Always the Queen: The Denise LaSalle Story by Denise LaSalle

I came to Denise LaSalle's music in the latter part of her career, so I was surprised to find that she saw herself as a soul singer before she was ever a blues singer. I was delighted to see she was friends with some of my favorite blues musicians, e.g., Millie Jackson, Bobby Rush and blown away when I found out she wrote ZZ Hill's Someone Else is Steppin' In.

 Written in a conversational tone, Always the Queen felt like I was sitting at my aunt's house listening to her reminisce about her version of the good old days, whether factual or as she remembered them. At times, I had a difficult time determining whether the events Ms LaSalle wrote about were real or simply embellishments. Regardless, this was a quick and enjoyable read for anyone familiar with her music and her many business adventures.

#BookReview: Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

"But sometimes I only remember things through records.  They're a trigger for me, they're Pavlov's bell.  Without thinking about the music, I can't remember the experience.  But if I think long enough about a specific album, something else always bubbles up."

That quote right there sums up why I love Questlove and his love of music.  Friends and family make fun of me because no story I ever tell is complete without referring to a song or album that was out at the time. I can remember exactly what I was doing the first time I heard "The Double Dutch Bus" (getting my hair braided by my play mama at day camp), Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick's "The Show" (walking to day camp) or the whole LL Cool J "Bigger & Deffer" tape (riding the bus from a sewage treatment plant on a science camp field trip).  So I can definitely feel where Questlove is coming from.  Music has been such an integral part of his life from the beginning.

Raised in a musical family, Thompson began playing drums in his father's group at a young age.  He didn't just play the drums, he studied his craft, attending a performing arts high school in Philadelphia along with bassist Christian McBride, members of Boyz II Men and fellow Roots member, Black Thought (Tariq Trotter).  A bit of a nerd (okay, more than a bit), Thompson's nerdiness has been balanced out by the rough around the edges personality of Trotter almost from the conception of their group.

It's difficult to review this book because there's so much I want to say, but I'll just say that music lovers must read it.  There are a lot of a-ha and oh yeah moments throughout.  Some of my favorites are:

1. Thompson is a KISS fanatic
2. He writes reviews for his own records and lays them out like a Rolling Stone page.
3. Steppin' Out by Joe Jackson (not THAT Joe Jackson) is one of those songs I thought no one else knew, yet it made his extended play list for 1982.  The same goes for Sheila E's Yellow in 1985 and Carole King's Chicken Soup with Rice in 1975.
4. He has a theory that hip hop evolves in five year cycles, and he's probably right.
5. When an artist dies, there's a special stipulation that allows their songs to be played for a 48-hour period at the standard rate for news purposes, which allowed The Roots to play Michael Jackson songs on air the day after his death.

288pp
Published: June 2013
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.

Theme: I Love Music by The O'Jays (from Soul Train because ?uestlove)

 

#BookReview: Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny - Nile Rodgers

Even if you don't know his name, and I can't imagine you don't, but if you don't, you know Nile Rodgers' music.  A writer, musician and producer, you can almost bet that at any given moment, a radio station some place on earth is playing a Nile Rodgers' song.  We'll get into the songs in a just a minute, but for now, let's talk about Nile himself.

Born to a 13 year old mother, Nile's upbringing was anything but conventional.  I would go so far as to say that the phrase, "sex, drugs and rock & roll" accurately describes his youth.  A few years later his mother would go on to marry, not Nile's biological father, but Bobby, a Jewish salesman that wasn't much older than her.  As Beverly and Bobby experimented more with drugs, their surroundings changed, so it wasn't uncommon for Nile and his brothers to live in Greenwich Village one day and Alphabet City or Hell's Kitchen the next.

As his mother tried to get herself together, Nile went to live with his grandmother and began an endless stream of flights back and forth from California to New York as his mother summoned him and sent him away.  The one bright light in all of this chaos was his discovery of a love for music.  It almost seemed like as soon as he felt he was old enough to handle life on his own, he made a break from the yo-yo lifestyle he'd been leading.  Thank goodness he did.

