A Life Fueled by Music

Friday, February 26, 2010

#23 You, me, a bottle of wine and Mr. Al Green

If you want to hear some funky soul that will groove you to the depths of yourself, then maybe you should give a listen to Mr. Al Green. He has been performing music for over fifty years and is showing no signs of slowing down these days. There is just something about the music of Al Green that makes you want to stoke the fire, open up a bottle of wine with that special someone and have yourselves a groovy little evening if you catch my meaning. Green's debut album with Hi Records in 1969 was 'Green is Blues', a mellow, horn-driven album that allowed Green to show off his powerful and expressive voice. Since then he has released 27 studio albums to date, with a catalog that is a wide range of music including R&B, Soul, Blues, Funk and Pop.

Al Green has always been known for his wildly improvisational, ecstatic cries and moans that came directly from his love of gospel music. In the late-1970s he returned to the Baptist church as a preacher. He continues to record albums in a pop-gospel style and is now often referred to as the Reverend Al Green. It is awesome that this conversion did not force him to cut the close ties the singer had to the Memphis soul and music that made him famous. This spiritual shift was partly due to a crisis of the soul that Green had suffered in 1974 after he was hospitalized with second-degree burns on his back, arm, and stomach after a former girlfriend, Mary Woodson of New Jersey, had poured boiling grits on him while he was bathing in his Memphis home and then killed herself with his gun. Green referred to the incident as a wakeup call and it signified the change over to a more gospel sound for his future releases.

The writing of Al Green always revolves around love and passion which have always been at the root of soul music. Songs like 'I'm Still in Love with You', and 'L-O-V-E LOVE' are pretty self explanatory in their lyrical style. They come across as a very Marvin Gaye style but with a bit more depth and roots feeling to them. One of his songs that I really enjoy is 'Take Me To The River' off 1974's 'Al Green Explores Your Mind'. It is an extremely funky track that wasn't very famous at first but has since been covered by many different artists. In fact, quite a few people think that it is a Talking Heads song, whereas in actuality they did a cover of it. In 2004, 'Take Me to the River' was ranked number 117 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. In terms of entire albums you have to check out 1973's 'Call Me'. It is the sixth album by Green and is widely regarded as his masterpiece. Many critics and fans alike have hailed this album as one of the best soul albums ever made. He really breaks out of his own mold on this record and incorporates some country influences (He covers both Willie Nelson and Hank Williams on this album). Al often gets overlooked in the soul department but he really is one of the best there ever was. If you are looking for something to go with that wine and candle light, then I suggest you dig Al Green.

The Facts:

- Green received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
- In 2009, Al Green was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
- Al was kicked out of his first band 'The Greene brothers' by his own father after he was caught listening to the music of Jackie Wilson.

My Fave Album:

-'The Definitive Greatest Hits', was originally released in1975 as 'The Greatest Hits' and has consistently ranked as not just a well selling compilation but also as one of the best compiled 'greatest hits' albums in music history.It blew me away on the first listen through and remains my fave soul album to date. In 2003, the album was ranked number 52 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. This is a fantastic album and packs in over twenty of Green's funkiest, most soulful hits. This album easily stands alone and should be a must have in any collection of awesome tunes. The addition of 'Take Me To The River' makes this version way more worth it then the original 1975 package. It also contains 5 other tracks that are gold star additions to the mix. I highly recommend this album if you want to enjoy some funky good times.

Dig this live video of Al performing Let's Stay Together. This man is the KING of soul.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

#22 London, England presents, Mumford & Sons

Mumford and Sons are one of the groups at the forefront of England's folk rock revival scene and they are putting together some really awesome stuff over there. Rising out of the new folk scene, their live shows really started gathering them a solid fan base that led to the band being signed to a deal with Island Records. They have really started gaining a lot of momentum in Canada after their debut album, 'Sigh No More', was released here earlier this month but it has been out in the UK since October of last year. The band consists of Marcus Mumford (vocals, guitar, drums, mandolin), Country Winston (vocals, banjo, dobro), Ted Dwane (vocals, stand up bass) and Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards, organ).

This band is really true to the essence of the folk rock revival that is going on right now. Their love of country, bluegrass and folk is audible throughout their material as well as the confidence and talent to expand the sound and create something really unique. I love how the instruments compliment each other in their music. The heavy use of banjo and stand up bass give the music that old folk feel and then a loud guitar chimes in reminding you this is also a rock band. Marcus's vocals remind me of early Dave Matthews and to be honest its the kind of music I wish that Dave Matthews was still making. The melody moves up and down from quiet to loud in waves that make you want to get up and move with it almost as if the harmonies and instrumentation are laying you down in a musical trance. The music is fairly on par with what we have been hearing from the Folk Rock Revivalists of late in bands such as the Fleet Foxes, and Monsters of Folk but what really sets them apart is the energy the songs have contained within them.

