Buried Treasure – The Cover Art

This blog was hatched as an outgrowth of my utterly insane love of making mixed cds. Once I began writing liner notes for those mixes – and those notes started turning into 25 page novellas – the time seemed right to move that portion of my mixologizing into cyberspace.

Well, this little enterprise has taken on a life of its own, and more than 200 posts later, here we are, talking about mixed cds once again. The reason I’m strolling down memory lane is that this mix is the first I’ve put together that was inspired by the blog, rather than vice-versa. The ‘Buried Treasure’ writings here have given me an immense amount of pleasure – there’s nothing better than sharing one of your favorite underappreciated albums with a friend or five hundred.

Once all of these hidden gems started piling up, it just kind of made sense to compile them together in one place. The nautical/pirate theme is a nod to my Lost At Sea mix, which more or less kicked off all of this craziness.

Which leads me to a big HOORAY for pirates!

Here’s the front cover:

Here’s the front gatefold:

Here’s the inside gatefold:

[These notes are excerpted from the Buried Treasure posts on this blog]

Here’s back inside:

Here’s the back:

*****

And finally, here’s the track listing:

Lee Hazlewood * Dolly Parton’s Guitar
Fred Neil * Bleecker & MacDougal
Spirit * Lady Of The Lakes
M. Ward * Silverline
The Peddlers * Sing Me An Old Song
The Remains * Why Do I Cry
Elvis Presley * A Hundred Years From Now
Lee Oskar * BLT
Doc Cheatham & Shorty Baker * Baker’s Dozen
Shelly Manne * Flip
Ben Webster * Makin’ Whoopie
Buckethead * Lone Sal Bug
David Holmes * Gritty Shaker
Dead Or Alive * DJ Hit That Button
Alabama 3 * Connected
George Brigman * Jungle Rot
The Soft Boys * Black Snake Diamond Rock
Willie Colon y Hector Lavoe * Che Che Cole
Machito * Ven Conmigo Guajira
Wynton Marsalis * Come Ye Sons Of Art Away

Buried Treasure: Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline

[Today: Fred Eaglesmith puts the pedal to the metal...]

Fred Eaglesmith hails from South Ontario, Canada, which is the same neck of the woods that produced four-fifths of The Band. No surprise then that he’s figured out how to make songs that sound as old as the hills and reverberate with the twang and defiance of the Old West. Of his rustic upbringing, Eaglesmith says “We didn’t have a lot of money. We were religious and we were farmers, which is the formula for rock’n'roll: agriculture, poverty and religion.”

Automobiles obviously fit into the equation as well. Cars show up in no fewer than six songs on Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline, and it’s no secret that machinery is Eaglesmith’s favorite metaphor for describing the human condition. And he gets a lot of mileage out of it, using vehicles to riff on broken down people, sputtering relationships, and the allure of moving too fast. “I like the speed, I like the motion, I like the rocking machine/I like to drive at a hundred and five/Better hurry up if you want to catch me” he sings, sounding like a man who’s found religion through a V6 engine.

Eaglesmith is one of the most successful independent musicians going. His relentless touring schedule has resulted in a dedicated cult of followers that refer to themselves as ‘Fredheads’. With 14 albums to his credit, including the poetically titled Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline, Eaglesmith has built his fanbase the old-fashioned way: one outstanding song at a time. The next Fredhead is but an MP3 click away…

Listen: 105

Listen II: Time To Get A Gun

Masterpiece: I Feel Alright

[Today: Steve Earle travels a crooked road to country stardom...]

Steve Earle is not your stereotypical country music redneck. A genuine liberal rabble-rouser, he often takes time in between songs at his concerts to explain the value of labor unions, rail against the death penalty, or lay down a stinging anti-war spiel. Earle was raised in Texas and has worked extensively in Nashville, but while those places inform his style, they don’t define his substance. His musical heroes include both Townes Van Zandt and the Sex Pistols, and that contrast comes through in his music: he plays country songs with the attitude and energy of a rocker.

