boys dedications

best gift for me is a boys musical dedication tailor made for me! i friend of mine likes to send me links to music. we listen to tunes & discuss the reason we love them so much & make comparisons to similar artists. this is one of reasons that keeps my music juices flowing. conversing. whatever happened to that? well anyway,thanks todd! thanks for the inspiration, for the friendship & for having "something" to say...(worth my while). now turn it up, if you like it!

al green - love & happiness (1973)

he had a pencil pad

"ice cold daydream" freedom flight lp (1971)


i cant believe i have gone this long without talking about my main man, shuggie otis. the under appreciated blues / funk guitarist to ever hit the west coast scene. few deemed him a child prodigy, being the son of another american blues great, johnny otis. hand jive anyone? anyway thats another lesson.

people dont know that they are familiar with shuggie until i go thru this entire process of intergation questions: "you heard of the song strawberry letter 23?" "do you know who brothers johnson is?" then there is the singing...."ooo-o-o-ooo-o-oooo". "that doesnt sound familiar?" "well you'd know it if you heard it. its been in a ton of movies" blah blah blah

shuggie only released less than a handful of albums in his short career, but they add this heavy weight to my vinyl collection. my fav is freedom flight which was debuted in 1971. this west coast funk album has received the most recognition from shuggies fans probably because it is the most complete album that shuggie released at the tender age of 18. this aint no "peach fuzz" kind of an album...oh no, this is fully man's style! there are poppy tunes like "ice cold daydream" but then he would flip the script within a instant with the title track "freedom flight" which will make anyone melt in their cream themselves, (i was trying to be conservative...doidnt workout so well)they dont make them like they used to, so dont sleep on my shuggie...he is THE man! dont believe me...ask quincy, or george, or sly..they will all tell you. sha-boing-boing babe!

the tempts...i want a love....

i wanna love i can see. maybe david ruffin couldve have seen love, if he wasnt so busy snortin coke & callin women "bitches" all of the time.



the "tempting" temptations started as a group with motown 5 years before they scored their 1st top 40 hit in 1964 with "the way you do the things you do". but before that song, they worked as studio backups for smokey, marvin gaye, & the supremes, etc. they were the known as the experimental group that would be thrown into the studio & given random cuts to record as marketing try-outs. they were running into a rut until a song was introduced to them & helped establish a marketable style for the group. "i want a love i can see" was a single that was released in 1963 but never made it on the pop charts. i think it actually reached #79 which is shameful. this song was written by non-other than smokey robinson and has stood to remain one of my favorite songs written by him. it has this spanish harlem style that represents the sound better than the actual titled song, sang by ben e. king (spanish harlem, 1961). although crisco clean, as motown always is, it is rare to the motorcity sound. almost sounds like it belongs to stax records, made to be promoted in the bronx or brooklyn heights...so what... it never made it commercially and it was a lost effort.... but it is not forgotten. finders-keepers!!!

get down...soul train dancers

here is another "how can you just sit there" moment....too good.

curtis mayfield - "get down" roots lp (1971)

mrs. miles davis: part ii

betty davis - dedicated to the press (1975)


i couldnt help myself..some beautiful soul posted this song, from betty's 3rd album: nasty girl. slap the shit out of that bass....geezus christ. this track is everything i love about betty, grunting & squalling her frustrations away.

ok you dont like me..so what, dont look.
why cant everyone just calm the hell down...if i wanna show my crotch & breath heavy into the mic...let me...but dont judge me...that would be such a shame.

mrs. miles davis part i
mrs. miles davis part iii

and a thank you to you too...

what song did stevie wonder hear that inspired him to write his song "superstition"?
stevie wonder - superstition (1972)


every weekday i use the morning music trivia question on my favorite radio station as my alarm clock. its usually the determining factor whether i'll have a good day or not if i can guess the correct answer. which of course, i am correct every morning, therefore everyday is a good one. j/k. just a few weeks ago i reluctantly called in and won some movie premiere tickets. i didnt want the prize but i had to participate in the contest cause the dj asked the question twice!! it was sad & i couldnt let the question go unanswered or leave the dj hanging.....so i called in & was correct.

"this is khamille calling from bed."
"whats the answer to our trivia question?"
"the song w/ one of the best guitar riffs ever..sly & the family stone's 'thank you falettinme be mice elf agin."
ahhhhh i like being a winner, but i love being correct. love-joy

sly & the family stone - thank you falettinme be mice elf agin (1970)

aggravating the gravel

on the road songs that get my mojo going...random tune today:
"love machine" by the miracles (1976)

marvelous marvin

"hey man! whats yo' name, smoke this!"
one of my favorite marvin songs is "whats going on". the time when music was sending messages of civil rights & world / human equality. power to the people, power for people! sorry kids. no more make out music or teenage prom songs for this early 70s motown record. in 1971 the "whats going on" lp was released. it was something that was not expected from marvin after the death of his good friend & recording duet gal-pal, tammi terrell. it was known to most that marvin fell into a deep depression & threatened to leave the music industry for good. one of my favorite stories told about marvin was that after tammi's death, marvin focused his career on his first love, football. that spring gaye tryout for the detroits lions, but didnt make the cut. what he did make was a group of new friends in the detriot lions football team. by helping lift his spirits and inspire him to return to the studio, marvin recorded one of the best albums of his career.

