Posts Tagged ‘curtis mayfield’
When Will the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Run Out Of Mainstream Acts to Induct?
This is the question Mike Conklin asks at L Magazine:
Right around the mid-80s, or 25 years ago, or the exact amount of time that needs to have passed since a band’s debut in order for them to be eligible for induction, when hair-metal came along and ruined everything, it simply became cooler for rock bands to exist below the radar of the mainstream. With the exceptions of a period of a few years in the early 90s, with Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and then again a decade later with the White Stripes and Radiohead, all the best rock bands have been, for lack of a better term, indie rock bands.
Are the Replacements going to be inducted? Sonic Youth? Husker Du? Joy Division? The Go Betweens? Pavement? Guided By Voices? If they’re not, it’s bullshit: for people who actually still really, truly care about rock and roll, these are the bands that have carried on in the tradition the Hall of Fame has always held dear. But if they are inducted, the Hall of Fame will surely lose the massive cultural appeal it so obviously strives for, considering barely any of those bands have sold as many copies of all their records put together as most current inductees have of even their least successful record.
While a good question on its face, a little historical digging says we can prolong answering this one for a while yet.
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End-of-Week Mixtape: #FridaySoul!
Dear Arts Desk readers,
As approximately 62 of you know, I’ve been spinning a Friday Soul mix via the old Twitter account. Man is it groovy! I’m even linking to videos. The playlist so far:
- Otis Redding, “Shake” (live at Monterey Pop, 1967)
- Raphael Saadiq, “Let’s Take a Walk”
- Laura Nyro, “And When I Die”
- James Brown, “Super Bad”
- Buddy Guy, “Feels Like Rain”
- Mofro, “Ho Cake”
- James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, “Got My Mojo Workin’” (hey, we’re branching out)
- The Impressions, “Long Long Winter”
- Rod Stewart, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”
- Bettye LaVette, “You Don’t Know Me At All”
- Van Morrison, “I’ve Been Working”
- Curtis Mayfield, “People Get Ready” (some live version from, I think, 1974)
Eclectic, see, yet accessible. But it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings! (No Aretha jokes, if ye please.) Just point the browser of your choice in this direction, make like a lemming, and follow along. Suggestions are appreciated. As are witty remarks concerning my inclusion of Rod Stewart…or the fact that a number of these tracks don’t necessarily qualify as soul.
Below the jump: the remainder of the mix, updated incrementally.
Last Week: Raphael Saadiq, John Legend, and Dr. John
Saadiq/Legend at DAR Constitution Hall; Dr. John and the Lower 911 at Blues Alley
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Raphael Saadiq and Dr. John are both on tour at present, peddling different brands of regressively delightful music to packed, loyal audiences. The Doctor (Mac Rebennack, to get technical) and Saadiq (né Wiggins) wear their influences on their sleeves and dress in full-on vintage: Rebennack in voodoo regalia, Saadiq in a chickadee-yellow suit and oversize horn-rims.
The distinction, of course, is that the Saadiq’s throwback pose is provisional; the Doctor’s is dynastic.
Headliner John Legend has been filling houses for Saadiq during the pair’s national tour that closed two days ago. That’s fine, if it means more people listening to Saadiq—but mainly it means sitting through most of Evolver after the livelier performer (with the better band) has already left the stage. Legend struts and takes his cheese seriously; Saadiq dances and seems to acknowledge that the salvation/procreation dyad of contemporary R&B is about as synthetic as a modern soulman who channels Curtis Mayfield.
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