sixartist, sixtune, sixweekspecial #23
(Impressions – Young Mod’s Forgotten Story)
landmark day today .. 100 posts on themusicologist. especially synchronistic that it’s fallen on Curtis Mayfield’s ‘watch’.
Iv’e banged on enough times during the time we have shared together on themusicologist about how much the man’s music and lyrics have meant to me as babe in arms, young boy, adolescent, teenager, young man, and now as man, (a title you can’t claim before 33 according to the ancients !!), so I’m not going to wax too lyrical today as Curtis says it all with this cut about the end of an era….
“Shall I tell it like it is, aint none of your business…YES IT IS..”
lyrics DON Curtis…lyrics
arranged by Curtis, legendary musicologist Johnnie Pate and rising soul star Donnie Hathaway…
themusicologist 
congratulations n thanx for 100 wonderful pieces of music…as for this particular tune
it blew me away…I’ve never heard it before but felt like I knew it..what an Inspired choice!
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countess,
thank you for the continued support and encouragement.
as always the mans finger was right on the pulse.
1969..The Young Mod’s Forgotten Story..end of an era. beginning of the end for ‘freedom’
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HAPPY – AS IN “YOU MAKE ME SO VERY HAPPY” – CENTENARY TO THEMUSICOLOGIST….. KEEP ‘EM COMING!!!
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I’ve spent (actually “spent” is well off the mark… enjoyed is nearer the truth) the best part of this morning trying to catch up on themusicologist….. Didn’t get past Curtis…. ha, ha,
“I was always careful that the music was still mine and there was no conflict in the music that was arranged against the basic rhythm, pattern and the song itself”
Yes brother Curtis… WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE YOURS to/for me… I mean, the intro is just fantastic…. it really smacks the senses awake; opens the inner ears to what’s about to come…. his eternal message!!
With the passage of time, the benefit of hindsight, in retrospect etc., etc. Curtis Mayfield is up there with the very, very best. He stands head and shoulders over his contemporaries.
That’s my personal opinion, and I stand by it…. come rain or come shine.
Hey, that “come rain or come shine” has just hit a chord…… What about Ray Charles in the roll call of musical giants?? And while I’m at it – and the moderator can eff off if I’m censored on this – what about the real King of rock… Chuck Berry??????
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yeah…Ray Charles and Chuck Berry..both musical giants. but the six/six/six is artists that have made a big impact on themusicologist and neither of those have I’m afraid..
not at all knocking their contribution, (how could I), but it’s unlikely that there will be any more ‘1 artist’ weeks.that said both of those artists you mention will get spun but more than likely as part of a ‘theme’
thanks for the comments
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No more “1 artist” weeks?…. Pity. No, a crying shame in fact. Still, I can well understand it… it must have been a real strain on the senses (not to mention the everlasting stress associated with what society calls/demands a “decent standard of living”).
A very narrow window of “comment” opportunity is open to me at present so I’m taking full advantage…. Don’t panic sir, it’ll soon pass…. hahahaha!
2 points…..
1. the “1 artist” (superstition doesn’t allow the other definition to cross my lips!) theme is worth thinking about as a blog in itself…. it really concentrates the mind. Think about it….. the moderator lays down the artist well before the event and invites nor only comments but readers/listeners to send in their favorite tracks. Maybe even I’d be up for a bit of that!!!
2. including the lyrics is a master-stroke. It adds another dimension… especially to those of us who are/were so wrapped in the power of the music they miss/ed the message…. if you know what I mean??
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superstition? what the six/six/six?
1: the 1 artist blog..go for it. I would participate
2: I know what you mean but the lyrics never pass me by..it’s the message after all, (not suggesting the instruments don’t have the power also)
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“everyone knows the number of the beast”… shiver, shiver!!!
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yep although the mark of the beast, (six/six/six) was the numbers on a Roman, (the beast), coin from back in them bc days…not many know that !!
so ‘beware the mark of the beast” really means “watch that the mean green don’t enslave your soul”
money is the devils work that’s for sure but ‘the beast’ was Rome/Ceaser?
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Yeah, bad family….. just think of Nero, not to mention ………!!
As for “the mean green”…. I disagree. It’s not the devil’s work, that would be too easy. It’s mankind’s (and it will bring about the demise of mankind too if we’re are not very carefull). Money, which came about as a form of barter, is now, to quote Karl Marks, “A Real Absurd”….
Fact: of every $200.00 in circulation a measly (absurd) $1.00 is actually traded i.e. used to buy and/or sell. The rest is some esoteric place else. A place inhabited by slimy Bankers, greedy Financiers, blinded Investors, corrupt Fund Managers, dealers and their like…. I could go right into one about these, these, dirt-bird #*#%!?!?+# but I haven’t the time or inclination.
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correction…
“of every $200.00 in circulation” is completely wrong (arse-upwards if truth be known). It should read “for every dollar actually traded another $200.00 is billed, promised, lent, or borrowed by The Masters Of The/Our Universe!!!
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Yep…. what’s this gotta do with music?????
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This one still does it for me…. and probably always will. It’s up there in my top ten.
Can you tell me when it was recorded. Better still… released!!!
P.S. Billboards No 1 single of all time has just been published…. Chubby Checker – The Twist. 1960.
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1969 I do believe
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The Twist. Original by Hank Ballard (B-side to Teardrops On Your Letter. King 5171; 1959). Chubby Checker covered it for Cameo-Parkway (Parkway 811; 1960).
Apparently, Dick Clark of American Bandstand fame, heard Ballards version and “advised” Cameo-Parkway to record it. Chubby Checker (Ernest Evens, as he’d previously been known) had recently recorded a Fat’s Domino imitation for Mr. Clark at Cameo-Parkway.
For suppositions sake let’s say the choice of vocalist was one of those “he’ll do” decisions (the fact that Chubby Checker sung his parts over an already recorded instrumental track gives a strong clue) and what do they get….. A monster hit!!!
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