Starting with the Big Apple Band, Rodgers would partner with bassist Bernard Edwards and go on to compose, write, produce, perform or play on some of the biggest hits of the last 40 years.  As Chic, Rodgers and Edwards just wanted to make good music.  Neither was concerned with being the front man, which made them the perfect house musicians for artists like Luther Vandross and Ashford & Simpson.  Their production and writing skills brought us Sister Sledge's We Are Family and He's the Greatest Dancer.  I still bump Diana Ross' Upside Down and I'm Coming Out.  And though Rodgers and Edwards split in the 80s, Rodgers went on to work on albums for Madonna (the complete Like A Virgin album), David Bowie (Let's Dance), Duran Duran (The Reflex), Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and Prince, to name a few.

What did you like about this book?
I learned a lot about Rodgers.  I guess I'd never really given him much thought prior to receiving this book, but he really has written the soundtrack of my life.  He's lead quite an interesting life and has overcome what would be insurmountable circumstances for others.

What didn't you like about this book?
Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything.

What could the author do to improve this book?
I went into this expecting to get a lot more gossip or back stories of Rodgers' friends.  I guess because they were his friends, he didn't really give up as much as I expected him to.

336pp
Published: Oct. 18, 2011

Theme: Dance, Dance, Dance by Chic

  

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

Okay, not really, but I thought we'd take a break from books today to talk about my other guilty pleasure.  It never fails that at least once a year I'll see an article about books that change lives.  Is music life changing? I can't say that it is, but there are songs that automatically transport me back to another place and time when I hear them.

1. Easy by The Commodores: I learned how to skate on Saturday mornings at Skate King in East St. Louis from an instructor only known as Red.  I tried to skate backwards forever and finally mastered it one Saturday while The Commodores played in the background.





2. Master Blaster (Jammin') by Stevie Wonder: 5th grade Girl Scout Jamboree in the basement of Lily Freeman Elementary.  All I really remember is that it was hot and when Stevie sang, "It's hotter than July," I agreed with him.





3. Silent Night by The Temptations & This Christmas by Donny Hathaway: I can't remember a holiday season without these songs and the season doesn't officially start for me until I hear them.  I know I'm not alone when I say that if either song pops up on my iTunes mid-summer, I sing right along like it's Christmas Eve.









4. Our House by Madness: When cable arrived in our house in the early 80s, my brother and I would watch videos non-stop.  This was one of our favorites and every time I hear it, I think of him.





5. Jack and Diane by John Cougar Mellencamp, anything by Journey & Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard: Every one of these songs reminds me of 7th and 8th grade at Zion Lutheran Grade School





6. Out On A Limb by Teena Marie: Seems like it played on repeat while a group of neighborhood girls helped an older neighbor get ready for prom.  I had to get back to my street before the street lights came on, but those that stayed behind told us the next day that her date never showed up and she played that song all night.





7. Cher Chez La Femme by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band: College parties and my first intro to house and deep house music. Yes, I know this song came out in the 70s, but no college party was complete until it was played.





8. Real Love by Mary J. Blige: For some reason I had access to a university vehicle the year this came out and was often sent on errands.  My partner in crime and I would ride through the back roads between Champaign-Urbana and whatever podunk town we were headed to blasting the whole What's the 411 tape.  Yeah, I said TAPE!





9. 261.5 by Tony! Toni! Tone!: Actually the whole Who tape had it going on.  We played in for hours straight on a last minute road trip to another university for a party.  We also played it in the parking lot in the early morning hours once the party was over and we discovered our friend's rust bucket of a car had a flat.





10. You Ought to Know by Alanis Morrissette: Is an explanation really needed?





So what songs bring you fond, or not so fond, memories?