Soon after he broke onto the country music scene with his 1986 major label debut Guitar Town, Earle slipped into a heroin habit serious enough to eventually land him in court-ordered rehab for most of 1994. He emerged from lockdown artistically re-energized, and began reeling off the best albums of his career. Train A’ Comin (1995), I Feel Alright (1996), El Corazon (1997), The Mountain (1999), and Transcendental Blues (2000) saw him draw on his often checkered past to create literate songs filled with hard-boiled truths.

Earle is a published author and natural storyteller, and his songs feature living, breathing characters that are complex and unpredictable. His music often moves down dark alleys and resonates with the grit and grime and accumulated wisdom of hard times. When he sings “I took my pistol and a hundred dollar bill/I had everything I need to get me killed” in ‘South Nashville Blues’ you can almost taste the humidity and madness hanging in the air, waiting to envelop you.

Listen: South Nashville Blues

Settin’ The Woods On Fire: A Dozen Essential Country Albums

“After about three lessons the voice teacher said, ‘Don’t take voice lessons. Do it your way.’” – Johnny Cash

*****

Country music is essentially white blues. Or if you prefer, the blues are black country music. Back in the early 1900′s everybody – black and white – was busy singing what were called folk songs, if they were called anything at all. But with the advent of sheet music and the gramophone, music needed to be categorized for public consumption, thus Country vs. Blues. Certainly these strains of music became quite distinct over time, but it’s a fact that they both came from the same wellspring of popular music.

I have to remind myself of that, because in general I enjoy the blues and don’t care much for country music. At its worst, country is repetitive, boring, and simplistic. And while this is true of any genre, country music seems to encourage its worst tendencies more than any other strain of music this side of hip-hop. But fear not, my pessimism serves a good purpose here: these 12 albums (in no particular order) are proof that you don’t have to be a fan of ten gallon hats and horses to appreciate some of country music’s brightest stars…

Various Artists * The Bristol Sessions – This is nothing less than the Big Bang of country music. During the summer of 1927, the Victor Talking Machine Company placed an open call for musicians in the area of Bristol, TN. The turnout featured not only future country music Hall-Of-Famers Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, but a host of lesser known performers that helped establish the sound that would become country, and then bluegrass. Be sure to hunt down the two-disc version of this set, which features at least one song by every performer that turned out for the Victor audition.

Patsy Cline * The Ultimate Collection – In many ways, Patsy Cline and Billie Holiday were kindred spirits. They both had troubled romantic lives that spilled over into their music, both died much too young, and both had swinging voices that were overshadowed by their more distraught musical moments. That’s why a good compilation of Patsy Cline songs provides such a refreshing listen. The lesser-known tunes illuminate the range of her talent, and show an artist of remarkable touch. That said, most of this is about love lost, and should be taken in appropriate doses.

Buck Owens * All-Time Greatest Hits Volume 1 – Buck Owens helped popularize the Bakersfield strain of country music, which brought electric guitar into the fold, and established a template that artists like Merle Haggard would follow to multiple number ones. Owens’ long running association with the television show Hee-Haw may have diminished his appeal for a generation of fans, but his songs sound surprisingly muscular and remarkably honest among a universe of wannabe cowboys.

Whiskeytown * Strangers Almanac – Before you disparage this new-school selection, keep in mind that Ryan Adams and company can evoke the loneliness of an empty parking lot or a broken television set in a way that few artists – country or not – can touch. Call it alt.country or Americana (whatever), but Whiskeytown made music with the kind of infectious jangle and bare-bones pathos that few artists this side of Hank Williams can touch with a broomstick.

Johnny Cash * American Recordings – With this 1994 release, Johnny Cash became relevant for a new generation of fans. Featuring songs written by a wide range of artists, including Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, and Glenn Danzig, American Recordings features a heaping helping of Cash’s favorite topics: murder, love, and god. His early recordings, admirably collected on The Sun Years, are indispensable, but this is the place to begin for any rock fan trying to get religion with JC.

