Skip to main content

Al compas del mundo - programa #72 - Rhythm and Blues

 


It’s r&b night on Al compas del mundo and these are songs from somebody’s youth. Casting an eye over a history that has been labeled a “teen-age wasteland.” Not by me, though, I’m more inclined to embrace a “Land of 1000 Dances”, though I can’t claim to have mastered more than three: the Twist, The Freddy, and the Funky Chicken (I once won a watermelon at a Funky Chicken competition in a Milwaukee bar). Heroics aside, I’ve gathered well-known hits alongside more obscure recordings. i.e. Shirley and Lee doing “Let the Good Times Roll” vs. Nappy Brown’s “I Cried Like a Baby.” Nostalgia and an education in a 1-hour fell swoop. You better believe!


Rhythm and blues (USA) first broadcast 4-13-2023

 01 Dominoes - Have Mercy Baby

02 Irma Thomas - I Need Your Love So Bad

03 Nappy Brown - I Cried Like a Baby

04 Shirley and Lee - Let the Good Times Roll

05 Bobby Bland – Satisfied

06 Aaron Neville – Jailhouse

07 Bobby Moore - I Wanna Be Your Man

08 Gladys Knight and The Pips - Giving Up

09 Lee Dorsey - Ya Ya

10 The Miracles - You've Really Got a Hold on Me

11 Little Willie John - It Only Hurts a Little While

12 Clarence Williams - The Seventh Son

13 Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher

14 O.V. Wright - Bachelor's Blues

15 Sam Cooke - Another Saturday Night

16 The Gay Poppers - You Better Believe

17 Buddy Guy - Keep It to Myself

18 Little Milton - We're Gonna Make It

19 The Shirelles - Baby It's You

20 Sam & Dave - Soul Man

21 Wilson Pickett - Land of 1000 Dances



 


 

 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Al compas del mundo, programa #92 - Japan

The Japanese historically have been a most creative people, excelling in aesthetic conventions like architecture, painting, culinary arts, theatre, music, and more. A craftsman’s care and an artist’s flair have come to define everyday household objects such as articles of clothing and kitchen ware, designed with a sensibility that imbues them with import and elevated status. After WWII in the United States however, an item inscribed “made in Japan” usually indicated a tchotchke of mediocre quality. A perfect example is the large number of Northwest Coast Native American-style bone totem poles made for the tourist shops in the Northwest. There is a distinctive difference in these “artifacts” from the real, home-made variety that illustrates someone from another culture tackling aesthetics they don’t fully comprehend. And that leads us to some of this week’s musical choices. Imitating Western pop, rock and jazz, Japanese artists have recorded many forgettable efforts – not unlike those o...

British blues of the 60s y 70s

  This has to be one of my favorite programs. The British blues scene gave us a healthy dose of reverential and, admittedly, imitative music that awakened a youthful audience suffering from pop fatigue on both sides of the ocean. Of course, the blues, as interpreted by young white musicians who couldn’t have been much further from the Mississippi Delta or the South side of Chicago, can be considered as cultural appropriation. At the same time, those involved in the scene have reminisced that playing the blues was largely a visceral reaction to a compelling combination of rhythm, lyrics and energy that was distinct from the British music scene up to that point. I don’t believe anyone at the time felt guilty playing the songs of their Southern US heroes. Does it make a difference that a number of these groups went on to earn far more money than the originators ever dreamed of? Probably, though many of the greats – Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson and others – profi...

Nuyorican boogaloo cha-cha-cha

 I’m labelling this week’s playlist as “Nuyorican” music, the lion’s share of the players from Puerto Rico or of Puerto Rican ancestry.  Two notable exceptions are Joe Bataan, a Filipino-African American, and Mongo Santamaria born in Cuba. What they all have in common, however, was centered around the music scene of New York City where African American and Latino musicians forged a common ground in creating “boogaloo” dance music, mixing elements of R&B, Soul, and Latin dance rhythms. The boogaloo genre was fairly short-lived, enjoying popularity during the 1960’s before giving way to salsa, in what was largely an East Coast and Caribbean impulse. “Watermelon Man” and ”El Watusi” were early and major boogaloo hits, but truly, most of the titles included in the program were popular recordings in their day, whether cha-cha-chas like Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va”, or GFyEN’s guajira. I’ve gathered them here for an hour’s worth of revelation for those too young to have heard thi...