Podcasts about royales

Sintonía: "You Can´t Sit Down" Pt. 1" - Philip Upchurch Combo"Have Love Will Travel" - Richard Berry; "I´m A Little Mixed Up" - Betty James; "Love Me Right" - LaVern Baker; "He Knows The Rules" - Jimmy McCracklin; "Thanks Mr. Postman" - Bobby King; "To Be Loved By You" - Marie Knight; "Let Me Be Your Boy" - Wilson Pickett; "Messin´ With The Man" - Muddy Waters; "Fortune Teller" - Benny Spellman; "A Help-Each-Other Romance" - LaVern Baker & Ben E King; "If You Don´t Come (You Better Call)" - Patience Valentine; "Blues For Me" - B.B. King; "First Love Baby" - Lena Calhoun; "Chills And Fever" - Ronnie Love; "Leave My Kitten Alone" - Little Willie John; "It´s Easy Child" - Lula Reed & Freddy King; Bonus: "Catch That Teardrop" - The 5 Royales Todas las músicas extraídas de la recopilación "Mod Rhythm & Blues - 36 Original Floorfillers On 2CDs" (2xCD, Not Now Music, 2017)Este programa está dedicado a Álvaro, Laura, Enma y Maia (o Maia y Enma, que tanto monta, monta tanto)Escuchar audio

Selección musical de Charlie Fáber, director de Sateli3."Out On The Floor" - Dobie Gray"Exit Loneliness Enter Love" - Tommy Mosley"The Duck" - Jackie Lee"Barefootin´" - Robert Parker"Chills and Fever" - Ronnie Love"The Work Song" - Tommy Hunt"Miss Treatment" - The Incredibles"Love Makes The World Go Round" - Deon Jackson"Catch That Teardrop" - The 5 Royales"Girl Watcher" - The O´Kaysions"I´m On My Way" - Barbara Dane"The Ice-Man" - Billy Watkins"Backfield In Motion" - Mel & Tim"I´ve Arrived" - Steve Flanagan"It´s Your Voodoo Working" - Charles Sheffield"Take A Giant Step (Walk On)" - The Profiles"Fortune Teller" - Benny Spellman"I Can´t Get Over Losing Your Love" - The Incredibles"Comin´ Home Baby" - Mel Torme"Lover Come Back To Me" - The Cleftones"Give Our Love A Chance" - Ada Ray Escuchar audio

Davis Mattek runs through a bunch of NFL conference championship NFL BRs

Pour cet avant-dernier C'est dispo de l'année, Simon met les petits plats dans les grands, car son jeu préféré de l'année sort cette semaine ! Et plein d'autres très bons jeux aussi, sinon c'est pas drôle ! ______________________________________

Bounty, Soleil Royal, Superbe… autant de vaisseaux amiraux qui ont traversé les océans et dont les aventures qui les accompagnent continuent, elles aussi, de traverser les siècles. À Madagascar, en banlieue de la capitale Antananarivo, un petit atelier, le Village, et sa trentaine d'artisans aux doigts d'or font revivre depuis 30 ans ces navires d'exception en fabriquant leurs maquettes. Un savoir-faire unique sur l'île, qui, au fil des années, a acquis une renommée internationale auprès d'une clientèle étrangère.   De notre correspondante à Antananarivo,Armé de son racloir, Rafah Ralahy rectifie la coque du Soleil d'Orient, un navire de commerce français du 17ᵉ siècle, ayant appartenu à la Compagnie des Indes. Ses doigts caressent le bois encore rugueux, comme pour mieux y déceler les aspérités à gommer. Lui est accastilleur. « Mon travail, c'est d'être le plus fidèle au plan. Donc, à chaque étape, pour que la maquette qu'on crée soit identique au navire conçu il y a des siècles, on fait les rectifications », explique le sexagénaire, les yeux rivés sur l'immense plan étalé sur son établi.Dans la même pièce, en face de lui, Tovo-Hery Andrianarivo façonne les balustres du château arrière d'un navire de guerre du 18ᵉ siècle. Ciseau à bois à la main, ses gestes sont d'une précision extrême. Comme la plupart de ses camarades autour de lui, il a trente ans d'expérience. « J'aime mon métier, parce que c'est de l'art. Et je suis fier de voir nos maquettes voyager partout dans le monde. Une fois, mon ancien patron m'a montré un documentaire sur le navire Hermione, qui reprenait la mer, se rappelle-t-il. Derrière le conservateur du musée qui parlait, il y avait notre maquette. Le sentiment que j'ai ressenti ce jour-là était incroyable ! »  « C'est ce qui attire les têtes couronnées »Le Village, c'est un clan. Les employés appartiennent à une quinzaine de familles différentes et habitent le même quartier. La plupart ont été formés en interne par le fondateur, un maquettiste naval français qui a depuis revendu l'entreprise. Quant aux plus jeunes artisans, ils sont souvent les enfants des « anciens ».Et si l'atelier a su résister aux tempêtes provoquées par les crises économiques et sociales répétées dans le pays, « c'est grâce à la qualité unique des productions des artisans », affirme Grégory Postel, propriétaire du Village depuis 2023.« On est sur ce qui se fait de mieux dans le monde, on n'a pas peur de le dire ! C'est même notre marque de fabrique. Il y a d'autres concurrents qui font des très belles pièces, mais pas aussi abouties que les nôtres », précise-t-il. Dans le jargon, on appelle cela « la finition musée ».« Forcément, ça nécessite plus de travail, plus de finitions, poursuit le propriétaire du Village. Mais je pense que c'est ce qui attire par exemple les têtes couronnées, qui cherchent vraiment le produit pur, parfait, qui ressemble à ce qu'ont connu leurs aïeux lorsqu'ils étaient rois de leur pays dans les années 1600-1700. »Le prince Albert de Monaco, la famille royale d'Espagne, le pape François... ces personnalités possèdent au moins une des maquettes de prestige réalisées ici.Des commandes spéciales ou proposées sur catalogue, comme ce Soleil Royal, de 1,20 m de longueur, sur lequel les quatre artisanes de l'atelier gréement achèvent de tendre la dizaine de mètres de cordages durcis à la cire d'abeille et hisser les pavillons. Il aura fallu 15 personnes et plus de 800 heures de travail pour concevoir cette pièce d'exception, vendue 5 300 euros hors frais d'envoi, à un particulier en France.À lire aussiÀ Antananarivo, une tour Eiffel de douze mètres de haut attire les curieux

durée : 00:30:08 - Jazz Collection - par : Alex Dutilh - L'insondable douceur du charme : deux mains de fer au service d'une voix de velours : Nat King Cole. - réalisé par : Pierre Willer

durée : 00:30:12 - Jazz Collection - par : Alex Dutilh - La Divine, Sassi, nominée pour un total de 9 Grammy Awards.... L'une des voix les plus merveilleuses du 20e siècle. - réalisé par : Pierre Willer

durée : 00:30:10 - Jazz Collection - par : Alex Dutilh - Billie Holiday, un destin d'écorchée de la vie. - réalisé par : Pierre Willer

durée : 00:30:12 - Jazz Collection - par : Alex Dutilh - Sans aspérités apparentes, la carrière d'Ella Fitzgerald n'a pourtant pas été un long fleuve tranquille. - réalisé par : Pierre Willer

Gabe Morency is joined by Ric Serritella, Loud Esmond, and Cam Stewart for another addition of SportsRage. First - Ric joins the program to discuss college and NFL football. Where could we see Raiders star WR Davante Adams moved after formally requesting a trade? They also look at the Heisman odds and who they think is the best bet to win it. Game 1 in each Wild Card series is in the books, what are their takeaways and who will be going home in game 2? After, Loud Esmond and Cam jump in to talk college football best bets, over/unders they like, and more.  

"Por la carretera me voy hacia un mundo desconocido. Ahora estoy preocupado, pero la preocupación no durará mucho". Lo cantaba Charlie Patton hace 90 años, un blues de carretera que suena en esta banda sonora que hemos preparado para recorrer caminos oscuros y polvorientos, pero con la esperanza de llegar hasta la luz que nos espera al final.Playlist;(sintonía) CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL “Side o’ the road”CHARLIE PATTON “Down the dirty road blues”LEADBELLY “The midnight special”WILL BRADLEY TRIO “Down the road a piece”SISTER ROSETTA THARPE “The lonesome road”WOODY GUTHRIE “Going down the road (I ain't gonna be treated this way)”BOB DYLAN “On the road again”MAC CURTIS “The low road”EILEN JEWELL “That’s where I’m going”BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD “Hot dusty roads”SCOTS “Dirt road”HUGO RACE and THE TRUE SPIRIT “Dirt road”DEAD MOON “Down the road”THE JACOBITES “Road of broken dreams”THE 5 ROYALES “I’m on the right road now”VAN MORRISON “Bright side of the road”RAY CHARLES “Take me home country roads”Escuchar audio

Nous sommes le 20 juin 1847, au cœur de la capitale de la toute jeune Belgique. C'est ce jour-là qu'est inauguré un nouveau type de centre commercial. Ce n'est pas le premier du genre, mais il est le plus monumental de son époque : nous sommes sous la voute de verre des Galeries Royales. Joyau de l'architecture bruxelloise. Le rêve d'un homme, un jeune ambitieux qui croit en la destinée internationale de la cité, il s'appelle Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar. Le 20 juin 1875, la rue de l'Ecuyer est noire de monde. La foule, en effet, tente d'apercevoir les représentants les plus illustres de la monarchie. En effet, le roi, en personne, Léopold Ier est venu inauguré le plus beau passage d'Europe. Il n'est pas seul, puisqu'à ses côtés, se tiennent la reine Marie-Louise, mais aussi le duc de Brabant, le comte de Flandre et la princesse Charlotte : les enfants royaux. Ils sont accueillis, avec toutes les marques de respect, dues à leur rang, par ces Messieurs de la Société Anonyme des Galeries ainsi que par le bourgmestre Wyns de Raucourt, ses échevins, ses conseillers communaux. Dix jours plus tard, les lieux étincelants sont ouvert au public … moyennant rétribution. Partons à la redécouverte de ce lieux magique : les Galeries royales ou Galeries Saint-Hubert… Invité : Paul Grosjean « Les Galeries royales – Stars des galeries, galeries des stars » ; Ventures Media. Sujets traités : Galéries Royales, Saint Hubert, Bruxelles, Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, reine, Marie-Louise, Wyns de Raucourt Merci pour votre écoute Un Jour dans l'Histoire, c'est également en direct tous les jours de la semaine de 13h15 à 14h30 sur www.rtbf.be/lapremiere Retrouvez tous les épisodes d'Un Jour dans l'Histoire sur notre plateforme Auvio.be : https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/5936 Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement.

LEGENDARY GUITARIST STEVE CROPPER ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ‘FRIENDLYTOWN' FEATURING BILLY F GIBBONS … BRIAN MAY … TIM MONTANA … EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW ON INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS!   Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Interviewing the Legends I'm your host Ray Shasho. Not many people start new bands in their 80s, but legendary guitarist, producer, and songwriter Steve Cropper isn't slowing down any time soon. The triple-threat musician, recently nominated for his first solo GRAMMY for the debut album from his tight and tuneful rock n' soul quintet, Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour, has announced details of his highly anticipated sophomore album, ‘Friendlytown,' due out August 23rd on the  Mascot Label Group. Always pushing ahead and never repeating himself, Cropper has brought in the talents of Billy F Gibbons from ZZ Top to play on the record. The album also features guest appearances from Queen guitarist extraordinaire Brian May and country-rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Tim Montana, who has balanced a successful solo career with high-profile collaborations with Gibbons and Kid Rock. In conjunction with the album announcement, Cropper has released the album's first single, “Too Much Stress feat. Brian May,” giving fans a tantalizing taste of the new music. PLEASE WELCOME LEGENDARY GUITARIST/SONGWRITER/PRODUCER/ACTOR…THE COLONOL STEVE CROPPER TO INTERVIEWING THE LEGENDS …   PREORDER THE NEW ALBUM BY STEVE CROPPER And The Midnight Hour entitled FRIENDLYTOWN Available August 23rd Via Mascot Label Group Featuring Billy F Gibbons, Brian May and Tim Montana First Single “Too Much Stress feat. Brian May” Available Now Pre-order Friendlytown at https://lnk.to/stevecropper FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT STEVE CROPPER VISIT https://playitsteve.com/ Official website https://www.facebook.com/stevecropper Facebook https://x.com/OfficialCropper?mx=2 Twitter https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Steve+Cropper YouTube https://www.instagram.com/thestevecropper/ Instagram     DISCOGRAPHY     1969: With a Little Help from My Friends     1969: Jammed Together (with Albert King and Pops Staples)     1971: This Is ... Steve Cropper & His Friends (compilation of With a Little Help from My Friends and Jammed Together, released in France only)     1981: Playin' My Thang     1982: Night After Night     1998: The Interview — Play It, Steve!     2008: Nudge It Up A Notch (with Felix Cavaliere)     2010: Midnight Flyer (with Felix Cavaliere)     2011: Dedicated — A Salute to the 5 Royales     2017: Steve Cropper, Lou Marini and the Original Blues Brothers Band — The Last Shade of Blue Before Black     2018: Telemasters (with Arlen Roth)     2021: Fire It Up   Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour 2024: Friendlytown       Support us on PayPal!

Bamberg, Julia www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Studio 9

Sam hat ein sehr intensives Gespräch mit Ramon Wagner über den derzeitigen Skandal rund um Walentina und Can. Ist Can wirklich ein Frauenschläger? Ist Walentina vielleicht eine Lügnerin? Was ist da wirklich los? Außerdem erfährt Sam Neuigkeiten über Georgina's Mutter und ist hörbar geschockt. Diese Sonderfolge ist wirklich mehr als spannend! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Javier Hernansanz, responsable de FSIE en Soria sobre el nuevo colegio de Los Royales

Connor and Ace answer your most burning questions for themselves and more generally about K-State sports --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aggievilleacats/support

De alguna manera escuchar vientos y metales, trompetas, saxos, trombones, tubas, clarinetes puede alegrar los lunes. Eso creo yo. Así que otra colección de canciones de géneros varios con mucho soul, swing, ritmos balcánicos a la catalana... DISCO 1 BAlKAN PARADISE ORCHESTRA I’m PaciènciaDISCO 2 MARTHA REEVES & THE VANDELLAS (Love Is Like) A HeatwaveDISCO 3 PAOLO NUTTINI 10/10DISCO 4 THE 5 ROYALES I Know It’s Hard But It’s FairDISCO 5 JEAN WELLS With My Love And What You Got (We Could Turn This World AroundDISCO 6 SHANNON & THE CLAMS The VowDISCO 7 JAMIE CULLUM TwentySomethingDISCO 8 BRITTI Save MeDISCO 9 THE POINTERS SISTERS Having A PartyDISCO 10 JAMILA WOODS HolyDISCO 11 FRED ASTAIRE Nigh & DayDISCO 12 DAVID SANBORN & JAMES TAYLOR Hallelujah, I Love Her SoDISCO 13 MARC ANTHONY Pasemos a los besosEscuchar audio

16/05 - Un lit d'eau pour les vaches royales

Carlos Martínez, alcalde de Soria, sobre el colegio de Los Royales

Wir sind aus den Osterferien zurück und geben ein royales Update aus unserem Leben und aus dem Leben der echten Royales.

Aujourd'hui gros dossier :  "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" de James Brown, et sur la façon dont Brown est passé du statut d'artiste doo-wop mineur à celui de pionnier du funk. INTRO APPOLO James Brown, "Night Train" (version Live at the Apollo). The Ravens, "Rock Me All Night Long" The Fabulous Flames, "Do You Remember ?" Nat Kendrick and the Swans, "(Do the)" Mashed Potatoes". James Brown, "Hold It" James Brown and the Famous Flames, "Think !" Les "5" Royales, "Think" James Brown and the Famous Flames, "Think" Sugar Pie DeSanto, "Soulful Dress" James Brown et Bea Ford, "You Got the Power" Joe Tex, "You Keep Her" Yvonne Fair, "I Found You" James Brown, "Night Flying" The Valentinos, "Lookin' For a Love" Yvonne Fair, "You Can Make it if You Try" Freddie King, "I'm on My Way to Atlanta" Solomon Burke, "Cry to Me" James Brown and the Famous Flames, "Night Train" (version Live at the Apollo) James Brown & his orchestra, "Out of Sight" James Brown et son orchestre, "Caldonia" James Brown, "Out of Sight (TAMI show live)" The Barbarians, "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl ?" Jan & Dean, "Here They Come From All Over The World" Chuck Berry & Gerry and the Pacemakers : "Maybellene" James Brown, "Out of Sight" (TAMI Show) The Rolling Stones, "Around and Around" Jimmy Wilson, "Tin Pan Alley" Monte Easter, "Blues in the Evening" Jimmy Nolen, "After Hours" Jimmy Nolen, "Jimmy's Jive" Johnny Otis, "Casting My Spell" Johnny Otis, "Willie and the Hand Jive" Bobby Gentry, "Ode to Billie Joe" James Brown, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" James Brown "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (parts 1, 2, and 3)" James Brown, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"

Kate geht es gut! Das sollte ein offizielles Foto von der Prinzessin belegen - es hat aber genau das Gegenteil bewirkt. Geht es Kate gut?! Sven, Imke und Konstanze lassen das Kommunikationsdesaster des Kensington Palastes noch einmal Revue passieren.

Bamberg, Julia www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Interview

Wow... If your head isn't spinning with all the connections Gary makes with history, Biblical prophecy, and the last days.... So much information in this and the previous episode! We talk about Hitler, the Nazis, Crowley, and their occult pursuits. We discuss giants and bloodlines and the Royales, their Enochian/Atlantean mysticism (the counterfeit polytheist view of the Creator God). We talk about the counterfeit "eternal" life that the antiChrist will promise, likely through the Mark of the Beast as a genetic upgrade to humanity, but will only end up leading those that take the Mark to hell. Peppered throughout is a lot of eschatology. And Gary gives a wonderful summary of his latest book, just released: The Genesis 6 Conspiracy, Part 2! Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Conspiracy-Part-Understanding-Prehistory-ebook/dp/B0CRKF6NY3/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1 or at Gary's website: ⁠www.genesis6conspiracy.com⁠    Reach out to Gary at his email here: genesis6conspiracy@gmail.com  Please consider supporting our podcast; for Luke and I to create 4 episodes a month takes an average of 40 hours to research, record, and produce, sometimes more. If you find value in our work and would like to help support us, please choose from the options below. Thanks very much!! -Luke and Pete                  Paypal: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.paypal.me/peteohlinger⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠            Cash App: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://cash.app/$PeteOhlinger⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠            Venmo: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://venmo.com/u/Pete-Ohlinger⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠                            Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments for the show!          Email us at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thedaysofnoahpodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠      ⁠   ⁠⁠We'd love to hear from you! Thanks for listening- we appreciate each and every one of you out there. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe, and tell your friends and family about the show, and leave us a five-star review, which helps to spread the show to others!                      Original Music by BassManPete             Cover art is of Mt. Hermon, site of the Watcher's descent, photo credit: By Almog - Own work, Public Domain, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2181987⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and beautifully crafted into our logo by graphic designer Christine Forster (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/GfxChristine00?s=20⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) 

Air Week: January 15-21, 2024 The “5” Royales This week, the “Juke In The Back” features a rhythm & blues vocal group from Winston-Salem, NC that not only influenced James Brown, but quite possibly the entire soul movement of the late '50s into the 1960s; The “5” Royales. They began their career as a six […]

We know Pastronauts love it when  John & Bobby of The Gruesomes visit our podcast, but this one's extra exciting because it's two episodes in one! John has picked two of his favourite songs by the unsung Five Royales ("Think" and "Dedicated to the One I Love"), and then the four of us talk about 2 cover versions. This means versions by James Brown (who did "Think" twice!), The Shirelles, and The Mamas and Papas.  Top notch analysis from two esteemed scholars of Garage Studies, plus those no-goodniks Erik & Weldon!

