards, and let’s activate some voters!
Thank you, Brendan!
Kristine
Hoping to grab some wording for both the WI-SC and WI-Senate races.
Which WI-SC addresses did I receive? Do I need to write them in Spanish?
narya
I got my first list from postcards to voters . . . and I’ve already completed eight of the ten! And I ordered more postcards. I don’t know that I’ll be in this thread for long, but I bought 31 postcards today, so I expect to do 30 by the end of the weekend.
Also, two close friends–one of whom spends a lot of time at my place–got covid this past week, after avoiding it for three years. Luckily, the one who spends time here got exposed last Monday, so he ended up w/ symptoms and stayed home this weekend, which means I was able to avoid exposure from him.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Click on the box above that says Postcards + Instructions for Wisconsin – let me know if you have any questions about wording and scripts after you look at it.
I can’t recall whether you asked for SD-8 or Supreme Court (SC). SD-8 is ENGLISH. If I gave you SC, then they would be AA addresses that are in English.
There is a short script (at the link) for folks who can write in Spanish. You don’t have to know Spanish – you can just copy the letters/word in the Spanish script, but if you know some Spanish you could surely write more quickly than if you don’t.
If you want to write in Spanish, you can trade your AA addresses for the Latino addresses.
Let me know either way?
H.E.Wolf
I’m on my 2nd batch of 5 for WI, from Postcards to Voters. 30 by the end of the weekend fills me with awe!
Doing a quick fly-by on the thread. Thank you, music provider(s), for Motown!
eclare
Deleted again
WaterGirl
@eclare: Okay, I trashed for your first one. :-)
Kristine
@WaterGirl: No active links in the text
eclare
@WaterGirl: I wondered what happened!
WaterGirl
@narya: Congratulations on your first batch of postcards!
Sorry your friend got Covid, glad you dodged the bullet.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: What do you mean by “the only active link is for Spanish SC”?
narya
I found some national park postcards on sale, but the ones I got today (in a store) were by Sarah Angst (sarahangst dot com), and they’re quite lovely. I might buy more from her, too.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Sorry to be dense, but what links are you looking for?
Can you send me email?
eclare
https://youtu.be/jkF4K2xuSF4
Ok seems to work. I was so proud when the Obamas had Memphis soul night at the White House. Hopefully this comment did not destroy any of the intertubes and cause the link to fail again.
WaterGirl
@narya: Wow, those postcards are beautiful!
WaterGirl
@eclare: That’s a great song! He is sweating like crazy. I can’t imagine being on stage with all the bright lights in those suits. So hot!
narya
@WaterGirl: I thought so too! and if you buy a batch of 20, you get $3 off
ETA: I just got fireflies, bees, and hedgehogs. :-)
Kristine
@WaterGirl: I figured it out. I was looking for text links. Had to hit a ‘share’ symbol to get the page link.
Anyway, I’m good.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Got it! You can also click on the title: Postcards + Instructions for Wisconsin.
Mousebumples
I’m here! Just got the kids to bed after a busy family day, but once I catch my breath, I’ll be back to postcarding!
I’m hoping to finish my 50 SD-8 cards tonight, to get them ready for mailing. I was hoping to be more ahead of schedule, but this week has been crazy and exhausting. But, at least as of this morning, we’re all still covid negative, so whew! Vaccines work! (my husband and I have 4 shots each, and the kiddos each have 3x Moderna
Eta – I look forward to checking out the music later, but I’ll be watching Bucks v Sixers on ABC in a few. #FearTheDeer🦌
eclare
@WaterGirl:
https://youtu.be/Nm3CvYgM0gw
White House version.
WaterGirl
@Mousebumples: Yay for everyone still being negative!
WaterGirl
@eclare: He’s still got it! Strutting like he’s on a runway. Barack and Michelle look beautiful, as always.
Everybody bopping to the music, especially Barack and Michelle. Everyone except Sasha and Malia, who were clearly bored!
eclare
@WaterGirl: Y’all are getting to me. Even though I have the handwriting of a serial killer (if you get the quote), I may buy some. I will look into all the links tomorrow. I am less than a mile from a post office, so I can get supplies quickly.
WaterGirl
Send in pics of your postcards if you want. Here’s one from Kristine!
eclare
@WaterGirl: Don’t blame them, parents’ music. No one at that age wants to admit that they have parents!
