There is no escaping the fact Santamas is almost upon us, so if you are in a festive mood already or struggling to get there; allow this playlist into your ears (the first 50 are mine, the rest are from Twitterers) feel free to add, or if you don’t have Spotify, comment with a recommendation. Cheers.

Here be playlist.

Sundays will never be the same again, well not on the 3rd sunday of every month. Get some soul in your life at ‘MOJO’ bar on albert rd in the southsea village. Starts at 4pm, and its free, come down for a few drinks, and listen to some uplifting soul music. The Funk Brother DJs will be playing some of the finest slices of Motown & Soul.

MOJO is the perfect place for this great music, the people who run it, just love SOUL, NORTHERN SOUL, MOTOWN, GROOVY SIXTIES, R&B, & SKA.

If you not been before get yourself down there, and check it out…..

See you for Four O’ clock Worship on SUNDAY 20th DECEMBER.

This is also our Christmas Party, so we shall be celebrating and playing some Christmas Soul. Which funk brother or soul sister is bringing the mistletoe and mince pies!!!!!!!!!

I’m obsessed with this video today.  Download mp3 version here.

She is an amazing singer, so distinct and her songs are just genius. I think my favorite is this one.

Etta James – There Is No Greater Love

Edwin Starr – “Twenty-Five Miles,” Pop # 6, R&B #6

By Joel Francis

If the horn arrangement on “Twenty-Five Miles” sounds like something out of the Stax studio, that’s because it is. Motown songwriters Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol based their number on the obscure Wilson Pickett song “32 Miles Out of Waycross (Mojo Mama)” written by Bert Berns and Jerry Wexler and recorded in 1967.

It’s little surprise Fuqua and Bristol turned to a Pickett number when looking for material for Edwin Starr. Like Pickett, Starr was a strong baritone who sang from the throat. And like fellow Motown family member Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops, Starr’s voice was seeped in the Southern style.

Unlike, Stubbs, however, Starr didn’t have a string of hits under his belt, which made him a bit of an outcast at the label. A Detroit native who somehow escaped Berry Gordy’s eagle eye for talent, Starr’s biggest hit. to date was the 1965 song “Agent Double ‘O’ Soul” recorded on the Ric-Tic label. Three years later, when Motown purchased Ric-Tick in 1968, Starr joined the Hitsville stable.

“Twenty-Five Miles” opens with Benny Benjamin’s athletic drumming and he stays front and center as the funky scoutmaster that keeps Starr’s (and everyone on the dance floor) feet relentlessly moving. The bass line echoes a horn line that has become a staple of marching and pep bands across the country. The listener never learns what happens when Starr reaches his destination, but the energetic vocals definitely prove that getting there is half the fun.

Although “25 Miles” was a Top 10 hit, it often been overlooked when acts mine the Motown catalog. For nearly 20 years, Charles Wright and the Watts 103^rd Street Rhythm Band were the only group to cover the song. Their version was released several months after Starr’s as an album track on “In the Jungle, Babe.” In 1989, UK dance outfit the Cookie Crew sampled “25 Miles” on their hit “Got to Keep On.” Australian boy band Human Nature covered “25 Miles” on their 2005 release “Reach Out: The Motown Album.”

Author: Mirian Guimaraes-Thomas
Source: ezinearticles.com

A child prodigy who goes on to create history is not an everyday occurrence. Michael Jackson was one such rare gem who happened to be one of the biggest pop stars ever to moonwalk the earth. His albums continue to sell in droves, and the news of his death stimulated even more sales. Eight out of ten songs on the top 10 iTunes list happens to be his, probably something that no artist, living or dead, has ever achieved.

As in all the best fairytales, Michael Jackson had very humble beginnings. He was raised in a large family with 9 siblings. He started performing at the tender age of 4. He and his brothers led by their and father (and then manager) joined classic Motown records. Motown of course had and has some of the biggest stars in the history of music and the Jacksons carried on the Motown tradition. The Jackson 5 were born and on their way to superstardom

Michael had a vibrant career as a child star. He was welcomed by a host of television stations and continued to record albums with Motown. However, there was a lot more waiting for Michael Jackson outside of his band. He was yearning and waiting to break free and release albums as a solo artist.

After meeting music producer Quincy Jones, he fired his father as the producer, “Michael Jackson“, and recorded some of his career best singles with Jones and Motown records. In 1982 Michael Jackson created history with the album and video, Thriller. This album redefined production music and is considered by many to be the work of a genius. It had some of the best Jackson singles all compiled into one album. In fact, seven of the nine songs were in the top ten lists, a feat that no other album has achieved. The album also opened doors for other African American artists, a genre which experienced decline in the early 80’s years.

Michael Jackson’s continued collaborating with Motown, “Michael Jackson“, and produced some of the best songs ever produced and performed. Motown truly helped propel Michael to supersonic stardom – the stardom he had always yearned for.

Michael Jackson with the help of Motown broke records, achieved feats and is set to be one of the all time greats in the pop genre. His daring videos, his moonwalk on Motown 25, altruistic nature, he is unsurpassed as a performer, as an entertainer.

Michael Jackson and Motown are a partnership no one will forget.

If you want to learn more about the late and great Michael Jackson, you could do worse than visit this site, mostly about Jackson & Thriller Or if you are a fan of Michael’s work and would like to contribute to the site there is a contact form there too.