Willie Nelson * Red Headed Stranger – In 1975, stark, simple country albums like this just didn’t get made. The prevailing trends in Nashville at that time included strings, slick production, and radio friendly arrangements, and Red Headed Stranger sounds like a demo tape compared to its contemporaries. Willie Nelson fought his label to get this album released in all its sparse glory, and Columbia’s begrudging trust in him was rewarded with a #1 album and all-time classic.

Ernest Tubb * Favorites – “Country music personified” is how AllMusic.com concisely describes this country legend. E.T. rode his 1943 hit ‘Walking The Floor Over You’ to stardom and never looked back, becoming a fixture on the Grand Ole Opry and opening his famous, self-titled Nashville record store. Tubb’s voice has a lilt that he uses to draw out certain syllables, twisting the meaning of his words, and making him sound every bit like a guy who’s down in the dumps, but trying real hard not to be.

The Stanley Brothers * The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers (1949-52) – Ralph and Carter Stanley comprised one of the handful of bands – along with Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs – that helped transform mountain music into bluegrass. Carter passed away in 1966, but before his death, these brothers created music of remarkable simplicity and beauty. Ralph Stanley would go on to become a bluegrass legend, but the recordings that he made with his late brother still stand as his best.

Flatt & Scruggs * ‘Tis Sweet To Be Remembered – Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs helped define the sound of bluegrass when they played in Bill Monroe’s band, but once they broke out on their own, they helped popularize its sound in ways that even Monroe must have envied. ‘Tis Sweet To Be Remembered captures the best sides that Flatt & Scruggs made for Columbia Records during their prime. These are vital recordings that belong in the collection of any serious music fan, country or not.

The Flying Burrito Brothers * The Gilded Palace Of Sin – The Flying Burrito Brothers created country music that appealed to the Flower Power generation, and helped establish the sound of country rock. Gram Parson’s songwriting, including ‘Sin City’ ‘Christine’s Tune’ and ‘Wheels’ showed that there was plenty of gold left to be mined from the country idiom, and secret weapon ‘Sneaky’ Pete Kleinow makes his pedal steel guitar weep throughout. Much more than just an exercise in hybridizing genres, The Gilded Palace Of Sin is real country music that still cuts deep.

Bill Monroe * 16 Gems – Bill Monroe not only invented bluegrass in the 1940′s with his band The Blue Grass Boys, he also mentored many of the brightest stars within that sub-genre, including Flatt & Scruggs, Carter Stanley, and Vassar Clements. Monroe’s high-pitched voice and blazing mandolin became hallmarks of the bluegrass sound, and 16 Gems includes most of the classic sides that made him a star. Monroe toured extensively until his death in 1996, spreading the sound of his music to all corners of the country, ensuring that bluegrass would outlive its father.

Hank Williams * The Complete Hank Williams – To this day, Hank Williams is the greatest star to appear on the country music scene. He also happens to be one of the greatest songwriters to work in any genre – he created a truckload of classic songs that can still move grown men to tears. Williams’ life was filled with pills and booze, bad marriages, and physical ailments that left him in constant pain. His genius is that he took the troubles of his short life and turned them into art of the highest order. If you want to hear real musical brilliance, look no further than Hank Williams.

*****

And 20 More That Throw A Spark…

The Louvin Brothers * Satan Is Real
Steve Earle * I Feel Alright
Ray Price * Greatest Hits
Charlie Rich * Behind Closed Doors
Red Meat * Meet Red Meat
Lefty Frizell * Greatest Hits
Roy Acuff * Greatest Hits
Merle Haggard * HAG: The Best Of
Alison Krauss * Now That I’ve Found You: The Best Of
Lee Hazlewood * The Many Sides Of Lee
Loretta Lynn * The Pill
Old & In The Way * Old & In The Way
George Jones * The Spirit Of Country: The Essential
Guy Clark * Old No. 1
Slaid Cleaves * Wishbones
The Flatlanders * The Flatlanders
Tony Joe White * Tony Joe White
Fred Eaglesmith * Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline
Kris Kristofferson * Kristofferson
Wanda Jackson * Queen Of Rockabilly

