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Funky16Corners: Keep On Keepin’ On

Woody Herman – Fanfare for the Common Man (Fantasy)
Timmy Thomas – Why Can’t We Live Together (Glades)
Staple Singers – Step Aside (Epic)
NF Porter – Keep On Keepin’ On (Lizard)
Odetta – My God and I (Polydor)
Diamond Joe – Fair Play (Minit)
King Curtis – For What It’s Worth (Atco)
William DeVaughn – Be Thankful For What You Got (Roxbury)
Joe South – Games People Play (Capitol)
Brenda Lee- Walk a Mile In My Shoes (Decca)
Cymande – The Message (Janus)
Jimmy Cliff – The Harder They Come (Island)
Sly and the Family Stone – Stand (Epic)
Gladys Knight and the Pips – Friendship Train (Soul)
Lee Dorsey – Yes We Can (Polydor)
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – People Get Ready (A&M)
Curtis Mayfield – We’re a Winner (Live) (Curtom)
Otis Redding – Change Is Gonna Come (Volt)

Listen/Download – Funky16Corners: Keep On Keepin’ On 115MB Mixed MP3

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Greetings all.

This is a heavy one, so strap yourselves in.

I have taken time to address social/political issues a few times over the years, including Presidential elections, mid-terms and police violence.

Funky16Corners has never been primarily concerned with such matters, but there is no escaping the fact that when dealing with black music created during the classic soul era, you are listening to sounds forged on the anvil of the civil rights era.

I used to assume that anyone with a love for this music would understand how much racism, violence and the struggle to defeat both had to do with the music I feature here, but sadly I have discovered that this is not always true (like every time I post something along these lines).

This year’s election is starkly different from those of the past for several reasons, but first and foremost because of the rise of Hate (you didn’t think I was going to do him the honor of using his name, did you?).

Hate is an existential threat to this country, not only because he leads the Republican Party, which has been doing everything in its power to hobble government and its capacity to do good for the last four decades, but because of the poisons that he has stirred into the process.

Hate has taken the GOP’s once (barely) covert flirtations with racism, sexism, religious hatred, xenophobia and anti-government zealotry and placed them front and center, making them the core elements of its campaign for President.

Mirroring similar right wing movements around the world, Hate and the Republicans have taken advantage of anger and anxiety over the death of white hegemony and tossed gasoline onto a smoldering fire, making legions of hateful, scared (and often well-armed) people comfortable speaking the unspeakable and acting on those same fears and hatreds.

This, combined with horrifying levels of voter apathy, a dying press and the rise of an electronic media that further truncates the shortened attention span of a growing number of people, has allowed a media virus with an utter lack of competency, intellect, empathy or history of public service a chance to lead this country.

And if the only problem was that he was unqualified, it would be bad enough, but he is a singularly horrible person. Dishonest, arrogant, hateful, racist, sexist, vain, and patently incurious about anything that doesn’t satiate his base desires for social and sexual domination, further inflate his diseased ego, or add more money to his bank account.

He professes business acumen, yet leaves in his wake countless lawsuits, multiple bankruptcies, as well as scores of unpaid vendors, and his refusal to honor traditional levels of financial disclosure suggests that things are even worse than they seem.

There are those that would have you believe that the rise of Hate can be tied to the slow, painful death of the middle class and the loss of manufacturing jobs in this country, yet he has provided no evidence that he knows how to fix the problem, and has very likely contributed to it.

Every election is important, but this one is especially so. It is the very definition of a tipping point, as well as a defining moment in the history of the United States.

This is the moment when we discover if the American Experiment has failed, and if we as a people have any interest in the continued existence of the nation, or if we simply wish to burn it to the ground.

The time to realize that your vote is not merely a method of personal expression, but a mark of participation in a democracy, in which we strive to cooperate with our fellow citizens to honor the sacrifices made for this country, demonstrate the humility needed to admit to, and correct the mistakes made along the way, and the strength and vision to make this union a stronger one.

