Skip to main content

Al compas del mundo - programa #91 - Soul and funk of the 70s

 


This playlist speaks for itself. Rufus kicks off and the list only improves: Mayfield’s Pusherman, Funkadelic, War and, of course, Marvin Gaye’s Inner City Blues. They’re all hits, actually, just some are better known and rose higher on the charts – those we were familiar with, at least. I can’t speak for the R&B ratings in Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, etc. (were “race records” still a thing then? Did something akin to that exist?) I don’t listen to much radio, other than that extraordinary streamer Radioactiva.TX. So if I’m flogging a dead horse and you’ve already heard some of these tunes for the third time today on oldies radio, forgive and forget. There’s a reason this music has survived as some of the “best of”. You haven’t heard them in this sequence and without commercials so relax your mind and go with the flow. And don’t forget your “apple hat”. - J.H.


Run List for Soul and funk of the 70s. First broadcast 8-31-23.

 Our dedicated listeners will note a SNAFU that caused a pause between programa #90 and #91. A necessary cosmic alignment was delayed. Finally, Jupiter was red and the Moon was blue. But it's allright now, Jack!

01 Rufus - Tell Me Something Good

02 Curtis Mayfield – Pusherman

03 Funkadelic - Standing On the Verge of Getting It On

04 War - Slippin' Into Darkness

05 Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues

06 Apollis - What It Is, Pts. 1 & 2

07 Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street

08 Joe Simon - Theme from Cleopatra Jones

09 Teddy Pendergrass - Love T.K.O.

10 Johnnie Taylor - Cheaper To Keep Her

11 Willie Hutch - I Choose You

12 William DeVaughn - Be Thankful for What You've Got

Tip of the hat, Jim.



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...