‘Round Midnight Music: None so magnificent as Billie Holliday or Etta James on “My Old Flame”

Web quickies: President Obama’s Re-Election Committee unveiled just in time for tonight’s State of the Union address

“Sunday Kind of Love” for one of the Greatest of All Time: RIP Etta James

On Friday, January 20th, I was deeply saddened to hear that Ms. Etta James had lost her battle with leukemia at the age of 73.  As a genuine Blues enthusiast, I discovered Ms. James’ music about fifteen years ago when I had grown tired of bubble gum pop and bump-n-grind kids music. Over time, I’ve come to turn to Ms. James’ music like I turn to Al Green’s. Sometimes you just need to hear grown-folks sing about grown-folks things like REAL love hoped for, REAL love found, REAL love lost and REAL love rekindled. Whether in joy (“At last”), pain (“Say it isn’t so”) or somewhere in between (“Sugar on the floor”), Ms. James always knew how to cut straight to the heart of the matter, grip your soul and take you with her on all of the emotional roller coasters about which she sang.

I had the opportunity to see Ms. James perform live three times over the past ten years in New York, New Orleans and Toronto. At each performance, she was always the ultimate Woman’s Woman: classy, real, raw, open, fun, and oh, so very soulful.

If you really don’t know Etta James or her music – and let’s face it, if all you know is the seriously, factually flawed “Cadillac Records” biopic from a few years back, you don’t – click here to read Colorlines’ obituary on her passing and cut your teeth on these classics over on Youtube. I guarantee that you’ll love her “more, more, and  more” by the time you get through this VERY short list of some of my personal favorites…
1. I’m loving you more…
2. My old flame
3. Sugar on the floor
4. If I can’t have you
5. Say it isn’t so
6. Hawg for ya
7. Hound Dog
8. Stop the wedding
9. I’d rather go blind
10. Tell Mama
11. Sunday kind of love
12. At last

Real and…

Raw…

Private Playlists: Etta James at her carnal best on “I’m a “Hawg for Ya” baby…

“Remember (ing) Love” with one of my fav instant classics from Adriana Evans

Martin and Coretta: A Love Story

Earlier this year, I had a chance to see the phenomenal play, “The Mountaintop” with Angela Bassett, and starring Samuel L. Jackson in the pivotal role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Anyone who is familiar with the play knows that it takes an unvarnished look at the various facets of Dr. King – leader, husband, father, and human being with frailties and inner conflicts like everyone else. But Dr. King was also a man – a man named Michael (later known as Martin) who adored and revered a woman named Coretta. There’s no doubt that his and his wife’s relationship was complicated – but it also seems to have been built on a strong foundation of love, as shown in this and many other pictures and accounts of their life together.  In addition to recalling the hate and vitriol that marked his struggles on our behalf during the civil rights movement, I’ve chosen to also look at the joyful times in his life as well. This is one of my favorite shots.

Martin Luther King Jr. with Harry Belafonte – The Lighter Side (love this shot)

Enjoy the 2012 MLK holiday weekend, but don’t forget “The Message”

This morning, I had the opportunity to hear a fascinating message from Dr. Michael Eric Dyson on hip-hop music and its powerful role in the cultural and spiritual narrative of African-American life. As many of you enjoy time off for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday and holiday weekend, don’t forget that his Dream is still deferred for far too many of us. If you haven’t listened to “The Message” in a while, check it out. This song was written in 1982, over 30 years ago. More than 50 years after Dr. King’s iconic speech, this hellish reality continues for many children and families. Celebrate and reminisce on Dr. King’s legacy, but don’t forget that there is STILL a lot of work to do…

“The Message” – Grand Master Flash

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don’t care
I can’t take the smell, I can’t take the noise no more
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkie’s in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn’t get far
‘Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car

Chorus:
Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head, ah huh-huh-huh
[2nd and 5th: ah huh-huh-huh]
[4th: say what?]
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under
It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under…

Standing on the front stoop, hangin’ out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady livin’ in a bag
Eatin’ out of garbage pails, she used to be a fag-hag
Said she danced the tango, skipped the light fandango
The Zircon Princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got Social Security
She had to get a pimp, she couldn’t make it on her own

[2nd Chorus]

My brother’s doing bad on my mother’s TV
Says she watches too much, it’s just not healthy
“All My Children” in the daytime, “Dallas” at night
Can’t even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
The bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I’m not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike at the station
Neon King Kong standin’ on my back
Can’t stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I’m going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane

[3rd Chorus]

My son said: ”Daddy, I don’t wanna go to school
Cause the teacher’s a jerk, he must think I’m a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it’d be cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
I’d dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it’s all about money, ain’t a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey”
They pushed that girl in front of the train
Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again
Stabbed that man right in his heart
Gave him a transplant for a brand new start
I can’t walk through the park, cause it’s crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun, cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say: “You want some more?” livin’ on a seesaw

[4th Chorus]

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he’s frowning too
Because only God knows what you’ll go through
You’ll grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You’ll admire all the number book takers
Thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them, huh,
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers even panhandlers
You say: “I’m cool, I’m no fool!”
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you’re unemployed, all non-void
Walking ‘round like you’re Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you’ve done did
Got sent up for a eight year bid
Now your manhood is took and you’re a Maytag
Spent the next two years as a undercover fag
Being used and abused to serve like hell
‘Til one day you was found hung dead in your cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

Don’t push me ’cause I’m close to the edge
I’m trying not to lose my head…

Favorite shots: Love and Robins

For cat lovers only: lovin’ the Bengal!