A free Marcia Ball download

I can’t get enough of that Louisiana rhythm & blues lately. So here’s a FREE MP3 from Marcia Ball, veteran blues singer, piano banger and certified funky white chick.

Ms. Ball’s brand new album – “Peace, Love & BBQ” – includes guest appearances by Dr. John and zydeco master Terrance Simien.

The free track is called “Down in the Neighborhood.” Click here to hear it on my Vox blog.

To download it, click the song title below:

“Down in the Neighborhood” (MP3)

Those of you with a MySpace account, I can point you to another freebie. For her 2005 live album, Marcia Ball covered Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927.” Click here to hear it on my Vox blog.

To download that one, follow this link to Marcia Ball’s MySpace page.

Cornel West on Barack Obama

Prof. Cornel West is easy to mock. His self-conscious gesticulations, his extravagant verbalizations... and that neck scarf. What’s up with that look?

But he’s not stupid. And he’s not boring. A half-hour spent listening to Cornel West isn’t a half-hour wasted.

So I’ve embedded below Prof. West’s appearance this week on Al Jazeera English (split into two parts for YouTube).

During this interview, West spoke much about Barack Obama. West supports Obama for president... while hastening to add that he considers Obama fundamentally a politician who, like all successful politicians, is controlled to some extent by “elites.”

Prof. West went on to provide a full-throated endorsement of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright... the best defense of Wright’s rhetoric that I’ve seen.

This interview also touches on the Iraq war, hip-hop music and Islam.

A free Dizzee Rascal download

Gangsta rap from London, England? Must be Dizzee Rascal.

His new single is available as a FREE MP3. Click here to hear “Where’s da Gs?” (featuring American hip-hop duo U.G.K.).

If you want it, follow this link to Download.com.

PostSecret

I didn’t know about PostSecret until today. I tip my hat to Shelly (a.k.a. BoringBlackChick), who blogged about the site last week.

Shelly highlighted a sad secret. But I prefer the funny ones.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry delineating the curious history of PostSecret.

Wednesday 45 Flashback: ‘I Was Made to Love Her’

I hadn’t checked in with thunderbird1958 lately. My favorite YouTube record-spinner has got almost 1,300 singles loaded up in his digital jukebox.

Here’s one by Stevie Wonder from the summer of ’67. Hard to believe he was only 16 years old when he recorded this.

“I Was Made to Love Her” was Stevie’s biggest pop hit since his first one, “Fingertips” (in 1963). To this day, it’s guaranteed to make you feel right.

A free Doug E. Fresh download

Riding a Rick James groove, Doug E. Fresh had a hit with “Bustin’ Out” in 1992.

Click the song title below to download a FREE MP3. To hear it on my Vox blog, click here.

“Bustin’ Out (On Funk)” (MP3)
Album available at iTunes Music Store
Album available at eMusic
Album available at Amazon

What about Bob?

I don’t know what the deal is with Robert Johnson.

I don’t know why the billionaire black businessman is again throwing mud on behalf of Hillary Clinton... why he’s describing Barack Obama as the affirmative-action candidate.

But I do know that Bob Johnson donated $2,000 to Carol Moseley Braun’s presidential campaign in 2003. He gave $2,000 to Al Sharpton’s campaign that same year.

According to Newsmeat.com, Bob Johnson poured $80,000 into Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential run.

He even gave $1,000 to Doug Wilder when he ran.

The only black candidate for president that Bob Johnson hasn’t supported is the one with a real chance to win it. Ain’t that a bitch?

Playlist: Rockin’ with El Vez

Back in June 2007, I gave a little love to El Vez, the Mexican-American Elvis impersonator and punk-rock-inspired satirist.

Let me hit you with some more.

Click the song titles below and enjoy El Vez’s customized versions of songs by James Brown, Lloyd Price, Edwin Hawkins and Irving Berlin.

Additional bonus extra: a 2007 video interview with El Vez (disguised as mild-mannered Robert Lopez).

1. “Say It Loud! I’m Brown and I’m Proud (Adult Mix)”

2. “Lordy Miss Lupe”

3. “Orale”

4. “Brown Christmas”

‘Tax season is upon us...’

And now, ladies and gentlemen, a cartoon by Dan Meth:

Elvis Mitchell interviews Charles Burnett

First, let me thank photographer Wolfgang Borrs for allowing me to use this portrait of filmmaker Charles Burnett.

Burnett is a longtime hero of the black independent film movement. His 1970s student film “Killer of Sheep” has been hailed as an American masterpiece.

His “To Sleep With Anger,” released in 1990, was a highlight of the New Black Cinema.

My man Elvis Mitchell interviewed Charles Burnett last week on his radio show “The Treatment.” Follow this link to KCRW.com and you can stream or download the complete half-hour interview. (It is also available as a free podcast at iTunes.)

I’m streaming a 4½-minute excerpt on my Vox audio stash. Click here to listen.

Embedded below is a trailer for the 2007 re-release of “Killer of Sheep.”

A free Kenny Neal download

Baton Rouge bluesman Kenny Neal was 13 years old when he joined his father’s band. His father was Raful Neal, a friend and contemporary to Buddy Guy and Slim Harpo.

By the age of 17, Kenny was backing Buddy Guy on bass.

Now 50, Kenny Neal is the patriarch of the Neal family, a bona fide musical dynasty.

Which brings us to today’s FREE MP3: “Baby Bee,” from Kenny Neal’s 2005 CD “A Tribute to Slim Harpo and Raful Neal.”

This album was conceived as a salute to Slim, with Raful doing the singing. But after the project was finished, Raful Neal died. So the album now serves as a dual tribute.

Click here to hear “Baby Bee” on my Vox blog. Click the song title below to download it.

