In Heavy Rotation: Black History Month 2016

Since a lot of my Black History Month celebration has been spent tackling some heavy, but necessary subjects, I decided to end this special month on a lighter note: music.  Now as you all might know, it's very easy for me to wax nostalgic about my favorite artists in R&B/soul and hip-hop/rap.  However, what will be commonplace in the "Heavy Rotation" series is that I'll always seek to give my musical palate more of a challenging taste test.  The best way to break down the four albums that I decided to give a spin for Black History Month is to begin each one with an "Honest Moment" to either highlight the ease or the difficulty in giving each album a fair shot.  With that, let's give it a go...

CHARLEY PRIDE, Pride of Country Music (RCA Victor, 1967).  Honest Moment #1: I've never been the biggest fan of country music.  Not to say that I don't enjoy it because I do believe that whoever writes for country artists have some of the best pens in all of the music industry.  However, growing up in D.C. when it was still "Chocolate City", most people  that I knew didn't have stations like WMZQ as preset favorites.  Thus, any interest in country music came by personal exploration.  A few years ago, I remember listening to someone on a podcast talk about Charley Pride and how he was one of the most successful Black country singers back in the day.  So I decided to look up some of his best work and Pride of Country Music was in the midst.  Two initial reactions: 1) Pride's voice was like country music's answer to Nat King Cole and 2) it definitely sounds like country music from the 1960s.  With that said, a song like "Best Banjo Picker" is actually the kind of old school country music that I dig the most because of the pace of the song and the focus on, of course, the banjo solo.  Then there's a gem like "Silence" in which Leon Ashley and Margie Singleton showcase the aforementioned writing chops for country artists and Pride delivers: "Silence is four walls that hold no laughter/Silence is a phone that never rings/Silence is a hall without her footsteps/The sound of silence is destroying me."  Although I nearly picked "Silence" as my favorite, "I Know One" just took the cake for me.  Maybe it's the fact that it's just Pride singing without background singers, or maybe it's the fact that you can picture some dude with a beer in his hand either at the bar or waiting by the phone.  Either way, lyrics like these make you feel for this foolhearted sap of a subject: 

You never know, you might be lonely when all your loves have missed/It wouldn't hurt to keep an extra fool on your list/After your heart's been broken and it needs a place to run/If you'll take a fool who loves you, I know one...

It sounds like the precursor to a scene right out of He's Just Not That Into You where the woman is Anna Marks and Pride is playing Conor Barry; straight up friend zone flow, slim.  Whole time, it's kinda what makes the song appealing because who hasn't been in that position before other than the biggest pimps, players and macks on the face of the planet?!?!  OTHER NOTABLES: "In the Middle of Nowhere", "Spell of the Freight Train", "Take Me Home".

SCHOOLLY D, Schoolly D (Jive, 1985).  Honest Moment #2: maybe it's because I really started coming around to hip-hop toward the end of the Golden Era, but I can't say that I was in love with a lot of hip-hop before 1988.  Don't get me wrong: I was a huge fan of the Run-DMCs, the LL Cool Js, the Kurtis Blows and the Grandmaster Flashes of the world, but let me tell it, even Chuck D needed a year after Yo! Bum Rush the Show before his flow and delivery helped to define Public Enemy's dopeness between 1988 and 1992.  However, I'm always partial to artists from Philly because I just believe in my heart of hearts that they put out some of the best music period regardless of the genre.  So when I saw a recent article commemorating the 30th anniversary of Schoolly D's legendary "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" single, I decided to give his eponymous debut a shot.  Also, the guilty pleasure part of me has always been intrigued by Schoolly D often being credited as one of the first rappers to 1) be associated with "gangsta rap" and 2) spit explicit lyrics.  Whelp, for being a mid-1980s hip-hop album, it's not a bad showing--especially as the album rolls along and he really starts personifying the B-boy culture mixed with street swagger.  He lays down some of his many nostalgically iconic lines on "Gucci Time":

Looking at my Gucci, it's about that time/For MC Schoolly D to start hummin' a rhyme/I heard you was out there bitin' my lines/And if I catch ya boy, yo' a** is mine.

Then, with lines like "80 dollar shirt and my 100 dollar sneakers/Gemini mixer and some PB speakers/Turnin' out parties everywhere that we go/And peepin' all the hoes at the end of the show", "Put Your Filas On" epitomizes dope boy fresh in the 80s because I definitely wanted a pair of Filas not long after this.  As revered and celebrated as "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?" is in hip-hop culture, it's still my favorite song on the album.  Schoolly may have founded Sucka MC Killa University (or SMCKU for short) with these lines alone:

Got to the place and who did I see/A sucker-a** n**** tryin' to sound like me/Put my pistol up against his head/And said, "You sucker-a** n****, I should shoot you dead"/A thought ran across my educated mind/Said, "Man, Schoolly D ain't doing no time"/Grabbed the microphone and I started to talk/Sucker-a** n****, man, he started to walk.

