Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: R&B Bands, #2 Earth, Wind & Fire

Everybody has a top five list of something.  Sports cars...TV girlfriends...sitcoms...rom-coms...cartoon characters...sneakers...candy bars...you think of it and I guarantee that you have it.  Even if you have to sit around and think of it for hours on end like the madman that you are, you can come up with several lists nevertheless.  Because I am that obsessive madman-slash-nerd, I have been pondering for the past week as many top five lists as I possibly can and I'm nowhere near finished.  My formula is very simple: if I'm stuck on an island for at least the next five years and I'm only stuck with five particular people, artists, albums, songs, movies and the like, then these are the five that I choose pursuant to the subject.  Note that there will be times when I break down the technical quality less often than I will speak on how the subject of my affection makes me feel or transports me to a certain place and time.  Hence, I bring you my new weekly series, "Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five", and begin with my favorite R&B bands of all time.

In a time when it seems like people in the spotlight and even producers often prefer to be lone rangers, listening to a good band reminds me of the beautiful synergy that can occur between different personalities to make one sweet sound.  There are very few bands in the annals of music history who have made music at the elite level of harmonious fusion as Earth, Wind & Fire.  With legends like Miles Davis, Quincy Jones and Dionne Warwick hailing EWF as their favorite band of all time, it's hard to deny their spirited sound, vivid imagery and cultural influence.  Now, the most astute reader might have noticed their rank and thought two things: 1) why are you doing your No. 2 band before your bottom three and 2) if Earth, Wind & Fire is your No. 2, then who the heck can you possibly have as your No. 1?  First, considering that the late, great Maurice White passed away last Thursday at the age of 74 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease, I had to disrupt the order a bit.  Second, you'll have to wait until the March 10th edition of New Problem Tuesdays to find out who's the top dawg.  Anyways, with a catalog of music that spans over 40 years, there are so many great songs from which to choose, but it was fairly easy to do so.  Without further ado, let's see what songs make my cut...

The Brilliantly Offensive & Polarizing Blackness of Beyoncé

"She can't sing"..."Such-and-such can sing better than her"..."the only reason she's famous is because her father managed the group"..."she wasn't even the best looking one in Destiny's Child"..."her fans are sheep"..."all she does is shake her booty"..."she's a devil worshipper"..."I heard her breath stinks"..."she's whitewashed and wears European hairstyles"..."she's much older than they're saying that she is"..."she's too sexy"...these are just a few of the most asinine reasons that I've heard for people to dislike Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.  It doesn't matter that she's clearly a family-oriented woman who loves her husband of nearly eight years and her four-year-old daughter with all of her heart.  It doesn't impress people that her net worth is somewhere between $250 million and $450 million, earning $54.5 million in and being named Forbes magazine's most powerful female musician of 2015.  It  makes folks no never mind that she has sold over 118 million records worldwide as a solo artist, 60 million records worldwide with Destiny's Child, won 20 Grammy awards and is the most nominated woman since the award's inception.  Heck, it doesn't even matter that she just put out what will end up being the most discussed music video and song of 2016, "Formation", let alone have the unmitigated gall to perform it in the Pepsi Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show with a colorful assortment of sistas in all black rocking berets and afros to honor the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party.  Some Beyoncé defector out there is still holding on to their baseless beef by the skin of their teeth--a beef that probably has less to do with Beyoncé and more to do with the fact so many like, love, adore and even idolize her as if she's Jesus Christ in Givenchy.  However, what I appreciate most about Beyoncé's statement is that she's decreeing the beautifully complicated layers of her Blackness loud and clear while telling anyone who has a problem with that to either fall in line with the much bigger plan of unity and empowerment or build a bridge and get over it.  The best way to break down this moment of artistic bravery for an artist of her particular magnitude while exposing a deeper problem within the Black community is through Bey's own lyrics...