James Brown, “Get Up (I Feel Like Being Like a) Sex Machine” (1970)
Sometimes you just have to go with the classic tried and true and perhaps no one and nothing is more so than James Brown doing this song蓉nless it’s James Brown doing any of dozens of his masterpieces across the length and breadth of a stellar career (“Star time!”). The ridiculous construction of this title, with the strange parenthetical, always makes me laugh for some reason (maybe that’s the peevish copy editor in me). But the groove makes me shut up and move. JB rides it like a professional surfer, focused and obviously relishing each moment as he consults with the band, directs it “to the bridge” (if not the first time he has resorted to this trope it may well be the most famous), and ultimately brings it to a close with an astonishing flourish, all poise balanced by power.
Song of the week
From JPK….
Percy Mayfield, “The River’s Invitation” (1952)
Percy Mayfield was a rhythm ‘n’ blues performer and songwriter whose best-known song is probably “Hit the Road Jack,” the Ray Charles hit from the early ’60s. Mayfield was known as the “Poet of the Blues” performing in Texas and ultimately moving to Los Angeles in the late ’40s and ’50s. The reasons for the handle are more apparent in this song: “I spoke to the river / And the river spoke back to me / It said man you look so lonely / You look full of misery / And if you can’t find your baby / Come and make your home with me.” The ups and downs and various turns of Mayfield’s biography (which include an auto accident that disfigured his face) only make the high points of his early career more eerie and intriguing. Worth tracking down.
Saturday Night Fever Dreams
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I kept thinking about this as a soundtrack to tonight’s debate. Top Pop World Go Boom!
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Who’s having more fun than the Granite State GOP Luzers?
Things You Think About <7 Hours Out From Gum Surgery*
Like, what would actually be the theme song that captures the geist of the Romney campaign.
He’s tried stuff like “Eye of the Tiger” — which is exactly the kind of cliché you’d expect a never-hip cyborg to seize upon. It instantly dates/ages anyone whose neural circuits flare even momentarily, and it has all the motivational draw of a stack of green stamps.
No…especially after the descriptions of the Mittens/McCain event crater described here, I think that pain and a swollen gum have led me to the perfect Romney signature tune. What could be better than this:
<div align=”center”><iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/r8oFlXnnwKI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
After all: no one could deny that the tune delivers precisely the kind of uplifting message any candidate would want to deliver, right? This version, though, is perfectly adapted for use in the RomneyVerse. As performed (by soshalist Swedes!), it precisely evokes the feeling induced by any amount of time spent too close to the RomneyBot: the nearly uncontrollable urge to gnaw one’s own arm off at the shoulder if that’s what it takes to escape the room.
So here’s the challenge for the commentariat: give us your choice tracks (for all the candidates). And/or consider this an open thread.
*Aging Deteriorating, though better than the alternative, sucks rocks.
Image: Samuel Coleman, The Edge of Doom, between 1836 and 1838.
Things You Think About <7 Hours Out From Gum Surgery*Post + Comments (76)
Open Thread: World Go Boom
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Pretty fair summary of 2011, from the “unelected legislators of the world”, and my thanks to commentor Middlewest for reminding me about DJ Earworm.
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Have to admit, I’m liking this mashup better than any of the originals, apart from Pink and Adele of course. Good thing I’m nowhere near the Billboard target demographic!
Song of the week
I’ve been away from the computer for a few days, so I’m putting this up on Sunday rather than the usual Friday. As always, from JPK at Can’t Explain.
Brighter Side of Darkness, “Love Jones” (1973)
This is one case where the parody, “Basketball Jones” by Cheech & Chong, turned out to be more popular than the original though barely, with “Basketball Jones” peaking at #15 and “Love Jones” at #16, both in the early ’70s. The parody may also be better remembered because of its ingenious use in Hal Ashby’s weird dark political film, Being There, which was pretty much Peter Sellers’s final signoff and remains worth seeing for sure. As far as I’m concerned, though, “Love Jones” is way better than “Basketball Jones,” a terrific example of the black pop music all over the airwaves at the time. A commenter at the YouTube page about says it all better than I could, so I leave it to her (or him): “Red light house parties, dancing the slow grind with the boy you like. We didn’t need drugs. This kind of music was our drugs.”
Open Thread: Happy New Year
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Thanks to commentor Dance Around in Your Bones. Here’s to the hope that 2012 will be a better year than the one just departed… even for those of us whom 2011 blessed!