Saturday, December 1, 2018

WHAT THEY DO?

I went to the local Christmas parade earlier tonight. I'm not particularly jolly, but the thing is only two blocks away so you would almost have to make an effort to avoid it. I figure I can just walk home if it's too boring, and sometimes I do. It's usually lame, and this year was no exception. The first music I heard out of it was was some band playing the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" on the back of a flatbed. Sorta tells you what the town is like. Hey, the hipster invasion is kept at bay, so what the hell.

The other music was three different jam bands, same set up, flatbeds. There was an Irish thing, bagpipes 'n' shit, a ol' timey hillbilly band, again, flatbed. (They must have all seen that Mops clip.) There was also a dj, a samba group and a band, Bump City Brass, doing the O'Jays' "Love Train". A great version with a woman singing lead. Musically, it was the one shining part of the parade. The rest was the same as any other year. Oh, this was odd, there was a group, roughly fifty people dressed head to toe in black with Guy Fawkes masks and signs that said "truth". I'll have to Google that shit.

So, when I got home "Love Train" ended up an O'Jays orgy. "Back Stabbers" sent me right back to an old hang, a bar called the Pink Panther, late eighties. It was a punk/mod crowd, the bar co-owned by the current owner of the Casbah. The Panther didn't have live music, just DJs at night and a jukebox during the day. The jukebox had all sorts of cool shit. Punk, rockabilly, mod shit and a few odds and ends. One was "Back Stabbers". It was unlike the others and I must have heard that song a thousand times there. I added three to that tonight. That song is so badass, particularly for seventies soul. "What they do?" might as well be a power chord. Fuck, listen to it, loud. So badass. Then it was on to the long version of "For the Love of Money". That's when the wheels came off. Dancing around like a fool in a cramped living room. I'm outta here. Going to check out more O'Jays, and I ain't coming back tonight.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
The O'Jays - Back Stabbers mp3 at The Industry Cosign
The O'Jays - For the Love of Money mp3
at Man In the Maze
The O'Jays - Love Train mp3
at Mark Candleshore

No comments: