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From '50s NYC clubland, a Yma Sumac-inspired version of "Babalu" by jazz/calypso singer Phyllis Branch.
Category Archives: Soul
Bright Lights
Like AM Radio Dust, its companion volume, Bright Lights is just as much an exploration of lost spaces and places as it is of sound. I hope you enjoy it. Bright Lights (single MP3 file) Susan Rafey, “The Big Hurt” … Continue reading
Blue Flame: a new mix
I put together a new mix for my Dutch compadre Cortez for the fifth anniversary of his fabulous Club Cortez blog. You can find it there now. Club Cortez has been around as long as Office Naps. Cortez’s tastes in … Continue reading
It’s your voodoo working
This week Office Naps surveys some R&B favorites from the early ‘60s. There’s no tight conceptual theme, though these selections share some sensibilities. They mine the arrangements and robust, minor-key melodies of compositions like “Fever,” “St. James Infirmary” or “Summertime.” … Continue reading
The desperate hours
This week we look at a few representative examples of a wonderfully dark, slow strain of post-War rhythm and blues. The lyrical content has always hovered around the same subjects – lost love, deep loneliness, obsession, suicide, death – a … Continue reading
You’re No Good
“You’re No Good” was written by one Clint Ballard (1931-2008), an El Paso-born musician, songwriter-for-hire and band manager who enjoyed his greatest success in the mid-’60s. “You’re No Good” is one of Ballard’s best-known, if not best, compositions. (Other well-known … Continue reading
Booker T. and beyond
Booker T. and the MG’s contributed so much to the popularity of Memphis’s Stax Records in the ‘60s, and were so fundamental to the label’s sound – sharp, soulful, and classy, never flashy – it’s impossible to separate the histories … Continue reading
Chicago soul, part two
(Ed. note: more of my favorite late ‘60s Chicago soul this week and a continuation of a very early Office Naps post – back when I wouldn’t let minutiae like research or facts stand in the way of posting.) Like … Continue reading
Message from the ghetto
What ties this week’s selections together is not merely their spoken word component (though it’s significant, certainly). Nor is it just their cause of change and greater societal welfare. Awareness-raising ballads, agitprop invective, activist commentary, summons-to-action and subversive parody are … Continue reading
