I’m not capable of listening to music I love without playing it for other people.  Rather than forcing you to ride with me in my Escort with the busted out sound system or taking up your lunch break with homemade mixtapes, I thought I’d just leave the songs I love the most each weekend here for you to soak up at your leisure.  Here’s the first installment.  Be sure to stay tuned through the end, since this set ends with my FAVORITE SONG OF THE YEAR.

1.  Brand Nubian – “Step To The Rear”

Grand Puba is a monster.  A monster, friends.

2.  Black Sheep – “Similak Child”

We’re keeping it Native for the first chunk of this post.  Like a lot of whiteboys, ATCQ was my first hip hop obsession, which later spilled over into the entire Native Tongues clique.  I figured it might be a safe place to start for people who say they like every kind of music except from rap and country.  Things might get a little rougher later.

3.  Poor Righteous Teachers – “Word Is Bond”

More “conscious” rap from New Jersey’s finest.  Check that 808.

4.  K.M.D. – “Humrush”

A little Daisy Age DOOM.

5.  Bill Evans – “Theme From Spartacus”

Bill Evans is one of the two pianists on the jazz album that nearly everyone has, Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue.”  He’s also my favorite pianist, and this is from “Conversations With Myself,” where he overdubs take after take, yielding the cascading sound you hear here.  It works on the entire album, but this one grabbed me from the first time I heard it.

6.  Gonzales – “Gogol”

Gonzales is Chilly Gonzales, who is apparently a rapper, though I’ve never heard him do that.  He plays piano on both of Leslie Feist’s albums.  His playing and compositional style reminds me of Vince Guaraldi (the guy from the Peanuts cartoons).

7.  Feist – “Limit To Your Love”

Speaking of Leslie Feist.  This is what a great record sounds like after the hype has left it alone.  See also: Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend, The Strokes, The Police, et al.

8.  Benjy Ferree – “Private Honeymoon”

Such a weird, lovely song.

9.  David Amram – “Theme From Manchurian Candidate (Jazz Version)”

Keeping the weird and lovely thing going.  This is from the Sinatra version of the movie.  Oddly, the only way you can get this now is if you buy a package album with the music from the Denzel Washington version of the movie, which is all bland “suspense strings.”  I don’t know why they’d choose to cast the modern recording in such an unflattering light.

10.  Dusty Springfield – “No Easy Way Down”

Sigh.

11.  O.V. Wright – “I’m Going Home (To Live With God)

From O.V.’s years with the Hi Records band – the same one you can hear on every Al Green and Ann Peebles record.

12.  Aretha Franklin – “You’re All I Need To Get By”

This is my favorite Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell song, written by Ashford and Simpson.  Tammi sung it in a wheelchair because a brain tumor had immobilized her.  Marvin loved Tammi and Tammi loved Marvin.  I’m convinced of it.  But, obviously, this is Aretha’s version of it.  It’s irritating to me how she tries to cram in the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. reference, but I love the way she sings and plays it.

13.  Jamie Lidell – “Another Day”

Jamie Lidell is my modern-day hero.  I wasn’t sure it was possible to make soul music nowadays without sounding derivative and unoriginal, but Jamie proves that you can always find new space to express yourself within an existing idiom.  Innovation is great, but it’s not the only valid form of self-expression.

14.  Wale ft. Bun B – “Mirrors”

From Wale’s underwhelming but occasionally great full length album.  Bun B is a legend, and he just gobbles up poor Wale here.  I thought of this one because Jamie Lidell and Mark Ronson (the producer) seem to be among a handful of white English folks who’ve been listening to a lot of Motown and Atlantic records lately.

15.  G-Side – “So Wonderful”

There’s gonna be more of this Southern stuff later on.  The beats on this (free!) album are absolutely unlike anything else I’m hearing in hip-hop right now, and G-Side are passionate rappers who don’t just rap about rapping (I’m looking at you, Royce).