Die Tonqualität ist etwas kratzig, geht aber so.

Unforgettable

January 11th – 17th, 2010

Smokey Robinson. There is a name to take you waaaaay back before most of us at BFP uttered our first squeaks.

Motown. The Temptations. Black music going mainstream and then taking over the airways everywhere for a few years. A reverse British-Invasion in the UK. Riots in Detroit and Watts by people who had been held down too long as the handmaids for those who had and kept the money. You could put in ten years on the assembly line at General Electric in New Jersey, but if you wanted to do $500 on the never-never towards a new Chevrolet in 1963 you had better have been white.

Aretha Franklin. Pretty. Beautiful voice. Powerful. Sexy in a wholesome sort of way like Tracy Chapman is now. Not adhering to that international model look that all the big female singers have now. Aretha made it on message, energy and singing talent. No nipple rings or barbed wire necessary.

I’m almost frightened to look up Smokey Robinson’s age on Wikipedia so I won’t. I don’t care if they have to wheel him out on stage with an IV drip and an oxygen tank at his side, I’m going. (Hey… just kidding about that. The online reviews of his concerts are 100% positive and the guy is still dancing around stage in full leather tight pants surrounded by sweet young things. Whatever he’s eating, I’ll have some!)

Smokey Robinson was VP and #2 at Motown when the music was part of the big social changes and instrumental in the growth black consciousness. I don’t know what to expect of his current performance, but I’m going and nothing can stop me.

Barbados Jazz Festival website

As far as I’m concerned, the best thing about yesterday’s Lions-Packers game was the halftime show.

Motown Records celebrated its 50th anniversary with a tribute show at Ford Field.  Up-and-coming artists signed to the modern incarnation of the label, Universal-Motown, performed a medley of classic hits released in the brand’s heyday (the 1960s).

The first performer on stage captivated me so much that I literally tuned out the rest of the show.  Performing the 1963 Martha Reeves and the Vandellas hit “Heat Wave,” 15 year-old Vita Chambers made my jaw drop with her beauty and her voice.  A native of Barbados, Chambers seems to be virtually unknown at this point (she doesn’t even have her own Wikipedia entry yet); in my quest to learn more about her, all I could find were links to MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.

I’ve definitely got to check Chambers’ music out.  Being signed to Motown, I would expect it to be of some quality, rather than in the vein of Rihanna and a few other contemporary bubblegum pop artists whose songs have little (if any) substance.

T 54041 (A) – b/w Never Let You Go (Sha Lu Bop)

May 1961

Written by Berry Gordy

As has already been explained, the reasons for Marvin Gaye having two singles released within five days of each other during the same week in May 1961 were somewhat complicated.

On the one hand, there was the smooth MOR easy listening cover of (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over by clean-cut all-American would-be crooner Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who wanted nothing more than a solid career churning out serviceable renditions of pop standards, enjoying respectable sales and carving out a niche as the new Nat King Cole.

On the other hand, there was this, a doo-wop flavoured, downtempo but unmistakeably R&B ballad, credited (for the first time on record) to “Marvin Gaye”, released less than a week later. Both singles, and their respective B-sides, would feature on Gaye’s debut LP, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, slated for a summer release a couple of weeks down the line.

The dual-handed approach was the result of a battle between Gaye and Motown chief Berry Gordy over the direction young Marvin’s musical career would take. Gaye wanted to sing standards for the rest of his life, Gordy wanted him to ditch the MOR chestnuts and unleash the potential R&B idol he saw beneath the surface. The compromise saw Gordy greenlight an LP of smooth jazz-tinged pop standards, but on the condition Gaye cut a couple of custom-made R&B numbers at the same time. The two singles came about because Gordy wanted to try and get an R&B/pop crossover hit as well as plugging copies of the LP to an older, whiter standards audience. To that end, the easy listening single was virtually a promo for the album, with very few copies pressed for retail, while this single, the R&B one, received all the promotion and attention.

Not that it mattered, because the album and both singles ended up in the bargain bin, all having missed the charts by a country mile, thus proving nothing and answering none of Gaye and Gordy’s questions.

The song is a bit of an odd choice to prove a point. Given that he wanted to show what Marvin Gaye could accomplish if he cut an unstoppable R&B single for the young generation to lap up, you’d expect Gordy to have chosen a smouldering R&B rocker to showcase Gaye’s looks, voice and personality. Instead, he chose a gentle, pedestrian doo-wop number which wasn’t going to turn many teenage heads in the pre-video era no matter how sexy Gaye was. He sings it well, if without much enthusiasm – Gaye had enjoyed a fine early career in doo-wop, including being drafted into a late line-up of the legendary-but-fading Moonglows at the end of the 1950s, and this stuff was clearly bread and butter to him – but to the modern listener this isn’t too far removed from the standards Gaye wanted to be doing in the first place.

It has its moments; Gaye’s voice is the big draw here, instantly recognisable even at this young age, and Marvin Gaye is always interesting, even when he’s not all that interested. The backing vocals are finely crafted, and there’s a silk-smooth R&B organ line running through the entire song which holds the interest for a while. All told, though, it’s not special, and even without knowing the convoluted backstory, it sounds far too much like a man going through the motions; once you know the full facts, it’s very obviously the sound of Marvin Gaye fulfilling a contractual obligation so he can get back to his true dream of ripping through the Irving Berlin songbook.

