Live Set: Music is History

 

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My buddy Walter gave me this book for my birthday and at first I was a little cynical. I'm not a big fan of Questlove or The Roots (and definitely not Jimmy Fallon)... but about 20 pages in, I knew I was reading one of my favorite books ever.

Questlove does an essay for each year starting with his birth year in 1971. Each essay is pretty different, but the idea is that he puts music in an historical context... each chapter has a page that just lists notable events of the year and then he dives into whatever struck him... sometimes completely personal, sometimes esoteric. He is very cool, smart, well-versed in music and history, and laugh out loud funny sometimes. It is outstanding!

I created a spreadsheet of all 500 or so songs he makes mention of in the book (and which he was cool enough to index) and went through them for this set. Not all of them are necessarily songs he liked. I didn't concern myself with that. I just tried to put together a fun set inspired by a great book that I hope you check out sometime!

1. Charles Mingus - 1962 - Oh Lord, Don’t Let Them Drop the Atomic Bomb On Me
   Mingus is one of my favorite jazz musicians, but this song is out of the ordinary for him for a couple of reasons.  First, he is foremost known as a bass player, but here he plays piano, and second, he sings! This song actually pre-dates the Cuban Missile Crisis. As always, ahead of his time.

1. The Dynamics - 1965 - Bingo
   The first single from the Detroit-based R&B group. By 1967, they changed their name to The Dramatics. Best known for their song, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get” (1971).

1. Ray Charles - 1966 - Let’s Go Get Stoned
   Penned by Ashford & Simpson and originally recorded by The Coasters in 1965, Ray Charles had a #1 R&B hit with it the following year. Ironically, it was his first song recorded after completing rehab to break a 16-year heroin addiction.

1. Robert Parker - 1966 - Barefootin’
   Considered a one-hit-wonder, the Alabama-born, New Orleans-raised Parker started out as a saxophonist for Professor Longhair. This song sold a million copies. At age 78, he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

1. The Beatles - 1967 - I Am the Walrus
   Shortly after release, the song was banned by the BBC for the line "Boy, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down". By the time this was recorded for The Magical Mystery Tour, people had already been diving deep into the lyrical analysis of Lennon’s songs, and so he wrote this specifically to confound them.  The line that comes to my mind far too often is: “Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye.”

1. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 1968 - Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)?
   From his third album. No mystery here, the ladies liked Jimi. And he liked them. A writer from All Music asserts that this song exhibits an influence from Curtis Mayfield. A little more soulful than earlier releases.

1. Isaac Hayes - 1969 - Walk On By
   Growing up, I could alway tell when my Mom had been smoking weed.. .she alway left an Isaac Hayes record on the turntable. When not high, she liked Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Paul Williams.. That kind of thing. So it was pretty easy to tell. This is, of course, of the Burt Bacharach-composed song that was a huge hit for Dionne Warwicke in 1965. (Both Dionne and Isaac have been on The Rockford Files. Badass show.)

1. The Isley Brothers - 1969 - It’s Your Thing
   This song was written as a liberation anthem to Motown’s Barry Gordy after they left the label. Recorded in two takes, it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 (behind Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In by The 5th Dimension). In 1970, they became the first former Motown group to win a Grammy. 

1. The Temptations - 1969 - Running Child, Running Wild
   The socially conscious song with more than a hint of psychedelia influence was a new direction for The Temptations as the 1960s ended, sounding a little more like Sly and the Family Stone than themselves. 

1. Donny Hathaway - 1970 - Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)
   One of my favorite R&B artists, Donny Hathaway had a short but great career. Suffering from depression/mental illness, he sadly committed suicide at age 33 by jumping from the 15th floor of his hotel room in NYC. This, nine years prior, is the title track from his debut album. The entire album is excellent. I will feature it on Shlep Dreams of Vinyl soon.

1. Funkadelic - 1971 - Can You Get to That
   From their third album, Maggot Brain, “Can You Get to That” features Isaac Hayes’ backing vocal group Hot Buttered Soul and is influenced by gospel music. 

1. Marvin Gaye - 1971 - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
   The closer on Gaye’s classic socially-conscious landmark album What’s Goin’ On, it serves as the perfect bookend to the opening title track. 

1. James Brown - 1972 - Get On the Good Foot
   Partly due to the unwillingness of Brown's record labels to certify sales of his previous hits, "Get on the Good Foot" was his first gold record.

1. Lightnin’ Rod - 1973 - Sport
   Lightnin’ Rod was the nom de plume of poet/musician Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, who was best known as a founding member of the political/activist group of musicians that performed as The Last Poets. Nuriddin has been called “The Godfather of Rap.”

1. The Hues Corporation - 1973 - Rock the Boat
   Hailing from Santa Monica, this group’s hit is credited as one of the first disco songs, and asserted by many to be the first disco song to hit number one on the charts (though some say it is “Love’s Theme”, which is upcoming. In the quintessential basketball book, Heaven Is a Playground (1974, Rick Telander), which documents the basketball culture of NYC, 14-year-old Albert King, already being recruited by colleges, is constantly listening to this song throughout. I knew the book before the song, so when I finally heard it, I fell in love with it, around 1992.