On The Fence: Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music

Ray Charles’ 1962 album Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music is hailed in all corners as a masterpiece, but it leaves me feeling oddly unsatisfied. Here Charles covers a broad range of country classics – including three songs by Hank Williams – and performs with an orchestra and backup singers. Is it genius? Is it dated? Perhaps a bit of both…

THUMBS UP: Ray Charles earned the nickname ‘Genius’ and anyone achieving his level of artistic greatness should be allowed carte blanche to follow their musical whims (Sinatra and Dylan jump to mind). The orchestral arrangements and angelic backup singers used here might not track well to modern ears, but the Genius still shines through. ‘You Don’t Know Me’ is one of his finest recordings in a career full of great ones, and hearing him sing “I was blind but now I see” on ‘Careless Love’ is a transcendent, goosebump-inducing moment. With this batch of country songs, Charles proved that he could take any type of song and coin a new and better version – the rarest mark of musical talent.

THUMBS DOWN: I love Ray Charles’ music, and I thoroughly enjoy listening to him play piano and sing – and therein lies my fundamental problem with Modern Sounds…. The Genius is buried here beneath an avalanche of strings and spends just slightly more time singing than the canned backup singers that seem to hover over his shoulder. This album was important in Charles’ career, because it expanded the scope of his music and the size of his audience, but those footnotes don’t make me want to pull it off the shelf for a listen. To my ears, it doesn’t hold a candle to the records he made for Atlantic in the late 50′s. That music is much less polished and crossover-friendly than Modern Sounds…, but it’s got twice the heart and soul.

Listen: You Win Again

[Who the f--- am I to question the music of Ray Charles?? Just a guy who's deeply perplexed by the idea of country music being played by an orchestra. Please unfog my mind with your illuminating and insightful comments...]

Buried Treasure: Nine To The Universe

[Today: Instrumental snapshots from a guitar legend...]

Jimi Hendrix’ idea of a party was to grab whatever musicians were available and head into the nearest studio for a jam session. The recording environment served as his protective cocoon from the hassles of rock stardom, and he left behind mountains of unreleased recordings with a variety of different musicians. Nine To The Universe captures a small fraction of the music that Hendrix and friends recorded in New York City between March and June of 1969.

The five tracks collected here were culled from jams that stretched out as long as 30 minutes, and aren’t ‘songs’ in the proper sense of the word. Rather than resembling anything like verse/chorus/verse, these unstructured instrumental pieces instead serve as platforms for Hendrix to alternately groove and solo. There are plenty of electric moments here, but this isn’t the place for beginners just delving into the music of Jimi Hendrix.

The ostensible purpose of these sessions was to work Billy Cox into shape on bass so he could permanently replace Noel Redding. Buddy Miles and Mitch Mitchell split time behind the kit, while a handful of other musicians make appearances. Most notable among them is organist Larry Young, who at the time was already making forays into the ‘fusion’ of rock and jazz. The one track Young plays on (the imaginatively titled ‘Young/Hendrix’) is the most tantalizing nugget on the whole album, and provides a small hint of the direction that Jimi’s music might have taken had he lived past 27.

The original liner notes treat these recordings as a Rosetta stone that foretold Hendrix’ future as a fusion/jazz legend, but don’t be fooled: Nine To The Universe is most definitely an album of rock-oriented jamming. However, you can’t blame anyone for speculating about what might have become of this wondrous talent (my own favorite scenario has Jimi joining forces with P-Funk in the 70′s and blasting into outer space). The bottom line is that when someone this important dies, and all you’re left with is snapshots, even the blurry ones become precious.

Listen: Young/Hendrix

Masterpiece: Electric Ladyland

[Today: The guitar master at work...]

