Music Project: Colours: Black

And what does this have to do with black? I’ll tell you. Its a tenuous link but Joan Osborne’s Relish she sang Long Black Coat. Now its a fine song but the one above is the one that takes me to my knees. Its an example of a singer at the top of her game subsuming herself to the song but bringing her whole being to it. There is no ego here. And it also gives credence to the idea that they just don’t write them like this anymore. This was taken from a Motown special about the Funk Brothers. But just watch this beautiful woman take this song all the way, right to the near end where she throws in the sandpaper.

Years ago I went to a New Year’s party where you were supposed to bring one song and one song only to play for everyone. The range was remarkable and the reasons for the songs ranged from memories of someone dead to flat out partying tunes. Bringing just one song seemed impossible and after almost bringing some Pixies I eventually settled on Samba Pa Ti by Santana. Off the same album as Black Magic Woman, not only did I think this was one of the great and understated guitar solos of all time, it used to be the song that the university radio station signed off on, and there’s something about hearing this very late at night.

For the longest time I thought Carlos was playing on Time waits for no one but it really was Keith Richards using that same progression.

Ever since Santana, I kept wondering where the next great Latin rock band would come from. I never could understand why with such a cultural interplay and such large populations on both sides of the border,not to mention all of South America, not much worth keeping seemed to come out. And then came Calexico. Here is The Black Light.

And you just have to have one more from these guys.

A lot of people know this old Leadbelly tune as Where Did You Sleep Last Night but other places it is known as Black Girl. I first heard this on a Long John Baldry record and it chilled me to the bone but not as much when Cobain performed it not long before his death. I thought that they had gone politically correct because he kept singing “my girl, my girl” when I was sure the words were “black girl, black girl” but since then I’ve found that for quite some time the lyrics varied.

I ran across Eric Burdon and War doing Paint it Black. And remembered the Black Man’s Burdon album. Burdon was good with The Animals, always a great vocalist but he put out a lot of bad records but for a short time he got together with War and something really good happened. Tight jazzy party beatnik hippy music and vocals. Here is the wonderfully loopy perennial summer song Spill the Wine (And Take That Pearl).

Burdon was bluesy but taking it up a notch here are the Black Keys. Their cd last year was called by some to be both the best blues and the best rock cd of the year. I don’t know about that but these two guys make some mighty fine noise. If you listen to the cds, you might think there is a whole band working but its just the two.

In the tradition of ending on an upbeat, I bring back Joan. (Excuse the first few seconds of this video; its worth the perseverence). And of course, though St Theresa almost ended up here, I just had to throw one more from this special that shows her lightened up and just riding the song like a convertible in summer with the top down. Once again you can see how she channels the music, becoming the song unlike let’s say Bjork who sings like a creature discovering the song, and that she can sing, for the first time. Both amazing artists.