(Some of) The Songs That I Love

Someone asked me to write about love. Since the last few posts have been about that subject, I decided to flip the suggestion a tad into something about music.

These are the songs that I love and why.

Not in any particular order or genre (ehh…you know this is R&B heavy. Heh.)

1) Phyllis Hyman “Meet Me on the Moon”





A few months ago, I bought a Best of Phyllis Hyman compilation and simply let it sit in my floor for a few weeks until her TV One “UnSung” documentary aired on TV. Her live rendition of “Living All Alone” from the doc is what made me pick the damn CD off of the floor and once I got to the end of the disc, I fell in love. Phyllis Hyman is me in ten years in audio form. Bold, boisterous, confident, fly as fuck. Most importantly, in love. “Meet Me on the Moon” encapsulates EVERYTHING that I hope to feel for the person that I ultimately fall in love with. I feel your symphony … so strong and so pure … it echoes all through me … I am so sure.... MAN.

2) Mobb Deep “Party Over”





The first hip-hop album that I bought at 16 was Havoc and P’s “The Infamous...” and it wasn’t even for me. I had bought the CD for my brother as his Christmas present. My brother, going through his seasonal depression, threw it back at me in a fit of rage about how fucked up our family was (whose isn’t, though?). So when I got home, I opened it up and played it. “Party Over” was the song that stuck out to me and to this day, I can’t really pinpoint why. Shit just knocks to me.

3) The Bar-Kays “Son of Shaft/Feel It”





One late night in college, I caught the entire Wattstax documentary on Vh1 Classic and this song stuck out like a tampon string. The weird part? I can only listen to the live version of this song. The studio version doesn’t move me at all. This is what started my curiosity into Stax and 70’s soul music or soul music in general.

4) Mint Condition “So Fine”





This is the song that started my love affair with Mint Condition. Listen to the lyrics of that record and you’ll see why. You want a man to tell you that you look “so damn good” to him. It’s the ultimate panty dropper record without telling you anything sexual. R&B ain’t built like that anymore.

5) Curtis Mayfield “Short Eyes (Freak, Free, Free)”





This song is about pedophilia. Sick, ain’t it? But the beauty of the song has more to do with its pedophiliac composition. Its sounds and flows like predator v. prey. The song is sick. The lyrics are sick. I discovered this song during my Stax run in college. The beautiful thing about this era of music is the soundtracks. One of my favorite albums of all-time is the official soundtrack for “Superfly”. Willie Hutch’s soundtrack for “The Mack” still gets play on a daily basis. The "Big 3" – Motown, Stax and Atlantic – made OUTSTANDING soul music in the 60s and 70s. I try to hold on to that stuff as much as possible.