Giving up on such an obvious talent clearly wasn’t an option, rather luckily for the history of popular music, and so there was no question of Gaye finding himself dropped after the dismal commercial performance of his first solo records; but the question of what kind of solo act he would be was still very much up in the air. Both sides claimed a victory, but to the modern, objective listener, the first round of the match between MOR and R&B for Marvin Gaye’s musical soul ends with honours even. At zero.

Marvin Gay “Witchcraft”	Marvin Gaye “Never Let You Go (Sha Lu Bop)”

no cat # (B) – B-side of (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over

May 1961

Written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh

The last recording released by Marvin Gaye under the original spelling of his surname, this (like the A-side (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over) was a limited-run promo designed to drum up interest in the album it was lifted from, The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, due for release a fortnight later.

Like the A-side, this comes from the “standards” portion of the LP, recorded at a time when Marvin and Motown boss Berry Gordy were at loggerheads over the direction Gay’s career was going to take. Marvin longed to be a lounge singer, crooning ballads for MOR audiences, taking over where Nat King Cole was leaving off. Gordy saw a dynamic, mesmerising R&B star and a teen idol, and believed that Gay was throwing his talent away on hoary old pop chestnuts like this one. The LP – comprised mainly of similar MOR smooth jazz and pop standards – was a compromise, helped in no small part by the fact Gay was dating Gordy’s younger sister Anna, as well as being best friends with Gordy’s brother-in-law Harvey Fuqua.

Unlike the A-side, which was a pure easy listening ballad delivered in Cole’s style, this one pays much more lip service to Gay’s oft-quoted love of jazz; after a jarring, discordant intro, Marvin delivers a shopworn song over a noodling, directionless, somewhat dated smooth jazz backing from a band that clearly wants to push the envelope further than the song will really allow.

The result ends up crashing between two stools; despite its overall tameness, it’s still probably far too raucous for the standards circuit crowd, but it’s nonetheless too conventional for jazz fans to really get into it. Indeed, it’s liberally spattered with almost shockingly-conventional Forties (and even Thirties) big-band moments, fills and touches, as though Gay himself was shouting at the band to calm things down, not get too excited lest they lose their target audience. It doesn’t really work on either level, and as a result, it just frustrates.

A great vocal could perhaps have saved this, but certainly Marvin isn’t anywhere near as good here as he was on the A-side, his ultra-recognisable voice low in the mix, hindered and neutered both by the contortions of the material and the unavoidable Sinatra comparisons.

A disappointment, its inclusion on the B-side was presumably intended to provide contrast with the A-side and showcase the variety of material and, er, moods to be enjoyed if one were to purchase a copy of The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye; instead, it seems to have just confused audiences, because very little press or radio play was garnered by this virtual promo single, and the album sank on release.

Still, if audiences in 1961 were confused by this, they must have been veritably baffled by what happened a mere five days later.

Marvin Gay “(I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over”	Marvin Gaye “Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide”

no cat # (A) – b/w Witchcraft

May 1961

Written by Herb Madgison and Allie Wrubel

No typo. The singer who would go on to international superstardom as Marvin Gaye, racking up million-selling singles and albums for Motown in the Sixties and Seventies, began his Hitsville career as Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., jobbing session drummer and would-be supper-club crooner extraordinaire.

Marvin’s ambitions were decidedly limited when he first pitched up at Motown, or at least they seem that way to modern readers who know what eventually happened. Briefly a member of the Moonglows (the legendary doo-wop group masterminded by future Motown songwriting and production maven Harvey Fuqua, who brought him to Detroit and later sold his contract to Berry Gordy), Marvin wanted to be a pop crooner, a standards singer on the club circuit, somewhere between Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra with just a dash of Billy Eckstine.

Despite his oft-cited supposed love of jazz, Marvin’s earliest Motown solo material is MOR balladry all the way, with hints of swing and big band; if there’s a discernible jazz influence at work here, it’s the very smoothest of smooth jazz, at least ten years behind the curve. No, Marvin’s horizons stretched as far as Porter, Berlin, Rodgers and Hart. He knew what he was doing, and knew what he wanted; at 21, he had the voice and the bravado to carry it off, too, getting himself signed to Motown after buttonholing a bemused Berry Gordy at the company Christmas party and serenading him with an off-the-cuff acapella rendition of Mr Sandman.

Gordy, though, had other plans. No fool when it came to spotting talent (or potential sales), he’d noticed how the female Hitsville staff melted into puddles whenever the dashing Marvin happened to walk by; here, perhaps, was the pop idol he’d been seaching for, but such potential was going to be wasted if Gay was allowed to follow his dream; the days of lounge crooners singing to crowds of screaming teenage girls had already drawn to a close.

Gordy had also no doubt made a mental note that the boy could play the drums, and with no small amount of proficiency; paying the bills by working as a session drummer (including with the Motown house and touring bands), playing with considerable verve and gusto, Gay seemed markedly more at home drumming on rousing R&B and wilder jazz numbers than the pop standards he apparently longed to sing.

To Gordy, the path was clear: Marvin Gay would set the world on fire as a smouldering, moody R&B superstar. To Marvin, the path was equally clear: he had the looks, the voice and the mass appeal to be an easy listening pop sensation, if only Motown would back him.

