hot buttered soul

My music listening habits have been pretty schizophrenic lately. One week, it's nothing but Radiohead, the next it's '90s R&B (more on this one later), and the past few days it's been all soul. Since I always post about whatever I'm listening to at the moment, here are some of my top picks from my current rotation:

[MP3] Aretha Franklin :: I Can't Wait (Until I See My Baby's Face)
This one I copped from soul-sides back in February, and damn, it's infectious. You wouldn't guess it from the sweet backing vocals and lilting flutes, but it's not the love song it appears to be. I think a more fitting title would be "I Can't Wait (Until I See My Baby's Face So I Can See His Expression When I Dump His Sorry Ass.)" Greatness.

[MP3] The Famous Flames :: Who Am I
There are very few songs that catch my full attention from the get go, but the Famous Flames' "Who Am I" did just that. I can't say what it is, maybe it's the starkness of the arrangement or Johnny Terry's plaintive vocals, but there's an undeinable intensity to it that's real and raw.

[MP3] Isaac Hayes :: Walk On By
"Walk On By" starts like many of Isaac Hayes' songs, with lush, layered arrangements, but the part that gets me is the chorus, which is much more simple than the introduction and is made great by the backing vocals. One of few covers that I like better than the original.

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ps. If you're a fan of soul and haven't heard it yet, downloading Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" is absolutely essential. Read about it and download it here. Now.

pps. I know it's completely off-topic, but I came across this quote by the late Kurt Vonnegut, and loved it:

“Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore.”
RIP