I love me some Curtis Mayfield. “Superfly,” “Freddie’s Dead, “ “People Get Ready,” “This Is My Country,” “Choice of Colors,” “Amen,” “It’s All Right,” “Gypsy Woman,” “Keep On Pushing.” Then there are his songs popularized by other artists: “Let’s Do It Again,” “On and On,” “He Will Break Your Heart,” “Something He Can Feel.” What a great catalogue! I guess you could say he made an IMPRESSION on me. Get it? Boy, I’m good.
The late Curtis Mayfield was born on this date in 1942. Some of his work is included on today’s playlist.
Inspired by the November 21 birthdays of Björk, War’s Lonnie Jordan, Carly Rae Jepsen, Dr. John, Phoenix’s Thomas Mars, Amanda Lepore and Vivian Blaine.
Inspired by the May 14 birthdays of Talking Heads‘ David Byrne, The Coasters/Cadets’ Dub Jones, The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, Raphael Saadiq, Bobby Darin, Cream’s Jack Bruce, The Cult’s Ian Astbury, Shanice and Tom Cochrane.
Around ten years ago, while I was working at Warner Music, we were trying to think of catalogue projects that may engage Prince. One of my suggestions was a two-disc set in which one disc consisted of Prince songs recorded by others and the second disc was Prince’s demo versions of songs made famous by others.
Two weeks ago Warner released on Tidal Prince’s Originals, demo versions of songs Prince
wrote that were recorded by other acts. (It hits others streaming services
tomorrow, with CD and vinyl releases coming as well.) I’m not saying Warner
took my idea without giving me credit; I’d be surprised if I were the only
person who thought of it.
Today’s Tunes du Jour playlist is the concept of the other
disc of my proposed set – songs Prince wrote or co-wrote performed by other
acts. It’s not exactly what I envisioned that disc to be, as many (MANY!!) of
the songs I would choose are not available on Spotify. There’s all the Paisley
Park material that reverted to Prince (Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Mazarati, Jill Jones,
The Family, Ingrid Chavez, etc.), as well as commercially-released covers that
for whatever reason are missing, by artists such as Foo Fighters, Robyn, Jesus
and Mary Chain, Mavis Staples, Eels, and Living Colour.
Even with those limitations, not a bad list. Enjoy!
Today is my birthday. Over my 25+ years on earth, I’ve learned many life lessons. Most of them came from songs. My birthday gift to you is a playlist of 100 songs offering advice as to what not to do.
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