It sounds like a pivotal moment in the plot of The Motown Story, but in fact it turned out to be an impasse. Neither Gordy nor Gay would back down, and so a compromise was reached. Motown would record an LP featuring Gay tackling numerous old MOR pop standards (no small offer; there had only been a handful of Motown LPs released to date, all of them on established artists with proven fanbases like the Miracles and the Gospel Stars, and so this represented something of a gamble for the wobbling label). In return, Gay would humour Gordy and cut a couple of more R&B-inflected sides for a one-off single, dipping a tentative toe in the waters of the R&B charts where Motown had had their greatest success to date.

The result of this compromise was a curious pair of singles, released almost concurrently. This one was barely released at all, being lifted directly from the proposed standards album and distributed as a promo to try and start a grassroots, word-of-mouth campaign and maybe get some speculative radio play on MOR stations. Meanwhile, the R&B single, Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide / Never Let You Go (Sha Lu Bop), appeared in stores just days later. During the process of recording the album, Marvin’s surname acquired an extra “e”, and the LP appeared in June 1961 as The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye, a hotchpotch work featuring a selection of eight standards and then the three tracks recorded during the sessions for the R&B single tacked onto the end.

If releasing this single at the same time as Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide was supposed to answer some sort of argument about the natural direction for Marvin Gaye’s future career, it didn’t work. Both singles stiffed, the album was a disastrous flop, and nothing was proved either way.

But that’s all for the future. What about this record?

As a single, this isn’t too bad. It’s a real shock to fans of Gaye’s magnificent future work; even if you’ve acclimatised yourself to the idea that he didn’t just spring into existence fully-formed with Hitch Hike and Stubborn Kind Of Fellow a couple of years later, it’s still something of a surprise to hear him in full-on croon mode; Marvin Gaye, purveyor of perfectly serviceable versions of venerable pop chestnuts.

He’s got a fine, fine voice. It’s unmistakeably Marvin Gaye, even in this nascent form, and it’s undeniably better than the material he’s chosen to work with. It’s entirely plausible he could have made a real career out of this sort of thing; close your eyes, you can imagine him giving this his all in an upscale nightclub, mostly older, white guests putting their drinks down on their tables, rapt with their eyes on the stage as their table candles flicker in their red shades. Marvin would be immaculately dressed in a lounge suit, eyes closed as he croons into the mic, catching his breath for a moment after his big finish, thanking the audience with a little smile for the polite applause that feels like it should accompany the end of this.

He could have pulled it off. But he’d have been forgotten by now, I’d wager.

It’s not a particularly memorable song, but Gaye delivers it with sincere abandon, wholeheartedly earnest in his belief that he’s destined to be the new Nat King Cole. It’s more listenable than you’d expect. More than anything else, it’s long, running for almost five and a quarter minutes, comfortably the longest A-side Motown would release in the 1960s; it feels even longer than that.

As a single, it’s OK. As a historical document, a crossroads, a glimpse into some alternate timeline, it’s fascinating. As a Marvin Gaye record, it’s not exactly one of the classics. But whatever the outcome, he’d laid down a marker as One To Watch. He wouldn’t be dropped despite the lack of commercial success in the early days; Berry Gordy knew there was something there worth building on, and he kept young Marvin on the books, which of course turned out to be one of Gordy’s shrewdest moves in a career not exactly short of inspired decisions.

The Satintones “Angel”	Marvin Gay “Witchcraft”

Paul McCartney trabalha novamente com seu ex-parceiro de banda Ringo Starr, nos vocais de “Walk with me” e tocando baixo em “Peace dream”,  no novo álbum deste: “Y Not?”. Ringo chamou Paul de gênio, disse que McCartney foi ao microfone e inventou a parte que canta com ele em “Walk with me”.

A Motown comemorou 50 anos com uma festa que incluiu The Temptations, Aretha Franklin e Stevie Wonder , dia 21, sábado. O ingresso custou US$ 350,00 e o montante servirá para a construção de um museu da Motown. Berry Gordy fundou a Motown há meio século, lançando e apostando na música negra americana nos anos 60 e 70.

Pesquisador diz que Jesus Cristo, seguindo José de Arimateia, teria estado em Glastonbury, cidade que abriga um dos maiores festivais de Rock da atualidade. O filme “And did those feet” (e aqueles pés o fizeram), que defende que Cristo teria acompanhado José de Arimateia em uma visita à região para encontrar os druidas. Gordon Strachan comenta que Jesus teria ido à Grã-Bretanha aprofundar seus estudos e sua visita seria plausível, pois todos desconhecem o que teria feito Jesus dos 12 aos 30 anos. Ele teria ido aprender sobre Astronomia e Geometria nas ‘universidades’ da época. A ilha atraía gente que queria estudar espiritualidade e filosofia,  não só dos judeus, mas também das civilizações grega e clássica.

“The Colors of Music” – Show #4 December 3 @ 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern



Join us as we play my own selections from music groups we have grown to love, these are our very own ColoredPeople.net members:

“Down With Webster is the most amazing, creative and innovative band that will come out in 2010.  They’re the illest group I’ve ever seen live in person.”  – Timbaland

Not bad praise for a group you never heard of, huh?  That’s because they are from Canada and no one really pays attention to that country.

