My Favourite Songs (That Have No Singing) *

	Marvin Gaye - T .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Marvin Gaye - T Plays It Cool
Pale Saints - Porpoise
Kaki King - Goby
The Smiths - Oscillate Wildly
Supergrass - Coffee In The Pot
Paul Weller- Heavy Sould (pt 2)
Massive Attack - Weather Storm
Sade - Siempre Hay Esperanza
Nick Drake - Introduction
Santana - Song Of The Wind
John Martyn - Glistening Glyndebourne
Paul McCartney - Momma Miss America
Silent Poets - Moment Scale
Curtis Mayfield - Junkie Chase
Fleetwood Mac - Albatross




* subject to current memory, and excluding the following genres; non-vocal jazz, classical and dub.


~

Video: Sade - Nothing Can Come Between Us

Song: Nothing Can Come Between Us
Artist: Sade
Video Directed by: Sophie Muller

Sade....... Godmother to Amy, Lily, Joss, Duffy, Pixie, Corinne, Adele, Leona et al

What's Going On? There’s a Riot Going On!

	Sly and the Family Stone - It's a Family Affair .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Named in direct response to Marvin Gaye’s soulful, anguished questioning of the socio-political landscape, "What’s Going On?" (released a few months earlier), "There’s a Riot Going On” (1971), another example of a Transtemporal album, was the fifth studio album by American funk and soul band Sly & the Family Stone, released on November 20, 1971. In contrast to their previous studio work with psychedelic soul, hand-claps, and ‘loved-up’ grooves, as featured on Stand! (1969), "There’s a Riot Goin’ On" embraces a darker, more foreboding funk sound, while also rejecting the band's successful melodic formula that was featured on their previous hit singles.

The original cover art for Riot featured a red, white, and black American flag with suns in place of the stars. No other text or titles appear on the cover. Stone later explained the album cover's concept in relation to Riot's theme, stating "I wanted the flag to truly represent people of all colors. I wanted the color black because it is the absence of color. I wanted the color white because it is the combination of all colors. And I wanted the color red because it represents the one thing that all people have in common: blood. I wanted suns instead of stars because stars to me imply searching, like you search for your star. And there are already too many stars in this world. But the sun, that's something that is always there, looking right at you.

The entire record featured a dampened, dub-like sound as the result of Sly's extensive re-recording and overdubbing, which matches the burnt-out, frustrated, drugged tone of Sly's lyrics and vocals. Riot finds Sly reveling in drug-induced euphoria ("Luv n' Haight"), praising himself ("Poet") and declaring that the good times and high hopes of 1960s are over, and the bad times (the 1970s) are here ("Africa Talks to You 'The Asphalt Jungle'").

"Thank You For Talking to Me Africa" is a slower, ghastly, yet still forceful version of the previously released "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)". The song's lyrics, like many of the themes on the album, feature the concept of the disillusionment of the soul. Critic Matthew Greenwald praised the song's concept, writing: The closing track on "There’s a Riot Goin’ On" is perhaps the most frightening recording from the dawn of the 1970s, capturing all of the drama, ennui, and hedonism of the decade to come with almost a clairvoyant feel. The original song was itself a terrifying look at urban tension, couched in a blues-gospel motif, and this extended (and again, much slowed down and bluesy) version reminded listeners that, indeed, "the dream was over" as the '60s drew to a close.

"Runnin' Away" deals with the paranoia and poverty, casued by incessant drug taking. The jolty, perky guitar strumming and vocals deceptively masking a desperate narrative, keen to escape. To juxtapose, "(You Caught Me) Smilin'" is simply a hymn to getting high. Thom Jurek wrote of this track: "It is introduced by a slow, wispy soul that sounds like it's drifting in from a distant radio somewhere... Sister Rose's voice is all sweet, and at first so is Sly's, but as the horns and bassline come stepping in, Sly's voice gets heavy and is distorting in places deliberately. The delicate keyboard lines, luxuriant and in the pocket as they are, cannot keep the voice contained. There's a minimal instrumental break in the tune and it suddenly fades just as it emerged. Side one technically concludes with the album's title track, which is silent, and listed as being zero minutes and zero seconds long." Sly Stone later explained that the song had no running time because "I felt there should be no riots."

