November 27, 2002
On a mission
For those who love the music from, say, 1955 to 1980, these are hard times. FM radio, which once seemed so promising, has now distilled thousands of songs into play lists that make the old Top Forty format look expansive. Yes, "The Letter" was a great record. No, we don't need to hear it every two hours. Yes, "Oh, Pretty Woman" was super. But "Working for the Man" is just as good. And why do stations keep playing Beatles records already in everybody's home collection?
Perhaps worse, nobody is yakking about the music. Nobody talks about the singers, the writers, the songs –- the whole process by which all this stuff happened.
Maybe nobody's yakking because there's no place to yak. That's where we hope we'll come in. In the nearly 25 years that we've been friends and colleagues, we've never stopped talking about R&B and rock 'n' roll. It's been the constant theme. When times have gotten bad, we've just recited and sung to each other the lyrics of Clarence Carter's immortal "Patches." When life has seemed too bizarre to fathom, we just compare our situation to that of "Timothy." And for some things, well, as they said in "Hide and Seek," at least one of us is still not ready.
With all the blogging going on nowadays, we figure, hey, why not share our rock and soul interests with the world? There may be a few folks out there who know more about this music, and how it relates to life, but nobody could love it more. If you feel the same way, let us hear from you. Anything that relates to the music is welcome – indeed, solicited. Reminiscences, questions (we do research)…anything that relates to that musical era.
So join us for a finger-popping monkey time. I know we can do it, so now let's get to it.