Arts and Entertainment

We close out a week of early 70's soul goodness with this Grammy Award-winning slice of what made Philly the Soul Center Of the Universe at the time:   Don't…

Staying with Philly producer/composer/arranger Thom Bell, he turned Motown afterthoughts The Spinners into Atlantic Records soul stars. He wrote and produced this classic:

'Backstabbers' by the O'Jays wasn't just one of the greatest songs of the '70's. The album with the same name was, IMHO, one of the great soul albums of all…

One of the great soul ballads of all time. Out of the Philly Gamble and Huff stable.  Of course, it really should have been Teddy Pendergrass and The Blue Notes,…

Yesterday, we featured a great song written by Dan Penn and Chips Moman. Today, another great one written by the duo.Today's clip from, of all things, the Merv Griffin Show,…

Not all great soul singers became famous.  Which doesn't minimize their greatness. James Carr was a great soul singer. But he suffered from a bipolar disorder that led to him…

This song should be sung in front of the White House every day that Trump occupies it: Curtis Mayfield is on my Musical Mount Rushmore. This is one of the…

We're finishing out the week with a Curtis Mayfield trilogy. In this second installment, Curtis and the Impressions exhort their followers to Keep On Pushing. Written in 1964, one of…

My musical sweet spot is indeed the Sweet Soul Music of the 1960's and early '70's.  The soundtrack to my life.  To this day, I never tire of hearing those…

I told you this was gonna be free-association.  When Paul mentioned Pink Floyd's 'Grantchester Meadows' yesterday,  I immediately thought of one of my fave British folk rock songs of all…

So, I'm listening to the vaguely ominous jamming, perhaps while under the influence of Jamaican herb, barely paying attention, when...well, you either know, or don't know, what comes next. A…

When Walter Becker died, I sampled a lot of his and Donald Fagen's solo stuff and, of course, listened to a lot of Steely Dan. While this song was on…