I am 11 and half years old and live in Jawbone, Kentucky.A creek runs behind our house where I live with my mother. She met you once some years ago. You are probably my one of, if not the, favorite person I’ve ever studied.I plan to be either:
A – an oceanographer
B – an architect, or
C – a pilot.
Thank you very much for your good work.
Sincerely, Ned Plimpton,
Blue Star Cadet, Zissou Society.
P.S. Do you ever wish you could breathe underwater?
Bobby Conn applies a Jackson 5 inspired rhythm and string section to this cautionary tale about the compromises one must endure along the road to success. That said, his assertion that you’re never going to get ahead by giving head to the man is probably more morally than factually sound.
Bobby Conn – Never Gonna Get Ahead(right click to download) 3:42 mins/ 160 kbps/ 4.25MB
Hailing from St. Pauls, Minneapolis, the birthplace of Prince, production duo No Regular Play makes no attempt to hide their affinity for Uptown’s favorite son. With altered vocals and a washed out backing track, Wolf and Lamb labelmate Nicolas Jaar provides a dense and dramatic remix that makes no attempt to compete with the original.
While a decision was made upon this blog’s inception to stick strictly to music and not splinter off into weightier topics like philosophy or politics, I seek a reprieve this Valentines Day with an issue that encompasses a bit of both. I’m writing, of course, about how people don’t slow dance at clubs anymore. Like the unfortunate phasing out of bench seats in automobiles or dueling to settle a grievance, our generation forgoing the slow dance strikes me less like a cultural evolution as it does a misguided regression by a society that has lost its way.
It might sound fantastical to readers born post Purple Rain, but it wasn’t so long ago that a DJ would pitch things down and play a ballad at peak hour, and why not? It’s well recognized, if not largely unspoken, that an establishment can charge eight dollars for an ounce of down-market alcohol in exchange for creating an opportunity for semi-consensual human contact. So why have we forsaken an imbedded social custom whereby a simple change in music would speed this process along?
Perhaps it’s a cultural shift from those of us raised in an era where sexuality was presented bathed in blue light and accompanied by a saxophone solo on scrambled pay per view, to a generation whose visual representation of sex comes by way of sallow pornography made on the brutally honest medium of digital video. For all of the drawbacks of prudishness, maybe having a bit of shame about sex forces one to be more seductive when asking for it. Or maybe we’re just living through the blowback from rave culture and the libido crushing stimulants that traded the ritual of a slow dance for a 90 minute shoulder rub in the “chill-out room” like members of a benign, sexless cult.
Whatever the reason, I’d like to take this day of romance to offer a plea to those responsible to drop a few ballads at the club so we can all get a bit of touch. The following is a slow dance starter kit, a selection which also makes for a compelling Valentines Day mix whether you’re celebrating with a long time partner, courting someone new, or are at home alone, cutting yourself to recapture an ex-lover’s fancy.
Winter Family – Garden Soko – I Will Never Love You More The Velvet Underground – Some Kinda Love (Closet Mix) Tommy James & the Shondells – Crimson & Clover Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg – Je t’aime moi non plus Beach Boys – Disney Girls Hall & Oates – I’m Just A Kid (Don’t Make Me Feel Like A Man) Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – The Way James Carr – What Can I Call My Own Natural Four – Can This Be Real? Otis Redding – I’ve Been Loving You Too Long BloodStone – Natural High Johnny Daye – Stay Baby Stay The Flamingos – I Only Have Eyes for You Duke Ellington and John Coltrane – In a Sentimental Mood Chet Baker – My Funny Valentine Os Mutantes – Baby shelly duvall – He Needs Me Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters – Tonight You Belong to Me Leo Sayer – When I Need You Prince – International Lover D’Angelo - Feel Like Makin’ Love Rufus featuring Chaka Khan – Sweet Thing Shirley Murdock – As We Lay
Electric Adolescence – Bring Back the Slow Dance(right click to download) 80:00 mins/ 256 kbps/ 146MB
Forged with sense of grandeur normally reserved for period musicals and aging actresses, this obscure Balearic offering from Escape From New York is as astounding as it as impossible to classify; combining elements of new wave, disco and several other subgenres yet to be invented in 1984. With the original release near impossible to find, the reissue is only slightly less illusive as a white label pressing limited to 300 copies.
A tip of the hat goes to Konrad Black, who introduced me to the song, proving why he remains to Berlin’s techno scene what egg is to French toast.
Escape From New York – Fire In My Heart(right click to download) 5:14 mins/ 192 kbps/ 7.19MB
Providing a pitch-perfect account of one of our languages’ most intangible concepts, this impeccable folk ballad by Jason Molina under his Songs: Ohia moniker is written and performed with such sincerity that the result could bring a robot to tears.
Songs: Ohia – Soul(right click to download) 5:33 mins/ 192 kbps/ 7.63MB
Slow and hypnotic, the aptly named title track from Richie Hawtin’s seminal 1998 release is a masterwork of minimalism, utilizing a clockwork bassline and muted kick as a canvas for a series of restrained acid and techno flourishes.