16.  Robyn/Royksopp – “The Girl and the Robot”

Royksopp don’t deserve Robyn.  Robyn is, hands-down, the best melody writer/pop lyricist going right now.  I would throw down a few bucks just to hear what she sings in the shower each morning.  Don’t get me wrong, Royksopp have created a sturdy ladder for her to climb, but I’ve heard the rest of their album, and they don’t reach heights anything like this anywhere else on it.  Robyn could take over the world and her sheer soul power would remain intact, which I honestly can’t say about anyone else right now.  Even Kelly Clarkson, who appears to be bulletproof.

Magnificent day of singing and strumming and then some more strumming and singing.

There’s nothing like a few good ukuleles and a few good folk to uke around with!

Here’s a question: “I Only Want To Be With You” (made famous by – among others – Dusty Springfield).

Opinion was divided:

Slow and wistful (and full of longing for someone to realise you are The One)

or

Fast and bouncy (and full of excitement at realising that you’ve met The One)?

Both work, but I opt for one more than the other.

Wondering about other folk ….

Chart Position: NR

• Written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin
• Originally recorded by Barbara Lewis (1966)
• Rhythm track was recorded in Memphis TN
• Vocals were recorded in New York City NY
• Produced by Jerry Wexler and Arif Marden
• Also recorded by American Breed (1967) and P.J. Proby (1967)

y él era el olvidado titiritero gabo lara, el pequeño, cuadrado y barbiblanco hombre de ojos verdes y desconcertantes y dedos dolorosamente artríticos que, de haberle dado el sí a jim henson hace treinta y tantos años ··antes de que plaza sésamo existiera·· cuando henson lo invitó a desayunar a polanco y le pidió que se integrara a su equipo de cuatro o cinco personas, habría estado dentro de montoya todos estos años. en vez de caroll spinney, habría sido lara el hombre dentro de montoya, lara el que habría figurado en el paseo de la fama de hollywood, lara el que habría viajado a china junto a bob hope… o su esposa, rosanna, encantada en recordarlo a la par que intoxicaba su hígado por dos razones inamovibles: por todo lo que no había sucedido y por todo lo que había sucedido. pero como lara no habría sido más feliz adentro de montoya que lo que era adentro de rosanna, no le afectó demasiado el abucheo. en 1989, cuando lara fue desacreditado públicamente por un flagrante escándalo por acoso sexual a una niña cuarenta años más joven que él, rosanna tuvo que ser internada un mes en una institución psiquiátrica por un colapso alcohólico, a causa del escándalo y de la humillación.

clic derecho :·: descargar
dusty springfield : what do you do when love dies?

Tom Dowd was a brilliant mathematician and physicist who changed careers abruptly after the development of the atomic bomb and changed the course of musical history. He is responsible for Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Cream, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers Band, Dusty Springfield and countless other celebrated musicians. Dowd also formed both strong professional and personal relationships with many of these artists, including Eric Clapton, starting with Cream and leading to their working partnership on Layla and Other Assorted Loves Songs and collaborations on several of Clapton’s finest solo albums. So much of the music i love was produced by him, and yet he was man behind the curtain. Even being responsible for so much of musical history, he, like Geoff Emerick before him, was paid only scale and was never compensated commensurate to the contribution he made to history. See http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/

una voce meravigliosa racchiusa in un’anima soul, questa era Dusty Springfield… ascoltare le sue song mi fa venire ancora i brividi…

per chi ancora non la conoscesse… si faccesse del bene, cominciasse ad ascoltarla per tutti gli altri.. buon tuffo nella nostalgia

Buon ascolto…

You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me

Son Of A Preacher Man

I Only Want To Be With You

Wishin’ And Hopin’ (questa è una chicca, canta assieme ad una delle colonne portanti della TamlaMotown Records… Martha Reeves & The Vandellas)

manca… cavoli se ci manca!