I first seen these guys when I went to the Van’s Warped Tour and they were the first band that I actually stopped by and watched.  They have a great sound with a mix of rock and hip hop and somehow make a seven person band work.  Story goes that they formed for a school talent show and have been together ever since.  You can check out their main website here.  As an a fellow American, I ask where is our young creative talent?  The only person out right now that comes to mind is Lady Gaga.  And it’s especially hard to support American music when when we continue to put out shit like this.

Universal Motown is the lucky record company to ink these guys to a deal.  Word on the street is that the guys from Down With Webster turned down Gene Simmons as an opportunity to be his first band signed under his new label.  From what I’ve heard, more freedom regarding their social network sites (facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter), as well as the way they disburse their music, was part of the reason why they decided to sign with the star-making Universal Motown.  Not everyday do you hear a band use profanity and talk so freely about drugs and alcohol when they are signed to a major label.

They just got done filming their new music video Rich Girl$ (behind the scenes sneak peak with hot girls) in California and are currently on tour promoting their new album Time To Win Vol. I.  Currently they are touring with Forever the Sickest Kids which I went to go check out and here’s some of the pictures I took.  Actually, the only pictures I took were of the parking lot signs because I got a $27 ticket for backing into the stall because apparently you aren’t allowed to do that.  Great job, government!  Thanks for doing your job and keeping everyone else safe because apparently backing into the stall put everyone is harms way.

To top it all off, I missed them play since they opened.  Just like I did with Lights when I tried to go see her at Warped Tour because I came late.  Instead, I just talked with Bucky (one of the members of DWW) and he hooked me up with a free demo CD which was pretty cool.

Songs to check out:

Rich Girl$

Grind

Back Of My Hand

Your Man

And here are some pictures because some of us prefer visual stimulation:

Feeling so proud to be from the Caribbean today.

The Caribbean quartet of Hal Linton, Melanie Fiona, Shontelle and Vita Chambers performed as part of the half-time show today at the NFL game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers at the Ford Field in Detroit. The four were part of a six-artiste set from Universal/Motown performing a tribute to Motown on its 50th anniversary.

Just to put it in perspective, previous performers at the half-time shows at NFL Thanksgiving Day games in Detroit (which has the oldest Thanksgiving Day Classic tradition – going all the way back to 1934) have included Mariah Carey and Toni Braxton. And now that list includes our Caribbean quartet.

And they rocked it out – every one of them. Check out the vid below.

Let's Give Peace A Chance! A Symbol From The Sixties!

The Beatles in 1964 - The beginning of "Beatlemania."

Yippie led anti-election protestors outside City Hall, San Francisco, CA, Oct. 1968

Peace sign flashing, anti-election protestors in Grant Park during a demonstration against the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, IL, Aug. 1968

Shirtless male drummer & dress-wearing female flutist jamming during Woodstock music festival, Bethel, NY, Aug. 1969

The Jackson Five with their parents, Joseph and Katherine. They signed with Motown in November of 1968

Astronaut Edwin Aldrin saluting American flag after being second man on moon during Apollo II mission, July 1969

Having been born in 1946, I am considered to be a “baby-boomer.” In fact, the baby-boomer generation began with Americans born in 1946.

My father met my mother in 1944 while he was in the Navy, fighting in World War 2, and she was a comptometer operator in San Francisco. He was discharged in 1945, they married and I was born in June of 1946, along with over 3,400,000 other Americans, thereby “starting a boom” in the population that continued through 1964.

In the Spring of 1964, I graduated from St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon, MO, and five years later, in the Spring of 1969, I graduated from Truman State University (aka Northeast Missouri State University).

As you can see, I was in high school and college during the “sixties” – the time when many expressions we currently assume always had meaning, actually came into existence. So, what are some of these expressions that are used when referring to that era?

The following are all expressions that I remember from the sixties. I have each expression in hypertext, in case you would like to read more about them. Also, in parenthesis, is the time in my life when I first heard the expression.

Sex, Drugs and Rock N Roll (in college)

Make Love, Not War (in college)

Flower Power (in college)

Hippies (in college)

Beatlemania (in high school)

Woodstock (Summer after graduation from college)

Motown (in high school)

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (in college)

Civil Rights Movement (in high school)

Yippies (in college)

Man Walking On The Moon (Summer after graduation from college)

Along with the expressions mentioned above, there are many pictures and/or symbols that reflect that era – the time when many baby boomers “came of age.”  I hope you will find the pictures, at the beginning of this posting, interesting and enlightening.

Ok, now you can see a little of what this baby boomer encountered during the sixties. Perhaps, I should rephrase the question in the title and write, “What does the beginning baby boomers’ generation have to be thankful for?” Should we be thankful for Beatlemania? Should we be thankful for Woodstock?  Should we be thankful for the civil rights movement? Should we be thankful for a man walking on the moon? Should we be thankful for … I say, YES!

These are all important parts of our history. They helped shape our society into one that is much more diverse and rich in population, culture, art, politics, music, science, etc. We all need to be thankful for our history that helped us learn and grow into a generation that has more education, more privileges and a greater quality of life than any previous generation.

I’m thankful today for my life – truly a gift, which is why it is called the present!

Happy Thanksgiving To All!