Wildman, virtuoso, flower child, radical, inventor, freak. Jimi Hendrix was a man of many contradictions. The fact that he lived up to all those titles, yet was encapsulated by none of them, is testament to his otherworldly musical abilities and childlike enthusiasm for making music anywhere with anyone. Hendrix seemed to exist in a universe of his own that was populated with guitars, spaceships, mermaids, LSD, bonfires, and lovers, yet he never completely broke free of the grim realities of everyday life, which are reflected across the spectrum of his music.

Like the finest comic books, Electric Ladyland is escapism as art. The songs present a number of real world problems before ducking away to Saturn or diving deep beneath the sea. ’1983 (…A Merman I Should Turn To Be)’ is a love song set within a war-ravaged landscape that builds toward Jimi and his love escaping to live under the ocean. ‘House Burning Down’ questions the logic of the riots that burned many inner-cities in the late-60′s, then concludes with a “giant boat from space” landing and “taking all the dead away.”

Throughout the album, Hendrix delights in moving from the concrete to the abstract and back again (“I’m a million miles away and at the same time I’m right here in your picture frame”). The song sequencing consistently pits the real world against a variety of fantasy-scapes – witness the urban poetry of ‘Crosstown Traffic’ bleeding into the supernatural freakout of ‘Voodoo Chile’. Even a relatively straightforward uptempo rocker like ‘Gypsy Eyes’ slips into an abstract burble of fuzz in its dying seconds before leading into the wah-wah heavy bummer of ‘Burning Of The Midnight Lamp’. Juxtapositions – such as earth/space, reality/imagination, everyday/fantastic, fire/water, and man/woman – are scattered everywhere across the album.

Hendrix was a master at creating moods within his songs, and on Electric Ladyland he demands that you hop in the spaceship and join him on a trip to faraway worlds. But even when he wails away on his guitar to conjure interstellar travel, every note feels natural and logical. It’s no wonder that Jimi had the Claptons, Townshends, and Becks of the world considering other lines of work. He was a guitar prodigy unlike any other, and with this album he created a canvas of sound that was nearly large enough to contain the immense breadth of his talent.

Listen: Voodoo Chile

The Fillmore, For Beginners

I picked up this snazzy little relic during a recent excursion through our local flea market. It’s a pretty lightweight book, and the Fillmore franchise is used here merely as a flimsy pretense to pimp the biographies of nine rock bands. Only the first and last chapters actually touch on Fillmores East & West, and even those aren’t worth much except unintentional humor. Here’s a sample describing the Fillmore East crowd, circa 1970:

“And what are they wearing to the Fillmore tonight? Surplus Army clothes are dropping off somewhat. Safari hats are making a comeback. Maxis are minimum in number. Shawls and ponchos are still in. Boots seem on the way out. Jeans will apparently always be with us. On and on the fashion models file into the Fillmore. Beards are bigger than ever – though John Lennon’s new haircut has had a startling effect on a few of the trendsetters. Outsize colored glasses, properly referred to as “shades,” have reached a new peak.”

Whew! For a minute there I thought my ponchos and shawls had slipped out of style…

The last chapter of the book – by far its most perversely interesting – recounts the author’s visit to Fillmore East for a tripleheader that included The Allman Brothers Band, Love, and the Grateful Dead. After spending considerable time explaining why the opening band rarely measures up to the groups that follow, the author reveals that the freakin’ Allman Brothers were the openers that night. But, having sipped extensively from his own cauldron of Kool Aid, he pans them mercilessly for playing too loud.

In short, this is a poor excuse for a book. But it’s an excellent excuse for me to pick up the baton where “James A. Hudson” (no doubt a PR pseudonym) dropped it, and recount some of my own Fillmore memories. While I never made it to Fillmore East (it closed its doors on June 27, 1971 with a concert headlined, coincidentally, by the Allman Brothers), I’ve enjoyed plenty of shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco. By chance, it reopened for business in April 1994 – after 5 years of seismic retrofitting – just a few weeks after I moved to the city. It quickly became one of my favorite places for a night out, and I’ve spent countless evenings in its cozy confines. Here are ten memorable shows I’ve seen in this shrine for music:

Johnny Cash [11/9/96] – This remains the single greatest concert I’ve ever attended, bar none. Memorable for a thousand reasons, though probably not so memorable for my ex-girlfriend, who passed out in the Ladies’ Room midway through the show. Cash had the crowd-of-all-ages in the palm of his hand, and delivered a legendary performance for the ages.

