A Time To Mourn, And A Time To Dance

With New Year's Day being just around the corner, I've been spending some time contemplating what my resolutions should be for 2007. I can always generate plenty of ideas about what I should be doing---the difficulty is in having enough discipline to assure that any changes I propose amount to something greater than a pool of little white lies.

At any rate, the only resolution I'm considering that would be of any relevance to you is that I intend to keep things flowin' in the right direction here at Souled On, and will continue to strive for greater things in terms of quality, content, and frequency. Let's hope (for our collective sake) that I'm not just blowin' smoke up all of our asses...

Anyway, I dug out a few more classics from the crate to tide you over until my next links post. Things get a little slow on a lot of sites around this time of year, but it should only take me a couple more days to serve you a relatively substantive post.

Wishing all of you peace, prosperity, and wisdom in the coming year. Hopefully these tunes will help you get started in the right direction:

"The Message From The Soul Sisters, Parts 1 & 2"---Vicki Anderson
As yet another tribute to the legacy of The Godfather of Soul, I decided to post a track by Vicki Anderson, one of James Brown's Soul Sisters. According to JB's autobiography, he thought that Anderson was the best singer he ever had in his revue. She claimed Anna King's spot in 1965, and continued with Brown until 1968, when she was replaced by Marva Whitney. However, she joined the revue again in 1969 when Whitney departed, and remained until Lyn Collins came on board a few years later.

This particular track by Anderson has been a popular resource for sampling artists---Above The Law, LL Cool J, The Geto Boys, Lil' Kim, Gang Starr, Big Daddy Kane, and Main Source are just a few examples. This is another...

"Son Get Wrec (Evil Dee remix)" ---Black Moon
Released in 1996, Black Moon's LP Diggin' In The Vaults contains several remixes and a few miscellaneous B-sides. In my humble estimation, it's one of the more worthwhile efforts at making the Anderson sample fit nicely into the context of a hip-hop joint. By all means, judge for yourself...

"Tighten Up My Thang"---Soul Children
The Soul Children were composed of Anita Louis, John Colbert (aka J. Blackfoot), Shelbra Bennet, and Norman West. Not only did Isaac Hayes and David Porter form this group, they also co-wrote the majority of their finest tracks. "Tighten Up My Thang" is one such example, a song from their 1968 self-titled debut. I'd venture to say that it's pretty difficult not to like this track---it has a certain infectious quality that makes me return to it time and time again.

As far as the sampling history of this song, right now I can only think of one example---"Fountain Of Youth" by Arrested Development. I'm sure that there are others---drop some knowledge in the comment box if you can remember any of them.

"Check It Out" ---(The Diabolical) Biz Markie
Even though The Biz has always been somewhat of a cartoonish character in hip-hop, I still couldn't help losing some respect for him after repeatedly being exposed to unflattering shots of his plentiful gut on VH-1's "Celebrity Fit Club". That said, I guess my post-traumatic stress disorder is finally going into remission, because I flipped this record today and thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. "Check It Out" is a joint from his 1989 LP The Biz Never Sleeps, and features a sample of Yvonne Fair's version of "Let Your Hair Down". It's hard to imagine that this track didn't somehow inspire Jay-Z's "Where I'm From" (from 1997's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1), although in fairness, Hov's version contained a sample of The Temptations recording of "Let Your Hair Down" instead. It can be argued that Biz's lyrics tend to be a bit sophomoric at times, but throwback joints like this can serve as a reminder of days when hip-hop was infinitely more innocent. Enjoy...

Word From Your Moms:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."---Steve Jobs