August 4th, 2009 | No Comments »
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Elton John
Bennie And The Jets
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Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1974)
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R. Kelly (w/T.I. & T-Pain)
I’m A Flirt (Remix)
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Album: Double Up (2007)
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In this post, I feature distant Musical Cousins R. Kelly and Elton John. They don’t have any obvious connection but somehow it’s clear to me that R. Kelly had “Bennie And The Jets” in mind when he wrote “I’m A Flirt.” The bouncy, driving piano lines that feed both tracks result in vastly different songs, but both are 5-star classics to this listener.
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Published in Music, Musical Cousins |
February 16th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
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People Say
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Just Kissed My Baby
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Africa
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Album: Rejuvenation (1974)
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Though it’s not the most popular of The Meters’ records (I would guess it’s a tossup between Look-Ka Py Py and Fire On The Bayou), 1974′s Rejuvenation captures the transition from The Meters’ early, tight funk days to their later, jam-band incarnation.
Though The Meters haven’t released a studio album in the past 30 years, they continue to tour with some permutation of the original lineup. I’ve had the privilege of seeing them live on many occasions during the mid-1990s, and it is impossible not to seriously get down at a Meters show.
Though my perception of The Meters is rooted in their live performances, that’s a limited perspective, and there is no greater testament to this than the volumes of artists who have recorded with, covered, or sampled The Meters over the years: Paul McCartney, Labelle (The Meters were the studio band for “Lady Marmalade”), The Grateful Dead, A Tribe Called Quest, and many others.
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Published in Crate Diggin', Music |
January 11th, 2009 | No Comments »
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Bus Stop
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Laid Back
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Album: Bus Stop (1974)
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Introducing Crate Diggin’, where I’ll digitize some tracks from my neglected record collection. I’ll try to focus on music that is still unavailable on CD and artists you may not be familiar with. This feature will be heavy on soul/funk/jazz from 1970-1975, since that’s what I was into when I was on the vinyl tip.
To kick things off, I’ve unearthed a record I picked up when I lived in New Orleans, Oliver Sain’s Bus Stop. Oliver was a big name in the St. Louis R&B scene, not just as a sax player, but also as a songwriter and producer. Each year, he organized an annual Soul Reunion, which just celebrated its 45th anniversary (even though Sain died in 2003).
Bus Stop was his second LP as a solo artist and focused on Oliver’s songwriting and sax skills. The record is a mixture of funk, blues, and the unfortunately-titled track, “Blowing For Love.”
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Published in Crate Diggin', Music |