Primus [4/29/94] – My first trip to the Fillmore, a few weeks after I moved to SF, and the second concert put on at the reconstituted venue. I immediately fell in love with the place and its aura of rock god sweat and history. I was particularly thrilled by the upstairs lounge, which is covered wall-to-wall in vintage Fillmore posters, and stands as a veritable museum of rock history.

Blackalicious/Public Enemy [10/10/02] – Blackalicious opened, PE closed. Go ahead and believe the hype, because Public Enemy is every bit as good in concert as they are on disc. Chuck D growled and prowled, Flavor Flav cracked wise, and a whole room full of white people spent an evening shaking their collective arse to a bunch of songs about what a bunch of devils they are. Brilliant fun.

Iggy Pop [4/29/01] – My buddy Furr called me the the night of the show with an extra and I went along on a whim. Iggy immediately blew me away with his urgency and energy, repeatedly leaping into the crowd and slamming his mic stand to the ground. He and his band ripped through a greatest-hits-like set of classic Stooges and Iggy songs, culminating with an absolutely flammable version of ’1969′. Awesome.

Steve Earle [3/13/01] – This was another fortunate last second Furr ride-along. I’d not heard of Earle at all before this 2001 show, but was quickly won over by his storyteller presence and liberal-minded monologues. He and his band capped an incredible performance with a blistering version of The Stones’ ‘Sweet Virginia’. Gracias, el senor Furr!

Femi Kuti [6/19/04] – Fela Kuti’s gifted son put on an amazing display of Afrobeat prowess, but this one is memorable because it was my first chance to take my Uncle Henry to The Fillmore. He lived in SF during the late 60′s and early 70′s and visited all of the rock ballrooms of the day, so it was especially cool for me to be able to take him out for a night of music. And so there was great music, and much dancing ensued…

The Strokes [10/16/01] – This show took place right after their first album was released. In fact, they played for just 35 minutes, going through every song on their debut, but with such energy that every person there got full money’s worth. The evening was summed up by lead singer Julian Casablancas flicking his lit cigarette at the velvet stage curtains – one way or another, this group was determined to burn the joint down.

P-Funk All-Stars [9/12/98] – Without a doubt the loudest show I’ve ever been through. This was like standing in the middle of a funk hurricane, as George Clinton and company pranced around in costumes and rocked the house to its ever-loving foundation. CAN I GET TO WHAT?!?

My Morning Jacket/M. Ward [5/9/04] – MMJ represents the best of Southern rock, reincarnate, and they never fail to put on a full-throttle evening of rock & roll. These guys are probably the closest thing to the vintage Allman Brothers that I’ll get to see in my lifetime. Take an evening of extended, red-hot guitar jams, throw in M. Ward as an opener, and what you’ve got is one incredible show.

Shuggie Otis [7/7/01] – Hands down the worst show I’ve ever seen. Shuggie was high on something other than life, and the Fillmore went from packed full to three-quarters empty in less than 30 minutes. Shuggie limp-wristed his way around the guitar and organ, slurred his vocals, and spewed the kind of weak, show-bizzy jive between songs that made you almost happy to watch him crash and burn so spectacularly. Hey, I said ‘memorable’, not ‘best’…

Bill Graham surveys his domain.