On this week's Chat Log, Lauren and Mollie talk with Morgan Park about the history and future of battle royale games. Where did they come from and where are they headed? Which 100-player free-for-alls did we lose too soon and which subgenre is poised to replace them?

This week on NintenDomain, we talk about the new demos and all of the dlc that is coming out this week plus the weekly news of course!! Support NintenDomain and get bonus episode and merch at: www.patreon.com/nintendomainpodcast Music: Intro: Dragon Quest Monsters: Battle Music Break 1: Dave the Diver: Restaurant Prep Break 2: Dave the Diver: Welcome to my Bistro Outro: Donkey Kong Country: Kranky's Theme Topic Times: 00:01:46 Got Item!: Podcast Editing 00:14:41 AEW Fight Forever Dragon Quest Monsters F-Zero 99 00:36:26 Dave the Diver Ys X Is not Real 9/29 Trombone Champ 01:17:05 Weekly Nintendo News    

Comedian, actor, and filmmaker Damian Callinan has bravely admitted he had never watched Pulp Fiction... until now! Gratuitous violence, redemption, and Royales with cheese, it's gotta be one of Quentin Tarantino's best films. So why has the "Paul Kelly of comedy" not seen it? Feel free to email us at yasnypodcast@gmail.com OR drop us some comments, feedback or ideas on the speakpipe (link below) Keep it fun and under a minute and you may get on the show. https://www.speakpipe.com/YASNY Lifeline - 13 11 14See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Viel los bei den britischen Royals im Sommer: Claus Beling trifft Königshaus-Experte Andy Englert zum exklusiven Sommerinterview. Er ist ganz nah dran an König Charles III. und liefert spannende Antworten: Wie verbringt die englische Königsfamilie ihre Sommerferien? Was passiert mit dem schottischen Lieblings-Schloss der Queen „Balmoral“ und was plant der König mit den anderen royalen Residenzen nach dem Tod seiner Mutter Queen Elisabeth? Wen hat King Charles zu den „arbeitenden Royals“ ernannt und was passiert hinter den Kulissen bei Prinz Harry und Meghan? Und: Wird der König in Schottland womöglich enteignet? -- BRITPOD - England at its Best - wird präsentiert von Romance TV. Dem Zuhause der Rosamunde-Pilcher-Filmreihe und romantischer Serien. -- Ein ALL EARS ON YOU Original Podcast.

Pwnage joins Coastal and Holliwood at this years Mississippi Comic Con to talk some battle royales (mostly Call of Duty). Pwnage is a professional Call of Duty player who offers a unique insight to the game.  Thanks for listening! Please like and subscribe! Leave us a review or comment on todays podcast at www.hnkexp.com Email: hnkexp@gmail.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/hnkexp YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hnkexp Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/hnkexp Thanks for Listening! Join the HnK Gaming Lounge for the latest on the HnK podcast as well as general video game talk and good people to game with.  You can find this podcast on any of your favorite podcast listening app

Wer die stundenlangen Fernsehübertragungen zur Krönung von Charles III. überstehen will, braucht viel unnützes Wissen. Harald Asel erinnert an die Hannoverschen Wurzeln des aktuellen britischen Monarchen, klärt die Frage, was mit den Juwelen aus altgedienten Kronen passiert und wie ein Eierkocher zum Symbol für Georg III. wurde.

Dans ce nouvel épisode, je vous raconte l'histoire d'une femme qui, grâce à sa beauté et son ambition, est devenue l'une des femmes les plus puissantes, les plus riches et les plus influentes du XVIe siècle. Dans l'histoire galante de la monarchie, aucune des favorites royales ne lui arrive à la cheville. Car notre héroïne a réussi l'exploit, unique, d'être aimée pendant vingt ans par un roi de 20 ans plus jeune qu'elle : Henri II ! Mais, Catherine de Médicis, la femme légitime du roi, lui fera payer très cher d'avoir pris son mari et occupé sa place de reine. Un vrai conte de fée mes amis, avec la Belle à l'éternelle jeunesse, le chevalier fou d'amour et la méchante reine jalouse de sa rivale. Ecoutez Entrez dans l'Histoire du 11 mars 2023 avec Lorànt Deutsch.

Mit seinen Schilderungen des Lebens im britischen Königshaus beschäftigt Prinz Harry die Welt. Fast anderthalb Millionen Exemplare seines Buchs sind am Erscheinungstag verkauft worden. Was steht drin? Ein Gespräch mit der Kolumnistin Anja Rützel.Anja Rützel im Gespräch mit Kais Harrabi und Christine WattyDirekter Link zur Audiodatei

Le prince Harry publie ses mémoires. Le fils cadet du roi d'Angleterre règle ses comptes.

In this episode of Snap Aim, Stella answers a few questions in an AMA session and goes on a few rants listing her tiered list of Battle Royales, explains how IGN reviews work, rants about how not all reviews are done the same, and just generally goes on some rants about FPS games and the state of Apex Legends.

Historiquement Vôtre réunit 3 royales amantes : la borgne et “plus que galante” Cateau-la-Borgnesse dont la légende raconte qu'elle aurait déniaisé, à la demande de la reine-mère, le jeune roi Louis XIV. Puis Gabrielle d'Estrées qui fut la maîtresse favorite du roi Henri IV, contre sa volonté. Et une maîtresse devenue désormais reine consort du Royaume-Uni, qu'on sort pour les grandes occasions : l'épouse du roi Charles III, Camilla Parker Bowles. 

Historiquement Vôtre réunit 3 royales amantes : la borgne et “plus que galante” Cateau-la-Borgnesse dont la légende raconte qu'elle aurait déniaisé, à la demande de la reine-mère, le jeune roi Louis XIV. Puis Gabrielle d'Estrées qui fut la maîtresse favorite du roi Henri IV, contre sa volonté. Et une maîtresse devenue désormais reine consort du Royaume-Uni, qu'on sort pour les grandes occasions : l'épouse du roi Charles III, Camilla Parker Bowles. 

Episode one hundred and fifty-six of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “I Was Made to Love Her", the early career of Stevie Wonder, and the Detroit riots of 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "Groovin'" by the Young Rascals. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, I've put together a Mixcloud playlist of all the recordings excerpted in this episode. The best value way to get all of Stevie Wonder's early singles is this MP3 collection, which has the original mono single mixes of fifty-five tracks for a very reasonable price. For those who prefer physical media, this is a decent single-CD collection of his early work at a very low price indeed. As well as the general Motown information listed below, I've also referred to Signed, Sealed, and Delivered: The Soulful Journey of Stevie Wonder by Mark Ribowsky, which rather astonishingly is the only full-length biography of Wonder, to Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul by Craig Werner, and to Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul by Stuart Cosgrove. For Motown-related information in this and other Motown episodes, I've used the following resources: Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound by Nelson George is an excellent popular history of the various companies that became Motown. To Be Loved by Berry Gordy is Gordy's own, understandably one-sided, but relatively well-written, autobiography. Women of Motown: An Oral History by Susan Whitall is a collection of interviews with women involved in Motown. I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by J. Andrew Flory is an academic look at Motown. The Motown Encyclopaedia by Graham Betts is an exhaustive look at the people and records involved in Motown's thirty-year history. How Sweet It Is by Lamont Dozier and Scott B. Bomar is Dozier's autobiography, while Come and Get These Memories by Brian and Eddie Holland and Dave Thompson is the Holland brothers'. Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson by "Dr Licks" is a mixture of a short biography of the great bass player, and tablature of his most impressive bass parts. And Motown Junkies is an infrequently-updated blog looking at (so far) the first 694 tracks released on Motown singles. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A quick note before I begin -- this episode deals with disability and racism, and also deals from the very beginning with sex work and domestic violence. It also has some discussion of police violence and sexual assault. As always I will try to deal with those subjects as non-judgementally and sensitively as possible, but if you worry that anything about those subjects might disturb you, please check the transcript. Calvin Judkins was not a good man. Lula Mae Hardaway thought at first he might be, when he took her in, with her infant son whose father had left before the boy was born. He was someone who seemed, when he played the piano, to be deeply sensitive and emotional, and he even did the decent thing and married her when he got her pregnant. She thought she could save him, even though he was a street hustler and not even very good at it, and thirty years older than her -- she was only nineteen, he was nearly fifty. But she soon discovered that he wasn't interested in being saved, and instead he was interested in hurting her. He became physically and financially abusive, and started pimping her out. Lula would eventually realise that Calvin Judkins was no good, but not until she got pregnant again, shortly after the birth of her second son. Her third son was born premature -- different sources give different numbers for how premature, with some saying four months and others six weeks -- and while he apparently went by Stevland Judkins throughout his early childhood, the name on his birth certificate was apparently Stevland Morris, Lula having decided not to give another child the surname of her abuser, though nobody has ever properly explained where she got the surname "Morris" from. Little Stevland was put in an incubator with an oxygen mask, which saved the tiny child's life but destroyed his sight, giving him a condition called retinopathy of prematurity -- a condition which nowadays can be prevented and cured, but in 1951 was just an unavoidable consequence for some portion of premature babies. Shortly after the family moved from Saginaw to Detroit, Lula kicked Calvin out, and he would remain only a peripheral figure in his children's lives, but one thing he did do was notice young Stevland's interest in music, and on his increasingly infrequent visits to his wife and kids -- visits that usually ended with violence -- he would bring along toy instruments for the young child to play, like a harmonica and a set of bongos. Stevie was a real prodigy, and by the time he was nine he had a collection of real musical instruments, because everyone could see that the kid was something special. A neighbour who owned a piano gave it to Stevie when she moved out and couldn't take it with her. A local Lions Club gave him a drum kit at a party they organised for local blind children, and a barber gave him a chromatic harmonica after seeing him play his toy one. Stevie gave his first professional performance when he was eight. His mother had taken him to a picnic in the park, and there was a band playing, and the little boy got as close to the stage as he could and started dancing wildly. The MC of the show asked the child who he was, and he said "My name is Stevie, and I can sing and play drums", so of course they got the cute kid up on stage behind the drum kit while the band played Johnny Ace's "Pledging My Love": [Excerpt: Johnny Ace, "Pledging My Love"] He did well enough that they paid him seventy-five cents -- an enormous amount for a small child at that time -- though he was disappointed afterwards that they hadn't played something faster that would really allow him to show off his drumming skills. After that he would perform semi-regularly at small events, and always ask to be paid in quarters rather than paper money, because he liked the sound of the coins -- one of his party tricks was to be able to tell one coin from another by the sound of them hitting a table. Soon he formed a duo with a neighbourhood friend, John Glover, who was a couple of years older and could play guitar while Stevie sang and played harmonica and bongos. The two were friends, and both accomplished musicians for their age, but that wasn't the only reason Stevie latched on to Glover. Even as young as he was, he knew that Motown was soon going to be the place to be in Detroit if you were a musician, and Glover had an in -- his cousin was Ronnie White of the Miracles. Stevie and John performed as a duo everywhere they could and honed their act, performing particularly at the talent shows which were such an incubator of Black musical talent at the time, and they also at this point seem to have got the attention of Clarence Paul, but it was White who brought the duo to Motown. Stevie and John first played for White and Bobby Rodgers, another of the Miracles, then when they were impressed they took them through the several layers of Motown people who would have to sign off on signing a new act. First they were taken to see Brian Holland, who was a rising star within Motown as "Please Mr. Postman" was just entering the charts. They impressed him with a performance of the Miracles song "Bad Girl": [Excerpt: The Miracles, "Bad Girl"] After that, Stevie and John went to see Mickey Stevenson, who was at first sceptical, thinking that a kid so young -- Stevie was only eleven at the time -- must be some kind of novelty act rather than a serious musician. He said later "It was like, what's next, the singing mouse?" But Stevenson was won over by the child's talent. Normally, Stevenson had the power to sign whoever he liked to the label, but given the extra legal complications involved in signing someone under-age, he had to get Berry Gordy's permission. Gordy didn't even like signing teenagers because of all the extra paperwork that would be involved, and he certainly wasn't interested in signing pre-teens. But he came down to the studio to see what Stevie could do, and was amazed, not by his singing -- Gordy didn't think much of that -- but by his instrumental ability. First Stevie played harmonica and bongos as proficiently as an adult professional, and then he made his way around the studio playing on every other instrument in the place -- often only a few notes, but competent on them all. Gordy decided to sign the duo -- and the initial contract was for an act named "Steve and John" -- but it was soon decided to separate them. Glover would be allowed to hang around Motown while he was finishing school, and there would be a place for him when he finished -- he later became a staff songwriter, working on tracks for the Four Tops and the Miracles among others, and he would even later write a number one hit, "You Don't Have to be a Star (to be in My Show)" for Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr -- but they were going to make Stevie a star right now. The man put in charge of that was Clarence Paul. Paul, under his birth name of Clarence Pauling, had started his career in the "5" Royales, a vocal group he formed with his brother Lowman Pauling that had been signed to Apollo Records by Ralph Bass, and later to King Records. Paul seems to have been on at least some of the earliest recordings by the group, so is likely on their first single, "Give Me One More Chance": [Excerpt: The "5" Royales, "Give Me One More Chance"] But Paul was drafted to go and fight in the Korean War, and so wasn't part of the group's string of hit singles, mostly written by his brother Lowman, like "Think", which later became better known in James Brown's cover version, or "Dedicated to the One I Love", later covered by the Shirelles, but in its original version dominated by Lowman's stinging guitar playing: [Excerpt: The "5" Royales, "Dedicated to the One I Love"] After being discharged, Clarence had shortened his name to Clarence Paul, and had started recording for all the usual R&B labels like Roulette and Federal, with little success: [Excerpt: Clarence Paul, "I'm Gonna Love You, Love You Til I Die"] He'd also co-written "I Need Your Lovin'", which had been an R&B hit for Roy Hamilton: [Excerpt: Roy Hamilton, "I Need Your Lovin'"] Paul had recently come to work for Motown – one of the things Berry Gordy did to try to make his label more attractive was to hire the relatives of R&B stars on other labels, in the hopes of getting them to switch to Motown – and he was the new man on the team, not given any of the important work to do. He was working with acts like Henry Lumpkin and the Valladiers, and had also been the producer of "Mind Over Matter", the single the Temptations had released as The Pirates in a desperate attempt to get a hit: [Excerpt: The Pirates, "Mind Over Matter"] Paul was the person you turned to when no-one else was interested, and who would come up with bizarre ideas. A year or so after the time period we're talking about, it was him who produced an album of country music for the Supremes, before they'd had a hit, and came up with "The Man With the Rock and Roll Banjo Band" for them: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "The Man With The Rock and Roll Banjo Band"] So, Paul was the perfect person to give a child -- by this time twelve years old -- who had the triple novelties of being a multi-instrumentalist, a child, and blind. Stevie started spending all his time around the Motown studios, partly because he was eager to learn everything about making records and partly because his home life wasn't particularly great and he wanted to be somewhere else. He earned the affection and irritation, in equal measure, of people at Motown both for his habit of wandering into the middle of sessions because he couldn't see the light that showed that the studio was in use, and for his practical joking. He was a great mimic, and would do things like phoning one of the engineers and imitating Berry Gordy's voice, telling the engineer that Stevie would be coming down, and to give him studio equipment to take home. He'd also astonish women by complimenting them, in detail, on their dresses, having been told in advance what they looked like by an accomplice. But other "jokes" were less welcome -- he would regularly sexually assault women working at Motown, grabbing their breasts or buttocks and then claiming it was an accident because he couldn't see what he was doing. Most of the women he molested still speak of him fondly, and say everybody loved him, and this may even be the case -- and certainly I don't think any of us should be judged too harshly for what we did when we were twelve -- but this kind of thing led to a certain amount of pressure to make Stevie's career worth the extra effort he was causing everyone at Motown. Because Berry Gordy was not impressed with Stevie's vocals, the decision was made to promote him as a jazz instrumentalist, and so Clarence Paul insisted that his first release be an album, rather than doing what everyone would normally do and only put out an album after a hit single. Paul reasoned that there was no way on Earth they were going to be able to get a hit single with a jazz instrumental by a twelve-year-old kid, and eventually persuaded Gordy of the wisdom of this idea. So they started work on The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, released under his new stagename of Little Stevie Wonder, supposedly a name given to him after Berry Gordy said "That kid's a wonder!", though Mickey Stevenson always said that the name came from a brainstorming session between him and Clarence Paul. The album featured Stevie on harmonica, piano, and organ on different tracks, but on the opening track, "Fingertips", he's playing the bongos that give the track its name: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (studio version)"] The composition of that track is credited to Paul and the arranger Hank Cosby, but Beans Bowles, who played flute on the track, always claimed that he came up with the melody, and it seems quite likely to me that most of the tracks on the album were created more or less as jam sessions -- though Wonder's contributions were all overdubbed later. The album sat in the can for several months -- Berry Gordy was not at all sure of its commercial potential. Instead, he told Paul to go in another direction -- focusing on Wonder's blindness, he decided that what they needed to do was create an association in listeners' minds with Ray Charles, who at this point was at the peak of his commercial power. So back into the studio went Wonder and Paul, to record an album made up almost entirely of Ray Charles covers, titled Tribute to Uncle Ray. (Some sources have the Ray Charles tribute album recorded first -- and given Motown's lax record-keeping at this time it may be impossible to know for sure -- but this is the way round that Mark Ribowsky's biography of Wonder has it). But at Motown's regular quality control meeting it was decided that there wasn't a single on the album, and you didn't release an album like that without having a hit single first. By this point, Clarence Paul was convinced that Berry Gordy was just looking for excuses not to do anything with Wonder -- and there may have been a grain of truth to that. There's some evidence that Gordy was worried that the kid wouldn't be able to sing once his voice broke, and was scared of having another Frankie Lymon on his hands. But the decision was made that rather than put out either of those albums, they would put out a single. The A-side was a song called "I Call it Pretty Music But the Old People Call it the Blues, Part 1", which very much played on Wonder's image as a loveable naive kid: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "I Call it Pretty Music But the Old People Call it the Blues, Part 1"] The B-side, meanwhile, was part two -- a slowed-down, near instrumental, version of the song, reframed as an actual blues, and as a showcase for Wonder's harmonica playing rather than his vocals. The single wasn't a hit, but it made number 101 on the Billboard charts, just missing the Hot One Hundred, which for the debut single of a new artist wasn't too bad, especially for Motown at this point in time, when most of its releases were flopping. That was good enough that Gordy authorised the release of the two albums that they had in the can. The next single, "Little Water Boy", was a rather baffling duet with Clarence Paul, which did nothing at all on the charts. [Excerpt: Clarence Paul and Little Stevie Wonder, "Little Water Boy"] After this came another flop single, written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Janie Bradford, before the record that finally broke Little Stevie Wonder out into the mainstream in a big way. While Wonder hadn't had a hit yet, he was sent out on the first Motortown Revue tour, along with almost every other act on the label. Because he hadn't had a hit, he was supposed to only play one song per show, but nobody had told him how long that song should be. He had quickly become a great live performer, and the audiences were excited to watch him, so when he went into extended harmonica solos rather than quickly finishing the song, the audience would be with him. Clarence Paul, who came along on the tour, would have to motion to the onstage bandleader to stop the music, but the bandleader would know that the audiences were with Stevie, and so would just keep the song going as long as Stevie was playing. Often Paul would have to go on to the stage and shout in Wonder's ear to stop playing -- and often Wonder would ignore him, and have to be physically dragged off stage by Paul, still playing, causing the audience to boo Paul for stopping him from playing. Wonder would complain off-stage that the audience had been enjoying it, and didn't seem to get it into his head that he wasn't the star of the show, that the audiences *were* enjoying him, but were *there* to see the Miracles and Mary Wells and the Marvelettes and Marvin Gaye. This made all the acts who had to go on after him, and who were running late as a result, furious at him -- especially since one aspect of Wonder's blindness was that his circadian rhythms weren't regulated by sunlight in the same way that the sighted members of the tour's were. He would often wake up the entire tour bus by playing his harmonica at two or three in the morning, while they were all trying to sleep. Soon Berry Gordy insisted that Clarence Paul be on stage with Wonder throughout his performance, ready to drag him off stage, so that he wouldn't have to come out onto the stage to do it. But one of the first times he had done this had been on one of the very first Motortown Revue shows, before any of his records had come out. There he'd done a performance of "Fingertips", playing the flute part on harmonica rather than only playing bongos throughout as he had on the studio version -- leaving the percussion to Marvin Gaye, who was playing drums for Wonder's set: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] But he'd extended the song with a little bit of call-and-response vocalising: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] After the long performance ended, Clarence Paul dragged Wonder off-stage and the MC asked the audience to give him a round of applause -- but then Stevie came running back on and carried on playing: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] By this point, though, the musicians had started to change over -- Mary Wells, who was on after Wonder, was using different musicians from his, and some of her players were already on stage. You can hear Joe Swift, who was playing bass for Wells, asking what key he was meant to be playing in: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Fingertips (Parts 1 & 2)"] Eventually, after six and a half minutes, they got Wonder off stage, but that performance became the two sides of Wonder's next single, with "Fingertips Part 2", the part with the ad lib singing and the false ending, rather than the instrumental part one, being labelled as the side the DJs should play. When it was released, the song started a slow climb up the charts, and by August 1963, three months after it came out, it was at number one -- only the second ever Motown number one, and the first ever live single to get there. Not only that, but Motown released a live album -- Recorded Live, the Twelve-Year-Old Genius (though as many people point out he was thirteen when it was released -- he was twelve when it was recorded though) and that made number one on the albums chart, becoming the first Motown album ever to do so. They followed up "Fingertips" with a similar sounding track, "Workout, Stevie, Workout", which made number thirty-three. After that, his albums -- though not yet his singles -- started to be released as by "Stevie Wonder" with no "Little" -- he'd had a bit of a growth spurt and his voice was breaking, and so marketing him as a child prodigy was not going to work much longer and they needed to transition him into a star with adult potential. In the Motown of 1963 that meant cutting an album of standards, because the belief at the time in Motown was that the future for their entertainers was doing show tunes at the Copacabana. But for some reason the audience who had wanted an R&B harmonica instrumental with call-and-response improvised gospel-influenced yelling was not in the mood for a thirteen year old singing "Put on a Happy Face" and "When You Wish Upon a Star", and especially not when the instrumental tracks were recorded in a key that suited him at age twelve but not thirteen, so he was clearly straining. "Fingertips" being a massive hit also meant Stevie was now near the top of the bill on the Motortown Revue when it went on its second tour. But this actually put him in a precarious position. When he had been down at the bottom of the bill and unknown, nobody expected anything from him, and he was following other minor acts, so when he was surprisingly good the audiences went wild. Now, near the top of the bill, he had to go on after Marvin Gaye, and he was not nearly so impressive in that context. The audiences were polite enough, but not in the raptures he was used to. Although Stevie could still beat Gaye in some circumstances. At Motown staff parties, Berry Gordy would always have a contest where he'd pit two artists against each other to see who could win the crowd over, something he thought instilled a fun and useful competitive spirit in his artists. They'd alternate songs, two songs each, and Gordy would decide on the winner based on audience response. For the 1963 Motown Christmas party, it was Stevie versus Marvin. Wonder went first, with "Workout, Stevie, Workout", and was apparently impressive, but then Gaye topped him with a version of "Hitch-Hike". So Stevie had to top that, and apparently did, with a hugely extended version of "I Call it Pretty Music", reworked in the Ray Charles style he'd used for "Fingertips". So Marvin Gaye had to top that with the final song of the contest, and he did, performing "Stubborn Kind of Fellow": [Excerpt: Marvin Gaye, "Stubborn Kind of Fellow"] And he was great. So great, it turned the crowd against him. They started booing, and someone in the audience shouted "Marvin, you should be ashamed of yourself, taking advantage of a little blind kid!" The crowd got so hostile Berry Gordy had to stop the performance and end the party early. He never had another contest like that again. There were other problems, as well. Wonder had been assigned a tutor, a young man named Ted Hull, who began to take serious control over his life. Hull was legally blind, so could teach Wonder using Braille, but unlike Wonder had some sight -- enough that he was even able to get a drivers' license and a co-pilot license for planes. Hull was put in loco parentis on most of Stevie's tours, and soon became basically inseparable from him, but this caused a lot of problems, not least because Hull was a conservative white man, while almost everyone else at Motown was Black, and Stevie was socially liberal and on the side of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements. Hull started to collaborate on songwriting with Wonder, which most people at Motown were OK with but which now seems like a serious conflict of interest, and he also started calling himself Stevie's "manager" -- which did *not* impress the people at Motown, who had their own conflict of interest because with Stevie, like with all their artists, they were his management company and agents as well as his record label and publishers. Motown grudgingly tolerated Hull, though, mostly because he was someone they could pass Lula Mae Hardaway to to deal with her complaints. Stevie's mother was not very impressed with the way that Motown were handling her son, and would make her opinion known to anyone who would listen. Hull and Hardaway did not get on at all, but he could be relied on to save the Gordy family members from having to deal with her. Wonder was sent over to Europe for Christmas 1963, to perform shows at the Paris Olympia and do some British media appearances. But both his mother and Hull had come along, and their clear dislike for each other was making him stressed. He started to get pains in his throat whenever he sang -- pains which everyone assumed were a stress reaction to the unhealthy atmosphere that happened whenever Hull and his mother were in the same room together, but which later turned out to be throat nodules that required surgery. Because of this, his singing was generally not up to standard, which meant he was moved to a less prominent place on the bill, which in turn led to his mother accusing the Gordy family of being against him and trying to stop him becoming a star. Wonder started to take her side and believe that Motown were conspiring against him, and at one point he even "accidentally" dropped a bottle of wine on Ted Hull's foot, breaking one of his toes, because he saw Hull as part of the enemy that was Motown. Before leaving for those shows, he had recorded the album he later considered the worst of his career. While he was now just plain Stevie on albums, he wasn't for his single releases, or in his first film appearance, where he was still Little Stevie Wonder. Berry Gordy was already trying to get a foot in the door in Hollywood -- by the end of the decade Motown would be moving from Detroit to LA -- and his first real connections there were with American International Pictures, the low-budget film-makers who have come up a lot in connection with the LA scene. AIP were the producers of the successful low-budget series of beach party films, which combined appearances by teen heartthrobs Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in swimsuits with cameo appearances by old film stars fallen on hard times, and with musical performances by bands like the Bobby Fuller Four. There would be a couple of Motown connections to these films -- most notably, the Supremes would do the theme tune for Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine -- but Muscle Beach Party was to be the first. Most of the music for Muscle Beach Party was written by Brian Wilson, Roger Christian, and Gary Usher, as one might expect for a film about surfing, and was performed by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, the film's major musical guests, with Annette, Frankie, and Donna Loren [pron Lorren] adding vocals, on songs like "Muscle Bustle": [Excerpt: Donna Loren with Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, "Muscle Bustle"] The film followed the formula in every way -- it also had a cameo appearance by Peter Lorre, his last film appearance before his death, and it featured Little Stevie Wonder playing one of the few songs not written by the surf and car writers, a piece of nothing called "Happy Street". Stevie also featured in the follow-up, Bikini Beach, which came out a little under four months later, again doing a single number, "Happy Feelin'". To cash in on his appearances in these films, and having tried releasing albums of Little Stevie as jazz multi-instrumentalist, Ray Charles tribute act, live soulman and Andy Williams-style crooner, they now decided to see if they could sell him as a surf singer. Or at least, as Motown's idea of a surf singer, which meant a lot of songs about the beach and the sea -- mostly old standards like "Red Sails in the Sunset" and "Ebb Tide" -- backed by rather schlocky Wrecking Crew arrangements. And this is as good a place as any to take on one of the bits of disinformation that goes around about Motown. I've addressed this before, but it's worth repeating here in slightly more detail. Carol Kaye, one of the go-to Wrecking Crew bass players, is a known credit thief, and claims to have played on hundreds of records she didn't -- claims which too many people take seriously because she is a genuine pioneer and was for a long time undercredited on many records she *did* play on. In particular, she claims to have played on almost all the classic Motown hits that James Jamerson of the Funk Brothers played on, like the title track for this episode, and she claims this despite evidence including notarised statements from everyone involved in the records, the release of session recordings that show producers talking to the Funk Brothers, and most importantly the evidence of the recordings themselves, which have all the characteristics of the Detroit studio and sound like the Funk Brothers playing, and have absolutely nothing in common, sonically, with the records the Wrecking Crew played on at Gold Star, Western, and other LA studios. The Wrecking Crew *did* play on a lot of Motown records, but with a handful of exceptions, mostly by Brenda Holloway, the records they played on were quickie knock-off album tracks and potboiler albums made to tie in with film or TV work -- soundtracks to TV specials the acts did, and that kind of thing. And in this case, the Wrecking Crew played on the entire Stevie at the Beach album, including the last single to be released as by "Little Stevie Wonder", "Castles in the Sand", which was arranged by Jack Nitzsche: [Excerpt: Little Stevie Wonder, "Castles in the Sand"] Apparently the idea of surfin' Stevie didn't catch on any more than that of swingin' Stevie had earlier. Indeed, throughout 1964 and 65 Motown seem to have had less than no idea what they were doing with Stevie Wonder, and he himself refers to all his recordings from this period as an embarrassment, saving particular scorn for the second single from Stevie at the Beach, "Hey Harmonica Man", possibly because that, unlike most of his other singles around this point, was a minor hit, reaching number twenty-nine on the charts. Motown were still pushing Wonder hard -- he even got an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in May 1964, only the second Motown act to appear on it after the Marvelettes -- but Wonder was getting more and more unhappy with the decisions they were making. He loathed the Stevie at the Beach album -- the records he'd made earlier, while patchy and not things he'd chosen, were at least in some way related to his musical interests. He *did* love jazz, and he *did* love Ray Charles, and he *did* love old standards, and the records were made by his friend Clarence Paul and with the studio musicians he'd grown to know in Detroit. But Stevie at the Beach was something that was imposed on Clarence Paul from above, it was cut with unfamiliar musicians, Stevie thought the films he was appearing in were embarrassing, and he wasn't even having much commercial success, which was the whole point of these compromises. He started to get more rebellious against Paul in the studio, though many of these decisions weren't made by Paul, and he would complain to anyone who would listen that if he was just allowed to do the music he wanted to sing, the way he wanted to sing it, he would have more hits. But for nine months he did basically no singing other than that Ed Sullivan Show appearance -- he had to recover from the operation to remove the throat nodules. When he did return to the studio, the first single he cut remained unreleased, and while some stuff from the archives was released between the start of 1964 and March 1965, the first single he recorded and released after the throat nodules, "Kiss Me Baby", which came out in March, was a complete flop. That single was released to coincide with the first Motown tour of Europe, which we looked at in the episode on "Stop! In the Name of Love", and which was mostly set up to promote the Supremes, but which also featured Martha and the Vandellas, the Miracles, and the Temptations. Even though Stevie had not had a major hit in eighteen months by this point, he was still brought along on the tour, the only solo artist to be included -- at this point Gordy thought that solo artists looked outdated compared to vocal groups, in a world dominated by bands, and so other solo artists like Marvin Gaye weren't invited. This was a sign that Gordy was happier with Stevie than his recent lack of chart success might suggest. One of the main reasons that Gordy had been in two minds about him was that he'd had no idea if Wonder would still be able to sing well after his voice broke. But now, as he was about to turn fifteen, his adult voice had more or less stabilised, and Gordy knew that he was capable of having a long career, if they just gave him the proper material. But for now his job on the tour was to do his couple of hits, smile, and be on the lower rungs of the ladder. But even that was still a prominent place to be given the scaled-down nature of this bill compared to the Motortown Revues. While the tour was in England, for example, Dusty Springfield presented a TV special focusing on all the acts on the tour, and while the Supremes were the main stars, Stevie got to do two songs, and also took part in the finale, a version of "Mickey's Monkey" led by Smokey Robinson but with all the performers joining in, with Wonder getting a harmonica solo: [Excerpt: Smokey Robinson and the Motown acts, "Mickey's Monkey"] Sadly, there was one aspect of the trip to the UK that was extremely upsetting for Wonder. Almost all the media attention he got -- which was relatively little, as he wasn't a Supreme -- was about his blindness, and one reporter in particular convinced him that there was an operation he could have to restore his sight, but that Motown were preventing him from finding out about it in order to keep his gimmick going. He was devastated about this, and then further devastated when Ted Hull finally convinced him that it wasn't true, and that he'd been lied to. Meanwhile other newspapers were reporting that he *could* see, and that he was just feigning blindness to boost his record sales. After the tour, a live recording of Wonder singing the blues standard "High Heeled Sneakers" was released as a single, and barely made the R&B top thirty, and didn't hit the top forty on the pop charts. Stevie's initial contract with Motown was going to expire in the middle of 1966, so there was a year to get him back to a point where he was having the kind of hits that other Motown acts were regularly getting at this point. Otherwise, it looked like his career might end by the time he was sixteen. The B-side to "High Heeled Sneakers" was another duet with Clarence Paul, who dominates the vocal sound for much of it -- a version of Willie Nelson's country classic "Funny How Time Slips Away": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder and Clarence Paul, "Funny How Time Slips Away"] There are a few of these duet records scattered through Wonder's early career -- we'll hear another one a little later -- and they're mostly dismissed as Paul trying to muscle his way into a revival of his own recording career as an artist, and there may be some truth in that. But they're also a natural extension of the way the two of them worked in the studio. Motown didn't have the facilities to give Wonder Braille lyric sheets, and Paul didn't trust him to be able to remember the lyrics, so often when they made a record, Paul would be just off-mic, reciting the lyrics to Wonder fractionally ahead of him singing them. So it was more or less natural that this dynamic would leak out onto records, but not everyone saw it that way. But at the same time, there has been some suggestion that Paul was among those manoeuvring to get rid of Wonder from Motown as soon as his contract was finished -- despite the fact that Wonder was the only act Paul had worked on any big hits for. Either way, Paul and Wonder were starting to chafe at working with each other in the studio, and while Paul remained his on-stage musical director, the opportunity to work on Wonder's singles for what would surely be his last few months at Motown was given to Hank Cosby and Sylvia Moy. Cosby was a saxophone player and staff songwriter who had been working with Wonder and Paul for years -- he'd co-written "Fingertips" and several other tracks -- while Moy was a staff songwriter who was working as an apprentice to Cosby. Basically, at this point, nobody else wanted the job of writing for Wonder, and as Moy was having no luck getting songs cut by any other artists and her career was looking about as dead as Wonder's, they started working together. Wonder was, at this point, full of musical ideas but with absolutely no discipline. He's said in interviews that at this point he was writing a hundred and fifty songs a month, but these were often not full songs -- they were fragments, hooks, or a single verse, or a few lines, which he would pass on to Moy, who would turn his ideas into structured songs that fit the Motown hit template, usually with the assistance of Cosby. Then Cosby would come up with an arrangement, and would co-produce with Mickey Stevenson. The first song they came up with in this manner was a sign of how Wonder was looking outside the world of Motown to the rock music that was starting to dominate the US charts -- but which was itself inspired by Motown music. We heard in the last episode on the Rolling Stones how "Nowhere to Run" by the Vandellas: [Excerpt: Martha and the Vandellas, "Nowhere to Run"] had inspired the Stones' "Satisfaction": [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"] And Wonder in turn was inspired by "Satisfaction" to come up with his own song -- though again, much of the work making it into an actual finished song was done by Sylvia Moy. They took the four-on-the-floor beat and basic melody of "Satisfaction" and brought it back to Motown, where those things had originated -- though they hadn't originated with Stevie, and this was his first record to sound like a Motown record in the way we think of those things. As a sign of how, despite the way these stories are usually told, the histories of rock and soul were completely and complexly intertwined, that four-on-the-floor beat itself was a conscious attempt by Holland, Dozier, and Holland to appeal to white listeners -- on the grounds that while Black people generally clapped on the backbeat, white people didn't, and so having a four-on-the-floor beat wouldn't throw them off. So Cosby, Moy, and Wonder, in trying to come up with a "Satisfaction" soundalike were Black Motown writers trying to copy a white rock band trying to copy Black Motown writers trying to appeal to a white rock audience. Wonder came up with the basic chorus hook, which was based around a lot of current slang terms he was fond of: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Uptight"] Then Moy, with some assistance from Cosby, filled it out into a full song. Lyrically, it was as close to social comment as Motown had come at this point -- Wonder was, like many of his peers in soul music, interested in the power of popular music to make political statements, and he would become a much more political artist in the next few years, but at this point it's still couched in the acceptable boy-meets-girl romantic love song that Motown specialised in. But in 1965 a story about a boy from the wrong side of the tracks dating a rich girl inevitably raised the idea that the boy and girl might be of different races -- a subject that was very, very, controversial in the mid-sixties. [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Uptight"] "Uptight" made number three on the pop charts and number one on the R&B charts, and saved Stevie Wonder's career. And this is where, for all that I've criticised Motown in this episode, their strategy paid off. Mickey Stevenson talked a lot about how in the early sixties Motown didn't give up on artists -- if someone had potential but was not yet having hits or finding the right approach, they would keep putting out singles in a holding pattern, trying different things and seeing what would work, rather than toss them aside. It had already worked for the Temptations and the Supremes, and now it had worked for Stevie Wonder. He would be the last beneficiary of this policy -- soon things would change, and Motown would become increasingly focused on trying to get the maximum returns out of a small number of stars, rather than building careers for a range of artists -- but it paid off brilliantly for Wonder. "Uptight" was such a reinvention of Wonder's career, sound, and image that many of his fans consider it the real start of his career -- everything before it only counting as prologue. The follow-up, "Nothing's Too Good For My Baby", was an "Uptight" soundalike, and as with Motown soundalike follow-ups in general, it didn't do quite as well, but it still made the top twenty on the pop chart and got to number four on the R&B chart. Stevie Wonder was now safe at Motown, and so he was going to do something no other Motown act had ever done before -- he was going to record a protest song and release it as a single. For about a year he'd been ending his shows with a version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind", sung as a duet with Clarence Paul, who was still his on stage bandleader even though the two weren't working together in the studio as much. Wonder brought that into the studio, and recorded it with Paul back as the producer, and as his duet partner. Berry Gordy wasn't happy with the choice of single, but Wonder pushed, and Gordy knew that Wonder was on a winning streak and gave in, and so "Blowin' in the Wind" became Stevie Wonder's next single: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder and Clarence Paul, "Blowin' in the Wind"] "Blowin' in the Wind" made the top ten, and number one on the R&B charts, and convinced Gordy that there was some commercial potential in going after the socially aware market, and over the next few years Motown would start putting out more and more political records. Because Motown convention was to have the producer of a hit record produce the next hit for that artist, and keep doing so until they had a flop, Paul was given the opportunity to produce the next single. "A Place in the Sun" was another ambiguously socially-aware song, co-written by the only white writer on Motown staff, Ron Miller, who happened to live in the same building as Stevie's tutor-cum-manager Ted Hull. "A Place in the Sun" was a pleasant enough song, inspired by "A Change is Gonna Come", but with a more watered-down, generic, message of hope, but the record was lifted by Stevie's voice, and again made the top ten. This meant that Paul and Miller, and Miller's writing partner Bryan Mills, got to work on his next  two singles -- his 1966 Christmas song "Someday at Christmas", which made number twenty-four, and the ballad "Travellin' Man" which made thirty-two. The downward trajectory with Paul meant that Wonder was soon working with other producers again. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol cut another Miller and Mills song with him, "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday": [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday"] But that was left in the can, as not good enough to release, and Stevie was soon back working with Cosby. The two of them had come up with an instrumental together in late 1966, but had not been able to come up with any words for it, so they played it for Smokey Robinson, who said their instrumental sounded like circus music, and wrote lyrics about a clown: [Excerpt: The Miracles, "The Tears of a Clown"] The Miracles cut that as album filler, but it was released three years later as a single and became the Miracles' only number one hit with Smokey Robinson as lead singer. So Wonder and Cosby definitely still had their commercial touch, even if their renewed collaboration with Moy, who they started working with again, took a while to find a hit. To start with, Wonder returned to the idea of taking inspiration from a hit by a white British group, as he had with "Uptight". This time it was the Beatles, and the track "Michelle", from the Rubber Soul album: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Michelle"] Wonder took the idea of a song with some French lyrics, and a melody with some similarities to the Beatles song, and came up with "My Cherie Amour", which Cosby and Moy finished off. [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "My Cherie Amour"] Gordy wouldn't allow that to be released, saying it was too close to "Michelle" and people would think it was a rip-off, and it stayed in the vaults for several years. Cosby also produced a version of a song Ron Miller had written with Orlando Murden, "For Once in My Life", which pretty much every other Motown act was recording versions of -- the Four Tops, the Temptations, Billy Eckstine, Martha and the Vandellas and Barbra McNair all cut versions of it in 1967, and Gordy wouldn't let Wonder's version be put out either. So they had to return to the drawing board. But in truth, Stevie Wonder was not the biggest thing worrying Berry Gordy at this point. He was dealing with problems in the Supremes, which we'll look at in a future episode -- they were about to get rid of Florence Ballard, and thus possibly destroy one of the biggest acts in the world, but Gordy thought that if they *didn't* get rid of her they would be destroying themselves even more certainly. Not only that, but Gordy was in the midst of a secret affair with Diana Ross, Holland, Dozier, and Holland were getting restless about their contracts, and his producers kept bringing him unlistenable garbage that would never be a hit. Like Norman Whitfield, insisting that this track he'd cut with Marvin Gaye, "I Heard it Through the Grapevine", should be a single. Gordy had put his foot down about that one too, just like he had about "My Cherie Amour", and wouldn't allow it to be released. Meanwhile, many of the smaller acts on the label were starting to feel like they were being ignored by Gordy, and had formed what amounted to a union, having regular meetings at Clarence Paul's house to discuss how they could pressure the label to put the same effort into their careers as into those of the big stars. And the Funk Brothers, the musicians who played on all of Motown's hits, were also getting restless -- they contributed to the arrangements, and they did more for the sound of the records than half the credited producers; why weren't they getting production credits and royalties? Harvey Fuqua had divorced Gordy's sister Gwen, and so became persona non grata at the label and was in the process of leaving Motown, and so was Mickey Stevenson, Gordy's second in command, because Gordy wouldn't give him any stock in the company. And Detroit itself was on edge. The crime rate in the city had started to go up, but even worse, the *perception* of crime was going up. The Detroit News had been running a campaign to whip up fear, which it called its Secret Witness campaign, and running constant headlines about rapes, murders, and muggings. These in turn had led to increased calls for more funds for the police, calls which inevitably contained a strong racial element and at least implicitly linked the perceived rise in crime to the ongoing Civil Rights movement. At this point the police in Detroit were ninety-three percent white, even though Detroit's population was over thirty percent Black. The Mayor and Police Commissioner were trying to bring in some modest reforms, but they weren't going anywhere near fast enough for the Black population who felt harassed and attacked by the police, but were still going too fast for the white people who were being whipped up into a state of terror about supposedly soft-on-crime policies, and for the police who felt under siege and betrayed by the politicians. And this wasn't the only problem affecting the city, and especially affecting Black people. Redlining and underfunded housing projects meant that the large Black population was being crammed into smaller and smaller spaces with fewer local amenities. A few Black people who were lucky enough to become rich -- many of them associated with Motown -- were able to move into majority-white areas, but that was just leading to white flight, and to an increase in racial tensions. The police were on edge after the murder of George Overman Jr, the son of a policeman, and though they arrested the killers that was just another sign that they weren't being shown enough respect. They started organising "blu flu"s -- the police weren't allowed to strike, so they'd claim en masse that they were off sick, as a protest against the supposed soft-on-crime administration. Meanwhile John Sinclair was organising "love-ins", gatherings of hippies at which new bands like the MC5 played, which were being invaded by gangs of bikers who were there to beat up the hippies. And the Detroit auto industry was on its knees -- working conditions had got bad enough that the mostly Black workforce organised a series of wildcat strikes. All in all, Detroit was looking less and less like somewhere that Berry Gordy wanted to stay, and the small LA subsidiary of Motown was rapidly becoming, in his head if nowhere else, the more important part of the company, and its future. He was starting to think that maybe he should leave all these ungrateful people behind in their dangerous city, and move the parts of the operation that actually mattered out to Hollywood. Stevie Wonder was, of course, one of the parts that mattered, but the pressure was on in 1967 to come up with a hit as big as his records from 1965 and early 66, before he'd been sidetracked down the ballad route. The song that was eventually released was one on which Stevie's mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, had a co-writing credit: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] "I Was Made to Love Her" was inspired by Wonder's first love, a girl from the same housing projects as him, and he talked about the song being special to him because it was true, saying it "kind of speaks of my first love to a girl named Angie, who was a very beautiful woman... Actually, she was my third girlfriend but my first love. I used to call Angie up and, like, we would talk and say, 'I love you, I love you,' and we'd talk and we'd both go to sleep on the phone. And this was like from Detroit to California, right? You know, mother said, 'Boy, what you doing - get off the phone!' Boy, I tell you, it was ridiculous." But while it was inspired by her, like with many of the songs from this period, much of the lyric came from Moy -- her mother grew up in Arkansas, and that's why the lyric started "I was born in Little Rock", as *her* inspiration came from stories told by her parents. But truth be told, the lyrics weren't particularly detailed or impressive, just a standard story of young love. Rather what mattered in the record was the music. The song was structured differently from many Motown records, including most of Wonder's earlier ones. Most Motown records had a huge amount of dynamic variation, and a clear demarcation between verse and chorus. Even a record like "Dancing in the Street", which took most of its power from the tension and release caused by spending most of the track on one chord, had the release that came with the line "All we need is music", and could be clearly subdivided into different sections. "I Was Made to Love Her" wasn't like that. There was a tiny section which functioned as a middle eight -- and which cover versions like the one by the Beach Boys later that year tend to cut out, because it disrupts the song's flow: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] But other than that, the song has no verse or chorus, no distinct sections, it's just a series of lyrical couplets over the same four chords, repeating over and over, an incessant groove that could really go on indefinitely: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] This is as close as Motown had come at this point to the new genre of funk, of records that were just staying with one groove throughout. It wasn't a funk record, not yet -- it was still a pop-soul record, But what made it extraordinary was the bass line, and this is why I had to emphasise earlier that this was a record by the Funk Brothers, not the Wrecking Crew, no matter how much some Crew members may claim otherwise. As on most of Cosby's sessions, James Jamerson was given free reign to come up with his own part with little guidance, and what he came up with is extraordinary. This was at a time when rock and pop basslines were becoming a little more mobile, thanks to the influence of Jamerson in Detroit, Brian Wilson in LA, and Paul McCartney in London.  But for the most part, even those bass parts had been fairly straightforward technically -- often inventive, but usually just crotchets and quavers, still keeping rhythm along with the drums rather than in dialogue with them, roaming free rhythmically. Jamerson had started to change his approach, inspired by the change in studio equipment. Motown had upgraded to eight-track recording in 1965, and once he'd become aware of the possibilities, and of the greater prominence that his bass parts could have if they were recorded on their own track, Jamerson had become a much busier player. Jamerson was a jazz musician by inclination, and so would have been very aware of John Coltrane's legendary "sheets of sound", in which Coltrane would play fast arpeggios and scales, in clusters of five and seven notes, usually in semiquaver runs (though sometimes in even smaller fractions -- his solo in Miles Davis' "Straight, No Chaser" is mostly semiquavers but has a short passage in hemidemisemiquavers): [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "Straight, No Chaser"] Jamerson started to adapt the "sheets of sound" style to bass playing, treating the bass almost as a jazz solo instrument -- though unlike Coltrane he was also very, very concerned with creating something that people could tap their feet to. Much like James Brown, Jamerson was taking jazz techniques and repurposing them for dance music. The most notable example of that up to this point had been in the Four Tops' "Bernadette", where there are a few scuffling semiquaver runs thrown in, and which is a much more fluid part than most of his playing previously: [Excerpt: The Four Tops, "Bernadette"] But on "Bernadette", Jamerson had been limited by Holland, Dozier, and Holland, who liked him to improvise but around a framework they created. Cosby, on the other hand, because he had been a Funk Brother himself, was much more aware of the musicians' improvisational abilities, and would largely give them a free hand. This led to a truly remarkable bass part on "I Was Made to Love Her", which is somewhat buried in the single mix, but Marcus Miller did an isolated recreation of the part for the accompanying CD to a book on Jamerson, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and listening to that you can hear just how inventive it is: [Excerpt: Marcus Miller, "I Was Made to Love Her"] This was exciting stuff -- though much less so for the touring musicians who went on the road with the Motown revues while Jamerson largely stayed in Detroit recording. Jamerson's family would later talk about him coming home grumbling because complaints from the touring musicians had been brought to him, and he'd been asked to play less difficult parts so they'd find it easier to replicate them on stage. "I Was Made to Love Her" wouldn't exist without Stevie Wonder, Hank Cosby, Sylvia Moy, or Lula Mae Hardaway, but it's James Jamerson's record through and through: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her"] It went to number two on the charts, sat between "Light My Fire" at number one, and "All You Need is Love" at number three, with the Beatles song soon to overtake it and make number one itself. But within a few weeks of "I Was Made to Love Her" reaching its chart peak, things in Detroit would change irrevocably. On the 23rd of July, the police busted an illegal drinking den. They thought they were only going to get about twenty-five people there, but there turned out to be a big party on. They tried to arrest seventy-four people, but their wagon wouldn't fit them all in so they had to call reinforcements and make the arrestees wait around til more wagons arrived. A crowd of hundreds gathered while they were waiting. Someone threw a brick at a squad car window, a rumour went round that the police had bayonetted someone, and soon the city was in flames. Riots lasted for days, with people burning down and looting businesses, but what really made the situation bad was the police's overreaction. They basically started shooting at young Black men, using them as target practice, and later claiming they were snipers, arsonists, and looters -- but there were cases like the Algiers Motel incident, where the police raided a motel where several Black men, including the members of the soul group The Dramatics, were hiding out along with a few white women. The police sexually assaulted the women, and then killed three of the men for associating with white women, in what was described as a "lynching with bullets". The policemen in question were later acquitted of all charges. The National Guard were called in, as were Federal troops -- the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne from Clarksville, the division in which Jimi Hendrix had recently served. After four days of rioting, one of the bloodiest riots in US history was at an end, with forty-three people dead (of whom thirty-three were Black and only one was a policeman). Official counts had 1,189 people injured, and over 7,200 arrests, almost all of them of Black people. A lot of the histories written later say that Black-owned businesses were spared during the riots, but that wasn't really the case. For example, Joe's Record Shop, owned by Joe Von Battle, who had put out the first records by C.L. Franklin and his daughter Aretha, was burned down, destroying not only the stock of records for sale but the master tapes of hundreds of recordings of Black artists, many of them unreleased and so now lost forever. John Lee Hooker, one of the artists whose music Von Battle had released, soon put out a song, "The Motor City is Burning", about the events: [Excerpt: John Lee Hooker, "The Motor City is Burning"] But one business that did remain unburned was Motown, with the Hitsville studio going untouched by flames and unlooted. Motown legend has this being down to the rioters showing respect for the studio that had done so much for Detroit, but it seems likely to have just been luck. Although Motown wasn't completely unscathed -- a National Guard tank fired a shell through the building, leaving a gigantic hole, which Berry Gordy saw as soon as he got back from a business trip he'd been on during the rioting. That was what made Berry Gordy decide once and for all that things needed to change. Motown owned a whole row of houses near the studio, which they used as additional office space and for everything other than the core business of making records. Gordy immediately started to sell them, and move the admin work into temporary rented space. He hadn't announced it yet, and it would be a few years before the move was complete, but from that moment on, the die was cast. Motown was going to leave Detroit and move to Hollywood.

