Wintertijd: Keep the Soul Alive 11

March 27, 2005

Keep the Soul Alive 11

Work on this compilation has been lying still for a while, but today I was listening to some tunes, and I got the idea blow the dust off Superfly by Curtis Mayfield. It's the soundtrack to the movie with the same name from 1972. As such it makes for a great example of Blaxploitation music, although there's been some debate wether or not one ought to call the movie a blaxploitation flick. So I wanted to maybe post the song Freddie's Dead here.

But then it hit me. I don't particularly like this album. I don't listen to it that often because I've come to the conclusion that people that sing falsetto 99% of the time are a pain in the ass. This is also the reason you'll never see me post something by Marvin Gaye, and why many of Prince's tunes don't work out for me either. They're off in la-la land sounding like a neutered pig half the time. I know I'm going to end up in a fight with my friend Bud for saying this, but there you have it.

So I figured I'd better skip this one and decided to dust off another album instead. Sly and the family Stone's "There's a riot goin' on". Many people from different groups of music lovers have proclaimed this to be the best album ever made. My buddy Arno seems to think thoughts in that direction and he's in the unlikely company of people like Andres Lokko, a critic who's considered a demi-God in Sweden. And it doesn't stop there... I've seen polls in which The People thought this.

Now I've never thought the album was *that* good, really. It's nice and all, but I think Baduism is better, and so are OK Computer, The Nightfly, i Centrum and a whole bunch of albums in quite a few genres. But still, it is a very, very good album. The track I'll be posting here *is* that good though. To be frank, I think this track alone lifts the entire album to the very, very good status.

It's a bit of a clich?, but I can't help it. Please enjoy Family Affair by Sly & The family Stone. Also notice how they do very, very little falsetto-singing in this track.

Posted by Chris at March 27, 2005 09:35 PM

Comments

"I know I'm going to end up in a fight with my friend Bud for saying this, but there you have it."

Not just Bud, you know :)

Interesting how you chose one of the most middle of the road tracks from the Riot album, not the fragile beauty of Smilin', the madness of Spaced Cowboy or the irresistible funk of Thank You for Talkin' to Me Africa.

The fact that you rate the album under works of also rans like Erykah Badu, posers like Radiohead and lesser gods like Donald Fagen (btw, spelling mistake in Nightfly) and Bo Kaspers (where Kaspers is a much lesser god than Fagen, of course) makes me question if you actually get it, soul wise, or if the title of the compilation actually points to a Boris like sense of soul.

Next entry from Angie Stone?

Posted by: Arno at March 31, 2005 12:27 PM

Who is Angie Stone?

Seriously though. Bo Kaspers Orkester lesser gods? They've turned out... let me think... Six full length albums in 12 years time, and there's only 3 tracks between all of them that are not brilliant. I don't even see Steely D pulling that off.

And yes, Radiohead are Posers, but with the album OK Computer, they posed so well... We hope that you choke and all that.

Posted by: chris at April 1, 2005 12:35 PM

Never cared for the Radiohead albums, although they had a slightly amusing video for one of their songs.

The assertion that Bo Kaspers Orkester have turned out 6 albums that are all brilliant is somewhat overstated, as 3 of them are mediocre but listenable (pa hotell, amerika and vilka tror vi att vi ar) and 3 are very much fun, but too derivative (they keep stealing songs without giving credit, which doesn't speak in their favor) to compare to anything better than Katy Lied, the album just before Steely Dan turned into musical incredibles... By the way, live both bands are almost equal, as both aren't really good live. (another reason why Sly is in another league)

And Angie, well.. basically, she is an even slicker also ran than Erykah. I don't much care for her work. She used to be the girlfriend/wife of D'Angelo and has worked with a certain Deveau, a cousin of Lenny Kravitz that also tries to be in the music biz.

Posted by: arno at April 2, 2005 12:31 AM

It would appear you and I have different tastes. Albeit with overlap here and there, but different nonetheless.

As for Bo Kaspers... Come back when you speak Swedish. One needs to take both lyrics and music into account. The fact that you find all of their albums listenable to good without understanding a word they sing to me means that they are in fact brilliant.

Which brings me round to the Family Affair song. I think that which lifts it for me are a set of great lyrics. Lyrics that one can't understand on other tracks, or that are Banal on the rest of 'm. So you'd have to listen to music my way to make the choices I do.

As for live... I've seen Bo Kaspers be Magical, and I've seen 'm be Mediocre. Oh well. Tough luck that your concert wasn't one of the former. But yes, I've seen more consistent live acts.

Posted by: chris at April 2, 2005 12:00 PM