ABC Wednesday Archives - Page 22 of 91

D is for Lamont Dozier and the Holland Brothers

Mary Wilson, Lamont Dozier Look Back on a Landmark Supremes album

Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland

Lamont Dozier is “one of the greatest songwriters of the last century. His writings have been covered by a huge array of performers over the decades.

“As part of Motown’s Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team, the trio scored 25 top ten pop hits between 1963 and 1968, which included the Supremes,” the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, and Martha and the Vandellas.

That link well tells Lamont’s progression from vocalist to becoming part of a writing and production team with Eddie Holland and his brother Brian. Success followed big time, but eventually HDH left the Motown roster, writing more songs.

Lamont Dozier recalls he and Brian [Holland] came up with “Band of Gold” and “Give Me Just a Little More Time”, but “we didn’t put our names on ’em because we were in a lawsuit and couldn’t use our names.”

There’s a description of Heaven Must Have Sent You… the Holland/Dozier/Holland Story anthology, which lists some of their biggest hits, with a tease of those songs at the website. HDH were interviewed when that came out.

The trio was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

“Lamont is married to Barbara Ullman Dozier and has 3 children (two sons and one daughter with Barbara).
His sons are named Beau Alexandre and Paris Ray and his daughter is named Desiree Starr.”

Listen to:
(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave – Martha & the Vandellas
Mickey’s Monkey – The Miracles
Can I Get a Witness – Marvin Gaye
Quicksand – Martha & the Vandellas
Leaving Here – Eddie Holland

When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes – Dusty Springfield
Where Did Our Love Go – The Supremes
Baby I Need Your Loving – The Four Tops
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) – Marvin Gaye
Nowhere to Run – Martha & the Vandellas

Back in My Arms Again – The Supremes
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) – The Four Tops
Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) – Kim Weston
It’s the Same Old Song – The Four Tops
This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You) – The Isley Brothers

Love’s Gone Bad – Chris Clark
Reach Out I’ll Be There – The Four Tops
Heaven Must Have Sent You – The Elgins
I’m Ready For Love – Martha & the Vandellas
(Come ‘Round Here) I’m the One You Need – Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

Standing in the Shadows of Love – The Four Tops
Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone – The Supremes
Jimmy Mack – Martha & the Vandellas
Bernadette – The Four Tops
Give Me Just a Little More Time – Chairmen of the Board

Band of Gold – Freda Payne
Don’t Do It – The Band
Forever Came Today – The Jackson 5
My World Is Empty Without You – Lamont Dozier
You’ve Got It – Simply Red, written by Lamont Dozier

More Supremes songs can be found at the 20140306 post of this blog.

‘The Supremes A’ Go-Go’ Reissue: Mary Wilson, Lamont Dozier Look Back on the Landmark Girl Group Album.

For ABC Wednesday

C is for cultural appropriation

“Sometimes it’s annoying and disrespectful, but relatively harmless (like Anglos who have no idea what Cinqo de Mayo commemorates ‘celebrating’ by drinking too much tequila).”

If there’s something I DON’T want to write about, it’s cultural appropriation. It’s a no-win topic. So why tackle it? Because it keeps bubbling up in my circle of friends and acquaintances.

In response to a New York Times article, an NPR piece stated Commentary: Cultural Appropriation Is, In Fact, Indefensible. And it’s from there that I’ll describe the phenomenon:

“Writer Maisha Z. Johnson offers an excellent starting point by describing it not only as the act of an individual, but an individual working within a “‘power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group.’

“That’s why appropriation and exchange are two different things, Johnson says — there’s no power imbalance involved in an exchange. And when artists appropriate, they can profit from what they take, while the oppressed group gets nothing.”

This distinction is important, and I believe addresses Frank S. Robinson’s post about “the newest gambit of politically correct grievance agitprop.”

The phenomenon is not new, actually. According to the Washington Post, the term goes back to the 1970s or ’80s. Bo Derek’s cornrow hairstyle in the 1979 movie 10 was a REAL issue to some folks, but I’ll admit I didn’t get it.

Weekly Sift had this:

“Cultural appropriation is when somebody from a dominant culture tries to acquire fame and fortune (or just look cool) by using stuff created by a dominated culture…. Sometimes it’s done with respect and a share-the-wealth attitude. (Paul Simon didn’t just steal the South African sound, he toured with and helped popularize authentic South African bands.)” [There are some who would disagree.]

“Sometimes it’s annoying and disrespectful, but relatively harmless (like Anglos who have no idea what Cinqo de Mayo commemorates ‘celebrating’ by drinking too much tequila).

“And sometimes it results in a significant injustice, like Elvis becoming a musical icon while the black pioneers he imitated couldn’t get radio time.” Presley became a source of conflict in my own household growing up.

My father HATED Elvis, but I thought he was bringing his own rockabilly sensibilities to the mix. (Now, if you want cultural appropriation, look at Pat Boone, whose vapid Tutti Fruiti squeezed Little Richard’s version out of the marketplace.) I had none of Elvis’ music until I went to college.

I saw this article about a Portland, OR “burrito eatery being shut down after the two white women who ran it were criticized for making food from a culture that wasn’t theirs.” I believe one or both of them jokingly suggested they “stole” the recipe, which helped generate outrage. I find that was a most unfortunate outcome.

I would suggest that the denigration of a culture, especially knowingly, such as Ted Nugent’s headdress in this context could also be seen as cultural appropriation.

So I believe cultural appropriation, different from cultural exchange, exists, and it’s undesirable. But I accept I don’t always know where the line is drawn.