Judging by the fear that he wanted to strike in Action Bronson's heart, I wouldn't be surprised if Ghostface Killah was a proud alumnus of SMCKU.  You just don't bite another rapper's style.  Not in 1985...not in 2015...not ever.  Yup...so much about this album is undeniably hip-hop.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Free Style Cutting", featuring DJ Code Money going to town on the turntables.

NATALIE COLE, Inseparable (Capitol, 1975).  Honest Moment #3: as much as I have always loved her voice as well as her story of overcoming drug addiction to reclaim her career, I have never owned an album or even a greatest hits compilation by the late, great Natalie Cole.  I remember being in high school and making a list of all the CDs that I wanted to get from the Columbia House and BMG mail-order music clubs (you forgot about those, didn't you).  Well, let's just say that she's still on that list, but thank God for an Apple Music subscription.  It would've been easy for me to pick the album containing my favorite song of hers, "I'm Catching Hell," but again...I'm all about the challenge.  So I chose her debut album, Inseparable--which is also one of her most critically acclaimed and won her two Grammy awards off the break for Best New Artist and Best Vocal R&B Performance, Female.  Speaking of the latter award, this is another rare case of an artist's most signature songs being my favorites, but it's hard to deny how much of a feel-good, infectious and catchy song "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" is.  What's easily the most memorable part in Taxi (2004) is when Belle (Queen Latifah) tries to get Andy (Jimmy Fallon) to stop overthinking things, this song starts playing and Jimmy Fallon really starts thinking he's a Grammy-award-winning R&B singer.  Then there's the classic title track, "Inseparable," which prominently features the piano that melodically defines much of Cole's best work. Although it's probably one of the most incredibly simple songs ever written, she infuses so much sincere love and radiant beauty into the lyrics that only a purist cares that much.  Even with "Inseparable" being a clear highlight, listening to this album reminded of just how many sneaky dope songs Natalie Cole has in her arsenal.  Case in point: "I Can't Say No".  Because it's a song that I only hear every now and then on The Original Quiet Storm, I honestly forgot just how much I love it.  Again, most of the lyrics are normal R&B fare, but towards the end, Cole convincingly sings:

Sometimes I get so angry with him/I walk around, I pout all day/And then he kisses me and asks me do I love him/In a sweet, soft, sexy kind of way/I can't say no if he asks me...

Much like the sentiments in Charley Pride's "I Know One", who hasn't been in this position? As much as you want to say "no" to someone, they just have that hold on you that makes "yes" the default answer no matter what.  Y'all should know me by now: I'm here for the relatable songs and this is top dawg on this album for me.  OTHER NOTABLES: "I Love Him So Much", "How Come You Won't Stay Here", "You".

OTIS CLAY, Soul Man: Live In Japan (Rooster Blues, 1983).  Honest Moment #4: if I weren't an avid watcher of NewsOne Now, then I probably could've gone most of my life not knowing who the heck Otis Clay was.  However, Roland Martin credited Clay (who passed away eight days after Cole) with being the last of a dying breed of blues/soul singers and that immediately caught my attention--especially when he absolutely raved about Clay's Soul Man: Live in Japan album.  As soon as I gave it a listen and Clay belted out those first couple of notes on "Hard Working Woman", I was instantly a fan because that down-home, gritty sound is my favorite kind of soul music.  Digging deeper into the album, I noticed him singing a few Al Green and O.V. Wright staples and the music research nerd in me immediately started connecting dots like, "Hmmm...I wonder if he sang backup for them or if he was on the same label."  Sure enough, he was on Hi Records--a roster that also included Ann Peebles, Syl Johnson and musically spearheaded by the late, great Willie Mitchell and the Hi Rhythm Section.  Even if most of their artists weren't as sustainably successful as Al Green, their brand of soul was unmistakable and Clay was clearly cut from that same cloth.  With all of that said, another shining moment was his tribute to his late friend and aforementioned label mate O.V. Wright, performing a highly impressive rendition of Wright's "Nickel and a Nail".  However, the showstopper for me was his stirring performance of Jackie Moore's "Precious, Precious" (also featured on his 1972 Hi Records release, Trying to Live My Life Without You) on which he was right at home with that bluesy Southern soul.  The way he sings it though, you might think that no one else should've sung it before or after him; that's how much he owned it.  Just when you think that Clay steals the show, Charles Hodges, known for his signature organ skills on Al Green records as part of the Hi Rhythm Section, manifested for nearly six minutes why he is without question my favorite organist in music history and certainly the most influential on my style.  (I could practice every day for the rest of my life and not be as good as that dude right there.  Sheesh!!!)  All-in-all, this is the one album that sticks to my ribs the most and will be "In Heavy Rotation" for a while.  OTHER NOTABLES: "His Precious Love", "Love and Happiness/Soul Man".