Lady Day And John Coltrane
Pieces Of A Man (1971)
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Did You Hear What They Said?
Free Will (1972)
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Winter In America (Solo Version)
Recorded in 1978
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Back Home (w/Brian Jackson)
Winter In America (1974)
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I’ve been listening to Gil Scott-Heron’s music consistently for decades. I own about eight of his LPs, and have been on the hunt for at least two others. His recent passing merits a proper tribute.

Gil’s music was a gumbo of jazz, blues, R&B, and spoken word — Gil called it “bluesology, the science of how things feel.” He had a gift for melody and was among the most evocative lyricists that emerged from the civil rights movement. I don’t consider Gil to be a great album artist — there are many intolerable tracks in his repertoire  — but when the music, lyrics, and personnel clicked (usually when Brian Jackson was involved), the impact was super powerful.

I remember going to see Gil at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland circa 1998. I am almost sure Brian Jackson performed with him that night (which rarely happened post-1980), but the Internet has not been forthcoming with corroboration. Gil wasn’t all there but it didn’t take more than a few songs for him to find his equilibrium. His voice had become hoarse, yet was no less emotive. I had hoped to see him perform again, but he seldom performed in his later years due to substance abuse and related incarcerations.

Rather than replicate a greatest hits collection, I tried to pick tracks that capture some of the emotions that have coursed through me as I contemplate Gil’s life and career.

“Lady Day And John Coltrane” was one of Gil’s early singles, and speaks to the transcendent power of music. It’s fitting that Gil selected Billie Holiday and John Coltrane as the song’s symbols; all three pushed the boundaries of jazz by combining the personal with the radical. All three also struggled with substance abuse, and Gil’s lyrics could apply to both music or to getting high: “They’ll wash your troubles, your troubles away…”

“Did You Hear What They Said?” was written in reaction to the Vietnam War, but is a timeless dirge about losing a child on a faraway battlefield. Gil’s use of melisma highlights the agony, and creates an emotional analogue with the song’s key phrase: “This can’t be real.”

“Winter In America” is one of Gil’s most lyrically ambitious songs. Originally released in 1974, it grieves the loss of forceful, idealistic civil right leaders and hippie optimism. This elegiac solo version was recorded in 1978 — America still hadn’t thawed out in the four years since the original was released.

Despite purchasing the Winter In America LP sometime in the 1990s, I only clued into the near-perfect “Back Home” a few months ago. It has a catchy, singalong melody that belies its yearning for a simpler time. It’s poetic that “Back Home” would be the Gil track I’d be grooving on at the time of his death: “I gotta get back to see my people, someday and someway.”

Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies Can’t Have None)
Snoop Doggy Dogg w/Nate Dogg, Kurupt, Warren G
Released in 1993
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Oh No
Pharoahe Monch w/Nate Dogg, Mos Def
Released in 2000
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The Set Up (Remix)
Obie Trice w/Nate Dogg, Redman, Lloyd Banks, Jadakiss
Released in 2004
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Sad to hear of Nate Dogg’s recent passing. Nate wasn’t the first singer to provide R&B-style hooks on rap records (TJ Swan, perhaps?), but I can’t remember any R&B/hip hop hybrid prior to Nate’s 1992 appearances on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic that didn’t inflict collateral damage to anyone’s street cred.

Nate Dogg’s lyrics could be offensive to some, and his music isn’t for everybody. But even feminists like to get down to Snoop Dogg’s raunchy yet irresistible “Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies Can’t Have None).” Dr. Dre’s thumping, feel-good production provides a sneaky contrast to a bunch of really dirty verses from Kurupt, Snoop, and Warren G. But it’s Nate’s lengthy, sing-along vocal intro that lifts “Ain’t No Fun” to 5-star classic status.

Nate was clearly a product of Los Angeles’s G-funk scene, but he garnered respect from coast to coast. His chorus in the Rockwilder-produced “Oh No” (featuring fiery verses from Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch) says it all:

Look at who they let in the back door
From Long Beach to Brooklyn they know

Until I started working on this post, I didn’t realize Dr. Dre (along with Mike Elizondo) produced Obie Trice’s “The Set Up.” Not a surprise, though, considering how much this beat kills. Lyrically, there’s plenty of misogyny to go around from Obie Trice, Redman, Lloyd Banks, and Jadakiss, and though Nate is by no means soft, the fact that he’s singing takes some of the edge off.

Though his output dropped as he battled through multiple strokes, Nate contributed to dozens of hits through the 90s and into the aughts. Hope he’s ready for the next episode…

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
Don’t Leave Me This Way (Dim’s Re-Edit)
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Album: After The Playboy Mansion (Compilation, 2002)

Teddy Pendergrass
You Can’t Hide From Yourself
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Album: Teddy Pendergrass (1977)

This is part one of a two-part tribute to Teddy Pendergrass. part two

This week’s passing of soul legend Teddy Pendergrass hurts a little bit. Few can claim as much authority on the mic as Teddy. During his prime, even his ballads were turned up to 11.

