Music Banter - What Are You Listening To Right Now? II

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- - What Are You Listening To Right Now? II (https://www.musicbanter.com/general-music/37447-what-you-listening-right-now-ii.html)

Scarface- "Keep Me Down" - YouTube
Not liking the album so much so far...

I'm listening to "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor.

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Cry To Me (1962) - Solomon Burke

http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images...rke-2-high.jpg .

Solomon Burke (1940 - 2010) was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People, which did mass baptisms with a fire hose. He coined the term 'soul music', and may have been the most unfairly overlooked singer of soul's golden age.

A memorable mixup of Burke's career was in 1964 when the Ku Klux Klan booked him to entertain at one of their rallies. Having heard his country song 'Just Out Of Reach', the planners were under the mistaken impression that he was a white singer. Burke himself was at first unaware that he was entertaining the Klan, but all turned out well when he showed up they liked his performance.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by skaltezon (Post 1112283)

A memorable mixup of Burke's career was in 1964 when the Ku Klux Klan booked him to entertain at one of their rallies. Having heard his country song 'Just Out Of Reach', the planners were under the mistaken impression that he was a white singer. Burke himself was at first unaware that he was entertaining the Klan, but all turned out well when he showed up they liked his performance.

This story made me curious enough about Solomon Burke's life to learn more about his performance for the Klan. I learned from Wikipedia that the only reason it turned out well is that the doctor wrapped up Solomon Burke's face and hands in bandages so that the Klan couldn't tell his skin color!

I would have been terrified facing up to 30,000 hooded Klansmen. I've been afraid of the Ku Klux Klan ever since I was a kid. Burke said he was scared, too:

Quote:

King Solomon - CBS News

...when [Solomon Burke] rolled into South Carolina in 1960, the promoters were expecting someone who looked more like Gene Autry.

"They said, 'The only way you're gonna go out there on that stage, my man, is bandaged up, doc. What do you think?' So they bandaged me up," recalls Burke. "Bandaged up my hands and bandaged up my face. And I was like the invisible man. And I went out and I sang. And did the four songs."

"I mean, when the sheriff's telling you you're gonna go out there bandaged up, you figured, the thing is, we wanna get out of these bandages," adds Burke, who was more scared than angry. "I was a little frightened … The idea of once we got the bandages off and they said everything was fine, we had been paid, and it was just unbelievable how music can solve a lot of problems."

I also learned that Solomon Burke passed up a chance to sing the song "Hang On Sloopy," and I'm glad about that because I like the way The McCoys sing it. :) I've posted the song before but here it is again, but this time with the original video, which I'd never seen before:

The McCoys - "Hang On Sloopy"
"Hang on Sloopy" was really popular in roller skating rinks in the '70s, so whenever I hear this song I see in my mind's eye a honey-colored wooden skating floor and a sparkly disco ball. :D

If the Beatles were a bit more experimental...

Get Well Soon - "Heading Home to The Pole"

I like the choir and the jingly bells contrasting with the heavier moments in the song. Man, Konstantin Gropper has a low voice that I don't expect to come out of his slender, boyish body! The incongruity always surprises me.

I find myself gravitating to some of his music, which I find very curious, with my favorite song being "Angry Young Man." He sounds like a lounge singer, a crooner from an earlier generation, but his music doesn't sound at all lounge-like. About him and his band: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Well_Soon_(band)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NoQ42tywAJ...I/s320/gws.jpg

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Get Well Soon - "Angry Young Man"

I'm a little obsessed with this song/video combination, which I posted about elsewhere due to the video appealing to me so much. Below is the official video followed by a live acoustic recording, which I hadn't seen before this morning! (Excitement!)

Heh heh! :o: Now I'm listening to *this* performance video of "Angry Young Man."

Sometimes I dream about a person and wake up still feeling whatever feelings I experienced in the dream. So last night this happened to me. And then I happened to run into the very subject of the dream today - a person I never usually see even though we're often in the same building. Then, later today, I get an urge to listen to Samhain. And I randomly youtube this song:

Black Dream

And whoever posted the video also posted the lyrics so I read them. Here they are:

Who are you that taunts my nights
With darkness and reproach
Are you she
Embracing devils never to awake

Pretty pretty black dream
Give me infinity's kiss
Pretty pretty pretty black one
Your lips I hunger for
'Cause I want it
And I need it
Your tongue I hunger for
Want it
And I need it
Black dream can kiss me loose
Oh

Your existence is only that which
Causes inner pain
Cradle lifeless bodies
In the bosom of your hell

Pretty pretty black dream
Give me infinity's kiss
Pretty pretty pretty black one
Your lips I hunger for
'Cause I want it
And I need it
Your tongue I hunger for
Want it
And I need it
Black dream can kiss me loose

Whoa go go oh

Black dream, black dream, black dream
Black dream, black dream, black dream
Black dream

When you come I'll be waiting here

Pretty neat.

Gloomy as, but also beautiful. Sometimes you just can't beat melancholic, piano-led songs about suicide.

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Hawks and Doves - Neil Young

I found a better-sounding example.