Arrested Development’s Speech was born Todd Thomas on this date in 1968. A couple of his group’s tracks are included on today’s playlist.
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Lots of Whitney Houston on the playlist today, the 61st anniversary of her birth.
Today’s playlist celebrates the November 4 birthdays of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Efrim Menuck, Squeeze’s Chris Difford, Diddy, Fat Boys’ Kool Rock-Ski, and Frances Faye; and the November 5 birthdays of Simon & Garfunkel’s Art Garfunkel, The Byrds’ Gram Parsons, Ike Turner, Ryan Adams, Bryan Adams, Inner City’s Paris Grey, Herman’s Hermits’ Peter Noone, A Flock of Seagulls’ Mike Score, Charles Bradley, Loleatta Holloway, Fishbone’s Angelo Moore, and Dominatrix’s Dominique Davalos.
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“I wanna really really really wanna zig-a-zig-ah”
“Beep beep, who got the keys to the Jeep? Vroom”
“Pissin’ the night away”
“Joni Mitchell never lies”
“Poppa been smooth since days of Underoos”
“Love me, love me / Pretend that you love me”
“What I look like? Patti LaBelle or somebody?”
“Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky-panky”
“Mmm bop ba duba dop / Ba du bop ba duba dop / Ba du bop ba duba dop / Ba du yeah yeah”
“Woo-hoo!”
So many memorable lyrics emerged in 1997. Hear the ones above and then some below:
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Inspired by Black Music Month, LGBTQ Pride Month, and the June 20 birthdays of The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson, The Coasters’ Billy Guy, Lionel Richie, The Miracles’ Claudette Rogers, Chairlift’s Caroline Polacheck, Jerry Keller, The Rivingtons’ Carl White, The Deftones’ Chino Moreno, and Chris Gibson.
Inspired by Black Music Month, LGBTQ Pride Month, and the June 10 birthdays of The Shirelles’ Shirley Owens, The Breeders’ Kim & Kelly Deal, Howlin’ Wolf, Judy Garland, Faith Evans, Fat Boys’ Darren Robinson, Jodeci’s JoJo and Broadway composer Frederick Loewe.
Inspired by the April 4 birthdays of Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori, Muddy Waters, Major Lance, Jill Scott and Kelly Price, and the passing of Bill Withers.
Randy Badazz Alpert received many requests to license “Rise,” a song he co-wrote that became a #1 hit for his uncle Herb in 1979, as a sample in hip hop tracks. He said no to Ice Cube, Vanilla Ice, Eazy-E, and the others who requested permission. However, when he received a cassette from the producer then known as Puff Daddy of a new song utilizing the sample, he consented. He loved the new tune and felt it could make his song go to #1 again.
He was right. The new recording was “Hypnotize” and it was performed by the Notorious B.I.G. “Hypnotize” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in May of 1997, less than two months after the rapper was killed in Los Angeles.
This week’s Throwback Thursday playlist spotlights the best of 1997, kicking off with The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize,” which uses a sample from a songwriter whose middle name really is Badazz.
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Back in July of this year, Morrissey, who used to make news for his music, posted on fan site True to You that a Transportation Security Administration official at the San Francisco International Airport touched his junk (i.e. his genitals, not his recently-published novel, List of the Lost). This week, Morrissey continued the one-sided conversation, saying about the TSA “It is unlikely that ISIS would stoop so low.” ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, frequently makes the news for bombings, shooting people, beheading people, and throwing people off of buildings to their death, among other things. All horrible things, to be sure, but not as horrible as having someone touch your testicles. Morrissey for president! Oh, wait – he’s British. Darn!
This week Thom Yorke of Radiohead compared YouTube to Nazis, as YouTube makes its money from the work of artists, “like what the Nazis did during the Second World War.” He asked “What’s the difference?” Hmmm…I’m stumped. What is the difference between the political party that put Jews, homosexuals, Africans, the disabled and Jehovah’s Witnesses into concentration camps and murdered eleven million of them and the Internet site that gave people the opportunity to watch and share “Gangnam Style?” You’re right, Thom. There is no difference. YouTube are monsters! Thom Yorke for president! Oh, wait – he’s British. Darn!
Though Morrissey and Yorke cannot run for president of the United States of America, they remind me of someone who can and is running for president, Dr. Ben Carson. Carson said that the Affordable Care Act is “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” He’s right! One consisted of being kidnapped from one’s home, separated from one’s family, shackled, treated as someone else’s property, being forced to work in inhumane conditions, and being abused, while the other provides Americans with health insurance. I bet you don’t know which one is which! They’re practically the same thing! Ben Carson for president! Oh, wait – he’s a fucking moron. Darn!
Until one of these geniuses becomes president, or until YouTube puts me in a camp, a TSA agent throws me off a building or Blue Shield forces me to pick their cotton, I’m going to keep on dancing. Tunes du Jour’s weekly dance party kicks off with Beyoncé’s “Déjà Vu,” which features Jay-Z, who turns 46 today.
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