WaterGirl
@eclare: Wisconsin elections are typically won on the margins, so every little bit helps. :-)
kalakal
The late great Otis Redding
Try a Little Tenderness
oldster
If you like Motown, I highly recommend the remixes of a DJ named “Mosogotam” on YouTube (he died early in COVID, alas).
Mosogotam takes a classic hit — “I was made to love her,” say, and shows you how the song is built up from the individual parts. You get to hear each of the guitar textures, the drums by themselves, and of course James Jamerson’s incomparable bass. Finally after appreciating each of the elements in the rhythm, he brings in Stevie to sing it. And all of this is done, not as a teaching session, but as a remix of the song itself. Each remix is like a perfect love song to the Funk Brothers, but also allows the main artist to shine, as well.
He did dozens; here is one: https://youtu.be/Q4H_pWQaa2I
kalakal
Hardly a little known song but it’s a goodie.
Sam & Dave – Soul Man
eclare
@kalakal: Such a powerhouse of a voice. He left nothing on the table.
Kristine
@kalakal: More Sam & Dave Hold On I’m Coming
raven
Smokey Robinson — Sara Smile + Ooo Baby Baby [Live from Daryl’s House #22-06]
Mousebumples
@WaterGirl: And special elections, non-presidential elections, and spring elections are All. About. Turnout. SD-8 checks all 3 boxes, and the Supreme Court race is 2 is 3.
Whether you guys are writing with us/Voces or #PostcardsToVoters or another group, thank you, from this Wisconsinite! ❤️
brendancalling
Hey gang! Sorry I didn’t include any hits—I always tend toward the B-sides and obscure, and after my run w/my friend, I fell asleep for 2 hours and really didn’t get a chance to update.
delphinium
@WaterGirl: I’ll email you tomorrow to get addresses. Ordered more post cards, so will be able to get some done and ready for mailing next week.
SpaceUnit
Check out this doughy white kid who sounds like Wilson Picket. Also the Blues Brothers dance moves. St. Paul and the Broken Bones . . .
Call Me
kalakal
Going back to 1967 with The Temptations with the great voice of David Ruffin, impeccable backing vocals, and The Funk Brothers giving it their all
Ain’t too Proud to Beg
raven
@SpaceUnit: I’ve seen them a couple of times, awesome jams.
Check out this white dude
What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted – Patrick Stump, Daryl Hall
Almost Retired
@eclare: I hear you. I’m going to start doing these postcards, even if the only tangible result of my effort is to increase support in Wisconsin for penmanship education in elementary school.
WaterGirl
@brendancalling: No apologies, really happy that you put this together for us!
WaterGirl
@delphinium: Perfect!
delphinium
@raven:
He has some great guests-I loved the session with The O’Jays.
WaterGirl
@kalakal: Yes!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kristine: THE BEST!!
Soprano2
Sorry I can’t join, but we’re waiting for “Hamilton” to start. Super excited, this is a high quality production and probably my only chance to see it.
delphinium
@eclare: Ha! I could have been a doctor with my handwriting. But find if I print very slowly that I can get something legible.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
The sax of Junior Walker rules!
eclare
@Almost Retired: Hahaha….
SpaceUnit
@raven:
That was awesome!
eclare
@raven: Daryl Hall, blue eyed soul
WaterGirl
@Soprano2: That’s exciting! I haven’t seen it either.
Kristine
@Almost Retired:
FWIW….
I recall some discussion during one of last year’s postcard sessions about the need to print instead of writing in cursive because younger people don’t learn cursive in school and have trouble reading it. So I posted that question in my FB group and replies were pretty one-sided–most kids don’t learn cursive in school these days (yes, some do) and even younger middle-age adults have trouble reading it.
So I am making a conscious effort to print and boy it’s a struggle. I’m a natural-born letter connector.
raven
@SpaceUnit: Stump is the Fallout Boy vocalist.
kalakal
Stevie Wonder is on a different level to the rest of us. He wrote & produced this in 3 hours, playing all the instruments himself
Higher Ground
eclare
@brendancalling: This was a great diving board to get us into the pool. Thank you!
SpaceUnit
@raven:
The dude has an amazing voice.
NotMax
Pre-Motown jamboree.
