Farewell to summer

As you could get used to it, seasons play a big role in my life. Each with its different atmosphere, different thoughts, weather, and so on. Therefore the first and last days of each season are always kept in mind - those are the days when something ends or starts.

Now the summer mood has to be over, and we have to say goodbye to it somehow. Last year, I did it by posting John Mayall's Turning point. Another cool post to say goodbye is in the few days at the weekend house section, Just a song before I go. Now in the last days of summer, the songs from Black Moses kept running in my head.

Isaac Hayes - Black Moses

I've been thinking what the next post will be about, and one of the possibilities was Black Moses by Isaac Hayes. The only thing which kept me back was that I've posted two albums by him recently, and this act will decrease the colourful style of this blog. But I kept thinking and the melodies came into my head again and again, and thought: now is the time when this album takes real effect on me, so this time has to be the most suitable time for it.

The first song sets the atmosphere well. It's an atmosphere which emotional, romantic, but never gets sloppy. Amongst the three albums I own (the other two are Hot buttered soul and Shaft) on this one he sings the most time. His velvety, deep singing voice is an elementary factor in his songs. These songs are well arranged, and his voice is ... by female background voices, which sound really cool. The best vocals are in the second track, (They long to be) Close to you. It's a new interpretation of the song which was written in 1963, but the most famous version of it is by The carpenters. Why do birds suddenly appear, every time when you are near? What he did with this song is similar to what he did with Walk on by on Hot buttered soul. A wholly new interpretation which you listen to and the original song is only a little part of it. A brand new performance, but rather a brand new song. I can't imagine how can it be missing from the cover versions of it at Wikipedia. The singing melody has also changed a little, and I think it's even better.

On this album every song is a little single world. They are rather long, so there's time show resolutions, and creating emphasis. For example, in the song mentioned previously, or in the first song, Never can say goodbye as they start the refrain again and again, the song doesn't want to stop. There are more examples of this re-start mood on the album. In A brand new me, the lyrics makes the same. This is my same old coat... and my same old shoes... I was a same old me... and so on, the repeat of the lines create the emphasis well.

It's a 2 cd album and in 2009 Stax released an awesome version of it. As you open the digipack, as you opened the lp, you get a cross-shaped form with large images of Isaac, and a long booklet with additional images. That's my best cd edition I've ever had. See the image below.

Never can say goodbye:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKKVIEZPTYk

(They long to be) Close to you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlaA5fkAa-o

Me and the devil

This song deserves a mini-post. As I wrote it in the previous one, Me and the devil is the single song by Gil Scott-Heron, from his brand new 2010 album, I'm new here. It's a rather new performance of Robert Johnson's Me and the devil blues.
His voice turned into a really unique sound. An excellent video was made for this song, too, and here music and picture work together perfectly. We can peek into another world which opens when darkness falls - strange people appear in the streets. Painted faces. Lights in the darkness. Far noises. New kind of nightlife.

In the video, after the song there's a fantastic part where Gil Scott makes a monologue with a deep drum pattern and beautiful string melody (it's another track on the album, Your soul and mine).

"A new record from Gil Scott-Heron, forty years after his first solo album, is a cause for major celebration and something that the world needs now more than ever."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OET8SVAGELA

Video for the album

Visit his website: www.gilscottheron.net

Gil-Scott Heron - Reflections

An unknown face in sunglasses, reflecting a black and white image with Miles Davis. Who could it be?

Gil Scott-Heron's music is not as famous as the musicians' in earlier posts like Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, etc. I have this album in a special release which proves this fact, too (The vibe! - original rare grooves album series). But he is still active nowadays, his latest album, I'm new here, came out in 2010 and I reckon it became a success. The devil and me is a really "deep" song with a cool and little surreal motion picture. The noir feeling and the painted faces do a great job.

I love this 1981 album for a lot of things. First of all, because of the new discovery. When unexpected music steps in man's life. I like as the first song, Storm music sets a loose, somehow carefree mood by the harmonica melody, and the new, special voice which sometimes speaks, sometimes sings - really unique. His voice became even more characteristic on his new album, it's worth to hear, see the video below. I like the contrast in Grandma's hands between the nostalgic topic and synthesizer melody in the background. I like as Morning thoughts are really morning thoughts, the awesome bass melody, its cool lyrics and the perfect atmosphere creating. That's my favourite song on this album. I also like - and that was how I discovered this music - the Inner city blues performance. It became slower and got a lighter interpretation than the original darker Marvin Gaye song. To sum up, it's a very colourful album and a nice start to make his new album a likable one, which is still extraordinary to me. Times will change, I dare to say there'll be a post about it in the future.

I don't think I've ever heard a sweeter feelin' in the whole wide world than that music playin' in my heart. (Storm music)

Morning thoughts:

Move on up

During my soul video seeking I found a cool classic piece which is really worth to show. It's Move on up by Curtis Mayfield, one of the old big names of soul. You can listen to this song on his first album, Curtis which was released in 1970 (I also recommend The other side of town on that album). It's almost nine minutes long, and with the inimitable "move on up" singing it's cool from its first sound to the last. At 4:00 a drum and percussion pattern appear and later a beautiful guitar sound combined with bass provides the basic notes (check out in the live version, it's even better). Solos come in, and it gets bigger. Awesome.

The melody struck in my head so much that it has been playing for weeks now. And still doesn't want to stop, though it isn't problem.

I also published it on Facebook, and one of my classmates liked it and commented: something like that it isn't Kanye West who changed the world, he can just copy well. First I didn't understand it but later I was told by another friend that Kanye remixed this song. I know he's around No.1 in today's r'n'b music, though I'm not a fan of him. I like Love lockdown, that's interesting for me. I searched for this song, but it turned out to be that its title is Touch the sky instead of Move on up. At last I found it and found it cool. It surprised me, the melody got slowed and the lyrics wholly changed. What only remained from the original song is Curtis' voice deepened, which sounds great with the deep bass pattern.

Original version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z66wVo7uNw

Radio/tv version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpD8FpGpBjE

Live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzsCP5QfcdU

Kanye's version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkwQbuAGLj4