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the book is forthcoming. by Danyel Smith. a history of black women in pop. from It Books/HarperCollins (2014). now writing. tumbling this stuff keeps me inspired, and keeps my brain sane.
Posts tagged rock

'there remains a...misalignment between the shape, scale and range of what popular music is and what the Grammys capture. It remains reliably boneheaded about hip-hop, R&B and country, a point it proved this year with its showering of riches upon the full spectrum of vanguard-free rock bands.' 

Heart, Albert King, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Rush and Donna Summer made the cut. The newly announced class of 2013 will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 18 in at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. yes!

Heart, Albert King, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Rush and Donna Summer made the cut. The newly announced class of 2013 will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 18 in at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.

yes!

wornjournal: the incomparable Tina Turnerphoto by Michel Comte, 1993  *** get some hirsute chic in the HAIR issuefrom WORN Fashion Journalpick up your copy after November 24 or PREORDER NOW #sheiseverywoman

wornjournal:

the incomparable Tina Turner
photo by Michel Comte, 1993 

***

get some hirsute chic in the HAIR issue
from WORN Fashion Journal
pick up your copy after November 24 or
PREORDER NOW

#sheiseverywoman

(via wayblackwhen)

Album Art
917 Plays

soulmo:

Ike & Tina Turner “I Can’t Believe What You Say” (Kent 402, 1964)

Sometimes a song is fatally relevant in your life the moment you think of it, and tonight we have one of Ike & Tina’s mid 1960s obscurities helping me make sense of the world.

Despite a lot of promotion (including a feature of the song on Shindig in early 1965) it didn’t break through to becoming the hit Ike & Tina so desperately needed, and left the duo prime for Phil Spector to make a masterpiece offer they couldn’t refuse.

#sheiseverywoman

(via blackrockandrollmusic)

+++++ photo of Ike Turner and Tina Turner at home in Los Angeles by Steve Schapiro, 1974

+++++

photo of Ike Turner and Tina Turner at home in Los Angeles by Steve Schapiro, 1974

We worked the Copacabana in New York, and at that time they didn’t allow coloured people to come into the club. In fact, we didn’t have any dressing rooms: I had to dress at home, do my show, then get out of there between shows, go round the corner, and have a few drinks. And what I like about that is: the Copacabana went through the Frank Sinatras and the Nat Coles; then business got bad, and they had the rock’n’rollers, who tore the place up; but, as they’re just going out, they always end up getting some jazz people. So, just recently, I returned to the Copacabana. It was a thrill, because it was us at the last thing that they had to relate to, to keep the club going. Soon after that, they went boom-boom and I was glad. I’m sorry it lasted that long! You wonder why those things went on like they did. I don’t know what music has to do with colour, but it does. I can even remember when they had Race records; we had a hit, and then you had a hit—it was a separate thing. Yeah, it’s a dumb world we live in, I think. more, from 1972. +++++ art: Vaughan and Bob Shad, 1950

We worked the Copacabana in New York, and at that time they didn’t allow coloured people to come into the club. In fact, we didn’t have any dressing rooms: I had to dress at home, do my show, then get out of there between shows, go round the corner, and have a few drinks. And what I like about that is: the Copacabana went through the Frank Sinatras and the Nat Coles; then business got bad, and they had the rock’n’rollers, who tore the place up; but, as they’re just going out, they always end up getting some jazz people. So, just recently, I returned to the Copacabana. It was a thrill, because it was us at the last thing that they had to relate to, to keep the club going. Soon after that, they went boom-boom and I was glad. I’m sorry it lasted that long! You wonder why those things went on like they did. I don’t know what music has to do with colour, but it does. I can even remember when they had Race records; we had a hit, and then you had a hit—it was a separate thing. Yeah, it’s a dumb world we live in, I think.

more, from 1972.

+++++

art: Vaughan and Bob Shad, 1950

“I had some of the best years of my career during that era. My writers—Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy—had their finger on a pulse…you just couldn’t stop them! They were writing music that had sophistication, and yet had the undercurrent of good old R&B…when I met them…they were looking for an Aretha Franklin—and they got a Natalie Cole! I’d never even SUNG that kind of music before! I’d been singing rock & roll, pop…And they came along and totally changed my musical world! To where we became really the leaders in R&B for a good, I’d say, five/six years. No one could TOUCH us! That cool combination of the R&B rhythm with the strings on top became the new sound that started to influence other artists’ work too. I mean, before we did ‘Mr. Melody’, whoever heard of scatting it the middle of an R&B song?! We had no rules. We had no boundaries. We were loving every minute of it… Plus we were great FRIENDS…we rode a great, great cloud. And through it we influenced so many other singers/writers/musicians/arrangers to explore and to expand, and to help make R&B what it went on to become.” more.

“I had some of the best years of my career during that era. My writers—Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy—had their finger on a pulse…you just couldn’t stop them! They were writing music that had sophistication, and yet had the undercurrent of good old R&B…when I met them…they were looking for an Aretha Franklin—and they got a Natalie Cole! I’d never even SUNG that kind of music before! I’d been singing rock & roll, pop…And they came along and totally changed my musical world! To where we became really the leaders in R&B for a good, I’d say, five/six years. No one could TOUCH us! That cool combination of the R&B rhythm with the strings on top became the new sound that started to influence other artists’ work too. I mean, before we did ‘Mr. Melody’, whoever heard of scatting it the middle of an R&B song?! We had no rules. We had no boundaries. We were loving every minute of it… Plus we were great FRIENDS…we rode a great, great cloud. And through it we influenced so many other singers/writers/musicians/arrangers to explore and to expand, and to help make R&B what it went on to become.”

more.