Gaming hosts Paul, Michael and Josh are bringing you a can't miss episode. Don't let the title fool you, 2017 was a pretty amazing year for gaming overall, but it brought on the birth of Battle Royales along with a plethora of other gaming entries. We chat about them all, from pivotal games, to just some of our favorites in this incredible episode!  Thanks to our LEGENDARY supporters: MarbleMadness, Dr. Catatonic, Blackstar (DQ), Glapsuidir, Phelps, Michele B, Redletter, Nevo, Waynerman, TFolls, AceofShame, Jake, RangerMiller, and Ad Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/multiplayerpodcast Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/multiplayerpod/ Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/MultiplayerPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q Visit us on the web: multiplayerpodcast.com/

"If you would have told me ten years ago that the most entertaining video games — the most exciting video games, the ones that I like to play the most — would be absolutely free of charge to play, I would have called you a liar."

Will is flying solo again this week, so prepare for a pretty quick and efficient ep hahaha! Listen as topics range from blown pecs and cell matches, reactions to bookings in AEW, and WWE. Wild fantasy DEBUTS COME TRUE and so so much more!! Oh YEAH!! NEW BELT ALERT! Its a doozy, but give it a listen and tell your friends, family, enemies, managers, HELL ANYONE! To like, sub, and follow us everywhere!   FB: @post2post_wrestling Twitter: @post2post_podcast IG: @post_wrestling Email: p2pwrestling@gmail.com

Mike is back this week to talk with Kevin and Clintus about why battle royale games have a stigma, Season 3 of Love, Death & Robots, and more!Gaming Community Expo '22 tickets and information:https://gcxevent.comLove Coffee? Check out Kings Coast Coffee Co.:https://kingscoast.coffee/Join the Loot Pool:https://patreon.com/raredropVisit us at:https://raredrop.co/Watch the streams:https://twitch.tv/RareDrophttps://twitch.tv/OldFashionedPodcasthttps://twitch.tv/ClintusFollow them on Twitter:https://twitter.com/kevinxvisionhttps://twitter.com/metric_methodzhttps://twitter.com/Clintushttps://twitter.com/OldFashionPodhttps://twitter.com/RareDropCo

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durée : 00:54:17 - Miles Davis - par : Alex Dutilh - Deux enregistrements inédits de deux quintets successifs de Miles Davis à Stockholm, en 1967 et 1969, c'est un évènement ! La charnière entre la fin d'un monde acoustique et le changement de cap vers les sons électriques. Sortie chez ezz-thetics. - réalisé par : Fabien Fleurat

Now that the class on Keanu Reeves is concluded, it's time to move on to our next subject: Samuel L. Jackson. This week, The Junkies go deep into one of the beloved actor's most iconic roles: that of spiritual hitman Jules Winnfield in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Sure, this movie is the source of numerous memes, but more than that, it's a surprisingly deep look at revenge, redemption, and Royales with cheese. The Junkies discuss the use of language, drug use and casual violence in the movie, and how those same characters in the movie also have philosophical conversations about everything from foot massages to miracles. After that, The Junkies try to figure out what's in the briefcase, fancast a modern remake of the movie with Zac Efron or Robert Pattinson (one of those guys), and try to guess what the L stands for in Samuel L. Jackson. Hint: it's not Love. Don't be a rectangle – listen now!You can get ready for the next class by watching Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft (2000).Thank you to Olympus Games, the home of the Pop Culture Junkie Podcast.Links:Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pop-culture-junkie/id1536737728Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/7k2pUxzNDBXNCHzFM7EL8WWebsite: www.popculturejunkie.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/PopCultureJunkiePodcastTwitter: @PopJunkiesInstagram: @pop.culturejunkiesEmail: junkies@popculturejunkie.comAlex on Instagram: @alcasnunAlex on Twitter: @alcasnunHayley on Instagram: @thirtynerdythrivingNicole on Instagram: @nicole_eldridgeNicole on Twitter: @naeldridge14Nicole on TikTok: @nicole_eldridgeShauna on Twitter: @shaunatrinidadShauna on Instagram: @shaunatrinidad