Bert Williams
Lightnin’ Hopkins
Ethel Waters
Fats Waller
Muddy Waters
Bessie Smith
Scott Joplin
like a metaphor
just discovered this a few weeks ago, and its been on heavy rotation ever since- a reworking of the Barbara Mason classic “Yes, I’m Ready”, by Cazal Organism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNACpdS-h0A
WaterGirl
@kalakal: I don’t know anyone can hear that song and at least start dancing in place.
eclare
@Kristine: I am middle aged and I have trouble with cursive! Plus my cursive is so sloppy, my signature is a straight line. But if I print, I get letters.
kalakal
@WaterGirl: It’s got everything
raven
Beg Scream & Shout: The Big Ol’ Box of ’60s Soul Review
by Richie Unterberger
[-]
Six CDs and 144 songs of classic ’60s soul, including selections by every major performer in the idiom (except for Sam Cooke and Sly Stone, who were unavailable for licensing reasons), as well as numerous influential minor performers, one-shot artists, and just plain unknowns. The music is classic, and the packaging is an event in itself, with the discs enclosed in a mock briefcase for carrying 45 singles, and trading cards for each song on the volume that have photos and trivia questions on front, and mini essays on the back. Yet it ultimately occupies a rather perplexing space on the collector’s shelf. Anyone who’s enough of a soul lover to fork over the dough for this production will no doubt have a good many of the tunes already, particularly the Hall of Fame hits like “Sweet Soul Music,” “(I Know) I’m Losing You,” “Don’t Make Me Over,” and “La-La-Means I Love You.” There are numerous great rarities here — Jay Wiggins’ magnificent melancholy ballad “Sad Girl,” and the rare original versions of “Shake a Tail Feather” (the Five Du-Tones), “Tainted Love” (Gloria Jones), “Mustang Sally” (Sir Mack Rice), and “Piece of My Heart” (Erma Franklin). Yet the tracks used to represent some superstars — “You’ve Been in Love Too Long” for Martha & the Vandellas, or “Fly Me to the Moon” for Bobby Womack — seem almost deliberately idiosyncratic, even though this method also yields underrated off-the-beaten-tracks by Ray Charles (“In the Heat of the Night”), Al Green (“Back Up Train”), and others. It’s almost as if some guys stayed up several nights running trying to make the ultimate ’60s soul party tape — one which demonstrated both their impeccable taste and the depth of their record collection — and got so carried away with the idea that a box set resulted
WaterGirl
Postcard from H. E. Wolf! Send in pics of your postcards if you want.
WaterGirl
@raven: Great song. Is that the same Hall as Hall & Oates???
raven
Various Artists “Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures Volumes 1 to 4” (UK Kent CDs CDKEND 143 (1997), 158 (1999), 200 (2000) and 230 (2004))
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Somewhere in my 30s I switch to more printing rather than cursive.
zhena gogolia
@Soprano2: Lucky you! I have never seen it, although I know it by heart.
raven
@WaterGirl: Yes, I never thought of those guys as R&B back in the day but they damn sure are.
And when you watch Live From Daryls House check out the keyboard player. Eliot Lewis from the Average White Band.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: I love Treemonisha.
WaterGirl
@SpaceUnit: Wow. He does sound like Wilson Picket. The lead singer so doesn’t look like I would have expected from his voice. How fun.
eclare
@WaterGirl: Wow! Impressive postcard.
eclare
@WaterGirl: yes
WaterGirl
@raven: Total shocker.
WaterGirl
@kalakal: Another song where it’s impossible not to move.
raven
And then watch Prince shred it on Play That Funky Music!!!!
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
An opera with moxie.
;)
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Also love Gimme a pigfoot!
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Yeah. I don’t know why the Met never does it.
eclare
@raven: Prince shreds everything. Saw him at the Fox.
raven
@eclare: I had NO IDEA until this performance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
kalakal
Two I can’t resist . The tightest band I’ve ever heard
Booker T & the MGs Green Onions
And perfection
Gladys Knight & the Pips Midnight Train to Georgia
raven
@kalakal:
live from daryl’s house w/ booker t. jones (2011)
kalakal
@raven: 👍👍👍
Just had a quick look, I’m really going to enjoy watching that
eclare
@raven: Wow. I just started watching, sounds fascinating. Thank you!
