Rambling Rhoads

Monday, August 10, 2020

LP #37 The Impressions – People Get Ready (1965)

Picking this one was surprisingly difficult.

Quite a few years ago, I picked up a 2-fer CD repackaging of the group’s 3^rd and 4^th albums, this one paired with 1964’s Keep On Pushing. It was on Kent Records, a UK label specialising in reissuing 60s and 70s American soul music, and I probably got it at Roadhouse Oldies in Silver Spring.

Previously, everything I had by the group, whether on LP or CD, was a greatest-hits compilation of some kind. I now discovered that many of their album tracks were actually as good as their singles. Going back to the post where I named the Impressions as one of my favorite musical acts of all time and listed my favorite 20 songs by the group, it turns out that 15 of them were from three albums: these two, plus their eponymous 1963 debut. Choosing among them was tough, but the title track wound up being the deciding factor.

Favorite tracks:

People Get Ready

It’s Hard To Believe

Just Another Dance

See The Real Me

Woman’s Got Soul

You Must Believe Me

Saturday, August 1, 2020

I say a little prayer

https://www.gocomics.com/bignate/2020/08/01

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

LP #36 Stevie Wonder – Innervisions (1973)

Wonderfully consistent, with a canny mix of love ballads and social commentary.

From Rolling Stone:

Stevie Wonder's high-flying musical experimentation and penetrating lyrical insight made Innervisions a textured, but never self-indulgent, work of soulful self-discovery. Fusing social realism with spiritual idealism, he brings expressive color and irresistible funk to his keyboards on "Too High" (a cautionary anti-drug song) and "Higher Ground" (which echoes Martin Luther King Jr.'s message of transcendence). The album's centerpiece is "Living for the City," a cinematic depiction of exploitation and injustice.

(Random thought: about seven years later, Wonder released an album titled Hotter Than July. I don’t even want to go there.)

Favorite tracks:

All In Love Is Fair

Living For The City

Golden Lady

Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing

Higher Ground

Sunday, July 19, 2020

How Congress can stop gerrymandering

This actually sounds as if it could work.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/gerrymandering-redistricting-census-congress/2020/07/17/d1002146-c6f5-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html

John Lewis obituary

Wonderful obit this morning in the Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/john-r-lewis-front-line-civil-rights-leader-and-eminence-of-capitol-hill-dies-at-80/2020/07/17/54a67e1a-c3ad-11ea-b4f6-cb39cd8940fb_story.html

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Notable Quote #11

“Talc is cheap.”

Maggie Simpson: Season 31, Episode 15 (“Screenless”)

We can’t wait for schools to reopen safely!

“Everyone knows how important it is that we have a plan to reopen schools safely. That is why the Trump administration has devised a plan: to reopen schools. They sure hope your governor has plans for the safety part! In the meantime, your kids and their teachers get to be heroes and pioneers, instead of just reading about them in musty textbooks!”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/08/we-cant-wait-schools-reopen-safely/

Thursday, July 9, 2020

LP #35 Mary Chapin Carpenter – Come On Come On (1992)

Back in the days when country music radio welcomed everyone from Rhodes Scholars to Brown University graduates, Mary Chapin Carpenter had an amazing run of commercial success, hitting the top 20 of Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart 17 times between 1989 and 1995. Seven of those hits were from this album, and the album itself was her most commercially successful, selling over 4 million copies in the U.S. Most of the non-single tracks are great as well (especially “I Am A Town” and “Rhythm Of The Blues”), to the extent that I (regretfully) had to leave her cover of Mark Knopfler’s “The Bug” off of my list below.

Favorite tracks:

Passionate Kisses

He Thinks He'll Keep Her

I Feel Lucky

The Hard Way

I Am A Town

I Take My Chances

Rhythm Of The Blues