Mumford and Sons carry with them the sort of energy you would expect from more of an Alt-rock band. They take that energy and bring it to the folk rock that they clearly love and really make this album stand out from the others. As they have progressed, the songs got brighter, bolder and began showing an increasing focus on their passionate and often quite intimate lyrics. The band stated in an interview that "What we write about is real, and we sing and play our instruments more passionately cos we feel like we need to. We love honest music."
One listen is all it takes to understand that they mean it when they say that. I think that is one of the things I really like about this band. The music is has an honest feel to it and comes off as mellow and low key. That truth translates to the listeners of this new wave of folk rock because it is the opposite of what a lot of music has become these days. Some of the lyrics try a little hard to be pure folk when it is obvious that the band are a bunch of city boys from London but the songs about life and heartbreak and love are as true in the city as they are in the country and that is an area where they are excelling. They’re not at their strongest when echoing the reverb-filled harmonies of Fleet Foxes, but when they drop their restraint and go for their talented instrumentation, they achieve a harmonious balance of old school folk and upbeat bluegrass. When you have a wicked banjo player, you should use him.

The Facts:

- The band actually started out as a backing band for UK artist Laura Marling (Marcus's Girlfriend) in 2007.
-Marcus was actually born in America although he was raised in England.
-They will be touring North America this summer so stay tuned.

Enjoy this awesome video of them. This is their first single 'Little lion man'

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

#21 Partying on the mothership with George Clinton and P-Funk

Once upon a time, the gods of funk sent us George Clinton. His mission was to shake things up on Earth and show us a whole new kinda groove named P-Funk. The story of Clinton's legacy began in 1956 in Plainfield, New Jersey, with a group formed by a then fifteen-year-old boy named George Clinton. This early band was called The Parliaments, a name inspired by Parliament cigarettes. Over the next few years, the group had solidified into the initial lineup of Clinton, Ray 'Stingray' Davis, Clarence 'Fuzzy' Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas.

The Parliaments did not meet with great success in the beginning. Their early recordings consisted of only a handful of singles for the relatively minor label Revilot Records. These included a hard-won hit in 1967 with "(I Wanna) Testify/I Can Feel The Ice Melting", but the band still struggled to achieve recognition. The Parliaments were just the start and have gradually become just a part of the musical collective known as P-Funk. Over the years, the sound has solidified into a terrific blend of psychedelic rock, R&B, and an outrageous style of space-funk. Through their experimentation with distortion and feedback and their outlandish live performances, future incarnations like Funkadelic gathered a small but devoted cult following. Popularity began to rise with the release of albums such as 'Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow' and 'Maggot Brain'.

In 1972, William and Phelps Collins, two brothers who eventually became more widely known as Bootsy and Catfish, respectively, joined the band. Both brothers were influential in the development of what I would call the P-Funk sound, particularly bassist Bootsy who is regarded as one of the funkiest bass players to ever live. As the sound began to take flight, so too did the lyrics as songs became increasingly populated with recurring characters in what would be known as the P-Funk mythology. Characters such as the Lollypop Man (alias the Long Haired Sucker), Dr. Funkenstein, the Atomic Dog and the Star Child began invading the albums throughout the funky collective of bands Clinton was masterminding. He then began expanding beyond the characters to an entire funky universe. In 1978 he introduces Funkadelica, a nation where "the Funk rules and can’t be either stopped or labeled". The people of Funkadelica are called Funkateers (as are P Funk fans) and are led by Uncle Jam. Their mission is to rescue dance music from the doldrums of unFunkiness.

You really have to listen to P-Funk to hear what I am talking about. I remember when I first heard a sampling of their work I was completely blown away. It is music that is so funky it makes you sweat! You are compelled to let out a massive "WHOA" and put on aviator sun glasses and clothes decked in rhinestones and get your funk on. I got to see George Clinton in Calgary once and it was the funkiest thing I have ever seen. Everyone in the crowd had on huge sunglasses and was rocking out in ecstasy from funk overload. The band played for five and a half hours which is still the longest single concert I have ever seen. I remember that after it let out we all stood there at almost 3am that we were running on empty.... We had just been funked half to death by the master!

The Facts:

- The musical collective of P-Funk includes: Parliment, Funkadelic, The Brides of Funkenstein, the P-Funk All Stars and at least a dozen or more smaller acts between 1956 and today.
- When Parliament-Funkadelic were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, They credited sixteen people as the official band members though many more were left uncredited.
- Their official discography is tricky to nail down because of all the different band names but it's somewhere in the 30-40 range between 1956 and today.

My Fave Album:

I love the album 'Mothership Connection' It is the fourth album by Parliament, released in 1975. This concept album of P Funk mythology is definitely my fave. It is a fantastic concept album and also the first appearance for the Starchild. He is a divine alien being, who came to earth from a spaceship (his arrival is "the Mothership Connection") to bring the holy Funk (with a capital "F": the cause of creation and source of energy and all life), to humanity. As it turns out (according to The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, 1976), Starchild secretly worked for Dr. Funkenstein, the intergalactic master of outer space Funk, who is capable of fixing all of man’s ills, because the "bigger the headache, the bigger the pill" and he’s the "big pill" ("Dr. Funkenstein," from The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein). Dr. Funkenstein’s predecessors had encoded the secrets of Funk in the Pyramids because humanity wasn’t ready for its existence until the modern era. With a story like that how can you not get hooked?

I love this track, sorry I couldn't find any good quality videos but this is an awesome track.