So, I caught a free screening of Pirate Radio last night (today is its opening day in the states). I don’t want to dishearten Richard Curtis fans who treasure Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually (neither of which I’ve seen), but he dropped a big bloody bollock with this movie (known as The Boat That Rocked in the UK).

How can that be, you ask? It’s about a British pirate radio station during the mid-1960s. Its soundtrack boasts choice cuts from the British Invasion. And it’s got a charming cast. How can a movie be bad when it has Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy and Nick Frost and Rhys Ifans and Rhys Darby and cast members from The IT Crowd, along with cameos from Emma Thompson and January Jones? Kenneth Branagh even goes all campy villain on us as the station’s bureaucratic nemesis (see also Wild Wild West, a terrible movie where he chews some scenery as the bad guy). That sounds great on paper. Even if it’s saddled with boomer era clichés about free love and rock music changing the world, it’s gotta be fun, right? Who doesn’t want to run a pirate radio station on a boat with these folks?

There’s so much wrong with this hack job of a movie. There’s a lot left unexplained. How did this ragtag group get a boat? Why is rock music illegal to broadcast in 1960s Great Britain? How are these radio personalities so famous? There’s also lots of truncated plot points and weird tonal shifts and nonsensical character motivations which I don’t think would have been aided by the original cut’s three-hour running time. The protagonist is a bloke named Carl (played by Tom Sturridge) who may or may not have been put on the boat by his mother to meet his dad, but I’m too bored to care. And that’s saying something, as his dad is played by Ralph Brown, who was Danny the Dealer in Withnail and I.

I’d also mention that it’s kinda disheartening to see Hoffman — who plays a crusty American deejay named the Count — spout rockist catchphrases like “a whop bam boo” and “young men and young women will always dream dreams and put those dreams into song” with stealy-eyed import. But it’s also kinda amazing. A lesser actor couldn’t pull it off. But Hoffman makes Count’s turn of phrase sound like some kind of rock deejay John McClane. Oh, and he almost drowns when the boat sinks. Except he doesn’t and emerges victoriously (and ridiculously) from the North Sea. Such is the power of rock. 

But I think you know what my big problem is. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the roles for women and girls are marginal and insultingly one-dimensional. While I think there may have been an effort to keep their presence ornmanental so as to make a commentary on the era’s regressive attitude toward gender and sexual politics, I think the movie exacerbates the problem rather than rectify it.

There are groovy birds (re: prostitutes, groupies, and moms) who board the ship to “service” the talent, sometimes pretending to love one crew member to get closer to another and wounding their pride. Awesome. 

There’s one woman in the crew — a lesbian named Felicity (played by Katherine Parkinson) who basically serves as the ship’s put-upon housewife. She does get a girlfriend, but this is given for too obvious, peripheral treatment to seem as real progress.

There are no musicians, except for women like Dusty Springfield, Skeeter Davis, and Sandy Shaw who function as playlist selections.

There are also huddles of simpering female fans who listen attentively to the radio — students, flight attendants, secretaries, cleaning ladies, mothers, wives, single women, waitresses, and shopgirls. None of them speak, though many giggle. They also lack names. Oh, correction. Kenneth Branaugh’s secretary Miss C (played by Sinead Matthews) sort of gets one.

Anyway, this sucks, and a likeable cast can’t salvage its suckitude. So I suggest instead of seeing this movie that you watch Jane Campion’s A Girl’s Own Story instead. Here’s a scene. Wish I could post the whole thing.

Made in 1984 and available on the Criterion Collection edition of Campion’s debut feature, Sweetie, this short focuses on a group of Australian schoolgirls who came of age during Beatlemania. It showcases the complex relationships girls have with their fandom, along with their homosocial friendships and burgeoning sexuality. It’s pretty awesome, and actually suggests what it may have been like to be a teenaged girl during rock’s golden era. Pirate Radio couldn’t be bothered.