1. The Love Unlimited Orchestra - 1973 - Love’s Theme
   Here is the other song that is arguably considered to be the first disco song to hit number one. Written by Barry White eight years earlier and released by the White-formed The Love Unlimited Orchestra (a 40-piece string-laden orchestra), it is one of the few instrumental singles to top the charts.

1. Sly and the Family Stone - 1974 - Can’t Strain My Brain
   From the seventh and final album to feature the original Family Stone, Sly was already descending into disfunction. I have never actually heard this album - it was poorly received - so I am glad Questlove turned me onto it. I love Sly.

1. The Bar-Kays - 1974 - Fighting Fire With Fire
   In Questlove’s book, sometimes between the essays for each year, he’ll have random lists. This song appears in a list of songs that he would never have learned if they weren’t used as samples in subsequent songs. This one was used in a song by The Beatnuts (I am unfamiliar) and Questlove himself used it in the first remix he ever produced, “Gettin’ Into It” by King Britt. I feel like I am gonna do a whole show of samples from like a handful of my favorite hip-hop albums sometime soon.

1. Parliament - 1975 - Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)
   Obviously, a very well-known song, but it is so great I featured it anyway. Parliament (the P in P-Funk along with Funkadelic) are of course, one of the most groundbreaking acts of the genre.. Funk, that is… and there is even a solo George Clinton song coming up. This song reminds me very fondly of Glen. One night we and his then-girlfriend Holly were getting drinks at the 4th St. Tavern in San Rafael and this song came on, and we, along with about a dozen other very white people got up (and got down) in that bar. Spontaneous dance, pure joy. We started that dance and we have Jagermeister to thank for it.

1. Aretha Franklin - 1976 - Something He Can Feel
   Another very popular song that was too good to pass up. It was written by one of my all-time favorite musicians, Curtis Mayfield, for the 1976 movie Sparkle (starring the late Irene Cara). This song experienced a renewed popularity in 1992 when the vocal r&b group En Vogue did a hugely successful cover of it. This original kicks that one’s ass.

1. The Commodores - 1976 - Fancy Dancer
   Simply fascinating, and probably nearly impossible for any of us to realize, but Lionel Richie … long before the ballads and the dancing on the ceiling all night long (I confess, shit I love)... truly had the funk. It’s like an alternate world.

1. Stevie Wonder - 1976 - I Wish
   Stevie is one of the most cited artists in Questlove’s book (Prince, probably the most). The lead single from his quintessential Songs in the Key of Life album, it is about Wonder’s wishing he could go back to relive his childhood. Been there. If there were a heaven, and I could choose one age to be eternally… it might be 9. 

1. A Taste of Honey - 1978 - Boogie Oogie Oogie
   From AllMusic: A Taste of Honey bassist Janice Marie Johnson upon hearing the track on the radio for the first time was such a shock to her that she ran a red light. The group's first single, "Boogie Oogie Oogie," co-written by Johnson and keyboardist Perry Kibble, was inspired by an unresponsive audience during a date at a military base; Johnson believed the crowd was chauvinistic toward the group's two female guitar players (her and guitarist Hazel Payne). She admonished them on the spot by chanting: "If you're thinking that you're too cool to boogie/we've got news for you/everyone here tonight must boogie and you are no exception to the rule." Afterwards in her hotel room, Johnson jotted down the line, thinking that it would be a good song lyric. The notorious bass solo intro came about when Johnson was warming up before the recording session, unaware that she was being recorded.

1. Prince - 1980 - Partyup
   The closer from Prince’s third, and still for many considered his best, album, Dirty Mind. It was co-written by Morris Day of The Time, which is cool. It 1989, my Mom, who was a transcriptionist for the State of Minnesota, got a side gig transcribing all of the taped interviews a writer had done for a Prince biography, and knowing I was a huge fan would tell me things, one standing out: “Did you know Prince got way into ecstasy before anyone knew what ecstasy was?”  I didn’t, but it sure helped explain the transition into wearing lingerie on stage

1. Steely Dan - 1980 - Hey Nineteen
   The song is about dating a 19-year-old woman and realizing the age gap leaves them with nothing in common.. Suggesting in one lyric that the young woman didn’t even know Aretha Franklin. According to Questlove’s book, Aretha was none too pleased at being suggested that she was forgotten by a younger generation. I don’t blame her. Don’t piss off the queen, Donald.

1. Kurtis Blow - 1981 - Do the Do
   This song was mentioned in Questlove's between-chapters lists for “Hip-Hop Deep Cuts” writing that this follow-up to “The Breaks” didn’t, of course, get nearly as much love, but he is a big fan and he makes a plea for Universal to remaster this as the versions available “sounds like 72-bit, so much digital distortion.”