“Baby Bee” (MP3)
Album available at Amazon

Black girls and playground games

Hey y’all, remember those old hand-clapping rhymes from when you were little... like “Miss Mary Mack”? And the jump-rope chants and the circle games?

Well, there’s an 18-minute anthropological film made 40 years ago called “Pizza Pizza Daddy-O,” and it shows little girls on a Los Angeles playground playing playground games.

This movie is streaming on a folklore site called – appropriately enough – Folkstreams. (Hat-tip: Bay Radical.)

A minute-long preview of “Pizza Pizza Daddy-O” is embedded below.

To stream the full 18-minute documentary right now, hit this link.

Folklore rocks!

This date in Beatles history: 1966

On April 13, 1966 – a Wednesday night – the Beatles cut the basic tracks for a Paul McCartney tune called “Paperback Writer.” They nailed it in two takes.

This recording was considered a sonic breakthrough for the Beatles... because of Paul’s fat bass line.

According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, John Lennon once complained that the bass sound on Beatles records was so thin compared to Wilson Pickett’s.

British sound engineers refused to pump up the low end, believing that too much bass would make the record skip... it would knock the needle right out of the groove.

But for this 45, “Paperback Writer,” EMI engineers employed a new mastering technology and went with a stronger bass signal.

Embedded below is EMI’s official promo video for “Paperback Writer” (and its flip side, “Rain”). Extra bonus: a fabulous clip of the band performing the song live in Japan!

A free Janet Jackson download

The freebiosity continues today with a Janet Jackson track.

To be honest, I stopped caring about Janet’s music 15 years ago. But I’m glad she’s one of the Last Chicks Standing in a dying corporate music industry.

A remix of her last single, “Feedback,” is available as a FREE MP3 download. This remix includes Busta Rhymes, Ciara and Fabulous.

Click here to hear it on my Vox blog.

If you want to own it, follow this link to Download.com.

A free Loleatta Holloway download

Today’s FREE MP3 comes from disco diva Loleatta Holloway, by way of house music producers Hott 22.

Click here to hear the 2004 Hott 22 remix of “Dreamin’,” a 1978 Loleatta Holloway track. (New title: “Stand Up.”) To download it, click the song title below.

“Stand Up” (MP3)
EP available at Amazon

Happy birthday, David Letterman.

Here’s to the man who ushered in America’s Age of Irony... the television star who pioneered a new style of conceptual comedy.

David Letterman is 61 years old today.

I found a neat video artifact in the archive of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. It’s a 26-minute slice of Tom Snyder’s old late-night talk show, “Tomorrow.” Letterman, Billy Crystal and Merrill Markoe were Snyder’s guests on this 1978 telecast.

At that point, Letterman was about to be a cast member on Mary Tyler Moore’s variety show. His greatness was ahead of him. But, as you can see below, Letterman’s astringent sense of humor was in full effect at the age of 31.

(Interesting side point: Around 18 minutes into this clip, you’ll notice that Merrill Markoe is censored when she says the word “orgasm.” Keep in mind that Snyder’s show aired at 1 a.m. in the morning. My, how standards have changed in 30 years.)

More sista-blogger confessions

Women be getting stuff off their chests in the blogosphere.

And I like it when people share their private shit with the world.

Hollywood used to tell stories about grown human beings. Now they only make movies about comic-book superheroes. So I go to blogs for the kind of truth I used to get from art.

In addition to Kellybelle’s smoking confession yesterday, two other sistas have made interesting revelations lately...

Wandarful took her measure as a Muslim... and graded herself a D+. (“Bad Muslim, baaaad.”) I’m hoping she will write more about her faith and what led her to it.

Lola Gets threw out a term I’d never heard before: “passive suicide.” She says that’s her... always thinking about killing herself, never acting on it. (“This is My Depression.”) Believe it or not, there is humor in this. Especially if you own cats.

Keep on sharing.

Can you believe this is pornography?

Kellybelle is a relatively new blogger. I like her style. Mental health issues are her specialty. But yesterday she posted what I’ll call a “smoking confession.” (If that’s not a bona fide genre, it ought to be.)

I posted my smoking confession in February 2007. And I enjoy reading about other people’s love-hate relationship with the demon weed. Kellybelle’s piece is lovely.

What does that have to do with pornography?

Well, after reading it, I decided to Google “Dunhill menthol” (which I bought a pack of last night). This led me to a thriving YouTube subculture of “smoking fetishists” and the women who cater to them.

I’ve known about the smoking fetish for years. (The Internet has brought all kinds of kinks into the daylight.) But I still don’t get how the sight of a woman smoking cigarettes can make some guys wanna play with themselves.

That’s human beings for you... silly and impossible to figure out.

Below are a couple of “SF” videos from YouTube. (The British seem to be especially into it.)

If these make you horny, you can thank me in the comments section by trying to explain what’s so thrilling about it.

Another free Alice Smith download

I gave a little love to up-and-coming singer Alice Smith last October, so I know some of you are fans.

Y’all need to know about a five-song, live-’n’-unplugged performance that Alice did for AOL’s Spinner.com. It’s available as a FREE podcast.

Follow this link and you can download it... either as an audio MP3 or a video file.

Want a sample? Click here and check out Alice Smith’s stripped-down version of “Gary Song” on my Vox blog. This woman can blow.

Friday Concert: Carolina Chocolate Drops

Back in February, I blogged about the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a new-breed fiddle band.

Well, they did a concert in Amsterdam last month. And guess what? The whole show is streaming online, courtesy of my favorite Dutch website, Fabchannel.

I’m pleased to embed the entire concert – 18 songs! – right here, in high-quality video. You can watch it all or skip song-by-song through the set list.