Monday, May 19, 2008

soul or SOUL

I've grown tired of the U.K.'s offering of retro R&B soul. To me it seems more about gimmick than anything else and its not skin color that bothers me. Catching an acoustic version of Amy Winehouse "Rehab," I was completely floored by the complacency. And seeing Duffy on Conan, I was so unimpressed. And now we are being made to believe that Adele will show us a new way to appreciate something that was done up to 50 years ago.

There are some amazing performers today who can take something old and make it new in R&B. Hey, we got Sharon, Estelle, Erykah, and Mariah can even strike a chord with me. Yeah I said that, and you are a heartless fool if you can't appreciate the fact that "We Belong Together," has an amazing break down. Mark Ronson is amazing, The Dap Kings are my heart, and Pharrell is this generations Prince.

Tina gives me the chills, Diana Ross makes me happy, Otis is unbelievable, and Al Green is probably responsible for my existence. I grew up with R&B, soul, and funk in my house and its not a guilty pleasure its an obsession. And if there's one thing these new artists should do is make sure that the audience knows that there is a whole bunch of vinyl, eight tracks, cassetes, and mp3's that have an emotion that should be recorded and kept forever. And they should remember they have extremely hard acts to follow.



IKE & TINA


OTIS


ETTA

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