I grew up listening to Oldies, and to this day I still enjoy a sugary doo-wop song or something that emerged from Motown at the height of its glory.   I love The Platters, The Fleetwoods, Martha & the Vandellas…pretty much anything from the American Graffiti Soundtrack.   There’s another song I’ve been thinking about today though.  Do any of you remember the song Raindrops by Dee Clark?  Dee tells us that since “a man ain’t supposed to cry, it must be raindrops…falling from my eyes.”

That about sums up my day.  I am, apparently, either a hormonal mess or suffering from early seasonal depression.  The littlest things have made me all choked up–barely able to complete sentences without betraying myself.  I may need help. Today I got teary-eyed from:

1.  Seeing a Lowe’s commercial in which mom and dad were working hard to prepare their home for the holidays.  Since their daughter couldn’t return home to be with them, the parents used a laptop web-cam to show her around the house, proudly displaying their remodeling efforts via Skype.  When mom says, “And just wait to see what we did outside!” she opens the door to find daughter secretly waiting to surprise them.  Aww! Sniff, sniff.

2.  Today we had to borrow my parents’ 1985 Chevy Suburban to haul some wood [that's a blog entry for another time].  This is the vehicle of my youth–of all the trips to Minnesota to see Grandma and Grandpa–my 5th grade venture to Washington DC before Grandpa died:  it all happened in that car. Now, with over 250,000 miles on it [!!] and still running strong, I hopped in and felt like I was in a time warp.  To top it off, my dad still had all his mixed tapes from those trips in the blue auto-organizer–the one that sits on the hump on the floor in between the driver and the passenger.  My oldest son was along and I thought I should do my family duty by indoctrinating him into the world of “Real Country.”  That’s right–”Real Country” capitalized and used as a proper noun.  Songs by the old masters.  People who have names like Hank and Lefty.  Tammy and Loretta. You know the type.  Tennessee twang from the 1950’s and 60’s. This was the soundtrack of every 12 hour trip I ever took, and it didn’t take me long to learn all about drinkin’ and cheatin’ and “layin’ you down.” Subtle education, really.

Anyway, I put the tape in so I could point out the fiddles and steel guitars to my son, and I started crying! Not sobbing, runny nose cry, but please-don’t-ask-me-to-talk-because-I’ll-blubber-and squeak-cry.   I’ll admit that I have so attached those songs to the person of my father that part of me was wondering how I’ll ever listen to them after he’s gone.  And that’s what I was thinking about.  Going to get a pile of wood for Bob Vila my husband, and thinking about how I’ll ever live without my dad.

3.  I had to stop at the grocery store for a bag of roma tomatoes this morning.  I’ve had a hankering for guacamole.   [I mean, how can you get through vacation without plopping on the couch next to your husband and plowing through a bowl of homemade guacamole with copious amounts of tortilla chips?]   As we were leaving the store we were met with the ubiquitous Salvation Army bell ringers.  I grabbed the loose change from my sweatshirt pocket and dumped it into the red can, feeling a bit sheepish that I wasn’t able to produce more.

On the way to the car, A asked me who the people were and why they were standing there ringing a bell.  True to form, I could barely formulate my answer about all the needy people that ache for help, especially at Christmas, without swallowing my tears.  By this time of the day I was fairly certain I may be going into menopause.

4.  In the same vein, Angel Tree commercials are now airing, reminding able givers to consider pulling an ornament off an Angel Tree and providing an unwrapped gift for a child this Christmas.  The announcer said that West Michigan alone has 30,000 wishes to fill this holiday season.  30,000 kids with nothing under the tree?  I’m crying again.

5.  Don’t call your shrink–this is the last one.  Tonight on NBC World News with Brian Williams, his “Making a Difference” segment highlighted the work of a non-profit organization called RAMP:  Rockin’ Appalachian Moms Project.  Seeing how one person can so powerfully change the trajectory of so many people’s lives amazes me.  It truly makes my heart beat a little faster.   So I sat and watched Amy, a mother of four from Connecticut, run a ministry that has delivered over a quarter of a million dollars of aid to one of the poorest places in our nation.  Heaters, clothes, food.  I sat and thought about how I never have to worry about those things.  How my needs are met and met and…exceeded.  And how the people of Appalachia don’t have heat.  And it moved me.

As we enjoy the quiet warmth of our own homes this Thanksgiving Eve, I invite you to send up your prayers of gratitude to the One who loved us so much that He Gave. And if you need a place to start, take 2.5 minutes and see what’s happening in Appalachia.

Good thing they’re predicting more rain tomorrow.  I might still be singing that song.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – “Baby, Baby Don’t Cry,” Pop # 8, R&B # 3

By Joel Francis

“Baby, Baby Don’t Cry” ended the Miracles streak of seven consecutive Top 10 R&B hits and was the group’s fourth and final hit of 1968.

At four minutes, the song was one of Motown’s longest singles to date, but Smokey Robinson and Motown staff writers Al Clevelend and Terry Johnson made the most of every second. As a singer and arranger in 1950s doo wop group the Flamingos, Johnson wrote the arrangement for “I Only Have Eyes for You” and other genre classic. Recruited to Motown by Robinson in 1964, the pair turned in some of their finest work on this number.