The key word in that last paragraph is one we don’t hear very much these days: humility.

Webster lists the simple definition of the word as “the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people”.

We are fighting to demonstrate that humility is a possibility, and a crucial part of a democracy. We are faced with a force to which humility is anathema, seen not as a strength, but a fatal weakness. A force that wields nationalism/jingoism as a hammer with which to smite their enemies, real and perceived.

But unless we can show that we are capable of humility, by owning up to the dark chapters of our history (and our present) we will never be able to face down Hate.

No matter how much these people struggle, white superiority will die. It’s only a matter of when, and how much damage is done as it claws its way down the drain.

We need to remember that even though Freedom of Religion is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, this is, and always has been a secular country and efforts to impose religious doctrine on the population in general is a refutation of the Constitution.

We need to put an end to the idea that this country exists to serve the needs of business, destroying the financial security of our people, and the health of the environment to line the pockets of corporate interests.

We need to re-emphasize the fact that the police exist to protect and serve all of us, acknowledge the social and economic forces that create crime, and foster those that do away with it.

We need to acknowledge the level to which guns have become a destructive force in this country and realize that reasonable regulation is needed.

And most of all, there needs to be a renaissance of civic engagement. Participation in democracy through voting is essential, and realizing that if we do not participate, all of the important choices will be made for you by those that do.

So, what I ask of you is that you stop, and think.

Think about your fellow man.

Think about women.

Think about how we treat and educate our children.

Think about people of different faiths.

Think about your LGBTQ brothers and sisters.

Think about how the way you live, and the policies you support effect other people, here at home and in other countries.

Think about your privilege.

Think, and vote.

It’s not much to ask.

If you believe that America is truly great, display it to the world through our work and example.

The mix I’m posting today (and leaving up for a while) is largely one of recognition and optimism. I believe that we have it in us to weather this storm and continue on doing the good work that identifies us as a nation.

Do yourself a favor and listen to the words in the songs. There are a lot of heavy ones in there.

I will close by making two requests.

The first: VOTE.

The second, as always (and in all ways),

Keep the Faith

Larry

PS Don’t forget the very special Election episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, dropping this Friday, 11/4!
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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).

Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg, too

Judy Clay and the Youngbloods (inset)

Listen/Download – Judy Clay – GetTogether MP3

Greetings all.

Due to the impending election, I’m going to be doing something special this week, under the banner of Soul the Vote (yeah, I know. Not the most original idea but it says what I want it to, so, y’know…).

I will be re-posting some socially/politically relevant classics all week long, culminating in a special Election edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show this coming Friday, 11/4.

We’re going to get things started with Judy Clay’s epic reading of the Youngbloods’ ‘Get Together’, which was originally posted back in February of this year, during the primaries, when the unspeakable (Trump as a major party candidate) was still only a possibility.

There is a lot at stake here, and while I realize that politics is not everyone’s bag, there is a tremendous amount at stake here, and if you are willing to throw your lot in with a maniac like that, then we don’t really have much to say to each other.

So dig the sounds, spread the word, and get your ass out there and vote.

Keep the Faith

Larry

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Originally posted 2/25/16

The last few months (hell, closer to a year) in relation to the upcoming Presidential election have proven to be the rancid cherry atop the shit sundae that has been served up by the opponents of democracy over the last eight (or 36, depending on your frame of reference) years.

The group I speak of is composed of the usual suspects, giant corporations, polluters, homegrown religious fanatics, cowpoke seditionists and every possible iteration of Archie Bunker-esque “populist anger” blowing ugliness at the world from their easy chairs. The combination of hard-edged, professional undermining of society, from those that would straight up fuck any one of us to insert another shiny dime in their offshore tax havens, and the infantile, heavily-armed anger of the dying white hegemony has finally pushed us to the place where we have a leading candidate for the highest office in the land that comes on like PT Barnum and the local schoolyard bully had a baby, and then handed the baby a gun.