NotMax
Bumped up against the seven link limit above but can’t forget to add The Mills Brothers.
And again, just because.
WaterGirl
Have all our postcard peeps finished writing for the night?
kalakal
Some funk with Dr. John
Right Time, Wrong Place
And some funk/blues with
Junior Wells & Buddy Guy
Messin with the Kid
Kristine
@WaterGirl: I did a few, then fell into the Prince videos.
Tuesday?
Mousebumples
I’m still going. Have my 50 for SD-8, but need to get the front sides done (addresses, stamps, etc.). Just quiet as I’m focusing I guess, haha!
@Kristine: I am planning to be here Tuesday night, hopefully. 🤩
WaterGirl
@Kristine: @Mousebumples:
Yep, a postcard post on Tuesday evening at 7:45 pm blog time.
prostratedragon
That’s some impressive Motown diving, brendan, though I’d say the two Jr. Walker cuts are widely considered major essentials.
Have another: “What Does It Take?”
Omnes Omnibus
Are we being Motown purists here or can we throw some Memphis in the mix? From Hi Records. From Stax.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Definitely not purists!
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl:
Some Muscle Shoals then.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I had to look up Memphis music. Is there a difference between Memphis and Memphis Soul?
Guessing that Memphis Soul is a subset of Memphis?
There must be a
hundredthousand different labels for kinds of music.WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: She has a really distinctive voice.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: It’s a touring company; I figured this would be my only chance to see it. I don’t know much of it although I can get the gist even when the lyrics are hard to understand.
mvr
@Mousebumples: I’m not doing cards tonight but mean to do some soon. I want to do them for WI SC and I can’t write in Spanish. Whom do I ask for addresses (Mouosebumples, aka postcard patriots?/Watergirl?).
And last time I managed to print good ones on cardstock from some suggested templates. Are such templates still around? Actually I guess the ones from last time may still work since I wrote in the candidate names.
Finally what is election day and when should I be mailing them by?
Thanks!
-Mark
A
mvr
@Almost Retired:
“Penmanship education in elementary school” was nearly the death of me. I think I was the only kid ever kept after school for bad penmanship. I also nearly flunked typing, so perhaps there is just something wrong with my communication skills.
WaterGirl
@mvr: You can get addresses from a number of places.
If you want to print postcards on your own cards tock, you can download templates from Postcard Patriots.
We have targeted addresses from Voces de la Frontera –addresses for African American households that vote Democratic 80-100% of the time. I think those are the best bet, but of course it’s up to you.
If you send email to watergirl at balloon-juice.com, I can send you addresses. Just let me know your nym, that you want to write for the SC race, and how many addresses you want to start with, and I’ll get those to you
Dates:
The election is April 4.
Early voting starts March 21.
You can start writing right way, but the EARLIEST DATE TO MAIL postcards is Mach 10
Scripts and suggested language are here: Postcards + Instructions for Wisconsin
mvr
@WaterGirl:
Thanks, will do.
WaterGirl
@mvr: I just edited with more info, so maybe look for the updates to comment #100?
kalakal
@WaterGirl: There’s a few sites that let you enter a song and it’ll tell you the genre.
The most fun is every noise which has charts, there are zillions of genres.
The link should go to genres by country
https://everynoise.com/countries.html
I’ve never heard of a least 1000 genres 😀
WaterGirl
@kalakal: First, holy shit that’s a lot of genres!
Second, what the hell? They don’t consider folk music a genre?
kalakal
@WaterGirl: It doesn’t help that the lists aren’t alphabetical. Folk will be in there. there are layers and layers. Frankly I find it too granular, a similar site is Chosic
WaterGirl
@kalakal: Folk music is nothing like country!
oh well. I am headed to bed. This has been fun!
kalakal
@WaterGirl: Sorry that was a misprit, meant to say traditional folk
There’s British Folk, prob American Folk in there as well. It would help if the lists were sorted
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
@zhena gogolia: An unexpected Joplin performance, from Mila:
“A Real Slow Drag,” Cantosopeso.
H.E.Wolf
@eclare: Postcard is from a batch I made via https://www.vistaprint.com/ – I wrote to the archivists at the University of HI and received permission to use the image.
WaterGirl
@kalakal: Okay, i am less mad at them now. :-)