“Baby, Baby Don’t Cry” starts on the piano, but gives way to Miracle Marv Tarplin’s immortal guitar line. A full orchestra stealthily enters after the third stanza and explodes on the chorus. Again, Robinson and Johnson apply a deft touch to the score as the horns punch lightly and the string soar. For the spoken interlude, the song scales back to guitar, bass and drums, but never loses its warmth and fullness. On the last verse, the song shifts gears again, as the key changes and the bass and organ lean on the throttle.

Rare among Motown hits, the Funk Brothers are completely absent on this recording. Strings and horns aside, the Miracles play all the instruments on this album, with Robinson’s wife Claudette’s distinct voice sitting atop the vocal arrangement.

Robinson’s singing performance on “Baby” is one of the best in his career. His voice aches with pain and sympathy, but is strong and encouraging at the same time. This is a man who clearly knows the sting of lost love and the warmth of new romance. It’s impossible to deny Robinson and the Miracles evocation that “love is here, standing by.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone improving or adding anything new to these four minutes of perfection, and for once the rest of the industry agreed. “Baby, Baby Don’t Cry” is a rare Motown hit that hasn’t been covered.

Leighton Meester from Gossip Girl recorded a cover of Darlene Love’s Motown-holiday classic Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) for the album A Very Special Christmas 7.

::Download::

Muito tem se falado nas últimas semanas sobre a vida e a morte do polêmico Michael Jackson. Amado por uns, odiado por outros, ignorado por poucos, o fato é que Michael Joseph Jackson nascido em 29 de agosto de 1958 e morto em 25 de junho de 2009 foi um grande empreendedor do mercado de entretenimento.

Não temos como negar que Michael Jackson inovou e ditou padrões internacionais no que diz respeito a música pop, vídeo-clips, coreografias, produção de espetáculos, fortalecimento da MTV, entre outros.

Vamos conhecer algumas lições de empreendedorismo que podemos tirar de Michael Jackson:

1 – Não existe idade para empreender

Jackson começou a cantar e a dançar aos cinco anos de idade, iniciando-se na carreira profissional aos onze anos como vocalista dos Jackson 5. Em 1972 aos 13 anos iniciou sua carreira solo pois era evidente o seu talento e como havia se destacado em meio aos demais componentes do grupo.

2 – Parcerias de Sucesso

Michael Jackson sempre foi reconhecido por fazer parcerias estratégicas que lhe renderam resultados espetaculares, como com o produtor Quincy Jones (uma espécie de mentor em sua carreira). Off the Wall o primeiro trabalho que lançaram atingiu vendagem acima de 20 milhões de discos.

Michael tinha talento para construir boas parcerias, tendo trabalhado junto com artistas como Paul McCartney, Slash (guitarrista do Guns ‘n Roses), Eddie Van Halen, Lionel Ritchie entre outros

3 – Independência e Auto Confiança

Graças ao sucesso em sua carreira solo aos 13 anos o astro começou a se libertar das garras do pai que o humilhava publicamente. Em 1983, vingando-se contra anos de maus tratos e humilhação Michael demite seu pai que ainda atuava como seu empresário.

No especial para a TV sobre os 25 anos da Gravadora Motown, Jackson exigiu cantar uma de suas próprias músicas, diferentemente dos demais convidados que relembraram antigos sucessos da gravadora. Ao som de Billie Jean, Michael chocou o público com o passo monnwalk, que se tornaria uma de suas marcas registradas.

4 – Busca de Oportunidades e Correr Riscos Calculados

Por várias vezes Michael Jackson investiu dinheiro de seu próprio bolso para bancar suas ideias já que algumas delas eram tão ousadas que assustavam sua gravadora. Em 1982 o disco Thriller chegou às lojas e pulverizou todas os parâmetros para medir um álbum bem sucedido. O LP chegou a vender 1 milhão de cópias por semana rendendo-lhe 140 discos de ouro e platina. Das 9 faixas que compunham o disco, sete chegaram ao Top 10 da Billboard. Thrilller vendeu 106 milhões de cópias.

4 – Inovação

Michael Jackson tem mais vendagens do que Beatles e Elvis Plesley juntos. Há três semanas do Natal de 1983 foi lançado o vídeo de Thriller, o mais ambicioso projeto de Michael Jackson. Sofisticação, duração, equipe e orçamento dignos de cinema, o clipe se tornou instantaneamente a referência máxima do gênero e um dos pilares da cultura pop. O vídeo triplicou a venda do disco e ajudou a popularizar a MTV.

5 – Crie uma marca

Michael sabia muito bem como usar algumas ferramentas de marketing. Era especialmente notável sua capacidade de criar marcas. Como Elvis Presley já era “O Rei do Rock”, Jackson resolveu batizar-se de “O Rei do Pop”. Além disso ele soube criar outras referências junto aos seus fãs como: o passo moonwalk, a luva branca em apenas uma das mãos, suas roupas, entre outras.

6 – Seja Socialmente Responsável, Retribua

Michael Jackson fez contribuições para 39 casas de caridades, além de promover inúmeras outras ações sociais. Suas músicas podiam facilmente transpor barreiras nacionais, assim como de idade e sexo.

Em 1985 ajudou a promover a megacampanha USA for África. A música-tema We Are the word (Nós somos o mundo), composta por Michael Jackson e Lionel Ritchie reuniu 44 cantores da “nata” do pop americano. Estima-se que esta ação tenha gerado aproximadamente US$ 50 milhões.