Upon release, "There’s a Riot Goin’ On" received mixed reviews from fans and critics who were not used to the album's general mood and lyrical content, despite achieving commercial success with two hit singles and debuting at number-one on the Billboard Pop Albums and Soul Albums chart. While Sly Stone's previous body of work consisted of mostly optimistic R&B and psychedelic soul music, some major music publications praised this new, darker direction and composition. Music critic and writer Greil Marcus cited "There’s a Riot Goin’ On" as "Muzak with its finger on the trigger."

Vince Aletti wrote... "Maybe this is the new urban music. It's not about dancing to the music, in the streets. It's about disintegration, getting fucked up, nodding, maybe dying. There are flashes of euphoria, ironic laughter, even some bright stretches but mostly it's just junkie death, oddly unoppressive and almost attractive in its effortlessness. Like going to sleep very slowly. The music has no peaks, no emphasis, little movement; it seems to fall away like a landslide in a dream (you falling slowly too, not panicking) or merely continue, drained of impetus, self-destructing. Smack rock... But once you get into the haze of it, it can be rather beautiful: measured, relaxed, hypnotic... At first I hated it for its weakness and its lack of energy and I still dislike these qualities. But then I began to respect the album's honesty... It's hard to take, but "There’s a Riot Goin’ On" is one of the most important fucking albums this year."

Writer Robert Christgau cited the album as "Despairing, courageous, and very hard to take, this is one of those rare albums whose whole actually does exceed the sum of its parts... The inspiration may be Sly's discovery that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow doesn't mean shit, but what's expressed is the bitterest ghetto pessimism." Many years later, he concluded "1969's Stand! Revealed the magnificence of which this band would all too briefly be capable... Sly Stone had 'Made It'. But its temptations and contradictions ate him up. The result was the prophetic 1971 "There’s a Riot Goin’ On", recorded in anarchic, druggy torpor over a year, or was it two, Stone didn't know the difference. Its taped-over murk presaging Exile on Main St., its drum-machine beats throwing knuckleballs at Miles and JB, it was darker than the Velvet Underground and Nico and funkier than shit, yet somehow it produced two smash hits, including the stark, deep "Family Affair".

Following initial mixed reaction to the album, "There’s a Riot Goin’ On" has earned a legacy as one of the greatest and most influential albums ever recorded. It is also considered one of the first instances of the type of funk music later popularised by George Clinton and Funkadelic, the Ohio Players, and similar acts. “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” , as well as the follow-up efforts Fresh, and Small Talk are considered among the first and best examples of the matured version of funk music, after prototypical instances of the sound in Sly & the Family Stone's 1960s work. The album's unique sound also influenced legendary jazz musicians Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to crossover to the jazz-funk genre. From the 1970s on, Riot's songs have been extensively covered and sampled. Among the artists who have covered or reworked songs from Riot include Iggy Pop, John Legend, Lalah Hathaway, De La Soul, The Beastie Boys, Gwen Guthrie, and many others. The funk music genre in general, including the works of Sly & The Family Stone and James Brown & The J.B.'s, had great influence on pioneering hip hop acts, such as Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc and many others who have sampled their music


"Luv n' Haight" – 4:04
"Just Like a Baby" – 5:13
"Poet" – 3:02
"Family Affair" – 3:08
"Africa Talks to You 'The Asphalt Jungle'" – 8:45
"There’s a Riot Goin’ On" – 0:00
"Brave & Strong" – 3:32
"(You Caught Me) Smilin'" – 2:56
"Time" – 3:05
"Spaced Cowboy" – 3:59
"Runnin' Away" – 2:57
"Thank You for Talkin' to Me, Africa" – 7:18


What’s Going On? There’s a Riot Goin’ On! Indeed.



~

Transtemporal Albums: as one decade of music ends, another begins. But when precisely does this change actually happen?

So here we are, more than a month into a brand new decade. Recently, I have been trying to reflect upon some of the most popular albums of the last decade (I accept that in this digital age, the very concept of "album" is becoming more and more obsolete, but they do, I believe, just about still exist –no doubt more discussion about this at a later time), in a foolhardy attempt to create a set of thematic trends and labels, with which one could paint the music of the "noughties".

This task was no doubt born out of the undeniable truth that although this past musical decade is closest to where I am now in terms of time, in other more meaningful ways, it is actually (relatively) quite far from where I actually am. A chance to discover brand new worlds on my very own door-step. Knowing from personal experience that some of the best holidays turn out to be the ones that you really didn't want to go on.

