Nina Simone, other singers of justice

It takes the wisdom of the elders and young people’s energy

The official site for Nina Simone (1933-2003) refers to her as The High Priestess of Soul. As a 2014 New Yorker article noted, she “turned the movement into music.”
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Mississippi Goddam

The “Godfather of Soul,” released the iconic song… in August 1968, just four months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. “Randall Kennedy, a Harvard law professor, said he remembers when he first heard the song. The funk- and soul-inspired hit was like nothing he had heard before — especially at a time in which Kennedy said overt ‘colorism,’ or the preference for lighter skin color, was prevalent in the black community.

“Kennedy writes for The New York Times that “it was precisely because of widespread colorism that James Brown’s anthem posed a challenge, felt so exhilarating, and resonated so powerfully.” Some stations would not play this song. The apocryphal punch line is that JB bought some radio stations in response.
Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m ProudJames Brown (1933-2006)

“The Impressions formed from the union of two friends, Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield of Chicago, Illinois. The two had sung together in church as adolescents, and had traveled with the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers and the Traveling Souls Spiritual Church.” Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999) got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once with the group, once as a solo artist.
Keep On Pushing – the Impressions.

From the legendary What’s Goin’ On album that Berry Gordy was reluctant to put out. I’ve said the subtitle a LOT.
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)Marvin Gaye (1939-1984).

Saw the face of Jim Crow under a bald eagle

“PE redefined not just what a rap group could accomplish, but also the very role pop musicians could play in contemporary culture. Lyrically, sonically, politically, onstage, on the news – never before had musicians been considered ‘radical’ across so many different platforms.”
Fight the PowerPublic Enemy.

From the movie Selma. It won the 2014 Oscar for Best Song.
One day when the glory comes
It will be ours, it will be ours
Oh one day when the war is won
We will be sure, we will be sure
Glory – Common, John Legend (Alternative version here).

The Godmother Of Rock ‘N’ Roll has, “in recent years, been rightfully celebrated as a woman who broke every norm.”
This TrainSister Rosetta Tharp (1915-1973).

The Queen of Gospel is revered as one of the greatest musical figures in U.S. history.
We Shall OvercomeMahalia Jackson (1911–1972).

All of the artists here, save for Common and John Legend, are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

February rambling #1: Bowling Green Massacre

At the Intersection of Love, Faith and Holy Outrage: The Women’s March and the Gospel

Angela Merkel is now the leader of the free world – the US President’s sole ideology is corporate autocracy with a populist facade

More than half of his voters say the nonexistent Bowling Green Massacre is proof his immigration ban is necessary. BTW, it never happened, and Kellyanne Conway’s remark wasn’t a slip of the tongue, as she has said it before

DMV Glitch Registers Green Card Holders to Vote

Yes, honorably-discharged veterans of the U.S. military have, under certain circumstances, either received deportation orders or been deported

If You Liked the Inquisition, You’ll Love the House Science Committee

How Each Senator Voted on Trump’s Cabinet and Administration Nominees

How to Become a Paid Protester

Americans Now Evenly Divided on Impeaching 45

American Hot Dogs

“At the Intersection of Love, Faith and Holy Outrage: The Women’s March and the Gospel”

51 Immigrant Poets – An interactive map on the ‘Muslim ban’

Irwin Corey (1914-2017), who I last wrote about here

Suzanne Pleshette would have been 80 this year

Richard Hatch, RIP – I probably watched Battlestar Galactica, but I definitely saw him in The Streets of San Francisco

RIP Adele Dunlap, 114, oldest American

Bald men look more successful, intelligent and masculine. science says – well, duh
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Scathing Orange poem wins New Zealand competition

Paul Rapp’s New England Patriots connection

Amy Biancolli: it’s the best story pitch, the best, everyone thinks so

The ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ Show That Wasn’t: How CBS Refused to Have the Actress Play a Divorcee

New blogger: Tracy Brooke’s Travels, a woman from Atlanta now in Indonesia

Could Dogs be the State Vegetable?

NEW DC COMIC REINVENTS SNAGGLEPUSS AS ‘GAY SOUTHERN GOTHIC PLAYWRIGHT’

Now I Know: Why the U.S. Government Really Wants Some People To Take Vacations and The Man Who Gets Lots of Credit and Do You Want to Burn a Snowman? and The Trickiest Tongue Twister and Why In America, It’s Typically Free to Go Pee

Watching popcorn pop

Black History/Black Recency

Stories for “Black History Month – You can freely use AwesomeStories’ vast archive to explore the topic throughout February– This issue features people who: helped to overthrow slavery and “Jim Crow Laws”; helped to free and inspire millions of Americans; helped to forge a new path forward for their country