“Breakfast In Bed” – Dusty Springfield

To buy the music of Dusty Springfield click HERE

“Orange Juice Blues (Blues For Breakfast)” – Bob Dylan & The Band

To buy the music of Bob Dylan click HERE

Cover to Girl Groups, Girl Culture (Routledge, 2007); image courtesy of routledgemusic.com

For financial reasons, I was only able to swing one day of Fun Fun Fun Fest so I’m blogging while many in this fair city are catching some good music in Waterloo Park. Although, admittedly, if you’re gonna do one day of the festival, I think yesterday was the way to go. I got to check several bands I’ve never seen before off my list: No Age (who I’ve missed by a marrow margin at least three times), Jesus Lizard, Pharcyde, Les Savy Fav, and Death.

But if you have the scratch, please make sure everyone sees one of Mika Miko’s last shows ever on the black stage at 2:55. I might try to get down there later just to hear it from the other side of the fence.

Mika Miko’s exceptional presence on this year’s bill seems as good a place as any to remember that, as Melissa at GRCA astutely pointed out in her recent post, this year boasts a very dudecentric line-up. So I’ll review Jacqueline Warwick’s book Girl Groups, Girl Culture: Popular Music and Identity in the 1960s book in the hopes that at least one historically significant girl group or all-female band will reunite for next year’s FFFF like Death did this year. And like the Shangri-Las did at CBGB’s in 1977.

As much as I hate comparing women’s work so as to pit them in opposition, Warwick’s book is a tremendous example of how effective it can be to narrow the scope of the cultural moment being covered, something I wish Charlotte Greig would have considered when penning her book on girl groups. While Greig truncates the history of the girl group era in order to broaden the definition of what a girl group is, Warwick focuses primarily on this brief but important moment in history (roughly between 1958 and 1965), considering its ongoing influence as an epilogue.

By taking this approach, Warwick considers the girl group era and its participants from several different, often surprising, areas of inquiry. As a result, she proves the cultural signficance of a popular form dismissed by many as superficial, polished, and phony who instead tend to favor rock music’s supposed transcendent raw authenticity, and argues strongly that this binary construction is inherently gendered. Duh, and amen.

Warwick posits that one of the most important things about the girl group era was its insistence on putting girls and young women in the spotlight, introducing a complex, celebratoryn and at times contradictory performance of what the author calls “girlness”. Often, these ladies were working class, and of African American or mixed racial and ethnic heritage. They had few options for financial mobility and minimal career prospects being marriage, motherhood, clerical jobs, and day labor. Forming vocal groups together and cutting records gave them access to other opportuntities toward professional advancement and personal growth, expanding the idea of girlhood as an identity across race and class lines. 

Sometimes these groupings resulted in the cultivation of considerable, devoted fan bases that, in The Supremes and The Ronnettes’ cases, were comparable to Beatlemania. Some of those fans were even other male-only rock bands, like The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and later, The Ramones. Take that, pop-rock, girl-boy binaries!

In other words, I’m telling you to read this book.

One thing I appreciate about Warwick’s book from the outset is the celebration of the female voice. As I’ve long believed and argued extensively in this blog, we cannot give short-shrift to singers. While they can assuredly be tokenized and objectified, but they can also be empowered, embodied, and forge their own agency. Heartenly, she finds much going on with the voice, a distinct instrument no matter how it may have been manipulated or homogenized by label owners like Motown’s Barry Gordy and producers like Phil Spector and his overwhelming wall of sound. She hears the genteel precision of Diana Ross’s soprano, the urgent purr of Ronnie Spector’s husky alto, the untrained wavering of Shirelle Shirley Owens’s pitch, the gutteral inflections on Supreme Florence Ballard’s tone, the put-on nasal affectations of Broadway-trained groups like The Angels, the racial dimensions of Dusty Springfield’s blue-eyed soul, and the teenaged monotone of Shangri-La Mary Weiss.