For ABC Wednesday

B is for the bike and the bus

It’s illegal to ride the bike on the highway.

One of the truly civilizing things about living in the Albany, NY area is the ability to ride the bike and the bus for certain trips. Someone noted that taking the bike on the bus to the bike repair place – broken spoke –
was the first time he had considered the value of having a couple bike racks on the bus. But in fact, I use the combo all the time.

Every 28 days, I have to go back to Corporate (frickin’) Woods, where I worked for too long, to get an allergy shot. I ride my bike through town to a rode called Northern Boulevard, then hitch the bike on the bus as it treks up that nasty Albany-Shaker Road hill.

Now, I could ride to the allergist, but time is the enemy here, for I need to catch a bus OUT of Corporate Woods, and since I have to wait 30 minutes AFTER the shot, I stay on the bus. On the subsequent trip then to work, I can ride at least partway to work, and faster than by bus alone.

There are several reasons to take the bike on the bus:

*law – it’s illegal to ride the bike on the highway. As the crow flies, the shortest route from my house to Corporate Woods is I-90, but it would be not only unlawful but dangerous to ride the bike on the interstate

*time – I COULD ride to Schenectady, the next city to the west, but that would take a while

*energy – that is to say, mine, especially when it comes to hills

*the weather – never was that more true than on May 18. I was planning on riding the two miles home, but a severe thunderstorm began. Walking to the bus stop, I got soaked. Putting my bike on the bus, I was paranoid about being electrocuted.

I think the first time I saw bikes on mass transit was back in the late 1980s, when one could put a two-wheeler on the Bay Area Rapid Transit, in San Francisco-Oakland, California. It made sense to me and I’m happy for the option.

Incidentally, Jen Reviews has put out a “detailed, up-to-date 7,000 word guide on how to choose a bike according to science” that describes “10 factors to consider.”

ABC Wednesday, Round 21

A is for animals – new ABCW site!

I felt sorry for it, almost.

I noticed this spring that I was much more aware of the animals in my midst. I heard the birds more clearly, and I spotted a woodpecker, a blue jay, a cardinal, and perhaps the fattest robin, sitting on our fence, that I’ve ever seen.

The neighbor’s cat, an outside feline, seems to want to come to our house. More than once, he was sitting right at the front door, and once at the back door. We think this would engender a bad outcome, especially because our indoor male cat, Midnight, is sometimes barely pleasant to us and our girl cat, Stormy.

We made the mistake of leaving a used pitcher of maple syrup on the kitchen counter after having pancakes. The next morning, the pitcher was overrun by ants! Yuck. We hadn’t seen any before then, in months. Now that we’ve cut off the food supply, we still see a stray insect in the strangest places, such as on the ceiling. The Daughter does NOT like them.

During a severe thunderstorm on May 18, we saw something crossing our yard. But it wasn’t until a massive lightning flash that I could determine it was a skunk. I felt sorry for it, almost.

But our strangest visitor to our backyard has to be the woodchuck. We never had one before this year, but this one has come by at least a half dozen times. My wife and I decided we needed to name the creature, so we call him/her? – we had no idea! – Murray, after Bill Murray, who was involved in a popular movie about February 2.

Initially, he may have been attracted to the compost bin deep in the back of the yard. But he has ventured much farther towards the back porch, digging holes for no discernible reason, and eating the grass, likely the clover.

He/she almost got to the picnic table near the house one morning when the next-door neighbor came out and startled Murray. For a nearly round creature, he/she moved surprisingly fast.

Then a few days later, SHE came back, much thinner, and with four offspring!

So there’s our recent menagerie, wild and domesticated.

ABC Wednesday at its new home, Round 21

Z is for Zeus, King of the Gods

“Zeus’ most distinctive attribute was his stylized lightning bolt which he wielded in his hand like a javelin.”

There were 12 great gods of the Greeks, known as the Olympians, but Zeus was “the King of the Gods and the god of the sky, weather, law and order, destiny and fate, and kingship.”

In the program guide for the annual St. Sophia Greek Festival in May 2017, there was an article entitled “Greek gods in mythology, part IV,” featuring Zeus. The first three parts were in the previous years’ programs.

“Remember Cronus, the kid who attacked his dad, Uranus and banished him from the Earth because he was an abusive go?… Cronus was even worse… he swallowed each of his own kids… However, one child named Zeus escaped this horrible doom and was hidden by his mother.

“After mom, gave Cronus a potent drink which made him upchuck, the kids that he swallowed were set free… [Zeus, his sibs and uncles] prepared to fight the evil Titans.

“The Cyclopes… made the weapons… They armed Zeus wit a thunderbolt that shook the universe…

“It was a fierce and long 10-year war between the old gods and the new gods, but at last Cronus and the Titans were defeated…”

Zeus‘ “name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. His mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin.”

Cronus was not the only person eater in this story line. “Zeus devoured the pregnant goddess Metis when an oracle revealed that her son was destined to replace him as King of the Gods. Their child, Athena, was subsequently born in his belly and birthed directly from his head.”

“Zeus’ most distinctive attribute was his stylized lightning bolt which he wielded in his hand like a javelin. His other attributes included a royal sceptre, a throne, an eagle, a miniature Nike (winged goddess of victory), and the aigis (a goat-skin arm-guard). The god was usually clothed in a long robe (chiton) and cloak (himation) but was sometimes depicted nude. He was often crowned with a wreath of olive leaves.”

For ABC Wednesday, Round 20