Hot Buttered Soul - The Mix

I needed to followup that last post on Isaac Hayes with this mix that opens with that great first song from the Hot Buttered Soul album. This of course is the full lenght jam of the Burt Bacharach song that Dionne Warwick made into a hit. Lots more great songs here including George Benson sounding an awful lot like Stevie Wonder and the Earth, Wind & Fire backed Ramsey Lewis soul jazz jam. The mix ends with a trio of late 60s classic soul. 

1. Walk On By - Isaac Hayes (Hot Buttered Soul, 1969) 

2. This Masquerade - George Benson (Breezin', 1976) 

3. Sun Goddess - Ramsey Lewis (Sun Goddess, 1974) 

4. I Want You - Marvin Gaye (I Want You, 1976) 

5. If I Ever Lose This Heaven - Average White Band (Cut The Cake, 1975) 

6. I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun - Rotary Connection (Hey Love, 1971) 

7. Now That We Found Love - Third World (Journey To Addis, 1978) 

8. Love And Happiness - Al Green (I'm Still In Love With You, 1972) 

9. Baby I Love You - Aretha Franklin (Aretha Arrives, 1967) 

10. All I Need - The Temptations (With A Lot Of Soul, 1967) 

11. I'll Keep Holding On - The Marvelettes (Ultimate Collection, 1998)

Hot Buttered Soul - Isaac Hayes

I've been meaning to write something about soul man Isaac Hayes since his recent death. I've always loved his music. Issac Hayes had several high points throughout his career. Many people got to know his music from Shaft in 1971 and then there was his huge resurgence as the Chef character in South Park in the 90s. Then I was a little weirded out with his later scientology thing and stopped listening to anything he had to say. But for me it was the Hot Buttered Soul album in 1969. I grabbed that record based on the title and cover. I was vaguely aware of his name from song writing credits from Sam & Dave singles I owned that he produced for Stax Records in the late 60s such as Soul Man. The House Party 1968 mix I posted recently is an example of some of the soul music I was listening to at the time. Then along comes Isaac Hayes and Hot Buttered Soul. It was an amazing thing to listen to back in 1969. Four songs on one album... ten minutes or more for each song at a time when the three minute soul single was king. Nothing Hayes would do later would have the impact on me of the songs on Hot Buttered Soul. Truly amazing.

Walk On By was a Burt Bacharach song originally a hit by Dionne Warwick.

Friday I'm In Love - A Tavern Mix

Another mix for my brother's bar. The bartenders wanted some music they knew so here is a mostly early 90s mix of radio fodder and some stuff that should have been on the radio. 

1. Friday I'm In Love - The Cure (Wish, 1992) 

2. She's Electric - Oasis ([What's The Story] Morning Glory, 1995) 

3. Laid - James (Laid, 1993) 

4. She Don't Use Jelly - The Flaming Lips (Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, 1993) 5. Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet (Girlfriend, 1991) 

6. There She Goes - The La's (The La's, 1990) 

7. What You Do To Me - Teenage Fanclub (Bandwagonesque, 1991) 

8. That Is Why - Jellyfish (Bellybutton, 1990) 

9. Fade Into You - Mazzy Star (So Tonight That I Might See, 1993) 

10. I Feel Possessed - Crowded House (Temple Of Low Men, 1988) 

11. The One I Love - R.E.M. (Document, 1992) 

12. Found Out About You - Gin Blossoms (New Miserable Experience, 1992) 

13. Flavor Of The Month - The Posies (Frosting On The Beater, 1993) 

14. Common People - Pulp (Different Class, 1995) 

15. Runaway Train - Soul Asylum (Grave Dancer's Union, 1992) 

16. Somebody's Crying - Chris Isaak (Forever Blue, 1995) 

17. Drowning In Your Tears - The Rembrandts (L.P., 1995) 

18. If I Could Talk I'd Tell You - The Lemonheads (Car Button Cloth, 1996) 

19. Buddy Holly - Weezer (Weezer, 1994) 

20. When I Come Around - Green Day (Dookie, 1994) 

21. So You Think You're In Love - Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians (Perplex Island, 1991) 

22. If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar (Copper Blue, 1992) Have a listen...

Here Comes Your Man - A Tavern Mix

I'm back to making mixes for my brother's bar although it's hard to do from almost 300 miles away. I talked to some of his bartenders recently about the music they liked and wanted to hear while working. I also looked through the collection of CDs behind the bar. It's a small city bar and they don't want to take up valuable space with a jukebox and they just very recently added a kitchen so they don't want to spend money on a fancy music service and sound system. So I'll try to help out. Each of the upcoming mixes will be around an hour long and focus on a theme whether a time period, a musical style, etc. My house party soul music mix from last week is a good example of something they will like at the bar. This mix is a collection of late 80s and 90s alternative rock. Lots of familiar stuff which is what those bartenders like and they won't grab a mix off the shelf if they don't like it themselves. So here goes...