Of course, I dove into the collection on a hunt for all things Teddy. Embarrassed to say, I only had a greatest hits collection and Life Is a Song Worth Singing, Teddy’s second LP. After listening to Life Is a Song Worth Singing from end to end, I decided that it is worthy of LP Classics designation; a full post is forthcoming.

I did have a few Teddy tracks on some compilations, plus Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes’ Wake Up Everybody, their landmark 1975 LP with Teddy on lead vocals. That record included a bunch of great tracks, chief among them the rousing 5-star classic "Don’t Leave Me This Way." Even though the LP version is a scorcher, I decided to digitize a 2002 “re-edit” from Dimitri From Paris that modestly improves upon the track’s mixability.

The other track I selected is “You Can’t Hide From Yourself,” from Teddy’s 1977 eponymous solo debut LP. As the title might indicate, this became an anthem in gay discos. Philly Soul architects Gamble & Huff threw it down yet again, combining a thomping beat, blaring Philly horns, and a positive message with one of Teddy’s most urgent vocals.

Some biographical notes upon Teddy’s passing:

• Read his NY Times obituary or his Wikipedia page.
• Everything changed for Teddy after a 1982 car accident made him a paraplegic. Though he rarely performed live after the accident, he did keep making commercially successful records. But he mostly dedicated his post-accident life towards advocating for the rights of those with spinal cord injuries.
• Teddy got his start as a replacement drummer for Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. Harold quickly figured out that Teddy could also sing, and reassigned him to lead singer. Get a taste of Teddy’s percussion skills in the clip below (he picks up the drumsticks starting at 3:40):

• The ladies loved them some Teddy, and he occasionally put on shows where only women were allowed in the audience as he passed around lollipops shaped like himself (R. Kelly, take note). In researching Teddy’s life, I was surprised to learn there may have been another side to his image as the consummate ladies’ man. Because I want this space to value musical drama over the real-life variety, I won’t go into the details here, but a quick search about the nature of Teddy’s car accident will clue you in.

I Want You Back (Z-Trip Remix)
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Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Original Demo)
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I Can’t Help It (Tangoterje Remix)
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Rock With You (House Remix)
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They Don’t Care About Us (DJ Lt. Dan Remix)
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Don’t get me wrong. I had only a grain-of-sand sized belief that Michael Jackson would ever be relevant to my life again, at least from a musical perspective. Certainly, the tabloid drama that was his life continues to enthrall, but it never overshadowed the breathtaking catalog of recordings that he drove into creation.

It’s only been a week since he died, but I already feel everything has been said about the impact Jackson had on the culture. But when I hear “ABC” or “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” or “Off The Wall” or dozens of other classics, I can’t help but think back to my DJ days and the countless times Jackson saved my ass by energizing the dancefloor. The soul sickness that caused his life to devolve into an overdose of painkillers will soon be a distant memory.

The tracks I selected are not meant to be Michael Jackson’s greatest hits. But given that most people already have the entirety of Off The Wall and Thriller on their iPods, I thought I would share some outtakes and remixes of his work.

First up is a remix of “I Want You Back” that was on the Motown Remixed comp from a few years back. Normally, I’m not much of a Z-Trip fan, but he deftly tweaks the construction of this track, adding a new drumbeat but leaving the underlying groove intact. This version really highlights the interplay between 10-year old Jackson’s passionate vocals and his brothers’ smooth background harmonies.

A demo of “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” that appeared on an Off The Wall reissue provides a glimpse into Jackson’s recording process. Musically, the song lacks the lavish disco strings and brass overdubs, and Jackson was clearly still figuring out the lyrics. But you can hear this version and know it’s a hit song.

“I Can’t Help It” was written for Jackson by Stevie Wonder. This mellow remix by Tangoterje was pointed out to me by my Berlin-based friend, Pepe (thanks amigo, see you in a couple of weeks). Unlike Z-Trip (who had access to the original master recording), Tangoterje is working off the completed recording, yet he figures out a way to turn this lush mid-tempo ballad into a soulful, percussive booty-shaker.

The white-label remix of “Rock With You” is one of those dirty house records that I happened upon in my crate-digging days. Every once in awhile, I’d have a gig where I worked with a house DJ. This was always a bit stressful for me since I had a pretty limited selection of house records. This track satisfied the jaw-grinding set while staying true to my funk/R&B/hip hop roots.

The final track is also the strangest, and the only one I enjoy more than its original. “They Don’t Care About Us” is not one of Michael’s best songs, and the ill-worded “Sue me, Jew me… Kick me, Kike me” lyric is amongst Jackson’s stupidest moves. But this chopped and screwed mashup hits on so many levels. This remix style is often associated with downers (specifically, codeine-laden cough syrup), which is resonant given the cause of Michael Jackson’s death. And though his vocal style became increasingly staccato as his career progressed, slowing it down and marrying it with that addictive Dead Prez “Hip Hop” beat is just plain tough. Finally, laying on a quote from attorney Mark Gregaros in response to Jackson’s child molestation charges adds an ominous justification for the song’s bitter lyrics.

Hope you’re finally at peace, MJ.