Less than 500k monthly active users on OpenSeaInstagram - 545 million, Discord, 121 million, Candy Crush 119 million, per Most Popular Apps (2022)  One big driver for NFT growth will be Coinbase's new NFT platform, they currently have 3.7 Million users on the waiting list. Value of all digital art estimated at $2.8 billionAll art (mostly physical art) volume last year: $65 billion CryptoArt.io , All Art Sales  Over 4 million on waitlist for the “coming soon” coinbase marketplace Early-adopter stage Affordable project: Illuvium https://medium.com/illuvium/illuvium-dev-blog-march-2022-c782348b031  NFT NewsUS government connects North Korean hacking group with last month's $600 million Ronin exploit  Coinbase Is Creating A Three-Part Bored Ape Yacht Club Film Series Lego x Epic Games Partner To Make The Metaverse Child Friendly NFT News: Under Armour Files Trademarks to Enter the Metaverse - DraftKings Nation    Past project updates:  The Red Village is running tournaments, Pegaxy just introduced a fascinating burn mechanic      Project:   Transcript [00:00:00] Today on all about affordable NFTs. How big is the NFT market? The answer 47. No, [00:00:09] that's not exactly. I think the spot on. Yeah. Good to talk to again, George. [00:00:16] Yeah. So we're going to cover some news. We're going to cover some projects. We'll probably remember to do all of those things inside of here, but just to start, we've got little oh, here, the us government connects North Korea hacking group with last month, 600 million Ronan exploit. [00:00:34] As you remember, Ronin is the the currency under lying, the Axiom infinity game along with SLP, which is the earned revenue. There was a problem in there where frankly, they got us for all of their ethos that people were holding. They're going to be made whole because there's a lot of money floating around. [00:00:54] So I don't know if there's anything else on this interesting North Korea. Yeah. [00:00:57] There had been some rumors that it was probably a state actor around the time, just because there was so little information coming out about it. And 600 million is kind of a large number to not, to have a lot more discussion around. [00:01:11] So not too surprising if if you had kind of read some of that, the Lazarus group they'd been known crypto hackers in the past. So. You know, interesting. There's about 450 million tied to one address specifically unclear where the other, I don't know, 150 million or so is all right. Well, anyway, let's see, we've got the next bit of news here. [00:01:35] We've got news of Coinbase NFTs. Cool. It sounds like Coinbase in a P is coming out. Right, George, [00:01:41] stop it. You're you keep teasing me with this and I'm done. I'm done with it. It's never going to happen. Not going to. Never gonna make it. [00:01:49] So they've got a three-part. Film series coming out with the board API club. [00:01:54] They did, they announced this didn't seem to be huge news in the board. Ape world is bigger news in the Coinbase world. Interestingly in quick days, it did slip in there that their NFT marketplace is coming very, very soon. So, you know, they have a different scale than some of us. But you know, maybe that who knows what that means, but they are, they're at least finding a way to put themselves in the conversation with board apes at this point. [00:02:23] Yeah. I mean, they've got the wallet app, which I think is actually much bigger than folks realize because it's tied to the mobile. And it's tied to your ability, frankly, one of the best and easiest on-ramps for turn and Fiat into crypto at, at low costs and low friction. And you know, even knowing what I know, I still use the Coinbase to my private wallet, you know, conveyor belt. [00:02:51] What do you use actually to get your, to get Fiat's or are you just no longer. Moving stuff that way [00:02:58] yet. I haven't done that in awhile. Move Fiat to crypto. Got a, got a good, a good amount of crypto at this point and move around and crypto much more often. But that is a good point though, that, that they do have that wallet. [00:03:13] And they do have a very long pave and see that you've just made a note. They have a very long waiting list for their NFT marketplace and heard it's as big as 4 million people at this point. So you know, they, and the Coinbase NFT marketplace, I believe it will. Some point, you know, it is becoming a running joke around you know, around the NFG world of, because it has been such a long time and especially as fast as things move in in crypto world. [00:03:45] Yeah. Well, I I'm not holding my breath and I'm moving, I'm moving on from, from hopes to sort of make making other other plans. When it comes, hopefully it'll move the market because that's a lot of people that enter into it. Once you get an idea of how big the NFT market is and isn't we'll get into that a little bit more later on in the episode. [00:04:07] Next step, next story we've got here. We've got Lego coming into the metaverse. They've partnered with epic games and they are looking to make a child friendly. Metaverse you know, so I think this will be more in line with I'm not sure if it, it roadblocks or The other one craft Minecraft. [00:04:29] That's actually the one that I'm more familiar with, they know, but there, and I think from what I know, a Minecraft is much more actually kid safe than roadblocks is as a platform. So I'm sure they see that and see an opportunity. They're so interesting that they are getting into this Lego. [00:04:46] Does, you know, it seems like it would work with a lot of the the Minecraft style of building with blocks. They could use. You know, use a Lego like block to, to build in the world and partnering with epic certainly gives them a, a big leg up again, getting started here. [00:05:05] Yeah. Well, we'll see you know, talking about this next generation of just fully normalized to ownership and creation in on online ecosystems. [00:05:16] I actually liked that partnership. I like that. Groups like that, getting together as opposed to saying like, yeah, let's trust mark Zuckerberg with our, with our kids in the metaverse, which is not the first line I'd maybe go for and in, in my bed. [00:05:30] Yeah, absolutely. You know, I do think that like has has a good reputation and we'll work to uphold that you know, with a metaverse that is actually safe for kids. [00:05:43] Yeah. I mean, in epic games, obviously that's the creator behind 14. Which, you know, say what you will like it's guns and whatnot, but they have really brought the multiplayer battle Royales to the foreground. And also I respect the heck out of that massive donation in aid to Ukraine the other month, like totally, I think it was over 80 million. [00:06:02] So hats off and respect. They know how to manage youth in an ecosystem on. [00:06:08] Absolutely. All right. One more news item here. We've got another company entering the metaverse and other, a fashion apparel company under armor. This time I, a gear I'd say, but a Nike Adidas. And now under armor, all very active or sorry, Nike. [00:06:28] Adidas are already very active in NFTs and the metaverse and now we're seeing under armor also getting into the space. So, you know, as we've been saying, you know, I think this is just going to become, every company has some sort of metaverse play at some point and it won't be such news, but you know, at this point we're still, you know, I think it is still somewhat headline grabbing when when these companies do make plans [00:06:51] yeah. [00:06:52] In this Tweet. And here the Nike recently now 6.7 million Robox roadblocks players had visited the virtual Nike land store talking about attention. And you're talking about attention in these digital ecosystems. So brands are definitely waking up cause they realize where the next generation of consumers are spending time and might be making. [00:07:15] All right. Well, let's move on to our affordable project. George, you've got another one for us today. And what do you have? [00:07:23] So for change, it's not soccer. How about that? [00:07:28] Well, wait, so it's gotta be a stable, stable base game, right? [00:07:33] Kind of, but no, not even as the Lindsay's. I've been watching and you've probably heard this before. [00:07:39] Alluvium for, for awhile. It's kinda like then in, you know, I got a lot of stuff on the site in the side view Ramir but essentially, you know, I can dedicate like many, many hours to the lore of what's being built around Eluvia, but they have technically not launched as a full game. They are going to be a think of it as what the next. [00:08:00] Brand of Pokemon will be in the metaverse and that's most exciting implementation. And they've got a tremendous discord. Right now they don't have anything in the NFTE land that frankly I would be getting into, but they do have a token and it's that sort of dangerous game of token defense. The the game, but you know, right now, just looking at the overall just size internally, they've got I believe something like, you know, 42,000 folks on YouTube, 290,000 on Twitter, and then what they called survivors 190, 4,000 in there. [00:08:42] So they've been under development for a while now, the sort of reason I'm bringing it up now they've got Eluvia island, V I L V. Total. And, you know, you, you can look at the price and move around, but I think the play right now is to potentially look at getting in at whatever your size is for some of that Eluvia token. [00:09:02] Cause they have just launched they're staking V2. And so they're staking V2. Earn yield on that, but also sort of, kind of be ready once. Once the play starts watching and they've got a, a game launcher that's going to come, it's gonna be a desktop downloader, and they've got some amazing graphics and art here. [00:09:22] They have a fully doxed team. And they've just, they've been building for a very long time. Look the risks of this, as I've said before, like, you know, when game and you're sort of play this game of like waiting and. But I'll tell you a good time to get in. It's like a team that can execute and finally does launch will, and they do sort of hit part of this, like be able to capitalize on a community, ready to go and look, there's going to be the next Pokemon, the next branded, catch them, breed them, interact in this multi game world. [00:09:55] They've got all of the game dynamics really planned out and it's. There's going to be a winner. I don't know if it's this one or not, but it's something that I'm kind of watching the side. What do you see about alluvium from, from where? See. [00:10:07] So I've heard this one talked about a lot and you know, I think he gets, I don't know if it's getting a lot of attention, but it's certainly getting mentioned in a lot of NFT circles looking they're looking ahead to what's coming. [00:10:21] I, like you said, there's not a ton there for NFTs at this point. So it is kind of playing on the future. That being said, I think it is somewhat overlooked at this point. And you know, if they are able to. You know, to, to make this work, even if it's, you know, I think you have to be, you have to be wary that any of these games are going to run into the same problems as, as we've seen over and over that, they're going to go through a, a good cycle and then maybe run into problems. [00:10:50] But I think. If you're aware of that cycle, there is an opportunity here. You know, it would be, I would, if the price does increase by a lot, I would definitely look to maybe at least a move you know, move the original investment out and, you know, then if you are looking to hold long-term you know, that would be the way that. [00:11:13] Would look to play this kind of one. [00:11:16] Yeah. And they've got some tremendous marketing goals, such as like Guinness book record for largest pot for a game played, but they've got the sign up for the auto Bandler private beta right now. But there's sort of testing and getting an idea of what's going on. [00:11:31] So it may be a period of time where the price is low interest is kind of at a, at a point that might make sense to test it out and take a look to see if this might. Something that that takes hold, but obviously, yeah, like there's nothing better than playing with the house's money kind of building on that. [00:11:48] I had some other updates that I wanted to throw out there of past projects. One, the red village, they are running active tournaments and I have been playing in them. I've been winning with some of them. I've got a nice guy. He's got like a 50% win rate. He's a little drunk. It was an R for my R one is not performing very well. [00:12:07] Mary wind Claus, just saying interesting. I don't know. She's she's just not achieving like, like prior, so I got a Druid doing it and it's actually, you know, it's, I'm, I'm, I'm really excited for them because I feel like I've watched their sort of story unfold for a number of months. But it's, it's That's actually working. [00:12:24] It's actually fun. The other one is Pegasi back to stables. He knew I was going to, I didn't talk about soccer stables. So here we go. I guess they have a super fascinating burn mechanics. So this has been the wildest ride. I think I've ever been on for. Peak value and then peak crash. Like it was so aggressive because of the, [00:12:49] and you own dose. [00:12:51] So I think that's really saying something [00:12:53] I've written some waves I've written. Yeah. And I owned a fish. So that's thanks for disclosing. That's great. Sorry, [00:13:02] is that a, was that not? [00:13:03] I at least I at least took my initial. I follow my own rule. Take the initial investment outside. I did something smart there, but there's a different universe where I made a lot more money, but I still believe in dovish. [00:13:14] I'm a. Anyway what happened with Pegasi is they sort of ran up in the price for the, the base currency and then which is called biz. If you want to track it and you can kind of look at a story and it was like crash. So it was up at like 25 cents. And then I was like down at like 0.04 cents. [00:13:34] So pretty, pretty epic bottom falling out, which is just the nature of play to earn games that expand and breeding. Right? If the breeding is increased, you can see it every single time that effectively there's no other side of the market and re reason to keep it. What they have done is reasonably rollout and they did this on April 14th. [00:13:53] So it's been a little while. So it'd be interesting to take a look at where the market is, have created a burn mechanic for general Pega. So the base peg is. The Pacers that you have to burn to and admins to get a epic and to get a rare, to get a legendary. So they have this sort of, you have to burn more, to get more into a higher tier. [00:14:12] That'll let you earn more. So they've actually sort of rearchitected the whole way that the token will be earned and it sort of is going to neutralize this like massive breeding problem that happened where the proliferation of. Very low tier horse. Peggy's got introduced into the market, so I'm optimistic and it might be interesting if you kind of heard me talking about it and take a look at like this inflection point where things are at the Flory, Flory, McPherson, and seeing what's going on there. [00:14:43] And one of the tactics might be I'm looking at. Looking at undervalued founding. So, you know, remember the don't buy what you can breed founding and, or potentially the the legendary, which are now are of higher value because they can earn a heck of a lot more than the other ones. So I'm very curious, it's a team that develops and does stuff, but you know, nothing, nothing like seeing dynamics play out right in your backyard and saying hope that works. [00:15:11] All right, Andrew, how big is the NFT market go? [00:15:17] All right. Well, not very, I would say overall, there we go. Seven. Okay. Oh good. Todd. You know, this was something that I've, I dunno, it came up. It came up recently when I was looking at I guess it was on Twitter and someone was talking about how they're at an NFT event and asking others if they knew how many active users were on, on open sea. [00:15:40] And, you know, at this point, you know, everybody seemed to be way off and, you know, there's about 500,000 active monthly users on an open seat. And to put that in some perspective, Instagram has 400 and 545 million monthly active users discord as 121 million. So when you think about the fact that, you know, every NFT project seems to have a discourse. [00:16:06] Yeah at most you know, maybe there could even be double if people aren't actively trading, but even if there's a million NFT holder using discord, there, it means there's another 120 million using discord that aren't NFT that they're, aren't using open C on a monthly basis. So this is, you know, it really puts it in perspective how few people. [00:16:25] Actively trading NFTs on a monthly basis. And I think that's, it's really important to consider here. You know, there's a lot of talk like, is it over? Is it I shouldn't say a lot of times there's always discussion of, you know, with new, with new technologies of whether, you know, the bubble has been burst, whether, you know, it's, it's all over, whether it was just a fad. [00:16:44] And I think, you know, when you looked at this, we're seeing that the numbers are growing, but it's still. It's still quite small. You know, at 500,000 users we're talking about, you know, more like a, you know, a relatively successful iPhone app or mobile app of some sort you know, that's, that's what the numbers are at this point. [00:17:05] And granted, you know, Things that have, you know, you have to actually be spending to be an active user, but that's, you know, that's, that's not that hard. Once people get into the crypto the crypto crypto world and have their wallet ready to, to move some crypto around and into NFTs. [00:17:25] Yeah. Something like the total active. [00:17:28] So you're, I think you're, you're right to look at like monthly active, cause there's like people that maybe got dropped one thing and then like left it alone and like ran away. But it's like anywhere from a million to 1.4 million, but in terms of active wallets, it is so, so small that, yeah, like when we were talking about how like, yeah, the liquidity could be pulled out by one project, because by the way, there's, there's only half a million of us running around with E doing this sort of thing, which you know, is a good reminder that this is still very, very new in terms of an adopted technical. [00:18:04] But yeah, there's definitely hype. There's definitely gonna be pullbacks, but I get to say, like, when I hear from, you know, different people in various podcasts and interviews of like how, when they first realized that this is the ownership layer of the web and how excited they got and how they found these communities, it is a type of excitement that I just don't see, like going away. [00:18:28] So it's very sticky for the people that get into it and enjoy it. And it kind of like pulls people in, in the same way. I'd say that like it's apt to compare it to a social media platform where it is it's an experience is improved by the, the you know, end of number of nodes in it, right. Extra people in it create extra value. [00:18:53] And it accrues in that way. In the same way, I think is true for a lot of these discords and NFT. So there is a, a virality, a K factor here that is positive and seems to be trending up. Though they're going to certainly be dips along the way, but you know, it's hard to argue like the run-up that you saw in 2021, continuing, but I think it can easily be done when you look at again, 3.7 now 4 million, like people on a waiting list. [00:19:22] On, you know, [00:19:25] the thing I said, the waiting list, the waiting list is now about eight times the size of the number of monthly active users on open. See, that's, that's, that's a lot of people that are waiting to that. And if half of [00:19:37] them fall into a coma and say, I don't feel like it, that's still four times the amount of monthly active you four times the amount. [00:19:47] Not necessarily maybe liquidity, but certainly individual purchasing, which gives me more hope for some of those longer tail projects. Right? If the folks that were interested in buying the, like the top tens, like, oh, I've got to get my Zuki. I have to get my board ape. Like they would have already done it. [00:20:05] I think this is much more about the retail interest of getting into entities in a safe, vetted way. That is not the wild west of openings. [00:20:13] Yeah. I mean, I think there is, I mean, I think there are a lot of people that will actually end up on open C after trying out maybe Coinbase and empty, you know, we've seen this happen in the past that you know, it can lead people to to other platforms. [00:20:28] But certainly having a I don't know, a safer platform to try it out on initially. We'll make it a little. Easier for people to at least take that first step and understand what it means to own an NFT. And like you said, once you do own it and understand the, the ownership and the, how that plays in. [00:20:47] And I think it's so much easier to understand by actually interacting with these. So, you know, I, I do think that Coinbase we'll have we'll have. They big marketplace and a big effect, but I think it will also bring people into the space or into open sea and into some of these other more decentralized, not that open seat is, but these other marketplaces that are maybe not custody such as nifty gateway or Coinbase and make people more willing to try these out after they've had the experience of actually owning one of these in a safe environment. [00:21:20] Yeah. I mean, obviously. Super cost-prohibitive. So on the contrary to this, like the MCOMP to saying like, look at Instagram, it's viral. Look at like candy crush is 119 million people. Like frankly, the starting point for NFTs is, can be embarrassingly high for certain projects. However, you know, Solano got listed. [00:21:42] I am the first one to say I'm not a huge fan of the salon ecosystem, but as. Projects of higher quality jump onto that platform, you know, like, yeah, you're going to be able to get in quite easily for like under a hundred bucks and play a different type of game and interact there. And so it'll be really you know, it'll be exciting when it happens and we'll do an emergency podcast and say, oh my gosh, it's happening. [00:22:06] We have another note in here though, around the total value. So it's like a different way of measuring the NFE market. We're talking about. But how do you look at the sort of value quote, unquote of, [00:22:19] yeah, you're right. This is, so this is another way of looking at it and this is. Specific to crypto art, digital art, and not necessarily NMT collections, but crypto art.io is a site that tracks NFT art and they value. [00:22:34] They have an estimate of about 2.8 billion for all of. All of digital crypto art. I'm not that sold last year. Just the total value. So the, just to put that one in perspective, the volume for traditional R for all art last year, including digital was 65 billion. So. We would have seen, let's see, almost 22 weeks or so. [00:23:03] The, we would had to seek a 22 X the turnover of all of the digital art for it to equate to that much. So there's just a very small amount. That's whoa, a small amount of art, but also a very small amount of value that's currently on on the blockchain and in NFT art. So I think that we're going to start seeing that change. [00:23:22] I think there's going to be a lot of traditional. Art collectors and art institutions that are moving into crypto in the future. You know, especially as more as more users come in, you know, it becomes a I don't know, any more meaningful piece to hold. And, you know, as you said, that's when the. [00:23:41] Inflection point in the metaverse will be when these digital goods become more meaningful and more, and therefore more valuable to us than a physical goods. And I think that's what we will see with some of these physical arts are these digital arts over time. [00:23:55] I just don't see how that isn't the future of this. [00:24:00] And it's weird. Cause I, I sometimes have to like look for alternative narratives to be like, oh, all of this is going to blow away. Like the wind. It's not going to say. No, I'm not going to save that thing. That by the way, has to sit in a warehouse or behind a screen that you can't ever see, but it sits over there as opposed to like my ability to use this in the metaverse use this in the real, like, I can put it up on a screen here and be like, Hey, here's my art. [00:24:24] I mean, I went over to the other day. I saw your art rotating the wall, and I'm like, I'm very jealous. I'm going to get one of those things, but I'm gonna get the next version that gives me a little more. [00:24:31] Oh, no, [00:24:33] I'm going to get the V2 can get the V2, but I just, I think just to come back to it this is the early adopter stage. [00:24:41] If you look at adoption cycles, we're in a micro height moment, let's just be very clear, like we're in a hype moment, 90, 95% of, if you look at the top 100 projects gone, go away. If you, if you look for the next five years, will they still be around? And that however, I think in the overall market and then in playing into it saying like, this is something you have to pay attention to. [00:25:05] And that's what gets me excited about this. And, you know, it's why I got fired up to do this podcast because I think this forces me to do the research and pay attention to it and also stay with it because there's, I will, I will say weeks where I'm kind of frustrated at decisions I've made quite a bit. [00:25:22] And like, that's the other thing it's like, it really stings. Like when you, you know, you buy a dud horse and you're like, why did I do that? [00:25:28] Great. I mean, if you think about the fact that anyone can. Yeah, can basically try to sell at any point. And, you know, even in these companies that are, you know, these, these projects that are trying to build something early, you know, it would be akin to someone saying, yes, I'm ready to invest in a, you know, at a seed round. [00:25:45] And then maybe two weeks later saying, you know what, as it moved fast enough, I'm ready to sell. And that would be, you know, that'd be kind of crazy. Kind of what we're working with in NFTs. So we haven't really had this sort of liquidity to a marketplace you know, and all of these different projects trying to do so many different things at the same time. [00:26:06] You know, I don't know that there's an apt comparison to look at for for what we're seeing in NFTs. Right. [00:26:12] I, I struggle, you know, you have to kind of cobble together a bunch to get there, but you know, also saying like, okay, if you're an early adopter, early adopter phase or about to go through a bit of a trough and a pullback fine. [00:26:24] But long-term like, where are we now versus where is it going to be? You know, you hear me talking about games non-stop and like trying to, you know, guess on soccer, but the smartest thing. Recently is kind of picking up on your lead of, of looking at capital a art versus PFPs things that are created by artists that are really defining the art movement of this time. [00:26:47] Like I'm still very much long on that. And I think they're, they're getting overlooked. They truly are. I'm really excited. I picked up a Sarah Zucker piece from that Ash chapter two and I also picked up And so, you know, I'm, I'm pretty pretty happy about both and holding on to both for a little while. [00:27:09] And it's because I know they're going to continue to create. And I think that there's like a moment in time where certainly, maybe it goes up and down, but longterm it sort of epitomizes like a type of artists at that at a moment right now that I hope that like one I'd want to display it. It's. And, and to sort of survive. [00:27:29] They're like, oh, it's not part of this PFP project that the community went away. Like the community is people that identify this as art created by an artist in this moment, that is a typical of a style and format that was Sarah this time. [00:27:43] Yeah, I think that's, yeah, that's great. I mean, those are two artists that have definitely shown dedication to their work and. [00:27:50] I think he can be pretty comfortable knowing that they will be around here, be around in the space. Interesting. Interesting to note the dead fellows artist is also a female seat. So we invested in two of the more well-known females in the in this face. So [00:28:08] you're [00:28:09] given a little hint on our next our next step. [00:28:12] I want to give way too much alpha. Don't want to get. [00:28:14] All right. So how big is the NFTE market? Keep in mind, very early 500,000. They'll you'll see like numbers, like a million, but monthly active users. What we care about, people throwing things around and a lot more to come. Obviously when, when Coinbase is the elephant in the room, but it continues. [00:28:31] Yeah. If you were, [00:28:32] if you were in and if these at all right now, you were early in the space and well ahead of many others, and there's a lot left to come, I would say. So feel free to hop in our discord. We encourage you to up in our discourse yet [00:28:44] it have some projects. Stop me from continuing to find horse, horse related. [00:28:48] If you have, honestly, if you can find something that relates to horses and playing soccer or something, please bring it to versus playing [00:28:56] soccer. You immediately get in our discord at three NFT and you bring that to me right now.  

