When in doubt go to the roots.

IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Retro soul man Charles Bradley released his third album, Changes, earlier this year and again, the 67 year old former James Brown impersonator does not disappoint. (Bradley saw Brown perform at the Apollo when he was just an early teen and his life was changed forever.)

Today’s SotW, “Ain’t it a Sin” is butt shakin’ funk that doesn’t belie Bradley’s revivalist approach.

On this one, the man christened “the screaming eagle of soul” lets us have it with the full throated refrain:

If you ain’t gonna do me right
I just might do you in
Ain’t it a sin

Asked about that lyric, Bradley responded “… I was saying, ‘Don’t do me wrong, I won’t do you wrong.’” Downright Trumpian!

Way to go Charles. You got me believing that “my mind is goin’ through them Changes.”

Enjoy… until next week.

Part of the fun and most of the drawback in writing about music is finding comps. Tracing the roots and the blending of styles is a great game, but it tends to rob the artists of their own identities. The more traditional the music the harder it is to escape the trap in print. The J. Geils Band, George Thorogood, ZZ Top – I mean, they were all really popular but not critically respected. Mink DeVille was another, not as successful but they could have been. The big critics hardly wrote about them. Christgau dismissed them with faint praise as genre-mongers, Greil Marcus never heard of them (or the Dolls or the Heartbreakers either, he probably hated Humble Pie and The Stooges too). I don’t think Lester Bangs said anything. Only Robert Palmer ever gave them their due: “Mr. DeVille is a magnetic performer, but his macho stage presence camouflages an acute musical intelligence; his songs and arrangements are rich in ethnic rhythms and blues echoes, the most disparate stylistic references, yet they flow seamlessly and hang together solidly. He embodies (New York’s) tangle of cultural contradictions while making music that’s both idiomatic, in the broadest sense, and utterly original.”

Something very few if any critics ever say: these guys rock. It’s the crucial datum scrupulously avoided.

Mink DeVille was one of the few real rocknroll bands in the early CB’s/Max’s scene. They opened for The Heartbreakers many times and always knocked us out.

As Palmer noted, they straddled genre lines. This song has John Lee Hooker and rockabilly and Aftermath but is a thing of its own. It’s not even their best song but I’ll hear it out every time.

This is Miles and his septet at their best defining jazz/rock fusion. With John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Billy Cobham, Sonny Sharock, and Michael Henderson, Davis and his band totally kick the shit out of this instrumental that was produced as the soundtrack for an animated film on the life of boxer Jack Johnson.

Perhaps this is why Miles is in the R’n’R HOF, although it is ridiculous to consider who is in and out of that stupid museum, although I actually I do want to go there: I just don’t care who is in much anymore.

To the point, Deep Purple is in on the strength of two hits and a so-so album. This cut from Miles, along with the back side (a track called “Yesternow”) is better than anything Deep Purple ever imagined.

Add in Bitches Brew to the cartel of fusion Miles did, not to mention his incredible albums, Kind of Blue, and In a Silent Way and it is pretty easy to see why Miles et al are so highly thought of by all who love brainy music.

My boys at the top of their game.

Dig that vintage Orange bass rig:

Never heard this before, never released they say. Why not I wonder. Another good song to punk up.

When I was going through yesterday’s mix disc that had Avi Buffalo on it, I also ran into a fave for a while in My Morning Jacket, Jim James’ band out of Kentucky.

I like them a lot–at least I love a pair of their albums, Z, and Evil Urges–which were in regular rotation and recommendations from Mojo, as was Avi Buffalo.

I will keep it short as the video pretty much speaks for itself, but how can you not love the pop, harmonies, reverb, and cranked guitar?

I can’t get away from all this political bullshit – yeah, “both” “sides”  – so might as well join in. I represent the Reverb Party. I might have posted this before but I love it because it rocks LAMF AND it’s pop. And the words that I can understand are great. I don’t want to understand all the words at first, it’s better when you discover them gradually. It took me 25 years to figure out that Jagger was saying “burns like a red coal carpet” in the 2nd verse of Gimme Shelter. I never looked at a lyric sheet, which are often wrong anyway, especially with the Stones and others who are hard to decipher.