Louisiana kid’s ‘School to Prison Pipeline’ project

Who Gets to Be African-American? An Academic Question

I Shouldn’t Have To Learn Black History From A Movie

HOW AUTHOR TIMOTHY TYSON FOUND THE WOMAN AT THE CENTER OF THE EMMETT TILL CASE

A History Of Black Cowboys And The Myth That The West Was White

Jesse Owens Was Brave – So Were These 17 Other Black Olympians

At her first recital, 12-year-old Nina Simone refused to start singing after her parents were moved from the front row to make room for whites

The Racist Super Hero Who Never Made It

Music

“That Day In Bowling Green” written by Dave Stinton

Emo prez

Stevie Wonder, Tom Petty, Lorde Lead New Orleans Jazz Fest

Coverville 1157: Hollies and CSNY Cover Story for Graham Nash’s 75th and Our House – Graham Nash

Tom Jones And Janis Joplin – Raise Your Hand (1969)

Coverville 1158: Guns N’Roses Cover Story II

Jazz Legend Al Jarreau Dead at 76. Here’s Eight Performances That Show Why He Was the Greatest Male Jazz Singer of His Time

Asia singer John Wetton married Syracuse woman just 2 months before dying

May rambling #1: The Case Against Reality

I had a terrible blogging April, but because I work ahead, it wasn’t always evident.

c 19651965 edition of “Our New Age”[/caption]

The Case Against Reality. A professor of cognitive science argues that the world is nothing like the one we experience through our senses.

Song Of My Self-Help: Follow Walt Whitman’s ‘Manly Health’ Tips, appearing in the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. It was uncovered by a University of Houston student, and includes: “The beard is a great sanitary protection to the throat.”

The Neverending Workday – A pervasive cultural norm of work devotion leaves many employees with little time for family, friends, or sleep.

In rural Maine, a life of solitude and larceny. Police say the hermit stole to survive 27 years in the woods.

What Would Happen If We Just Gave People Money?

After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight. “Contestants lost hundreds of pounds during Season 8, but gained them back. A study of their struggles helps explain why so many people fail to keep off the weight they lose.”

United Methodist Church Requires Removal of Reference to LGBTQI Christians from Worship Greetings, and, reported the next day, United Methodist clergy come out as church conference begins.

HamiltonBurr

Transcending ignorance. Plus AmeriNZ weighs in, as does Funny or Die.

This isn’t just for me. It’s for everybody who needs a pep talk.

The smug style in American liberalism.

John Oliver: science reporting and Puerto Rico debt and cicadas.

Russian Insider Says State-Run Doping Fueled Olympic Gold.

Someone Put Bartolo Colon’s First Homer In The Natural, Where It Belongs.

Boston Globe: As great as David Ortiz is, Teddy Ballgame is still No. 1.

Free Comic Book Day isn’t free for everybody.

Morley Safer Stepping Down From ’60 Minutes’ After 46 Years.

President Obama delivered a commencement speech at Howard University.

WHCD: Barack Obama and Larry Wilmore. Plus An Obama Blooper Reel, from The White House Correspondents’ Association.

America operates under a crazy quilt of voting requirements, “with each state making its own laws for different populations and with challenges to those laws whipping back and forth through the courts. But if the primaries have frustrated the candidates, try being a voter in November.” Including New York.

Former NY State Assembly Speaker Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison. And former NY State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos sentenced to five years for corruption. Those were two of the three most powerful people in state government, along with Governor Andrew Cuomo.

MUSIC

First Listen: Bob Dylan, ‘Fallen Angels’.

Great audio/visual presentation of Billboard Top 10 songs from 1956 – 2016 (22,000 songs!)

Jaquandor: Music to write swashbucklers by.

Happy birthday to Reverend Gary Davis (April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972) and James Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006).

K Chuck Radio: Rare tracks.

Return of the Monkees and remembering Harry the Hipster Gibson.

What Have I Done to Deserve This? – Pet Shop Boys, with Dusty Springfield.

What does Becky mean? Here’s the history behind Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ lyric that sparked a firestorm. (And me, nearly oblivious to it all.)

Keef cartoon: Nina Simone.

Local legend Ruth Pelham to close Music Mobile. Lack of funds leads the musician to close her beloved program.

Minnesota’s Broad Publicity Rights Law, The PRINCE Act, Is So Broad That It May Violate Itself.

GOOGLE alerts (me)

TWC Question Time #36: I Love You, But… Moments from your favorite comics characters you consider particularly embarrassing.

Arthur on the blog balance. I too had a terrible blogging April, but because I work ahead, it wasn’t always as evident. So we may be Blogging Twins™.

Dustbury is blogging. Chaz is my blogging hero.

AmeriNZ on Kasich dropping out of the presidential race and the REAL May Day.

Shooting Parrots is a grammar nerd.

Ted Cruz solicits me; no, that doesn’t sound right…

I goose Jaquandor; it was not painful.

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