If I haven’t been doing much recently I have at least been picking up records. Here’s some bits I’ve grarpsedd in the last month or so.
Pretty much started and completed my Leon Thomas solo collection in one go. That Louis Hayes has a great “My Favourite Things” on it. The Impulse comp is a nice curio and “Bill Cosby Talks To Kids About Drugs” is just as good as you’re imagining. (more…)
Tomorrow is the final of the BBC’s The One and Only. It’s Pop Idol for tribute acts. A really long episode of Stars In Their Eyes.
It’s pretty lame as you’d imagine but for one thing… They have a ginger white dude blacked-up as Lionel Richie (!!!) and he’s great.
Watch this dude talking, normally, as him, and then watch him singing as Lionel.
OMG!?!
I think I like him better than Lionel. If he performed original songs (still with the prosthetic nose of course) I think he could be the biggest star in the world or something. He’d be like a reverse Michael Jackson but a little bit Al Jolson.
Anyways if you don’t want to watch the show ever (fair enough) you can find all Moni Tivony’s (what a name!) performances on the BBC youtube channel.
The Emotions – What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas 1973
The Emotions were a great Stax Soul group in the early 70s (The “Untouched” LP) and a pretty good Disco group in the late 70s (“Boogie Wonderland”, “You’ve Got The Best Of My Love”). They cut this heartbreaking soul side in 73 (the picture is of my reissue copy) and it may be my favourite Soul Christmas tune of all.
The “when I have nobody?” line and accompanying melody just pull the carpet out from under you. A proper sad Christmas song.
My favourite Miles Davis band at Montreux in 73. Very “Get Up With It” and very good for it. Part 2 & Part 3. That band was something else.
This next clip is something else entirely. This may be my favourite Michael Jackson song, perhaps, but it’s a fucking terrible muzak cover. Outfit. Everything.
At the time of the first video Miles was panned and hated. At the time of the second he was filling concert halls around the world.
Other things:
RIP Pimp C. Great Hiphop producer/rapper. If you care to read an interview with him there’s a great one at Cocaine Blunts in three parts. 1, 2 & 3. 33 years old, dies in bed alone. Sad loss to Hiphop.
Donny Hathaway Live footage seems to at last be turning up on Youtube. Here he is doing the crowd participation version of “The Ghetto” as heard on the greatest live album evarr. Screwy VHS.
There’s no footage on Youtube from the Al Green “Live in 72″ DVD that was slated for release and then withdrawn. I have a copy of the DVD and am wondering if I can get away with putting some up on Youtube… It is very special.
Got Radiohead tickets, never seen them. June 24th is some lifetimes away though so I’ve been looking on Youtube. Hopefully the idiot that shot this video won’t make the trip from LA to Tower Hamlets.
HYess!
Learning to drive as an adult is humiliating and miserable. That is all.