i have this thing with my ears where i can pick up the most indistinct sounds, so it is no surprise that i fell in love with "whats going on". all of the over layering of lyrics, dialogue and harmonies is brilliant. one can listen to that song repetitively and will find something different each time, like a 'wheres waldo' poster. the instrumental makes you wanna dance, the lyrics make you wanna change the world, but the background, it makes me laugh. it became my favorite part... all the commotion in the background. there are the sounds of the men talking & laughing & whooting. it is so faint and easily dismissed, but it drives me crazy. one day i was curious in finding out what the hell was actually "going on"! so i laid on the floor, pressed my ear to the speaker and listened closely. i jump up & turn to "the wife" & say , with a big smile on my face, did you hear that? someone just said "hey man whats yo' name, smoke this!" and then i hear the more familiar"everythang, is eveythang!" then "hey man toss me the football" "right on!" "its groovey" and my personal favorite, the inhaling of the whatever it is that they are smoking on with the subtle "whoo" that follows. heAH! come to find out that the men on the track were some of the cats from detroit lions and the vocals were recorded during a, you guessed it, a BBQ!! hot damn, too good! and since they participated on the grammy award winning song / album, they all received one as well. gotta love it! im gonna praise jah right now, for the detroit lions & BBQs, for without them, who knows if we would have ever heard from marvin again! love-joy.

mrs. miles davis: part i

why does your face look like you just bit into one of those hard chunks in your sausage pattie? oh you must be listening to betty davis. o.o.c. the black diamond queen is so raunchy that she makes dionysus look like sister mary clarence. her ex-husband miles stated that she was too wild for him to stick around (or it could've been that rumored affair she had with jimi hendrix). betty davis has been m.i.a. for years since the late 1970s. before vanishing into seclusion, betty had such promise for her musical career, but unfortunately she was too reckless & aggressive for the times. her influences ranged from the sound of the bay city funk licks of sly's bass, to the humping & tongue teasing guitar antics of jimi's performances. it was all topped off with a giant scoop of relentless masculine sexuality. people just werent ready for the groin thrusting and the leg squats, the crotch exposing kicks & rolling around on stage. well... at least not for a pretty lady like betty, who once graced the covers of european fashion magazines, it just wasnt the right time. and that was just referring to the physical portion of her act.

the vocals, in a different paragraph, are parallel to the fore mentioned. ridiculous. its hard to listen to at times cause its hurts. it really does hurt. gripping, ripping, & throwing vocal tantrums all over the place, its a wonder anyone could tame this lioness at all...in any way. even though the pop gods werent on her side, betty released her 1st self titled lp in 1973. ummmm... i really dont think anyone can understand how excited i get when i play this album. it just gets my fur up & my mojo working. not only does betty have access to the writers & producers that worked with sly stone, who that created the west side psychedelic funk sound, she has some of the family stone as part of her band assemble including, gregg errico & larry graham. the best parts of the record are the backup vocals provided by no other than the explosive pointer sisters. no slow hands here, just pure TNT!!! i always praise & give props to women who sound & work like men! hard & rough. but women take it to another level. when they squall & scream, hold the hell on, cause its never just for shits & giggles. that stank is there to serve a purpose!! nevertheless its hard working entertainment. you know mean?? that james brown mentality. leaving you in a cold sweat. well im left cold, sweaty, and tired. im gonna go take a nap now. love-joy.

mrs. miles davis part ii
mrs. miles davis part iii

ice cream castles

"green onions" booker t & the mgs - 1964 atlantic records

"i got some ice cream & you cant have none, you cant afford it, your mom's on welfare" - eddie m.

well....its here. its the official beginning of summer (not technically, but officially). music tunes that bring back memories of the "slip & slides" in the front yard using garbage bags and cutting yourself on the sprinkler heads. or the classic story of running after the ice cream man as he passed everyone while watching us running and stumbling in his rear view mirror. "you know you see us, man...stooooop!!" what an ass. i grew up in the hood of santa ana, ca (well, kinda depending on what side of warner street you were on) a place full of culture and spice and i at least expected the ice cream man to pump better tunes then what he played. this would be my mom's fault. she used to tell me stories of the days when her ice cream man would play "green onions". could you imagine? chicago, in the early 60s, eating ice cream and listening to booker t & the mgs' "green onions"? too good. but you know he had to be selling something else besides otter pops and potato chips. im just saying. thats a little too hip for even the coolest i.c. man. flashing foward, i think i would have liked to have heard something like cameo, zapp & roger, or egyptian lover, oooo even chaka khan would have been a good one for the 80s. maybe that will be my next business investment, the kjoy radio & ice cream truck. "cruisin, groovin and coolin throughout so cal." oh snap! patent pending. ha!