1. The Time - 1982 - Wild and Loose
   I feel either Nick or I (or likely both) have featured this before, but so be it, it is simply too essential. The lead track off their second album, it was written by Prince along with his kamikaze headband-wearing guitarist from The Revolution, Dez Dickerson. Prince actually wrote every song on their first two albums. 

1. The Who - 1982 - Eminence Front
   I honestly hadn’t heard or thought of this song since it came out until Questlove wrote about it in his book. Townsend provides the lead vocals. Apparently, it was featured in season 3’s opening episode of Miami Vice. This sounds custom made for Miami Vice. I kinda wanna bring that Don Johnson look back.

1. Sun Ra - 1983 - Nuclear War
   Sun Ra was one of the most gloriously strange artists in music. He came from outer space, or so he claimed (close, he was from Alabama). He was convinced this song was a hit, even though the chorus, if you wanna call it that, was “Nuclear war, it’s a motherfucker”. It barely got released, finally finding a label in Italy. Thank goodness for that. It may be long, but it is great.

1. Bonzo Goes to Washington - 1984 - Five Minutes
   This “band” is actually Bootsy Collins and Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads). Harrison got an off-air sample of Ronald Reagan joking that in five minutes the U.S. attacking Russia from a college radio station, and turned it into a rather groundbreaking track.

1. Spectrum City - 1984 - Check Out the Radio
   This is Chuck D. and company prior to becoming Public Enemy. Chuck D. was still delivering furniture for his father’s business when they released this, their first ever track.

1. Thomas Dolby - 1984 - Hyperactive!
   Questlove writes about this Thomas Dolby track partly because it received a fair amount of airplay on MTV when he was 13, and was a huge fan of “She Blinded Me With Science”. He said he hadn’t thought of the video in 35 years until he started writing the book and was researching other songs that were being played at the same time as Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” (the Science song) and then read that on this track, Dolby shared vocals with a woman named Adele Bertei, who later performed with Tears for Fears on “Sowing the Seeds of Love”. And then, while researching he found a 2011 interview with Dolby where he stated that he wrote “Hyperactive!” for Michael Jackson.

1. Sheila E. - 1985 - A Love Bizarre
   Co-written and co-sung with Prince, this was the lead single off of the soundtrack for Krush Groove. It is one of my favorite’s of the Prince era when he seemed to have had a hand in almost 10% of the songs on the radio. 

1. The Cure - 1985 - Close to Me
   Questlove talks about when friends/acquaintances started getting driver’s licenses in his hometown of Philadelphia, it was proper etiquette to respect the music preferred by the person driving and it is how he came to learn music he might not otherwise have, and this Cure song was one of his faves. And though I don’t feature The Police in this set, Questlove became a huge fan of them as well. I always like hearing about musicians liking music outside of the genre they are associated with… like Bob Dylan loved Ice-T, Axl Rose loved George Michael, etc. Hell, could be a great show idea sometime.

1. George Clinton - 1986 - Cool Joe
   George’s third appearance tonight, this song is mentioned by Questlove as an example of songs in E Minor that are divided into two camps, the songs that get over and songs that underwhelm. He cites this song as one example of both. “Cool Joe” earns my admiration, but to me it’s too neutered, too pristine. And yet, despite that, I can sense the life that’s there because it was written and performed by George, and George is all about life.”

1. The Dismantlers - 1988 - Small Time Hustler
   This one only has the slightest of mentions in a between chapters list again on “Finding the Past in the Present”, discovering music from samples. He discovered “Sport” by Lightnin’ Rod (which I played earlier) through “a brilliant, obscure ‘80’s hip-hop single” which you’re now hearing. I like including some of that old-school stuff, especially if not popular today.

1. Son of Bazerk featuring No Self Control and the Band - 1991 - Change the Style
   This song is cited as an early single produced by the legendary production team of The Bomb Squad. It wasn’t a hit, but Ice Cube heard it, loved it, and simply remade it with his own lyrics as the title song from his AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. I like this better. (Kinda just saying that because Cube is turning into a bigger idiot each year.)

1. Radiance featuring D.J. R.C. - 1980 - The Micstro
   Everything has been in chronological order up to this point, but I wanted to save this one for close to last. I love these old-school long rap songs. Featured in Questlove’s list of “Hip-Hop Deep Cuts”... I had never heard it before, but I can see why he loves it.

1. Fatboy Slim - 1998 - Praise You
   Questlove didn’t dive deep into this song, but I always like to include a track or two specifically for our host Nick. The reason this song is mentioned is Questlove when writing about the movie Shaft minions the performance poet and stage actress Camille Yarbrough in the movie with “the sultry voice that holds the word “Shouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuld” for thirty seconds in Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You””.

1. Faith No More - 1992 - Easy
   Mentioned in the book when talking about excellent covers, this one from an unexpected place. One of Monica’s favorites. I prefer it to the original as well.

1. Tears For Fears - 1989 - Sowing the Seeds of Love
   This has been featured a few times in our sets, and it is a classic of the Birch Way era. Questlove had a lot of thoughts on this song, dedicating three pages to it. It’s a great book. I hope you check it out some time.