She also hears these girls singing to one another, often in their own forms of feminine dialect and for the purposes of providing support and advice. On record, acts like The Dixie Cups, The Crystals, Betty Everett, and The Velvelettes would pepper their songs with seemingly nonsensical words and phrases like “iko iko,” “da doo ron ron,” “shoop,” and “doo lang doo lang,” often provided by backing vocalists as a means of support for the lead vocalist, who might be intimating her feelings about burgeoning romance or her conflicted feelings in the aftermath of a break-up.

Often, these girls were providing one another moral support and providing advice as well. While Warwick notes that advice songs tended to be the domain of girl groups with African American members like The Velvelettes, The Shirelles, The Chiffons, and The Marvelettes, they often imparted wisdom to their audiences that they learned from their mothers or their sisters, as well as sharing what they’ve learned from their own experiences. In doing so, these songs provided a counterargument to the assertion that girl groups only sang about boys and also expanded female discourse in popular music by including the words and experiences of generations of women into then present-day pop songs by girls.  

It cannot be ignored that while many girl group songs were written by men, not all of them were. As mentioned elsewhere, Brill Building stalwarts like Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, and Carole King were of paramount importance to the era. Many of these women, like Greenwich, wrote about seemingly teenage issues like young love and treated it as legitimate, at times giving it life-and-death importance, as she did on The Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack.” 

King is a particularly interesting case as well. Before striking out on her own as a solo artist, she wrote many important songs for girl groups. Some songs, like The Crystals’ “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)” address the troubling and dangerous aspects of patriarchy and oppression, and have been covered to harrowing effect by bands like Hole and Grizzly Bear.

Other songs King penned gesture toward the era’s prescience regarding shifting cultural attitudes toward feminism, female agency, and sexual autonomy, as on The Shirelles’ anthemic “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” 

Girl groups were also clearly singing with one another, as girl groups often were comprised of siblings and relatives who wore matching outfits and performed intricate choreography to suggest that these girls were a unit, despite at times having clearly defined lead singers and stars who (especially in Diana Ross’s case) were thin and had a more conventional look and sound.

It was this image coordination that made The Ronnettes able to ingratiate night clubs when they were underaged, gave them the confidence to perform at those night clubs, and provided them with a sense of belonging that made them tough enough to brave any New York City street. It also makes this sense of actual or engineered sisterhood and camderadie seem especially fragile when success encroaches on it, as the tragic dimensions of Estelle Bennett and Florence Ballard’s post-girl group lives remind. 

Warwick shies from making any explicitly queer connections to girl groups beyond passing references to Springfield and Lesley Gore’s orientations and their relationships with the closet. I would have liked a bit more discussion of the queer dynamics of the groups’ homosocial bonding both on- and off-record. A brief appraisal of queer fandom (seemingly most pronounced among certain circles of gay men, though not exclusively) would also have been appreciated.

That said, I do appreciate Warwick reminding her readers of girl groups’ continual impact. As this is the section of the book that gets less focus, it would be worthwhile to read Warwick’s and Greig’s books together to get a larger sense of how punk, hip hop, and contemporary pop music were influenced by girl groups.

I would hasten to add country music to the list of genres that were shaped by this era. Given last night’s Saturday Night Live, which featured crossover star Taylor Swift as both host and musical guest (a rare opportunity for most pop stars, unless they are Justin or Britney). Watching her play a brace-faced teenager in a skit about parents who are worse drivers than their kids and her performance of “You Belong To Me” complete with careful, song-appropriate gestures, it was clear to me that the girl group era continues. As Mika Miko performs one of their last shows later today, I’ll wonder where it’ll permeate next.

This is a real gem from 1970 from a Burt Bacharach TV special.

You probably know “The Look Of Love” from the brilliant Dusty Springfield. It pops up in movies all the time and is the perfect soundtrack song.

This a duet between Dusty and French chanteuse Mireille Mathieu. Dusty sings in English and Mireille sings in French, often echoing each other’s lines. Their voices work really well together and the mixture of languages really takes the song to another level.

The camera angles and lighting are quite innovative too giving some memorable visuals of the two beautiful women.

Thank you to Jim Witt for cleaning up the video and sharing it on Youtube.