Funky Five Spot

After an epic game of phone tag, I finally got my old friend Aldo on the phone the other day for a little catch up. In addition to running down the fortunes of some of our high school classmates, he hit me up with the inevitable “What’ve you been listening to lately?” We spiraled off onto some other tangents before we got to my recent playlist, and the question ended up unanswered. So Aldo, if you’re out there reading this, here are five funky albums I’ve been playing way too much lately:

Dennis Coffey * Big City Funk: Original Old School Breaks & Heavy Guitar Soul - Coffey recorded four albums for the Sussex label between 1971 and ’74, and his layered guitars, wah-wah’ed to inifinity, are the musical equivalent of a 70′s cop show – all uptempo adrenaline and funky vamping. This is gritty, bad-ass instrumental funk that constantly threatens to jump the shark, but redeems itself through wicked grooves. Big City Funk collects Coffey’s best tracks, which have naturally been sampled endlessly by hip-hop artists such as Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys.

Various Artists * Love’s A Real Thing: The Funky Fuzzy Sounds Of West Africa - The brief liner notes paint an inviting picture of West Africans huddled around their transistor radios, digging the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and James Brown, and then flipping what they’ve heard into their own take on psychedelic funk. The music here – mostly recorded in the mid-70′s – is the byproduct of that scene, and it’s a treasure trove of irresistible funk that sounds like it’s been beamed to Africa, refracted off the moon and sent back. Ten thumbs up.

Clarence Carter * Testifyin’ - This is funk that grooves with the heavy, smooth consistency of buttermilk. Carter’s honeyed voice comes with a wink, making lines like “Everybody knows I’m bad news everywhere I go” seem like play-acting. A squadron of saxophones and trumpets round out the band’s sound and punctate Carter’s bold vocal proclomations of love and fealty. I bought it mainly because of the amazing cover art, but lucked into one of the best examples of the Muscle Shoals sound. Interesting note: longtime great Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Iooss, Jr shot the photos on the back of the album jacket.

Various Artists * El Barrio: Gangsters, Latin Soul & The Birth Of Salsa 1967-75 - Fania Records – the latin funk label that was founded in the mid-60′s and more or less cornered the market on salsa music – has reissued a staggering number of incredible albums over the last year. The best way to dip into this potentially overwhelming wealth of funk is through one of the many great Fania compliations released last year. Three standouts are Gilles Peterson’s Fania DJ Series compilation, as well asThe Bad Boogaloo, and El Barrio. Muy mucho gusto!

Black Sugar * Black Sugar - These 70′s Peruvian funkateers sound like an indigenous version of Santana or War. Their 1971 debut was a best-seller in South America, but was only released in the US through a small Miami label, and didn’t make much of an impact here. But it’s full of chunky, percussive beats and Carlos Mejia’s impassioned vocal stylings. “Stay with me” he pleads over and over, his voice rasped out to the edge of coherence and reason. Little has been written about this group, but they are worthy of more scupulous attention, as well as repeated listenings.

Masterpiece: Let’s Get It On

[Today: Marvin Gaye weighs in on the fine art of making love...]

The best sex – like the best music – goes beyond mere stimulation and grabs for the soul. It becomes a transcendent sensual experience that touches the head, the heart, and yes, the groin, all at once. Marvin Gaye’s 1973 album Let’s Get It On is an epic ode to the spiritual liberation of sex that conveniently doubles as one of the most smoldering mood-setting devices* of all-time.

Gaye was raised in a deeply religious household, and much of his music in the 70′s attempted to philosophically reconcile the sacred with the profane. Gaye was moved by his love of God, but he was even more inspired by earthly temptations, including those of the flesh. Let’s Get It On is overtly about getting it on, but the album celebrates sex as a religious experience. For Gaye, desire was a natural outgrowth of love, and love was a natural outgrowth of God – so hey, let’s ball.

Soul music, of course, has always been headquartered at the intersection of God Avenue and Sex Boulevard. Ray Charles invented soul in the late 50′s, when he fused gospel with R&B, outraging audiences of the day. Sam Cooke and Otis Redding perfected the formula in the 60′s, but no album has ever simmered soul music down to its pure essences like Let’s Get It On. Hearing Marvin Gaye pour a lifetime of desire into the course of 8 songs and 31 minutes is to behold a master at work.

Listen: Let’s Get It On

*****

*Results may vary.

*****

“Love, and do what you like.” – St. Augustine