However, the complexity of the task and seemingly impossible resolution of the stated aim became all too apparent from the outset. And in any event, even the hidden rationale for the project was flawed to its core, for the truth is... there are quite a few "noughties" albums that I love. And so (quite naturally) I decided to give up - and focus my energies on other things.

Whist formulating the initial plan, and voyaging back through musical history to see what thematic colours are emblazoned upon previous decades, I stumbled upon an interesting paradox... some albums can both simultaneously signal the end of an old decade as well as herald the beginning of a new one.

Moreover, these 'Transtemporal' (for want of an actual word) albums can be created and released at the end of the decade that they are bringing to an end (before the start of the decade that they are set to influence), or they can be created at the beginning of the decade after the one that they are symbolically bringing to an end.

Cases in point: "Abbey Road" (1969) and "The Stone Roses" (1989) can be seen as significant departures from the sounds of the respective decades in which they were released, as well as directly influencing scores of albums made afterwards in the 1970’s and 1990’s.

Conversely, David Bowie’s "Scary Monsters [and Super Creeps]" (1980) and Marvin Gaye’s "What's Going On?" (1971) defined complete waves of music that were to follow, and yet bore hardly any resemblance to what had preceded them, both from their respective creators or creators’ contemporaries.

Transtemporal Albums: As one decade of music ends, another begins. But when precisely does this change actually happen? Well, obviously, there is not a single change. There are a vast multitude of changes. Most of these changes are subtle, many are medium in size. Some however can be described as 'seismic', and when these seismic changes take the form of an entire album, then that album can indeed be described as 'Transtemporal'.

To put it another way; a couple of years either side of the actual 'nexus' date where one decade moves into the next (December the 31st of a year that ends with a nine), a series of musical doors are being opened and closed. Some albums, released either side of this nexus, are simultaneously opening and closing these doors. Transtemporal Albums. I have named a few. Can you?

"Blind" Willie Johnson: Interstellar Blues

"Blind" Willie Johnson (January 22, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was an American singer and guitarist whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals. While the lyrics of all of his songs were religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. Among musicians, he is considered one of the greatest slide or bottleneck guitarists, as well as one of the most revered figures of depression-era gospel music. His music is distinguished by his powerful bass thumb-picking and gravelly false-bass voice, with occasional use of a tenor voice.

Blind Willie Johnson was born in 1897 near Brenham, Texas. His mother died when he was young and his father remarried soon after her death.

Johnson was not born blind. When he was seven, his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man. The stepmother then picked up a handful of lye (a corrosive alkaline substance used to cure food) and threw it, not at Willie's father, but into the face of young Willie.

His father would often leave him on street corners to sing for money, where his powerful voice left an indelible impression on passers-by. Legend has it that he was arrested for nearly starting a riot at a New Orleans courthouse with a powerful rendition of "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down", a song about Samson and Delilah. According to Samuel Charters, however, he was simply arrested while singing for tips in front of a Custom House, by a police officer who misconstrued the title lyric and mistook it for incitement.

It is thought that Johnson was married twice, and remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing in the streets of Beaumont, Texas to anyone who would listen.

In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed. He lived like this until he contracted pneumonia two weeks later, and died. The death certificate reports the cause of death as malarial fever, with syphilis and blindness as contributing factors. In a later interview, his second wife said she tried to take him to a hospital but they refused to admit him because he was black, while other sources report that, according to Johnson's wife, his refusal was due to his blindness.

Some of Johnson's most famous recordings include "In My Time of Dying", the stirring "It's Nobody's Fault But Mine", his rendition of the famous gospel song "Let Your Light Shine On Me", as well as the raw, powerful "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground", where he sings in wordless hum and moans about the crucifixion of Jesus.

His records have kept his music tremendously influential and his songs have been covered by several popular artists, including Led Zeppelin (who included his photograph on their second album), Bob Dylan, The 77s, Beck, and The White Stripes (who have covered "John the Revelator", as well as covering "Motherless Children Have A Hard Time" and “Lord, I Just Can't Keep From Cryin'” live.

“Dark Was The Night, Cold Was the Ground” was included on the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space with the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.

Although Blind Willie Johnson lived a hard life on Earth, his music quite literally reached the heavens, and the stars.