Em 2001 Michael Jackson ganhou do Guinness Book o título de artista que mais contribuiu com obras de caridade em toda a história.

Mas Michael Jackson também cometeu inúmeros erros do ponto de vista estratégico do empreendedorismo, e estes fatores causaram estragos em sua carreira, em suas finanças e arranhões em sua imagem.

Autor: Fabiano Brum

Ganz nett.

Call Me

::SMILES::

For reasons still unknown, sometimes the body produces antibodies that cannot distinguish between foreign invaders and healthy cells from your own body. The result is autoimmune disease, that is, the body starts attacking itself. These diseases take many forms, and many chronic illnesses have been attributed to this. One is Vitiligo, another is Discoid Lupus. Unfortunately having one autoimmune disease increases your risk of having another, and Michael suffered from both.

Taken from Vitiligosociety.org.uk:

Vitiligo is quite a common skin disease which affects at least one person in every hundred in countries throughout the world including the UK. Anyone, male or female, irrespective of skin colour or ethnic origin can develop the condition.

Vitiligo causes the skin, and sometimes the hair, to turn white in patches. This is because melanocytes, the cells which give the skin its colour, have either been damaged or destroyed. The disease can spread, rapidly or slowly, to cover the entire body surface (universal vitiligo) but this is not inevitable. The most common form of vitiligo appears in symmetrical form (generalized vitiligo) affecting both sides of the body. In some cases only one half of the body is affected (segmental vitiligo) and this type has limited progression and is more difficult to treat. Vitiligo can begin at any age, though about fifty percent of people develop it before the age of twenty.

You cannot catch vitiligo. It is not infectious. Although there are no physical symptoms apart from sunburn in the white patches if they are not protected from the sun, it can cause severe psychological distress, especially when the face, neck, hands and genitals are affected. Although the disease is more noticeable on dark or tanned skin the degree of distress is not necessarily linked to skin colour or to the extent of the disease. However, people with dark skin from certain ethnic groups who develop vitiligo may feel particularly stigmatized and fear a loss of identity should the disease become widespread.

The course of vitiligo is unpredictable. Some people may not notice a change in their condition for many years, while for others it can spread quite rapidly. In some cases the white patches can spontaneously repigment, particularly in children, though it is rare for the disease to resolve completely without treatment.

You can’t “trigger” Vitiligo or “cause” it — it either will affect someone or not. No amount of skin bleach can create the same permanent effects that Vitiligo has, no amount of skin bleach will cause someone to end up with the disorder. In fact to even attempt to come close to the level of lightness Michael Jackson had would most likely result in death by toxicity.

If anyone is capable of finding me someone who used to be as dark as Michael but solely thanks to bleaching agents is now as white as he was then you’re more than welcome to send me and every newspaper in the world the evidence.

There aren’t very many pictures of Michael with Vitiligo because he would try to cover it up as best he could with heavy stage make-up. Another thing common in Vitiligo sufferers is covering yourself up from head-to-toe in order to hide it, something Michael did from the early 1980s onwards. Trying to find photos of him in tee shirts and shorts after 1981 is almost impossible.

These pictures and the evidence for Michael’s Vitiligo have been around since the 1980s and yet I know I’ve never seen them published in any mainstream articles regarding his illness. When discussing his Vitiligo they’ll post a picture of him in 1980 and then one from 1992 onwards to show the dramatic change as though he woke up one morning without any pigment. They also never show any photos of him with the splotches of colour he had left and try to make it seem as though he was now a universal “white” colour when in fact he wasn’t.

Some photos of his Vitiligo:

From around the same time period, uneven pigmentation around his face again:

Still pre the official diagnosis in ‘81, on the Triumph tour his stage make up runs and you can see the depigmentation:

Around Thriller, when he says he received the official diagnosis and when it seems to become extensive:

He’s wearing light reflective make up which makes the areas of his face with less pigment stand out under a camera flash:

Bad Tour, his hands:

Bad Tour without make up:

The reason why he bandaged his hand, you can see discolouration around the edges:

TWYMMF set picture:

Black or White close up of his hands:

They Don’t Care About Us, over his arms and chest.

Around History:

And then recently:

When he had the snakebite he had photos taken as evidence:

If he could bleach his entire body white surely he’d take the time to remove these blotches, right?

It was never something he had any control over. The most he could do was carry out the depigmentation process recommended to him by his dermatologist which helps even out the skintone. If you are susceptible to Vitiligo or it is already in the early stages then stress can aggrevate it.  The stress of growing up the way he did, the fame he received, even possibly the Pepsi burn could all have helped advance it furthur.

It was also the reason Michael began to wear the white glove, Cicely Tyson says she was there when the glove was coming about:

All of a sudden, he [the designer] said, ‘I’m doing this glove for Michael’. Michael was beginning to develop the vitiligo and it started on his hand. The glove was to cover the vitiligo; that’s how that glove came into being.” The glove design and reason for it were not just hearsay for Tyson, she said. “I was there when he was creating it.”

I never liked the glove, although when I saw his monstrous hand, I got it. And I admired what he’d done to cover it up. It was never clear to me if that hurt or not, but I imagine it did. Think about the beauty of that. Putting sequins on your open wounds. Think about the entire world staring at the one thing that makes you feel most ugly.

— Tom Chiarella