If you were so inclined, you could start writing your stack of ‘thank you’ notes to Ronald Reagan, and all of his disciples, who somehow convinced a lot of people that their enemies were not the bosses that busted their unions and converted their once prized jobs into Third World child labor, but rather the cold, tired and huddled masses yearning to breathe free mentioned on the Statue of Liberty.

We live in a world where any number of Republican governors and corporatist Democratic apparatchiks in the school privatization movement (eager to run schools with all the vision they apply to your local Wal-Mart) have people convinced that teachers are the enemy. The same world where the people we’ve elected will turn to us and with a straight face continue to repeat the same insane incantations about deregulation and trickle-down economics that time and experience long ago revealed as a colossal sham.

We live in a world where one side of the political spectrum has collapsed like an angry toddler that has to be dragged through a supermarket, and the other side throws their hands up, without the courage or will to do anything about it.

The amount of ugly debris resulting from this collision – generally hateful, and specifically racist and nativist – is terrifying.

The press, for a variety of reasons a mere shadow of its former self, is filled not with the thinkers that once helped us make sense of an often incomprehensible world, but rather packs of fools that have abdicated their sacred responsibilities and spend their time talking about the election like they’re broadcasting a football game. As a result we are surrounded by people that have been dumbed down, and are fatally disengaged from the process.

It makes me sad, especially since I have young kids who will have to grow into a world that seems increasingly out of control.

This is not to say that all hope is lost, nor should anyone be giving up and preaching the gospel of running away (to Canada, or Europe of anywhere Donald Trump isn’t) because I believe that ultimately, this country is worth fighting for.

I suspect that no matter what happens in November, whether we are suddenly saddled with a lunatic at the helm, maintain an unsatisfactory status quo, or take a difficult first step toward something better, that there will be a lot of unpleasantness ahead.

When someone like the current Republican standard-bearer is allowed to whip a mass of shitheads into a frenzy, that energy has to go somewhere.

Whether it manifests itself as a horrific stain on a once great country, or in impotent rage at a revolution denied, is yet to be seen.

What those of us outside of the bubble need to do is – first and foremost – speak up.

Don’t let the insanity go unchallenged.

Campaign for something better.

Shut off your TV, or at least the part of it that perpetuates the stupidity.

Read a book.

Make something.

VOTE.

Or listen to some music.

It is precisely because I believe in the power of music, to move people and sometimes carry a message, that I do this at all.

I know the political posts are unpopular in some quarters, but as long as I have the ability to lay down and amplify (on some small scale) my thoughts, I’m going to do it.

The song I bring you today should be very familiar to most people of a certain vintage as one of the great peace anthems of the 1960s, as delivered by the Youngbloods.

I have been a huge fan of Judy Clay over the years, both for her duets with Billy Vera, and her solo work. She had a powerful voice.

So when I picked up the 45 of ‘Sister Pitiful’ (her female take on the Otis Redding ‘Mister…’ classic) I was kind of knocked on my ass by the flip side, a heavy, swampy, soulful version of ‘Get Together’.

Where the Youngblood’s version of the song is ethereal and hymn-like, Clay’s take on the song – instantly recognizable as a Muscle Shoals production – is a call to arms.

When the song starts with the words ‘Love is just a song we sing’ but then follows it with the warning shot ‘But fear can make us die’, it ought to turn your head.

Though the Youngbloods released their version in 1967, it didn’t really explode until the middle of 1969. The wistful optimism of the Summer of Love had been washed away by war, riots (race and otherwise) and paranoia.

Clay recorded her version of the song in May 1969, replacing the hippy mellowness with a powerful, gospel-infused cry, pushed along by hard charging bass, drums and horns.

It should have become and anthem all over again, but despite its inarguably high quality, it went largely unnoticed (it doesn’t even get a mention in the Wiki about the song) .

That doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

Give it a listen, and see if you feel the power, too.

Remember that ‘Keep the Faith’ are words to live by, whatever your faith is,and the raised fist in our logo symbolizes the power of solidarity.

Pull down the ones and zeroes, and pass it on.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.