#193  Dusty Springfield > Son Of A Preacher Man
Dusty Springfield är utan tvekan den främsta pipan som Storbritannien någonsin fått fram. Det är svårt att inte bli förförd av rösten som gick bort 1999, alldeles för tidigt, endast 60 år gammal. Dusty Springfields karriär spann över fjäderlätt 50-talspop, via 60-talets Motownsoul, 70-talets Phillysoul fram till samarbetet med 80-talets popikoner Pet Shop Boys. Den som inte äger albumet ’Dusty In Memphis’ från 1969 bör ta sig en allvarlig funderare. På albumet finns bl.a. mästerverket ’Son Of A Preacher Man’, som från början var öronmärkt åt Aretha Franklin men som nobbade för att sedan ångra sig…

The next installment from On Vine Street is Cilla Black’s version of “I’ve Been Wrong Before”.

For good measure, the Dusty Springfield take.

And, someone went to the trouble of mashing the two versions together. Addendum, looks like the embedding was disabled for this one. Here’s the link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bZmDeHlkiw&feature=related

After yesterday’s posting lamenting the unsuccessful search for Dusty Springfield’s “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today”, our kid John-O dug it up.

http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/424839/2429808

“What Have I Done to Deserve This?” is a 1987 collaboration between two UK recording artists, Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield. The track was the second single from their second album “Actually“. It was produced by Stephen Hague.

When released in late 1987, it peaked at #2 in the UK charts and at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the fourth Top Ten hit for Pet Shop Boys as well as the biggest hit of Springfield’s career in the U.S. The single made it to #1 on the Irish singles chart, where it was Pet Shop Boys’ second #1 hit in the space of just six weeks.

The song’s success helped revive Springfield’s career and led to a resurgence of interest in her music. Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield mimed a performance of the song for the 1988 BRIT Awards. Following the duet the Pet Shop Boys wrote and produced the singles “Nothing Has Been Proved” and “In Private” for Springfield, both included on her 1990 album Reputation.

This is my favorite Pet Shop Boys single and favorite b-side as well, it was “A New Life”. I have included it as a bonus download.

I have always thought of this track belonging to their more “classy, cool” repertoire, alongside say, “Being Boring”. As opposed to songs which are “less refined” (100% subjective) such as “It’s A Sin” or “Go West”.

Remixes on this 12″ single were in charge of two amazing DJ’s, that would probably go on my top ten list: Shep Pettibone and François Kevorkian.

All in all, a Pet Shop Boys must.

Single Information:

This promo came in a generic EMI sleeve.

Label:

EMI-Manhattan Records

Catalog Number:

SPRO-04013, SPRO-04014

Track Listing and Details:

Side One

1. What Have I Done To Deserve This? (Shep Pettibone Remix) (8:28)

2. What Have I Done To Deserve This? (Dub Mix) (6:51)

Side Two

3. Rent (François Kevorkian Remix) (7:06)

4. I Want A Dog (4:58)

Step To The Beat Bonus Track

5. A New Life

Credits:

Produced by Stephen Hague (tracks: 1, 2)
Remix by Shep Pettibone (tracks: 1, 2)
Produced and engineered by Julian Mendelsohn (track 3)
Remix by Francois Kevorkian and Michael Hutchinson (track 3)
Produced by Pet Shop Boys (track 4)
Produced by David Jacob and Pet Shop Boys (track 5)

Rip Information:

Source: US promo 12″ single, except “A New Life” ripped from the “Alternative” CD.

Format: mp3

Bitrate: 320 kbps

Password: steptothebeatblog

To rate this post, click on the comments hyperlink below its title.

The version from On Vine Street is by Dusty Springfield, but I couldn’t find a sample of it. Instead I’m including versions by Claudine Longet, Nina Simone and Melanie.

Baseball season is almost over. That used to mean the start of an even more exciting time — basketball season.

