Groove

It happens when singer and band are just so tight and you've got a pulsating, rhythmic repeating figure that's so right you just want it to keep on going.  I can't think of any better examples than two performances featured before on THC, both of which are superior to the recorded versions.

Use Me by Bill Withers, from a TV show sometime in the mid-70s.  Slower than the hit record and so delicious.  Concentrate on the instrumentation when listening.  The guitarist is doing some amazing work and as for the drummer, when the first comment on the video is "that drummer is possibly the coolest guy to have ever lived", all I can add, in the words of Mona Lisa Vito, is "it's a fact!".

Next up is I Can't Go For That, a decade old live performance by Ceelo Green and Daryl Hall (with Daryl's crack band).  A remake of the Hall & Oates 80s hit, this version is so smooth and groovy.  Every instrument is precisely right - guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and Ceelo's seemingly effortless vocal.

I wouldn't mind if both of these were twice as long.

I Can't Go For That

Posted this a few years ago, but since I listen to it every few weeks thought it was time to share it again.  From Daryl's House it's Ce Lo Green and Daryl Hall performing I Can't Go For That with a dynamite band.  Didn't care for this song when Hall & Oates released it in the early 80s and it became a hit single but this version is perfectomundo.  Ce Lo's vocal is so effortless, while Daryl Hall sounds as good as he did decades ago.  And spend a little time with the bassist and drummer who are so tight.  Hard to stop moving as you listen.

I Can't Complain

I can't complain
But sometimes I still do
Life's been good to me
So far

Joe Walsh performing Life's Been Good in 2012 on Live From Daryl's House.  Joe sounds better than ever on both guitar and vocals.  And Daryl Hall's not too shabby either.

Daryl Hall On Cultural Appropriation

(From Salon, via Powerline).

THC has written before about Live From Daryl's House, Daryl Hall's terrific live music show featuring established and new artists performing with Hall and his ace band.  Recently Daryl was interviewed by Salon and the subject of cultural appropriation came up (you can find the entire interview here).  THC thinks Daryl's comments are right on point:

One of the current debates is over “cultural appropriation” – The idea that white people should not appropriate the culture of ethnic and racial minorities. I know that you don’t like the term “blue eyed soul.” Have you followed this conversation?

Are you trying to say that I don’t own the style of music that I grew up with and sing? I grew up with this music. It is not about being black or white. That is the most naïve attitude I’ve ever heard in my life. That is so far in the past, I hope, for everyone’s sake. It isn’t even an issue to discuss. The music that you listened to when you grew up is your music. It has nothing to do with “cultural appropriation.”

I agree with you entirely, because…

I’m glad that you do, because anyone who says that should shut the fuck up.

Well, this entire critique is coming back…

I’m sorry to hear it. Who is making these critiques? Who do they write for? What are their credentials to give an opinion like that? Who are they?

Much of it is academic.

Well, then they should go back to school. Academia? Now, there’s a hotbed of idiocy.

Anyone who knows about music, about culture in general, understands that everything is much more natural. Everything is a mixture.

We live in America. That’s our entire culture. Our culture is a blend. It isn’t split up into groups. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool – worse than a fool – a dangerous fool.

Daryl's House

Live from Daryl's House is on the Palladia Network and all over YouTube.  Featuring Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates from his home studio in Pawling, NY along with his guests it's worth a look and listen.  The hour long show consists of live music, switching between Hall & Oates tunes and those of the guest star and some eating and cooking.  THC thinks of him as younger than those rock stars from the 1960s but it turns out Daryl is 68 and still sounds great.

Here's a couple of cuts.  First up is Cee Lo Green (1/2 of Gnarls Barkley) with Daryl contemplating the eternal moral dilemma faced by humankind performing I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) a song THC didn't care for when first done by Hall & Oates but this version is terrific.  Next is Paris, a song by and with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals along with Daryl.  If you'd like to hear more from Grace listen to this cover of Cortez The Killer with an unearthly guitar solo from Joe Satriani and haunting horn from Willy Waldman.  It's not only the best of the approximately 37,522 covers of the song, it surpasses Neil Young's original.