War In Ukraine Threatens Global Food Security, Likely To Exacerbate Food Emergencies Among Vulnerable Populations   According to reporting from The New York Times, the war in Ukraine threatens global food security on a large scale. Ukraine and Russia together account for nearly 30% of the global wheat supply and serve as a vital supplier of fertilizer, grain, barley, sunflower oil, and many other basic food staples. In addition to food security challenges within Ukraine, already vulnerable countries in the Middle East and North Africa (countries especially reliant on exported foodstuffs from the war-torn region) find themselves in an increasingly precarious situation. Over half of the World Food Programme's wheat comes from Ukraine, and emergency food programs in Yemen and other African countries may be forced to prioritize the starving over the hungry. Compounded by sky-high global food prices, supply chain issues, regional conflict, and natural disasters like drought, many food-insecure countries may end up in large-scale food emergencies as the war continues. Read more ➝     NGOs, Nonprofits, Governments, International Organizations & Citizen Journalists Come Together To Document War Crimes In Ukraine In an unusual alliance across many different actors, a multitude of organizations and outlets are working tirelessly to document war crimes in Ukraine. Human Rights Watch, an international human rights watchdog group and nonprofit with international headquarters in New York City, has launched a full-scale investigation into war crimes amidst newly reported revelations in Bucha, Ukraine. Large-scale citizen journalism efforts, including those produced by investigative journalism outlet Bellingcat will be essential to efforts to prosecute war crimes in international bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC). Amnesty International's Crisis Evidence Lab is one of many more NGOs documenting crimes. (Content Warning: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch's reporting includes specific details of war crimes and indiscriminate violence against civilians and may be disturbing to readers.) Read more ➝   Summary Fortnite finishes two-week donation period with $144M for Ukraine | Shacknews In A David Versus Goliath Battle Between NGOs And A Pipeline Company, Goliath Is Losing  | Forbes Taxpayer First Act Expands Mandatory E-Filing of Form 990  | The NonProfit Times Nonprofit Hits Milestone Protecting More Than a Million Acres of Rainforest So Far This Year – All With Public Donations | Good News Network   Transcript: [00:00:00] This week on the nonprofit newsfeed, we are talking about the second order effects of the war in Ukraine, as well as how nonprofits and international organizations working with journalism's are working on documentation of the war crimes and terrible stories coming out of this crisis. [00:00:17] Yeah, George, that's a great introduction. Our first story is about global food security and how the war and is. Threatening to exacerbate food emergencies across the world. So according to reporting from the New York times, the on Ukraine is threatening global food security on a large scale Ukraine and Russia together account for nearly [00:00:38] 30% of the global wheat supply and serve as a vital supplier of things like fertilizer, grain, barley, sunflower oil, and other basic food staples that are essential to the global food infrastructure. In addition to food security challenge. Within Ukraine that is now a food insecure country, already vulnerable communities across the globe, particularly in the middle east and north Africa are finding themselves in an increasingly precarious situation. The world food program estimates that over half of its wheat comes from Ukraine and in an interview the director of the, the world food program said that. [00:01:20] And emergency situations and Yemen, humanitarian organizations are being forced to prioritized the starving over the hungry compounded by sky high global food prices, [00:01:33] supply chain issues, the rising price of oil and gasoline, regional conflict, and even natural disasters. Many food insecure countries. That are currently facing problems because of the war in Ukraine, maybe facing large scale food emergencies as the war continues. And it seems like The downstream effects of this war could have wringing implications for months to come. And I think this is vitally important that we sound the alarm on because it's one of those things that's less visible. It's less flashy than a war, but could have serious, serious humanitarian implications. [00:02:12] The report also talks about these other contributing factors and the big one being involved. For example, in east Africa. Where they're saying that just, you know, due to droughts there, that they're just simply not keeping up with the amount of food and the shortage of food. And in and around Kenya actually led to like 1.5 million livestock being, being killed. [00:02:38] So, you know, It just, it adds up, but one of the things is looking at a problem before it happens. I think we're starting to see some reporting around that, but it's something that, you know, non-profits in journalism working on it to say like, Hey, you know, this is going to be a huge problem. If things. Planted right now on top of that, you look at potential impacts on farmers due to inflation, not wanting to overinvest in that huge capital outlay. [00:03:04] And it may be more than just capital markets, which find efficiencies, but actually like humanitarian markets saying that, no, literally we know it may not be profitable for you to plant, you know, twice as much wheat, but we kind of need it where you can get it. [00:03:19] Absolutely. Yesterday the episode of the daily from the New York times was about this very issue. And the lead journalist on that story was from reporting from Brazil, where the Brazilian government as been for us to be extremely proactive because the majority of their fertilizer comes from the region and advising farmers [00:03:41] that they are going to have to start potentially rationing, rationing fertilizer. So exactly to your point, the economics of this get really complex. [00:03:48] It's disturbing to read a line such as the prioritization of starving over the hungry. It's a type of global triaged that just felt like unimaginable five years ago, because we produced technically as, you know, a globe more food. And it was more about the distribution, right? The problem of last mile. How do we make sure that this bit of grain makes it to. [00:04:12] Final person on the ground and it was just resource allocation and now potentially a scarcity of resource. [00:04:17] Yeah. that's a good point. And it makes the, the downstream effects of that of of course are tragic, but focusing more on what's happening in Ukraine itself over the weekend, there's been outcry over videos and images showing. Just absolutely horrific war crimes and violence against civilians in the surrounding areas. [00:04:41] The suburbs of Kiev and the story here is that NGOs non-profits governments, international organizations, and even citizen journalists are teaming up. And creating a sort of Alliance to try to document these war crimes, which will be really important. So the, the story here focuses on human rights watch, which is an international human rights watchdog. [00:05:05] They're a non-profit they're headquartered out of New York city. They've launched a full scale investigation into war crimes. There's also large-scale citizen journalism efforts, including those produced by investigative journalists, journalism, outcast outlet, belling, cat. And these are going to be essential to documenting these crimes and attempting to prosecute them and international bodies like the international criminal court. Amnesty international also has a crisis evidence, lab, lots of different nonprofits and NGOs are stepping up to fill the void here because if you're prosecuting crimes, many of which are just almost too horrific to talk about on this podcast. You need evidence and it's very clear that the nonprofit, NGO community and civil society community, not even just internationally, but within Ukraine itself are stepping up to try to document these crimes. T to bring justice to the perpetrator. [00:06:02] Yeah. I mean, it's kind of weird maybe to talk about the laws of war. However, there are laws of war which prohibit willful killing, rape, and other sexual violence, torture, inhumane treatment, capture combatants and civilians in custody, pillage and looting. And, you know, frankly it's needs to be recorded. [00:06:23] And I think one of the things that we're watching is the most documented and recorded war in known history. And you know, is to say that you have a lot, a lot more eyes on this and a lot more technology distributed into the hands of the people who are living this nightmare in a, in a way that. Just not been seen before. [00:06:48] And, you know, it leads to, you know, we put a content warning on this that leads to a lot of intense reporting and then live sort of alleged it, which I think is important because there is there is a propaganda game also going on right now. Make no mistake. There are narratives that all of the parties involved are trying to push and support with documentations. [00:07:11] It's extra important that you've got verifying bodies such as the amnesty International's and human rights watches that can truly verify that like, this is, you know, this is not about helping Ukraine in ratchet up sanctions against Russia in the moment, but rather documentation of, of what's actually going on, which, which is, which is tough. [00:07:36] Yeah. [00:07:37] I think that's true. And when you dig into this. If You read some of these articles, I think you'll find that doing this is actually quite challenging. It's quite challenging to prove that a photo or video was [00:07:48] taken where, and when it is purported to have been taken. And it looks like this conflict is one of the first conflicts where there's apparatuses in place. Do kind of. Document that material in a legally sound way. [00:08:07] I mean, obviously you can't just like snap a shot of your photo. Like, what does that actually mean, do you know how that works ? [00:08:12] There's so not to get too nerdy into [00:08:16] No, I'll go nerdy. I asked it, I called it. [00:08:19] There, from what I remember there's a protocol, a 2020 protocol. So kind of like guidelines produced by , one of the universities out of California, Berkeley [00:08:30] UCLA, or something like that.. [00:08:32] And it outlines a process of due diligence for proving that this. A van tap in somewhere and it's kind of like a roadmap and actually the journalism outlet here Bellingcat is very well-regarded within this, this space. And they also have really, really rigid processes and documentation for how you have to verify essentially photos. They. Whether it's Google maps, they're using satellite imagery, video timestamps. [00:09:02] There's lots of different things. And it goes through lots of different review. Unfortunately, academics think that even with all that, it's still may have a hard time standing up and in front of an international court, like the ICC, but it's really interesting. And I think this is one of the ways that tech is filling a void in a way that it never has before. When it comes to potential. Producing evidence of war crimes in this way. it's it's really as, as tragic as it is. It's really interesting to see how tech is being used in this, in this. [00:09:36] I feel that it can feel like you're wait a minute. Like, how is this helping the moment? And you're like, how can you be documenting something during your presentation? You know, getting out there and just raising what you can to, to help support refugees and whatnot. What's important is to take the long view and to make sure that there is a established and enforced global policy of what is socially at a global level acceptable. [00:10:04] One of the things that has to be done is what is the true impact of this long-term because guess what? This is not the last time. Some, you know, somebody believes they're their, their destiny is to, is to acquire land once held long ago. If you go. You know, it, it was all held by the dinosaurs and they should launch an attack. [00:10:24] So how do you make it so that the global theater looks at this punish as it documents it and make sure that that is brought into the calculus of doing this the next time, which is a terrible thing to say, but the work of doing this right now is so important when you look back because it will build into the potential global deterring, bombing your neighbors. [00:10:46] So. [00:10:47] Absolutely. And when you look at the history of this, it really stems from the Nuremberg trials in which the team of lawyers with frankly, no jurisdiction had to make claims saying that these crimes were So. [00:11:02] atrocious, that it requires something beyond what any single country's judicial system could offer. To your point. It's so important that we have this, and of course it's not perfect. It's far from perfect. But every chance we get to document these crimes will be one more deterrent against them happening in the future. [00:11:22] That's right. [00:11:22] All right. What do we have on the summary? [00:11:25] This is going back to Ukraine, but in a very different way, we reported on this a couple of weeks ago that the video game fortnight would be donating their in-app purchase revenue to Ukraine. We read that story with amusement. Two weeks after they announced that [00:11:44] Fortnight and its developers have given $144 million to relief efforts and Ukraine, that is an amazing sum of money for one in video games. At purchases that boggles my mind. But to, that's an incredible amount of money in a humanitarian emergency like this. And I'm really interested to see what video game makers and companies, if, if there is a way to make this sustainable, because if you can, if you can turn video game usage and to humanitarian support, that seems like you're onto something, but this is truly incredible. [00:12:22] I was not expecting. [00:12:23] I mean, that's you, we covered it with interest, but this. You know, it, it fails description talking about, you know, it's clear that this is their bottom line revenue. This is not like percent of proceeds. Like this is the difference between, oh, we're sending 1% of all sales. Like this is what happens when you just change the spicket from, you know, pointing to your bank account to a social cause. [00:12:47] And it is it's incredible. And hopefully makes you realize that, you know, These communities are very, very powerful when mobilized. And this is just just the beginning. I think of how, you know, the online game, like think about it for a second. And the online game built around, frankly, people shooting at each other is mimicked war. [00:13:08] Actually saying like, no, no, no. It should stay in the game. And their response is pretty incredible. And what's more in this in this news article and, you know, they announced it on Twitter and frankly, the PR representatives of fortnight added that the company is just not taking further interviews on the subject and they just are referring people to the, to the website regarding the relief effort. [00:13:33] I mean, take a, take a beat and think about how. Sadly, how often when a company does a, a good deed like this, they just like, all right, now let's spend twice that amount on the PR and media push that goes associated with making sure the entire world knows what we just did. And this is the absolute opposite of. [00:13:53] Absolutely. I agree if this is a model for corporate social responsibility, I'm in. Maybe I can be converted [00:14:03] Yeah, [00:14:03] if given me skeptical [00:14:04] I'll buy a fortnight skin, I guess. [00:14:07] I will too. I was going to add a fortnight related joke, but [00:14:12] I have [00:14:12] play, do you play, have you ever played Fortnite? Here's a question. Have you ever played. [00:14:15] know. [00:14:16] So I, I have a, I don't actively play, but I did get into it because I realized how big the ecosystem was. And I did play it. I get it. It's fun. It's pretty social. You're definitely like getting along with teammates and talking with people. [00:14:31] So it's far more far more of a community, I think, than people may realize. And you play with people internationally, you dropped into these battle. Royales with a bunch of random people. And you're placed on a team and then suddenly you're cooperating and you're running around with somebody who's, you know, may have is probably of a different background than yours. [00:14:51] That's really interesting. You bring that up video games. Video games are very democratic in that way. And I think like harnessed back to my point, harness correctly can really lead to cross-cultural understanding and and potentially humanitarian outcomes. I, I think there's, there's a lot of potential. Oh, all right. I can leave this into our next story. This one is titled in a David versus Goliath battle between NGOs and a pipeline company. Goliath is losing and this article. Is about how essentially small nonprofits and NGOs and Virginia and West Virginia are fighting oil pipelines and through various legal challenges versus us fish and wildlife and various companies and various pipelines are winning. So there's, there's different pipelines. There's the mountain valley pipeline that it talks about. There's that equal. Equity trans midstream pipeline. I didn't pronounce that. Right. Those developers have invested $2.5 billion in this project, but an NGO in that case called wild Virginia, a conservation organization is putting up quite a fight. This seems like a, a movie or some sort. I think I've seen this movie before. But just really interesting. And just going to highlight the important role. Advocacy and conservation organizations when it comes to protecting our environment. And it goes back and touches on so many other themes that we've talked about, whether it's you know, indigenous access to land and preserving all sorts of different cultural heritage and environmental sustainability, environmental justice and racism elements. It's a good story. We recommend reading it from Forbes, but really interesting. [00:16:45] I think the timing of it also, you're going to see, you know, probably it's not the most popular moment with gas prices rising and frankly, Russia using it as its biggest key of leverage to, to, to attack and saying like, wait a minute, you know, have, have, you know, like what the, the immediacy of how much. [00:17:08] And gas production that's probably needed right now to, to stop to stop. Russia is also has to be balanced with the long-term impacts of saying we needed to make, to put as many headwinds as possible for the continuation of a carbon based energy. Policy, and it's tough to balance. Like right now, I gotta be honest. [00:17:31] I'd be much happier if you know, environmental movement in Germany have allowed for a lot less dependency on oil and gas from. From Russia and these are hard conversations and, you know, I respect the people that have the long view and can maintain the long view, as opposed to saying like in this one moment of crisis. [00:17:51] Yeah. It would make a lot of sense to get as much oil, frankly, slowing as humanly possible from the stores where they're kept. So that. Avoid this disaster. The problem is always, you know, fighting the battles of the day, ignorant of the war the larger war of tomorrow, which is truly environmental the environmental stakes which are huge and have of course social justice elements as well. [00:18:15] Cause we we can be hurting a lot of communities on the way to doing that. [00:18:18] Yeah, I think that's a great synthesis. I will take us into our next story. And this is one of those boring, but potentially important stories. And this comes from the nonprofit times and it, the title is taxpayer first act expands, mandatory. E-filing. Nine 90. I'm not an accountant, I'm on a tax expert. So please read this article yourself. [00:18:45] But the general gist is that new legislation under new legislation and the IRS is now required to provide notice to any nonprofit that fails to file a form nine 90 return or postcard for two consecutive years. And similarly, there are now new requirements for the electronic submission of form nine nineties. Do your own research, do your own homework. Just know that these changes are upon us. [00:19:11] Yeah, I'll just add from this article 4, 9, 9, the easy. Used by organizations that have gross receipts of under $200,000 in total assets of under 500,000 at the end of their tax year. So especially if you are a smaller organization, you know, send that around because, you know, potentially they're, they're looking at organizations that haven't potentially filed in two years, which could then begin to risk potentially because the IRS member tax classification and the 5 0 1 C3 might risk that. [00:19:44] So yeah. That it's one of those fun, you know what, you know what I think of when I see articles like this is the same thing when I'm dealing with like a really tough, random administrative issue for, for even Holwell and it's that like, I, you know, I'm not an accountant, I don't know these things, but there are people running nonprofits that suddenly have to be like, okay, let's dig into what this actually means and figure that out. [00:20:09] You know, it's the. The dirty truth of being, you know, the founder of a small nonprofit, or even have a company of certain sizes where you're just in charge of figuring out confusing things on a regular basis that you have no background in. But frankly, if you get wrong could mean could mean severe implications for the organization fund stuff. [00:20:29] No pressure, [00:20:30] No. Yeah, no pressure. I'm sure it's fine. [00:20:32] no pressure. Oh man. How about I? How about we finished with a feel-good story, Jordan? [00:20:38] Yes, please. [00:20:39] All right. This comes from the good news network and it's about a nonprofit that's hit it's milestone for protecting more than 1 million acres of rainforest. So far this year, all with public donations in September. The Virginia based nonprofit made a $500 million commitment to preserving biodiversity. And six months later, the rainforest trust and its partners have already protected more than 1 million acres of habitat. So far in 2022. The rain forest trust organization has safeguarded over 38 million acres of habitat since its inception in 19. Eat, and we really liked their model. It seems like they work with indigenous communities and preexisting organizations which is really important protecting indigenous communities and the countries that we work in believes Ecuador, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Myanmar. Cool stuff. We like protecting the rainforests ever increasingly more important. We spent a lot of time talking about global food security or insecurity that is you know, spread by things like drought, things that global warming and protecting our environment play a role in, so increasingly important, great stuff in this story. Love protecting the rainforests. [00:21:58] Yeah. And the stat here from rainforest trust is that 99% of the forests protected by them remain standing today and a non-profit as well on its way to protecting 125 million more acres by 2025 that you did it in way. That made me feel good. That's a feel good story. [00:22:16] I'm glad.