Over a roughly 25-year stretch that started in the late ’60s and ended in the early ’90s, basketball was my great passion.

It was the game I hoped to play … until I got cut in seventh grade. It was the game I stayed close to as a team manager in high school … until they hired a coach everyone hated. It was the game I played into my 40s … until my ankles and Achilles said it was time to go.

The lovely Janet also was a basketball fan. We were fortunate enough to see lots of NBA games during the ’80s, when our once-beloved Milwaukee Bucks were good and when we were treated to playoff showdowns against Bird’s Boston Celtics and Dr. J’s Philadelphia 76ers at the old Milwaukee Arena. Do you remember the floor?

But those days are gone. The NBA is all but unwatchable these days.

Besides, it won’t be long before The Spectrum, where those Sixers played, will be gone, too. We never made it to The Spectrum.

Neither did our friends over at Barely Awake in Frog Pajamas, who nonetheless have written a lovely tribute to The Spectrum. It says everything I could have hoped to say about the place, from pretty much the same vantage points of distance and time.

They also dug up a great picture of Dr. J dunking on Lonnie Shelton. They also laid out some nice Philly soul. Here’s more from Philly.

“The Rubberband Man,” 1976, from “The Best of the Spinners,” 1978. Philly soul meets the dance floor. A tune that suggests the athleticism of the NBA that was.

“Cheaper To Keep Her,” MFSB, from “Love is the Message,” 1973. (It’s out of print, but the song is available digitally.) Philly soul meets jazz. A tune that suggests the sophistication of the NBA that was.

“Never Love Again,” Dusty Springfield, from “A Brand New Me,” 1970. (It’s out of print, but is available digitally.) This is Dusty in Philly, doing tunes written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff (and Roland Chambers on this one), arranged by Thom Bell and performed by the studio musicians that became MFSB. An all-star lineup that suggests the NBA that was.

I’m not sure what it is about this season of Dancing with the Stars (Season 9), but I am not as into it as I have been in the past seasons.I had a hard time watching all of the dances. And for the stars that I don’t like, I only half watched them.

Again this week, there will be a double elimination.

Who did the best and WOW — maybe they can dance: Kelly Osbourne and Louis van Amstel. She is my favorite female star. I would like to see her get a little sassier when she dances.

Who should be going home? Here are my two picks:

Mark Dacascos and Lacey Schwimmer (Anna Trebunskaya filled in for Lacey) — time is running out for Mark to make it to the next rounds.

I don’t think Michael Irvin and Anna Demidova will make it past this week. His charm can only take him so far.

I really don’t want Aaron Carter and Karina Smirnoff and Joanna Krupa and Derek Hough to make it to the finals. There is just something about them that I don’t like.

Side Notes:

• I just think that Len does not like Mya and Dmitry Chaplin. I’m just not sure what he wants from her? Is he judging her like she should be a professional dancer?

• Team Tango – Joanna & Derek, Kelly & Louis and Donny & Kym did the best team dance.

• Dmitry Chaplin — good with an open shirt! Aaron Carter — not good in an open shirt!

• Why did Kelly Osbourne make Louis van Amstel wear those pants!! I think he liked them a little too much!

• Joanna Krupa and Derek Hough on the beach… what happened last time Derek was on the beach with hie partner (remember Shannon Elizabeth??)

• Favorite song of the night: “The Look of Love“—Dusty Springfield

publiquei este post no dia 27 de agosto de 2009, no outro blog. quando ainda trabalhava em veja. agora, me preparo para assumir um novo cargo, em outro endereço: no dia três de novembro entrego a foto 3 x 4 para ser estampada no crachá do iG. vou ser editora de gastronomia (!).

ainda vale:

Não somos nós (as revistas e guias e muito menos esta que vos fala) que dizemos a você o que fazer e aonde ir. O jogo é: fornecemos os elementos para que os que lêem ou escutam tomem as próprias decisões, façam suas escolhas. No entanto, eu gosto de palpitar na trilha sonora dos outros. Não me entenda mal, não é porque sou mais ou menos sabida. É porque não entendo a vida sem música e vou escolhendo versos para ilustrar. Talvez seja a frustração de não ser afinada, mas não vem ao caso. Aqui vai mais uma dose.

