A Record a Week: The Mar-Keys - The Great Memphis Sound

SIDE 1.
HONEY POT
PLANTATION INN
LOVING YOU TOO LONG
CLEO'S BLACK
GRAB THIS THING

SIDE 2.
PHILLY DOG
WALKING WITH THE DUKE
THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA
IN THE MOOD
"DEAR JAMES" MEDLEY (Night Train, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, I Got You, Good Loving, I'll Go Crazy)

The Mar-Keys were a studio session backing band in the 60's (and have recently reformed), who also had some single hits of their own. As such, most of the music is instrumental and many are familiar/cover songs. It's an excellent background album to have on, as I find most big band is.

The album swims seamlessly between swing, soul and some funk/r&b as it showcases songs from the Stax catalog (the label for which they were a backing band). The result is the best possible version of Muzak, which I wish they would pump everywhere instead of the inane version that they usually do.

This record felt like a throwback to my household when I grew up. TV was a thing we liked to watch then, but it was more of an event than a thing that always happened. The main room was reserved for reading, conversation and 100% of the time - music. As a result, the music was often softer music or instrumental. This record would fit perfect into that situation; unless you were reading a book, in which case getting up every 10 minutes would probably be irritating.

A Record a Week: James Brown - Body Heat

SIDE 1
BODY HEAT
WOMAN
KISS IN '77

SIDE 2
I'M SATISFIED
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE
WAKE UP AND GIVE YOURSELF A CHANCE
DON'T TELL IT

After listening to this record, I think I can pin at least some of the blame for terrible disco-style funk on the Godfather himself. I have noted my distaste for said style of funk before, and I stick to it in the case of this record. A few of the songs hit on the snappy, upbeat style of funk (which I love) and one or two have the sensual style of Man's World and Please, Please, Please, but the disco was creeping its way in. Whether it was distractions in his personal life, or just the inevitable way that music just changes over the years, he just wasn't the same anymore.

The back of the record makes note of it being a spiritual journey, so the change in sound could be noted to that. However, I would suspect that if that were the case, the album would sound more cohesive, possibly along the lines of a concept album.

Following the release of this record, Brown never was the chart-topping genius he was prior to it, and eventually just toured with his older, more popular material.

On a personal note, my stepfather and I had tickets to go see him in January 2007 at Casino Rama(which I was so excited for), only to wake up on Christmas morning to find out he had died. At first I couldn't believe it was true, and nor could he when I passed on the news. After that, when Bob Dylan came to Rama, he wouldn't let me buy tickets to go with him, just in case.