 

1. Under The Milky Way - The Church (Starfish, 1988) 

2. Dreams - The Cranberries (Everybody Is Doing It, So Why Can't We, 1993) 

3. Just Like Heaven - The Cure (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, 1987) 

4. Here Comes Your Man - Pixies (Doolittle, 1989) 

5. Cut Your Hair - Pavement (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, 1994)

6. Creep - Radiohead (Pablo Honey, 1993) 

7. Beetlebum - Blur (Blur, 1997) 

8. In The Meantime - Spacehog (Resident Alien, 1995) 

9. Low - Cracker (Kerosene Hat, 1993) 

10. Today - Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream, 1993) 

11. One Headlight - The Wallflowers (Bringing Down The Horse, 1996) 

12. Counting Blue Cars - Dishwalla (Pet Your Friends, 1995) 

13. Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik, 1991) 

14. Selling The Drama - Live (Throwing Copper, 1994) 

15. Lithium - Nirvana (Nevermind, 1991) 

16. Happy When It Rains - The Jesus & Mary Chain (Darklands, 1987) 

17. Cuts You Up - Peter Murphy (Deep, 1990) 

18. Mysterious Ways - U2 (Achtung Baby, 1991)

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

With the Olympics opening this weekend in Beijing I thought it would be a good time to post about a book I've just finished reading... The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. This is a terrific read about what the subtitle calls Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. The author, Jennifer 8. Lee, is a Chinese-American writer with the New York Times and she has put together a wonderful account of the impact of Chinese food in America. I first heard about Lee and her book on an NPR interview with the author. So when the book showed up in my library I grabbed it for a quick read. There's lots of great stories concerning fortune cookies, soy sauce, chop suey, General Tso and the history of Chinese restaurants in America. It was a very enjoyable book and I really had to have some Chinese food after reading it. I'm going to get lots more in the coming weeks, take out of course, for sitting in front of the TV with my chopsticks watching the Olympics from Beijing. Visit Lee's blog - fortunecookiechronicles.com The NPR story is here.

House Party - 40 Year Old Mix

This is a newly updated mix of an old mix. A forty year old mix.

Forty years old would be summer of 1968. I was a high school kid in Philadelphia and I had my first job making decent money back then working in a machine shop shoveling the hot chips flying off the lathes. Most of my pay went for buying records and going to shows. During that summer I was checking out the West Coast bands playing at the original Electric Factory down on Arch Street, hanging out downtown at the head shops on Samson Street and groovin' at the Be-Ins in Fairmount Park.

I was the guy with all the music. I was an obsessive collector even back then and read everything I could get my hands on to discover new music. I was also getting invited to parties with the understanding that I would bring my records and I would arrive with a box of 45s.


I had playlist of stuff that worked good at these parties but this was not some DJ setup that would evolve later on. There would just be a record player with a changer that would play a stack of singles in the order they were placed on the spindle.




So before mixes were created on mp3 playlist, burned CDs and cassettes there was the carefully selected stack of 7" 45 rpm singles sitting on a record changer. The mix listed here is taken from my collection of 45s from 1968 which I still have. In fact I probably still have every single, album, tape and CD that I have be accumulating for about 45 years now. I've never sold or gotten rid of anything from my collection much to my wife's chagrin.

This mix below is all soul music from the time that I owned on singles. I will post a companion mix of garage rock singles that was also from pre-1968. By that time I was strictly buying albums for rock music and had been for a couple of years.

House party music from my stack of 45s.


1. The Show Stoppers - Ain't Nothin' But A House Party
2. Dyke & The Blazers - Funky Broadway, Pt.1
3. The Soul Survivors - Expressway To Your Heart
4. The Isley Brothers - This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)
5. The Supremes - You Can't Hurry Love
6. The Dells - There Is
7. Marvin Gaye - I'll Be Doggone
8. The Four Tops - Reach Out (I'll Be There)
9. Martha & The Vandellas - I'm Ready For Love
10. Soul Brothers Six - Some Kind Wonderful
11. Sam & Dave - I Thank You
12. Fantastic Johnny C - Boogaloo Down Broadway
13. Eddie Floyd - Knock On Wood
14. The Parliaments - (I Wanna) Testify
15. The Temptations - The Way You Do The Things You Do
16. The Platters - With This Ring
17. The Contours - Just A Little Misunderstanding
18. Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston - It Takes Two
19. Aretha Franklin - Think
20. Jackie Wilson - Higher And Higher
21. Arthur Conley - Sweet Soul Music
22. James Brown - I Got The Feelin'
23. Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music
24. Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Shake And Fingerpop
25. The Capitols - Cool Jerk
26. Gladys Knight & The Pips - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
27. Kim Weston - Helpless
28. The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger

You're Gonna Miss Me

Last night my wife and I watched the Roky Erickson bio "You're Gonna Miss Me" on the Sundance Channel. It was a stunning film that both shocked and entertained us. I knew the basic outline of Roky Erickson's life of mental illness and hundreds of LSD trips but seeing the story of his life unfold was like watching a car wreck. His mother was unbelievable. He was crazy. His family was crazy. His entire life was crazy. Tormented genius indeed.

After watching this film it is nice to hear that Roky is back playing and sounds great. He has played at Austin's South By Southwest Festival the past few years.

Here is a clip of Roky singing with the 13th Floor Elevators.



Here is a trailer for You're Gonna Miss Me