Lillian Lopez, Rest In Peace

 I couldn't help but take notice when I heard about the passing of Lillian Lopez today, at the age of 76, from cancer.  She was an original member of the 70s dance group Odyssey, the one who sang their biggest hit, Native New Yorker.  I quite liked the group. I thought they were breezy, lush and elegant.

It is understood that emotional connectedness to a song - having it belong to an important person or situation, for example - is what sells it and keeps it alive. Immediately, my mind floated back to the moments when I would ride around the city with Ralph on our way to God knows where, blaring this song. The way that he would stop, sometimes in mid-conversation, to sing these particular lyrics emphatically will be forever engrained in my memory.

And love, love is just a passing word 
It's the thought you had in a taxi cab  
That got left on the curb  
When he dropped you off at East 83rd

Click here for a colorful and interesting blog/blurb/review of their self-titled album. (Totally forgot about the Good Times episode.) Interesting tidbit: they were managed by (a then unknown) Tommy Mottola.

You Make Me Feel Mighty Real

i can't even begin to explain how much i love sylvester. like alejandro escovedo, he is in his own sonic category because he is so completely himself. there's something about this video that transcends how dated it feels. i don't know. maybe that something is sylvester.

Sylvester - You Make Me Feel 1970
Video sent by PeteRock

Sample De Byron Stingily Pour You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).

le freak! c'est chic!

there are articles and books that talk about disco as a cultural phenomenon but i haven't really read anything that dissects the creative drive or the musicianship behind certain groups or producers. the overall presumption is that disco lacks both. nowadays most talk about disco like it was a strange, tacky blight on the american music landscape. but i never thought that about the group chic.

then came the book everybody dance: chic and the politics of disco by daryl easlea. of course the author is a regular contributor to Mojo, arguably the only music magazine worth reading these days. of course it's published by helter skelter located in london, a city that knows a good black american thing when they see/hear it. of course a brit would intellectualize what chic has done and give their music and their production aesthetic the respect that it deserves. of course.

here's a glimpse: a live performance from back in the day. even from this far away in time and online video, it feels like a party. (check out nile rogers' afro! i love it!)

Chic - Le Freak
Uploaded by djoik