Procurava, para o boletim daquele dia de hoje (ontem), algo que tratasse de independência, ou que dissesse o que todo mundo tem vontade de dizer no mínimo uma vez por dia — ou muitas — para pessoas diferentes ou para os suspeitos de sempre: não me diga o que fazer. Me deixa em paz. Não fale nem escreva no imperativo

Não é exatamente uma tarefa difícil, e por isso mesmo é complexa. Mas foi assim que encontrei no meio dos meus arquivos a idéia (não é exata) na letra de Lesley Gore para You Don’t Own Me. Escolhi a gravação de Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) — sim, uma garota chamada poeira. E A Girl Called Dusty é justamente o nome do disco de onde tirei a faixa (1964, pelo que pesquisei).

Ajuda a entender com que predicados essa artista inglesa e branca virou referência da soul music nos anos 60 do século passado. Foi uma das vozes européias mais importantes, arrebentou quando foi para os Estados Unidos. Ia, com força e charme, de Burt Bacharach a sucessos da gravadora Motown. É de Dusty Springfield a voz sensual que destila os inconfundíveis versos de The Look Of Love no genial filme Casino Royale, de 1967.



This Saturday things will go bump in the night, carved orange faces will eerily light up door steps and ghouls, gargoyles, skeletons and black cats will take to the streets.  Halloween, it’s just like any other night out in London.

To celebrate the spooky occasion, The Fashion Office have dedicated this week’s issue to Fright Night with Songs To Trick Or Treat To.  Whether you’re planning on seeking out what rewards await you behind neighbouring doors, or simply celebrating with a few cold witches brews, here’s our tracks to get you into the supernatural spirit.

Happy Halloween.

New Favourite Thing recommends: Hocus Pocus – I Put A Spell On You.

A Work In Progress opts for: The Rocky Horror Show – Timewarp.

Frankie chooses: Backstreet Boys – Everybody. 

Sartoriology picks the ultimate horror of horrors:  Thriller by Michael Jackson.

Stevie asks who you gonna call?: Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters!

New recruit Gemma elects: Alice Cooper – Feed My Frankenstein.

Soldiersailor recommends: Dusty Springfield – Spooky.

Last week, Sostylistic left us for pastures new.  Find out which Songs About Leaving we dedicated to the occasion to ensure she never forgets her time with The Fashion Office.

Dusty Springfield anses av många som en av världens bästa soulsångerskor genom tiderna Hon hade otaliga hits under 60 och 70 talet.
Hon fick  leva nästan hela sitt korta liv i garderoben. Som den pop och modeikon hon var på 60 talet, var det  inte tal om att hon var lesbisk skulle få läcka ut. Klimatet tillät det inte, det var först  på slutet som hon kunde berätta att hon var lesbisk

Botton Brothers’ Ghost Train, photographed by Jack Leeson, 14 June 1965
Listen to this episode (to download, ctrl click and ’save target as’)
Dead – The Poets
My Wife and My Dead Wife – Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
El Contrabajo Fantasma – Generoso Jiminez
Haunted – Dusty Springfield
Ghost Riders in the Sky – Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers
Ghosts – Ladytron
The Lover’s Ghost – US Navy Sea Chanters
24 Hour Store – The Handsome Family
Laurie – Dickey Lee
Of Lillies and Remains – Bauhaus
Long Black Veil – Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
There’s a Ghost in My House – R Dean Taylor
The Spook – Emil & The Ecstatics
Ghostfaced Killer – The Dead 60s
Haunting Me – The Tiger Lillies
Ghost Dance – Prince Buster
The Haunted Ocean 2 – Max Richter
Wuthering Heights – The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Bach’s Cello Sonata in G Minor – Tom Koopman