Episode one hundred and thirty-seven of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag” by James Brown, and at how Brown went from a minor doo-wop artist to the pioneer of funk. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "I'm a Fool" by Dino, Desi, and Billy. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ NB an early version of this was uploaded, in which I said "episode 136" rather than 137 and "flattened ninth" at one point rather than "ninth". I've fixed that in a new upload, which is otherwise unchanged. Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. I relied mostly on fur books for this episode. James Brown: The Godfather of Soul, by James Brown with Bruce Tucker, is a celebrity autobiography with all that that entails, but a more interesting read than many. Kill ‘Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown, by James McBride is a more discursive, gonzo journalism piece, and well worth a read. Black and Proud: The Life of James Brown by Geoff Brown is a more traditional objective biography. And Douglas Wolk's 33 1/3 book on Live at the Apollo is a fascinating, detailed, look at that album. This box set is the best collection of Brown's work there is, but is out of print. This two-CD set has all the essential hits. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript [Introduction, the opening of Live at the Apollo. "So now, ladies and gentlemen, it is star time. Are you ready for star time? [Audience cheers, and gives out another cheer with each musical sting sting] Thank you, and thank you very kindly. It is indeed a great pleasure to present to you in this particular time, national and international known as the hardest working man in showbusiness, Man that sing "I'll Go Crazy"! [sting] "Try Me" [sting] "You've Got the Power" [sting] "Think" [sting], "If You Want Me" [sting] "I Don't Mind" [sting] "Bewildered" [sting] million-dollar seller "Lost Someone" [sting], the very latest release, "Night Train" [sting] Let's everybody "Shout and Shimmy" [sting] Mr. Dynamite, the amazing Mr. Please Please himself, the star of the show, James Brown and the Famous Flames"] In 1951, the composer John Cage entered an anechoic chamber at Harvard University. An anechoic chamber is a room that's been completely soundproofed, so no sound can get in from the outside world, and in which the walls, floor, and ceiling are designed to absorb any sounds that are made. It's as close as a human being can get to experiencing total silence. When Cage entered it, he expected that to be what he heard -- just total silence. Instead, he heard two noises, a high-pitched one and a low one. Cage was confused by this -- why hadn't he heard the silence? The engineer in charge of the chamber explained to him that what he was hearing was himself -- the high-pitched noise was Cage's nervous system, and the low-pitched one was his circulatory system. Cage later said about this, "Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music." The experience inspired him to write his most famous piece, 4'33, in which a performer attempts not to make any sound for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The piece is usually described as being four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, but it actually isn't -- the whole point is that there is no silence, and that the audience is meant to listen to the ambient noise and appreciate that noise as music. Here is where I would normally excerpt the piece, but of course for 4'33 to have its full effect, one has to listen to the whole thing. But I can excerpt another piece Cage wrote. Because on October the twenty-fourth 1962 he wrote a sequel to 4'33, a piece he titled 0'00, but which is sometimes credited as "4'33 no. 2". He later reworked the piece, but the original score, which is dedicated to two avant-garde Japanese composers, Toshi Ichiyanagi and his estranged wife Yoko Ono, reads as follows: "In a situation provided with maximum amplification (no feedback), perform a disciplined action." Now, as it happens, we have a recording of someone else performing Cage's piece, as written, on the day it was written, though neither performer nor composer were aware that that was what was happening. But I'm sure everyone can agree that this recording from October the 24th, 1962, is a disciplined action performed with maximum amplification and no feedback: [Excerpt: James Brown, "Night Train" (Live at the Apollo version)] When we left James Brown, almost a hundred episodes ago, he had just had his first R&B number one, with "Try Me", and had performed for the first time at the venue with which he would become most associated, the Harlem Apollo, and had reconnected with the mother he hadn't seen since he was a small child. But at that point, in 1958, he was still just the lead singer of a doo-wop group, one of many, and there was nothing in his shows or his records to indicate that he was going to become anything more than that, nothing to distinguish him from King Records labelmates like Hank Ballard, who made great records, put on a great live show, and are still remembered more than sixty years later, but mostly as a footnote. Today we're going to look at the process that led James Brown from being a peer of Ballard or Little Willie John to being arguably the single most influential musician of the second half of the twentieth century. Much of that influence is outside rock music, narrowly defined, but the records we're going to look at this time and in the next episode on Brown are records without which the entire sonic landscape of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries would be unimaginably different. And that process started in 1958, shortly after the release of "Try Me" in October that year, with two big changes to Brown's organisation. The first was that this was -- at least according to Brown -- when he first started working with Universal Attractions, a booking agency run by a man named Ben Bart, who before starting his own company had spent much of the 1940s working for Moe Gale, the owner of the Savoy Ballroom and manager of the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan, and many of the other acts we looked at in the very first episodes of this podcast. Bart had started his own agency in 1945, and had taken the Ink Spots with him, though they'd returned to Gale a few years later, and he'd been responsible for managing the career of the Ravens, one of the first bird groups: [Excerpt: The Ravens, "Rock Me All Night Long"] In the fifties, Bart had become closely associated with King Records, the label to which Brown and the Famous Flames were signed. A quick aside here -- Brown's early records were released on Federal Records, and later they switched to being released on King, but Federal was a subsidiary label for King, and in the same way that I don't distinguish between Checker and Chess, Tamla and Motown, or Phillips and Sun, I'll just refer to King throughout. Bart and Universal Attractions handled bookings for almost every big R&B act signed by King, including Tiny Bradshaw, Little Willie John, the "5" Royales, and Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. According to some sources, the Famous Flames signed with Universal Attractions at the same time they signed with King Records, and Bart's family even say it was Bart who discovered them and got them signed to King in the first place. Other sources say they didn't sign with Universal until after they'd proved themselves on the charts. But everyone seems agreed that 1958 was when Bart started making Brown a priority and taking an active interest in his career. Within a few years, Bart would have left Universal, handing the company over to his son and a business partner, to devote himself full-time to managing Brown, with whom he developed an almost father-son relationship. With Bart behind them, the Famous Flames started getting better gigs, and a much higher profile on the chitlin circuit. But around this time there was another change that would have an even more profound effect. Up to this point, the Famous Flames had been like almost every other vocal group playing the chitlin' circuit, in that they hadn't had their own backing musicians. There were exceptions, but in general vocal groups would perform with the same backing band as every other act on a bill -- either a single backing band playing for a whole package tour, or a house band at the venue they were playing at who would perform with every act that played that venue. There would often be a single instrumentalist with the group, usually a guitarist or piano player, who would act as musical director to make sure that the random assortment of musicians they were going to perform with knew the material. This was, for the most part, how the Famous Flames had always performed, though they had on occasion also performed their own backing in the early days. But now they got their own backing band, centred on J.C. Davis as sax player and bandleader, Bobby Roach on guitar, Nat Kendrick on drums, and Bernard Odum on bass. Musicians would come and go, but this was the core original lineup of what became the James Brown Band. Other musicians who played with them in the late fifties were horn players Alfred Corley and Roscoe Patrick, guitarist Les Buie, and bass player Hubert Perry, while keyboard duties would be taken on by Fats Gonder, although James Brown and Bobby Byrd would both sometimes play keyboards on stage. At this point, as well, the lineup of the Famous Flames became more or less stable. As we discussed in the previous episode on Brown, the original lineup of the Famous Flames had left en masse when it became clear that they were going to be promoted as James Brown and the Famous Flames, with Brown getting more money, rather than as a group. Brown had taken on another vocal group, who had previously been Little Richard's backing vocalists, but shortly after "Try Me" had come out, but before they'd seen any money from it, that group had got into an argument with Brown over money he owed them. He dropped them, and they went off to record unsuccessfully as the Fabulous Flames on a tiny label, though the records they made, like "Do You Remember", are quite good examples of their type: [Excerpt: The Fabulous Flames, "Do You Remember?"] Brown pulled together a new lineup of Famous Flames, featuring two of the originals. Johnny Terry had already returned to the group earlier, and stayed when Brown sacked the rest of the second lineup of Flames, and they added Lloyd Bennett and Bobby Stallworth. And making his second return to the group was Bobby Byrd, who had left with the other original members, joined again briefly, and then left again. Oddly, the first commercial success that Brown had after these lineup changes was not with the Famous Flames, or even under his own name. Rather, it was under the name of his drummer, Nat Kendrick. Brown had always seen himself, not primarily as a singer, but as a band leader and arranger. He was always a jazz fan first and foremost, and he'd grown up in the era of the big bands, and musicians he'd admired growing up like Lionel Hampton and Louis Jordan had always recorded instrumentals as well as vocal selections, and Brown saw himself very much in that tradition. Even though he couldn't read music, he could play several instruments, and he could communicate his arrangement ideas, and he wanted to show off the fact that he was one of the few R&B musicians with his own tight band. The story goes that Syd Nathan, the owner of King Records, didn't like the idea, because he thought that the R&B audience at this point only wanted vocal tracks, and also because Brown's band had previously released an instrumental which hadn't sold. Now, this is a definite pattern in the story of James Brown -- it seems that at every point in Brown's career for the first decade, Brown would come up with an idea that would have immense commercial value, Nathan would say it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard, Brown would do it anyway, and Nathan would later admit that he was wrong. This is such a pattern -- it apparently happened with "Please Please Please", Brown's first hit, *and* "Try Me", Brown's first R&B number one, and we'll see it happen again later in this episode -- that one tends to suspect that maybe these stories were sometimes made up after the fact, especially since Syd Nathan somehow managed to run a successful record label for over twenty years, putting out some of the best R&B and country records from everyone from Moon Mullican to Wynonie Harris, the Stanley Brothers to Little Willie John, while if these stories are to be believed he was consistently making the most boneheaded, egregious, uncommercial decisions imaginable. But in this case, it seems to be at least mostly true, as rather than being released on King Records as by James Brown, "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" was released on Dade Records as by Nat Kendrick and the Swans, with the DJ Carlton Coleman shouting vocals over Brown's so it wouldn't be obvious Brown was breaking his contract: [Excerpt: Nat Kendrick and the Swans, "(Do the)" Mashed Potatoes"] That made the R&B top ten,  and I've seen reports that Brown and his band even toured briefly as Nat Kendrick and the Swans, before Syd Nathan realised his mistake, and started allowing instrumentals to be released under the name "James Brown presents HIS BAND", starting with a cover of Bill Doggett's "Hold It": [Excerpt: James Brown Presents HIS BAND, "Hold It"] After the Nat Kendrick record gave Brown's band an instrumental success, the Famous Flames also came back from another mini dry spell for hits, with the first top twenty R&B hit for the new lineup, "I'll Go Crazy", which was followed shortly afterwards by their first pop top forty hit, "Think!": [Excerpt: James Brown and the Famous Flames, "Think!"] The success of "Think!" is at least in part down to Bobby Byrd, who would from this point on be Brown's major collaborator and (often uncredited) co-writer and co-producer until the mid-seventies. After leaving the Flames, and before rejoining them, Byrd had toured for a while with his own group, but had then gone to work for King Records at the request of Brown. King Records' pressing plant had equipment that sometimes produced less-than-ideal pressings of records, and Brown had asked Byrd to take a job there performing quality control, making sure that Brown's records didn't skip. While working there, Byrd also worked as a song doctor. His job was to take songs that had been sent in as demos, and rework them in the style of some of the label's popular artists, to make them more suitable, changing a song so it might fit the style of the "5" Royales or Little Willie John or whoever, and Byrd had done this for "Think", which had originally been recorded by the "5" Royales, whose leader, Lowman Pauling, had written it: [Excerpt: The "5" Royales, "Think"] Byrd had reworked the song to fit Brown's style and persona. It's notable for example that the Royales sing "How much of all your happiness have I really claimed?/How many tears have you cried for which I was to blame?/Darlin', I can't remember which was my fault/I tried so hard to please you—at least that's what I thought.” But in Brown's version this becomes “How much of your happiness can I really claim?/How many tears have you shed for which you was to blame?/Darlin', I can't remember just what is wrong/I tried so hard to please you—at least that's what I thought.” [Excerpt: James Brown and the Famous Flames, "Think"] In Brown's version, nothing is his fault, he's trying to persuade an unreasonable woman who has some problem he doesn't even understand, but she needs to think about it and she'll see that he's right, while in the Royales' version they're acknowledging that they're at fault, that they've done wrong, but they didn't *only* do wrong and maybe she should think about that too. It's only a couple of words' difference, but it changes the whole tenor of the song. "Think" would become the Famous Flames' first top forty hit on the pop charts, reaching number thirty-three. It went top ten on the R&B charts, and between 1959 and 1963 Brown and the Flames would have fifteen top-thirty R&B hits, going from being a minor doo-wop group that had had a few big hits to being consistent hit-makers, who were not yet household names, but who had a consistent sound that could be guaranteed to make the R&B charts, and who put on what was regarded as the best live show of any R&B band in the world. This was partly down to the type of discipline that Brown imposed on his band. Many band-leaders in the R&B world would impose fines on their band members, and Johnny Terry suggested that Brown do the same thing. As Bobby Byrd put it, "Many band leaders do it but it was Johnny's idea to start it with us and we were all for it ‘cos we didn't want to miss nothing. We wanted to be immaculate, clothes-wise, routine-wise and everything. Originally, the fines was only between James and us, The Famous Flames, but then James carried it over into the whole troupe. It was still a good idea because anybody joining The James Brown Revue had to know that they couldn't be messing up, and anyway, all the fines went into a pot for the parties we had." But Brown went much further with these fines than any other band leader, and would also impose them arbitrarily, and it became part of his reputation that he was the strictest disciplinarian in rhythm and blues music. One thing that became legendary among musicians was the way that he would impose fines while on stage. If a band member missed a note, or a dance step, or missed a cue, or had improperly polished shoes, Brown would, while looking at them, briefly make a flashing gesture with his hand, spreading his fingers out for a fraction of a second. To the audience, it looked like just part of Brown's dance routine, but the musician knew he had just been fined five dollars. Multiple flashes meant multiples of five dollars fined. Brown also developed a whole series of other signals to the band, which they had to learn, To quote Bobby Byrd again: "James didn't want anybody else to know what we was doing, so he had numbers and certain screams and spins. There was a certain spin he'd do and if he didn't do the complete spin you'd know it was time to go over here. Certain screams would instigate chord changes, but mostly it was numbers. James would call out football numbers, that's where we got that from. Thirty-nine — Sixteen —Fourteen — Two — Five — Three — Ninety-eight, that kind of thing. Number thirty-nine was always the change into ‘Please, Please, Please'. Sixteen is into a scream and an immediate change, not bam-bam but straight into something else. If he spins around and calls thirty-six, that means we're going back to the top again. And the forty-two, OK, we're going to do this verse and then bow out, we're leaving now. It was amazing." This, or something like this, is a fairly standard technique among more autocratic band leaders, a way of allowing the band as a whole to become a live compositional or improvisational tool for their leader, and Frank Zappa, for example, had a similar system. It requires the players to subordinate themselves utterly to the whim of the band leader, but also requires a band leader who knows the precise strengths and weaknesses of every band member and how they are likely to respond to a cue. When it works well, it can be devastatingly effective, and it was for Brown's live show. The Famous Flames shows soon became a full-on revue, with other artists joining the bill and performing with Brown's band. From the late 1950s on, Brown would always include a female singer. The first of these was Sugar Pie DeSanto, a blues singer who had been discovered (and given her stage name) by Johnny Otis, but DeSanto soon left Brown's band and went on to solo success on Chess records, with hits like "Soulful Dress": [Excerpt: Sugar Pie DeSanto, "Soulful Dress"] After DeSanto left, she was replaced by  Bea Ford, the former wife of the soul singer Joe Tex, with whom Brown had an aggressive rivalry and mutual loathing. Ford and Brown recorded together, cutting tracks like "You Got the Power": [Excerpt: James Brown and Bea Ford, "You Got the Power"] However, Brown and Ford soon fell out, and Brown actually wrote to Tex asking if he wanted his wife back. Tex's response was to record this: [Excerpt: Joe Tex, "You Keep Her"] Ford's replacement was Yvonne Fair, who had briefly replaced Jackie Landry in the Chantels for touring purposes when Landry had quit touring to have a baby. Fair would stay with Brown for a couple of years, and would release a number of singles written and produced for her by Brown, including one which Brown would later rerecord himself with some success: [Excerpt: Yvonne Fair, "I Found You"] Fair would eventually leave the band after getting pregnant with a child by Brown, who tended to sleep with the female singers in his band. The last shows she played with him were the shows that would catapult Brown into the next level of stardom. Brown had been convinced for a long time that his live shows had an energy that his records didn't, and that people would buy a record of one of them. Syd Nathan, as usual, disagreed. In his view the market for R&B albums was small, and only consisted of people who wanted collections of hit singles they could play in one place. Nobody would buy a James Brown live album. So Brown decided to take matters into his own hands. He decided to book a run of shows at the Apollo Theatre, and record them, paying for the recordings with his own money. This was a week-long engagement, with shows running all day every day -- Brown and his band would play five shows a day, and Brown would wear a different suit for every show. This was in October 1962, the month that we've already established as the month the sixties started -- the month the Beatles released their first single, the Beach Boys released their first record outside the US, and the first Bond film came out, all on the same day at the beginning of the month. By the end of October, when Brown appeared at the Apollo, the Cuban Missile Crisis was at its height, and there were several points during the run where it looked like the world itself might not last until November 62. Douglas Wolk has written an entire book on the live album that resulted, which claims to be a recording of the midnight performance from October the twenty-fourth, though it seems like it was actually compiled from multiple performances. The album only records the headline performance, but Wolk describes what a full show by the James Brown Revue at the Apollo was like in October 1962, and the following description is indebted to his book, which I'll link in the show notes. The show would start with the "James Brown Orchestra" -- the backing band. They would play a set of instrumentals, and a group of dancers called the Brownies would join them: [Excerpt: James Brown Presents His Band, "Night Flying"] At various points during the set, Brown himself would join the band for a song or two, playing keyboards or drums. After the band's instrumental set, the Valentinos would take the stage for a few songs. This was before they'd been taken on by Sam Cooke, who would take them under his wing very soon after these shows, but the Valentinos were already recording artists in their own right, and had recently released "Lookin' For a Love": [Excerpt: The Valentinos, "Lookin' For a Love"] Next up would be Yvonne Fair, now visibly pregnant with her boss' child, to sing her few numbers: [Excerpt: Yvonne Fair, "You Can Make it if You Try"] Freddie King was on next, another artist for the King family of labels who'd had a run of R&B hits the previous year, promoting his new single "I'm On My Way to Atlanta": [Excerpt: Freddie King, "I'm on My Way to Atlanta"] After King came Solomon Burke, who had been signed to Atlantic earlier that year and just started having hits, and was the new hot thing on the scene, but not yet the massive star he became: [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "Cry to Me"] After Burke came a change of pace -- the vaudeville comedian Pigmeat Markham would take the stage and perform a couple of comedy sketches. We actually know exactly how these went, as Brown wasn't the only one recording a live album there that week, and Markham's album "The World's Greatest Clown" was a result of these shows and released on Chess Records: [Excerpt: Pigmeat Markham, "Go Ahead and Sing"] And after Markham would come the main event. Fats Gonder, the band's organist, would give the introduction we heard at the beginning of the episode -- and backstage, Danny Ray, who had been taken on as James Brown's valet that very week (according to Wolk -- I've seen other sources saying he'd joined Brown's organisation in 1960), was listening closely. He would soon go on to take over the role of MC, and would introduce Brown in much the same way as Gonder had at every show until Brown's death forty-four years later. The live album is an astonishing tour de force, showing Brown and his band generating a level of excitement that few bands then or now could hope to equal. It's even more astonishing when you realise two things. The first is that this was *before* any of the hits that most people now associate with the name James Brown -- before "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" or "Sex Machine", or "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" or "Say it Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud" or "Funky Drummer" or "Get Up Offa That Thing". It's still an *unformed* James Brown, only six years into a fifty-year career, and still without most of what made him famous. The other thing is, as Wolk notes, if you listen to any live bootleg recordings from this time, the microphone distorts all the time, because Brown is singing so loud. Here, the vocal tone is clean, because Brown knew he was being recorded. This is the sound of James Brown restraining himself: [Excerpt: James Brown and the Famous Flames, "Night Train" (Live at the Apollo version)] The album was released a few months later, and proved Syd Nathan's judgement utterly, utterly, wrong. It became the thirty-second biggest selling album of 1963 -- an amazing achievement given that it was released on a small independent label that dealt almost exclusively in singles, and which had no real presence in the pop market. The album spent sixty-six weeks on the album charts, making number two on the charts -- the pop album charts, not R&B charts. There wasn't an R&B albums chart until 1965, and Live at the Apollo basically forced Billboard to create one, and more or less single-handedly created the R&B albums market. It was such a popular album in 1963 that DJs took to playing the whole album -- breaking for commercials as they turned the side over, but otherwise not interrupting it. It turned Brown from merely a relatively big R&B star into a megastar. But oddly, given this astonishing level of success, Brown's singles in 1963 were slightly less successful than they had been in the previous few years -- possibly partly because he decided to record a few versions of old standards, changing direction as he had for much of his career. Johnny Terry quit the Famous Flames, to join the Drifters, becoming part of the lineup that recorded "Under the Boardwalk" and "Saturday Night at the Movies". Brown also recorded a second live album, Pure Dynamite!, which is generally considered a little lacklustre in comparison to the Apollo album. There were other changes to the lineup as well as Terry leaving. Brown wanted to hire a new drummer, Melvin Parker, who agreed to join the band, but only if Brown took on his sax-playing brother, Maceo, along with him. Maceo soon became one of the most prominent musicians in Brown's band, and his distinctive saxophone playing is all over many of Brown's biggest hits. The first big hit that the Parkers played on was released as by James Brown and his Orchestra, rather than James Brown and the Famous Flames, and was a landmark in Brown's evolution as a musician: [Excerpt: James Brown and his Orchestra, "Out of Sight"] The Famous Flames did sing on the B-side of that, a song called "Maybe the Last Time", which was ripped off from the same Pops Staples song that the Rolling Stones later ripped off for their own hit single. But that would be the last time Brown would use them in the studio -- from that point on, the Famous Flames were purely a live act, although Bobby Byrd, but not the other members, would continue to sing on the records. The reason it was credited to James Brown, rather than to James Brown and the Famous Flames, is that "Out of Sight" was released on Smash Records, to which Brown -- but not the Flames -- had signed a little while earlier. Brown had become sick of what he saw as King Records' incompetence, and had found what he and his advisors thought was a loophole in his contract. Brown had been signed to King Records under a personal services contract as a singer, not under a musician contract as a musician, and so they believed that he could sign to Smash, a subsidiary of Mercury, as a musician. He did, and he made what he thought of as a fresh start on his new label by recording "Caldonia", a cover of a song by his idol Louis Jordan: [Excerpt: James Brown and his Orchestra, "Caldonia"] Understandably, King Records sued on the reasonable grounds that Brown was signed to them as a singer, and they got an injunction to stop him recording for Smash -- but by the time the injunction came through, Brown had already released two albums and three singles for the label. The injunction prevented Brown from recording any new material for the rest of 1964, though both labels continued to release stockpiled material during that time. While he was unable to record new material, October 1964 saw Brown's biggest opportunity to cross over to a white audience -- the TAMI Show: [Excerpt: James Brown, "Out of Sight (TAMI show live)"] We've mentioned the TAMI show a couple of times in previous episodes, but didn't go into it in much detail. It was a filmed concert which featured Jan and Dean, the Barbarians, Lesley Gore, Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, the Supremes, and, as the two top acts, James Brown and the Rolling Stones. Rather oddly, the point of the TAMI Show wasn't the music as such. Rather it was intended as a demonstration of a technical process. Before videotape became cheap and a standard, it was difficult to record TV shows for later broadcast, for distribution to other countries, or for archive. The way they used to be recorded was a process known as telerecording in the UK and kinescoping in the US, and that was about as crude as it's possible to get -- you'd get a film camera, point it at a TV showing the programme you wanted to record, and film the TV screen. There was specialist equipment to do this, but that was all it actually did. Almost all surviving TV from the fifties and sixties -- and even some from the seventies -- was preserved by this method rather than by videotape. Even after videotape started being used to make the programmes, there were differing standards and tapes were expensive, so if you were making a programme in the UK and wanted a copy for US broadcast, or vice versa, you'd make a telerecording. But what if you wanted to make a TV show that you could also show on cinema screens? If you're filming a TV screen, and then you project that film onto a big screen, you get a blurry, low-resolution, mess -- or at least you did with the 525-line TV screens that were used in the US at the time. So a company named Electronovision came into the picture, for those rare times when you wanted to do something using video cameras that would be shown at the cinema. Rather than shoot in 525-line resolution, their cameras shot in 819-line resolution -- super high definition for the time, but capable of being recorded onto standard videotape with appropriate modifications for the equipment. But that meant that when you kinescoped the production, it was nearly twice the resolution that a standard US TV broadcast would be, and so it didn't look terrible when shown in a cinema. The owner of the Electronovision process had had a hit with a cinema release of a performance by Richard Burton as Hamlet, and he needed a follow-up, and decided that another filmed live performance would be the best way to make use of his process -- TV cameras were much more useful for capturing live performances than film cameras, for a variety of dull technical reasons, and so this was one of the few areas where Electronovision might actually be useful. And so Bill Roden, one of the heads of Electronovision, turned to a TV director named Steve Binder, who was working at the time on the Steve Allen show, one of the big variety shows, second only to Ed Sullivan, and who would soon go on to direct Hullaballoo. Roden asked Binder to make a concert film, shot on video, which would be released on the big screen by American International Pictures (the same organisation with which David Crosby's father worked so often). Binder had contacts with West Coast record labels, and particularly with Lou Adler's organisation, which managed Jan and Dean. He also had been in touch with a promoter who was putting on a package tour of British musicians. So they decided that their next demonstration of the capabilities of the equipment would be a show featuring performers from "all over the world", as the theme song put it -- by which they meant all over the continental United States plus two major British cities. For those acts who didn't have their own bands -- or whose bands needed augmenting -- there was an orchestra, centred around members of the Wrecking Crew, conducted by Jack Nitzsche, and the Blossoms were on hand to provide backing vocals where required. Jan and Dean would host the show and sing the theme song. James Brown had had less pop success than any of the other artists on the show except for the Barbarians, who are now best-known for their appearances on the Nuggets collection of relatively obscure garage rock singles, and whose biggest hit, "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?" only went to number fifty-five on the charts: [Excerpt: The Barbarians, "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?"] The Barbarians were being touted as the American equivalent of the Rolling Stones, but the general cultural moment of the time can be summed up by that line "You're either a girl or you come from Liverpool" -- which was where the Rolling Stones came from. Or at least, it was where Americans seemed to think they came from given both that song, and the theme song of the TAMI show, written by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, which sang about “the Rolling Stones from Liverpool”, and also referred to Brown as "the king of the blues": [Excerpt: Jan and Dean, "Here They Come From All Over The World"] But other than the Barbarians, the TAMI show was one of the few places in which all the major pop music movements of the late fifties and early sixties could be found in one place -- there was the Merseybeat of Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Dakotas, already past their commercial peak but not yet realising it, the fifties rock of Chuck Berry, who actually ended up performing one song with Gerry and the Pacemakers: [Excerpt: Chuck Berry and Gerry and the Pacemakers: "Maybellene"] And there was the Brill Building pop of Lesley Gore, the British R&B of the Rolling Stones right at the point of their breakthrough, the vocal surf music of the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, and three of the most important Motown acts, with Brown the other representative of soul on the bill. But the billing was a sore point. James Brown's manager insisted that he should be the headliner of the show, and indeed by some accounts the Rolling Stones also thought that they should probably not try to follow him -- though other accounts say that the Stones were equally insistent that they *must* be the headliners. It was a difficult decision, because Brown was much less well known, but it was eventually decided that the Rolling Stones would go on last. Most people talking about the event, including most of those involved with the production, have since stated that this was a mistake, because nobody could follow James Brown, though in interviews Mick Jagger has always insisted that the Stones didn't have to follow Brown, as there was a recording break between acts and they weren't even playing to the same audience -- though others have disputed that quite vigorously. But what absolutely everyone has agreed is that Brown gave the performance of a lifetime, and that it was miraculously captured by the cameras. I say its capture was miraculous because every other act had done a full rehearsal for the TV cameras, and had had a full shot-by-shot plan worked out by Binder beforehand. But according to Steve Binder -- though all the accounts of the show are contradictory -- Brown refused to do a rehearsal -- so even though he had by far the most complex and choreographed performance of the event, Binder and his camera crew had to make decisions by pure instinct, rather than by having an actual plan they'd worked out in advance of what shots to use. This is one of the rare times when I wish this was a video series rather than a podcast, because the visuals are a huge part of this performance -- Brown is a whirlwind of activity, moving all over the stage in a similar way to Jackie Wilson, one of his big influences, and doing an astonishing gliding dance step in which he stands on one leg and moves sideways almost as if on wheels. The full performance is easily findable online, and is well worth seeking out. But still, just hearing the music and the audience's reaction can give some insight: [Excerpt: James Brown, "Out of Sight" (TAMI Show)] The Rolling Stones apparently watched the show in horror, unable to imagine following that -- though when they did, the audience response was fine: [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Around and Around"] Incidentally, Chuck Berry must have been quite pleased with his payday from the TAMI Show, given that as well as his own performance the Stones did one of his songs, as did Gerry and the Pacemakers, as we heard earlier, and the Beach Boys did "Surfin' USA" for which he had won sole songwriting credit. After the TAMI Show, Mick Jagger would completely change his attitude to performing, and would spend the rest of his career trying to imitate Brown's performing style. He was unsuccessful in this, but still came close enough that he's still regarded as one of the great frontmen, nearly sixty years later. Brown kept performing, and his labels kept releasing material, but he was still not allowed to record, until in early 1965 a court reached a ruling -- yes, Brown wasn't signed as a musician to King Records, so he was perfectly within his rights to record with Smash Records. As an instrumentalist. But Brown *was* signed to King Records as a singer, so he was obliged to record vocal tracks for them, and only for them. So until his contract with Smash lapsed, he had to record twice as much material -- he had to keep recording instrumentals, playing piano or organ, for Smash, while recording vocal tracks for King Records. His first new record, released as by "James Brown" rather than the earlier billings of "James Brown and his Orchestra" or "James Brown and the Famous Flames", was for King, and was almost a remake of "Out of Sight", his hit for Smash Records. But even so, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" was a major step forward, and is often cited as the first true funk record. This is largely because of the presence of a new guitarist in Brown's band. Jimmy Nolen had started out as a violin player, but like many musicians in the 1950s he had been massively influenced by T-Bone Walker, and had switched to playing guitar. He was discovered as a guitarist by the bluesman Jimmy Wilson, who had had a minor hit with "Tin Pan Alley": [Excerpt: Jimmy Wilson, "Tin Pan Alley"] Wilson had brought Nolen to LA, where he'd soon parted from Wilson and started working with a whole variety of bandleaders. His first recording came with Monte Easter on Aladdin Records: [Excerpt: Monte Easter, "Blues in the Evening"] After working with Easter, he started recording with Chuck Higgins, and also started recording by himself. At this point, Nolen was just one of many West Coast blues guitarists with a similar style, influenced by T-Bone Walker -- he was competing with Pete "Guitar" Lewis, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and Guitar Slim, and wasn't yet quite as good as any of them. But he was still making some influential records. His version of "After Hours", for example, released under his own name on Federal Records, was a big influence on Roy Buchanan, who would record several versions of the standard based on Nolen's arrangement: [Excerpt: Jimmy Nolen, "After Hours"] Nolen had released records on many labels, but his most important early association came from records he made but didn't release. In the mid-fifties, Johnny Otis produced a couple of tracks by Nolen, for Otis' Dig Records label, but they weren't released until decades later: [Excerpt: Jimmy Nolen, "Jimmy's Jive"] But when Otis had a falling out with his longtime guitar player Pete "Guitar" Lewis, who was one of the best players in LA but who was increasingly becoming unreliable due to his alcoholism, Otis hired Nolen to replace him. It's Nolen who's playing on most of the best-known recordings Otis made in the late fifties, like "Casting My Spell": [Excerpt: Johnny Otis, "Casting My Spell"] And of course Otis' biggest hit "Willie and the Hand Jive": [Excerpt: Johnny Otis, "Willie and the Hand Jive"] Nolen left Otis after a few years, and spent the early sixties mostly playing in scratch bands backing blues singers, and not recording. It was during this time that Nolen developed the style that would revolutionise music. The style he developed was unique in several different ways. The first was in Nolen's choice of chords. We talked last week about how Pete Townshend's guitar playing became based on simplifying chords and only playing power chords. Nolen went the other way -- while his voicings often only included two or three notes, he was also often using very complex chords with *more* notes than a standard chord. As we discussed last week, in most popular music, the chords are based around either major or minor triads -- the first, third, and fifth notes of a scale, so you have an E major chord, which is the notes E, G sharp, and B: [Excerpt: E major chord] It's also fairly common to have what are called seventh chords, which are actually a triad with an added flattened seventh, so an E7 chord would be the notes E, G sharp, B, and D: [Excerpt: E7 chord] But Nolen built his style around dominant ninth chords, often just called ninth chords. Dominant ninth chords are mostly thought of as jazz chords because they're mildly dissonant. They consist of the first, third, fifth, flattened seventh, *and* ninth of a scale, so an E9 would be the notes E, G sharp, B, D, and F sharp: [Excerpt: E9 chord] Another way of looking at that is that you're playing both a major chord *and* at the same time a minor chord that starts on the fifth note, so an E major and B minor chord at the same time: [Demonstrates Emajor, B minor, E9] It's not completely unknown for pop songs to use ninth chords, but it's very rare. Probably the most prominent example came from a couple of years after the period we're talking about, when in mid-1967 Bobby Gentry basically built the whole song "Ode to Billie Joe" around a D9 chord, barely ever moving off it: [Excerpt: Bobby Gentry, "Ode to Billie Joe"] That shows the kind of thing that ninth chords are useful for -- because they have so many notes in them, you can just keep hammering on the same chord for a long time, and the melody can go wherever it wants and will fit over it. The record we're looking at, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", actually has three chords in it -- it's basically a twelve-bar blues, like "Out of Sight" was, just with these ninth chords sometimes used instead of more conventional chords -- but as Brown's style got more experimental in future years, he would often build songs with no chord changes at all, just with Nolen playing a single ninth chord throughout. There's a possibly-apocryphal story, told in a few different ways, but the gist of which is that when auditioning Nolen's replacement many years later, Brown asked "Can you play an E ninth chord?" "Yes, of course" came the reply. "But can you play an E ninth chord *all night*?" The reason Brown asked this, if he did, is that playing like Nolen is *extremely* physically demanding. Because the other thing about Nolen's style is that he was an extremely percussive player. In his years backing blues musicians, he'd had to play with many different drummers, and knew they weren't always reliable timekeepers. So he'd started playing like a drummer himself, developing a technique called chicken-scratching, based on the Bo Diddley style he'd played with Otis, where he'd often play rapid, consistent, semiquaver chords, keeping the time himself so the drummer didn't have to. Other times he'd just play single, jagged-sounding, chords to accentuate the beat. He used guitars with single-coil pickups and turned the treble up and got rid of all the midrange, so the sound would cut through no matter what. As well as playing full-voiced chords, he'd also sometimes mute all the strings while he strummed, giving a percussive scratching sound rather than letting the strings ring. In short, the sound he got was this: [Excerpt: James Brown, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"] And that is the sound that became funk guitar. If you listen to Jimmy Nolen's playing on "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", that guitar sound -- chicken scratched ninth chords -- is what every funk guitarist after him based their style on. It's not Nolen's guitar playing in its actual final form -- that wouldn't come until he started using wah wah pedals, which weren't mass produced until early 1967 -- but it's very clear when listening to the track that this is the birth of funk. The original studio recording of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" actually sounds odd if you listen to it now -- it's slower than the single, and lasts almost seven minutes: [Excerpt: James Brown "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (parts 1, 2, and 3)"] But for release as a single, it was sped up a semitone, a ton of reverb was added, and it was edited down to just a few seconds over two minutes. The result was an obvious hit single: [Excerpt: James Brown, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"] Or at least, it was an obvious hit single to everyone except Syd Nathan, who as you'll have already predicted by now didn't like the song. Indeed according to Brown, he was so disgusted with the record that he threw his acetate copy of it onto the floor. But Brown got his way, and the single came out, and it became the biggest hit of Brown's career up to that point, not only giving him his first R&B number one since "Try Me" seven years earlier, but also crossing over to the pop charts in a way he hadn't before. He'd had the odd top thirty or even top twenty pop single in the past, but now he was in the top ten, and getting noticed by the music business establishment in a way he hadn't earlier. Brown's audience went from being medium-sized crowds of almost exclusively Black people with the occasional white face, to a much larger, more integrated, audience. Indeed, at the Grammys the next year, while the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Phil Spector and the whole Motown stable were overlooked in favour of the big winners for that year Roger Miller, Herb Alpert, and the Anita Kerr Singers, even an organisation with its finger so notoriously off the pulse of the music industry as the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which presents the Grammys, couldn't fail to find the pulse of "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", and gave Brown the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues record, beating out the other nominees "In the Midnight Hour", "My Girl", "Shotgun" by Junior Walker, and "Shake" by Sam Cooke. From this point on, Syd Nathan would no longer argue with James Brown as to which of his records would be released. After nine years of being the hardest working man in showbusiness, James Brown had now become the Godfather of Soul, and his real career had just begun.