Setting Words to Music

Music and words have always played a big part in my life.  In some ways, music is woven even deeper into the fabric of my being.  There's not a major event in my life that I can think of without remembering what song was popular at that time or what song I was listening to as it happened.

It's been said that people should have a theme song.  Mine changes from day to day.  Some days it's "You Gotta Be" by Des'ree, other days it's "Easy" by the Commodores (which I learned to skate backwards to back in the day).  And still on other days, it "Murder Rap" by Above the Law (Don't judge me!)  Anyway, this got me to thinking.  TV shows have theme songs, people can have theme songs, why shouldn't books?

I've gone back through a few of the books that I've read over the last year and come up with songs that immediately came to mind as they relate to the story line.

The book: Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The song: Sentimental by Alexander O'Neal

The book: I'm Down by Mishna Wolff
The song: Square Biz by Teena Marie

The book: That Takes Ovaries! bold females and their brazen acts - edited by Rivka Solomon
The song: A Deeper Love by Aretha Franklin

The book: Glorious by Bernice McFadden
The song: Testify by Dianne Reeves

The book: Heard It All Before by Michele Grant
The song: I Want to Thank You by Alicia Meyers

The book: Uptown by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant
The song: Native New Yorker by Odyssey


So what about you? Read any books that just screamed for their own theme song?

#BookReview: When Rap Music Had A Conscience: The Artists, Organizations and Historic Events that Inspired, Influenced the Golden Age of Hip-Hop from 1987 to 1996 - Tayannah Lee McQuillar

Remember when rap was real? I do. It was back when I could take a dollar to the penny candy store and buy a pickle, two bags of pumpkin seeds, a pack of apple Now-n-Laters, an apple stix & a chick-o-stick. It was also a time when I could leave home at 9 a.m. on my bike, check in around noon and head back out until 8 p.m. (must be home before the street lights even think about coming on) and my mother didn't have to worry.

The first rap I ever heard was Rapper's Delight and I was hooked. When Run DMC hit the scene I learned all the words to It's Like That and even formed a dance crew with the other girls in the neighborhood. Never mind that we weren't old enough to go to any of the parties around the way, we practiced with an unbridled intensity in hopes that one day the spotlight would be on us and we'd get our turn to shine. And oh my gosh, when Afrika Bambattaa's Planet Rock came on at the skating rink? You couldn't pull me off the floor!

While a lot of today's rap music leaves much to be desired, Tayannah Lee McQuillar presents us with When Rap Music Had A Conscience in an effort to remind us that at one point, there was a message in the music. When Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released The Message they brought an awareness of life in the inner city to citizens of the world. KRS-ONE kept the ball rolling through the late 80s/early 90s, along with Public Enemy. So when did rap change? I can't pinpoint it. I won't blame it on NWA, Ice T and gangsta rap, though it would be easy to do so. I just know that there was a shift between the time I graduated college and came back a year later for homecoming. The freshmen were unlike anything I'd seen before and the music made me cringe.

Now I can't say that today's rap lyrics don't bring an awareness, but the difference is a glorification of a lifestyle that is slowly, but surely, killing our communities. There are beacons of hope within the rap world and for every Gucci Mane, there's a Common. For every Plies, there's a Mos Def. And it's not to say that even the most conscience of rappers don't occasionally slip, Common's Go makes me squirm just a bit, but their overall focus isn't the objectification of women, drugs or drive-bys. A quick read, anyone that's a fan of hip hop will certainly enjoy the trip down memory lane with this book. So in the words of the movie Brown Sugar, when did you fall in love with hip hop?

(90s B-girl in full effect)

184pp

Published March 2007

What did you like about this book?

I loved taking a trip down memory lane with the author.

What did you dislike about this book?

Some of the sections included in the book didn't necessarily fit with the overall theme of the book. For example, a section on movies from that era would have been appropriate if the soundtracks had included rap from that time period. Instead, the list included any black movie made during that era.

What could the author do to improve the book?

Some of her dates and backstories are questionable. A little more research could easily fix that.