2.24.13

On February 24th I listened to Aretha Franklin I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, Eric B. & Rakim Paid In Full, and Bat For Lashes The Haunted Man.

I think my relationship with Aretha’s music begins with “Respect” and ends with “Think.” I’m going to go on record right now and say that the version of “Think” that is in the movie The Blue Brothers is the best musical number in the history of musicals. When Jake and Elwood, who are there for Matt “Guitar” Murphy and “Blue” Lou, get caught up in Aretha’s song and join in is pure genius! “You better think about the consequences of your actions!”

I Never Loved A Man is a beautiful old school album. I particularly liked the poorly named “Baby Baby Baby,” “Good Times,” and “Save Me.” “Do Right Woman – Do Right Man” is the slow jam!

I feel like Eric B. & Rakim came outta nowhere. One night I showed up at a high school party and everyone I knew was into Eric B. & Rakim like they were listening to them for years! “You haven’t heard of Eric B. And Rakim? Hey everybody, get a load of this guy? He’s still listening to Run – D.M.C.!” I was all like, “shut up! Are we playing Quarters, or what?”

The truth of the matter was, I was getting bored with rap a little and had just discovered The Smiths and a whole new world of Alternative music a few months before Paid In Full came out in the Summer of 1987.

Did Eric B. & Rakim coin the phrase “Frenemy?” Rakim drops it on the album’s opener “I Ain’t No Joke.” They should have got a copyright on that shit! They could have made a fortune!

I think, if I had put the time in back in 1987 and listened to this album a lot, now it would be a great piece of nostalgia, but I didn't  There’s a lot here to swallow and I just don’t have the interest to listen to this album enough to make it interesting to me. Sorry Eric and Rakim!

I don’t think I have ever listened to a Bat For Lashes album all the way through and I still haven’t. I basically just listened to each song until it got through the first chorus, or whatever passed for a chorus, and then skipped to the next track.

BFL is just not for me, which is weird cause when I was younger I liked some Kate Bush stuff and I went out and bought a couple Siouxsie Sioux records. So, there was a time in my life when I could see the appeal of artsy fartsy stuff and using dumb stage names. I guess I grew passed it. (Wanna hear how much I've matured? I originally wrote “art fag” stuff, but then edited it to “artsy fartsy” so as to not offend anyway. Brad Maybe grows up?)

Some of the music on this album reminded me of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica soundtrack. Bat For Lashes kinda reminds me of the Cylon that killed Cally and then Chief chokes her out. If I was a pilot serving on Galactica my call sign probably would have been Wide Face. 

Tomorrow I will listen to Miles Davis Bitches Brew, Mos Def Black On Both Sides, and A$AP Rocky Long.Live.A$AP.