> I am (mostly) going to stay with the 10 singers you chose and list my
> favorite songs by them.
> bonus
> 11. Smiling Faces Sometimes - The Undisputed Truth
> 12. Back Stabbers - The O'Jays
> 13. If There's A Hell Below, We're All Gonna Go - Curtis Mayfield
> 14. Theme from Shaft - Issac Hayes
> 15. Third Stone From The Sun - Jimi Hendrix
> 16. Dancing Machine - The Jackson 5
> 17. Baretta's Theme (Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow) - Sammy Davis Jr
> 18. Tell Me Something Good - Rufus featuring Chaka Khan
> 19. Disco Lady - Johnny Taylor
> 20. Nothing From Nothing - Billy Preston
Some fantastic choices, many i know and love, others I will definitely check out in the future.
I don't know why the 10 I listed popped into my head, when there are probably hundreds of songs I could have chosen.
It wasn't any one characteristic that guided me, in as much as the lyrical content, the production,the musicianship etc., but more to do with songs that have stood the test of time for me, and which I have loved for many years, and will love til the day i die.
I included a few Reggae songs because during the late seventies and most of the eighties, I was obsessed with Reggae.
I even ran a sound system where I played reggae exclusively and had residencies at local bars and clubs for a few years.
Great times and great fun.
Over the last 15 years or so, my listening has been restricted very much to white indie/alternative/rock music, Elvis, Beatles, Bowie, Bolan, Slade,Roxy Music, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Rem, Radiohead, Gene, Killing Joke, Sex Pistols, Clash plus loads of other punk/post punk/progressive predominantly 'white' music, not to mention my almost daily fix of Morrissey/Smiths over the last 20 years.
I did listen to loads of Dance Music throughout the 90's.
Being a musician, I loved the innovations in sound and production techniques coming from the dance scene, but even then my favourite stuff was the white boy end, Prodigy, Underworld, Leftfield, Chemical Brothers etc.
For various reasons, my circumstances and my situation have changed quite a lot over the last few years, and i've found myself coming back to a lot of the stuff I loved growing up, and whatever deficiences some of these tracks may have technically or lyrically, is compensated for by the great feeling of familiarity and nostalgia i feel, very much like seeing an old friend again after many months or years.
In the same way that we take other people for granted and become complacent , that they will always be there, so we don't get round to phoning or visiting them as often as we should, we neglect songs that made us feel alive and glad to be so.
I appear to have become one of those people that has "heard it all before", when it comes to new bands/new records/CDs, and I am rarely engaged for long by the latest press darlings and bright new things.
Subsequently, i very rarely buy "new" CDs, preferring the original models that these 'artists' have modelled themselves on, and rather, seeking out the stuff that I might have missed first time around, or that I'm now ready to play closer attention to.
I suppose i'm interested in "quality", and this only truly becomes apparent after a number of years, and by "quality", I just mean something that can stand the test of time, that, in it's particular genre stands out as having something that similar records lack.
Of course, this is all highly subjective, which is another great thing about music and why peoples taste in music says so much about who and what they are.
Thanks again for your choices.
