Apparently my online presence is now limited to short facebook chunks of nerdovision. And that’s about it. Seriously. Ask anybody. Check me out on twitter, all I do is repost other shit. LAME.
I’m still writing, it’s just not public right now.
I’m going to Philadelphia! I’m going to just start calling it Phila., PA, with the period and coma, of course. I’m going there! This year’s Society for Ethnomusicology conference is in Phila., PA. You know I get busy online this time of year. I will be tweeting away. Hashtag #SEM2011. I didn’t even have schoolcraft wax this time last year. Woah. Here’s my DDD post about SEM in Los Angeles: DDD SEM 2010.
EDIT: I present Thursday afternoon. My paper is titled “Genre Ownership and Boundary Negotiation in Detroit Electronic Music.”
Moving on: The following was part of my soundtrack this past weekend. Totally relevant because it’s music that I like. I’ve been schooled on it. (schoolcraft wax) And it’s totally influential to Motown music.
Big Mama Thornton “Hound Dog” is the first thing I want you to listen to, my dear readers. I love it. Maureen Mahon, Ph.D. gave the Popular Music Section lecture last year at SEM on this fascinating woman. This is Mahon’s new research project and I’m really excited about it. Mahon wrote Right to Rock, a fantastic book about the Black Rock Coalition and race. Listen to Big Mama Thornton sing “Hound Dog.” Before Elvis. Her voice is amazing. The way she begins the song knocks me down.
Next up, Ruth Brown. She is awesome. Awesome. Look at that tambourine action. I mean what the fuck. How often do you get to see and hear somebody play and sing and move like that. I love it. Yes, I am a scholar. “What the fuck” is a commonly used evaluative phrase in academic circles. It means “shit yes.”
Chuck Berry kills me with this song. Look at his skinny legs stomp. Total shoulder shimmy song and hip hop bounce song.
Sam Cooke.
And Harvey Fuqua, married Gwen Gordy, wrote Motown songs, did other cool stuff.
I love these songs. Enjoy. In my mind, I’m already in Phila., PA.
Tags: Ethnomusicology, Motown, PA, Phila., SEM 2011
We must must get you down to Beale Street young lady. Seriously. You can feel the blues in the air and it sinks into your pores until you are saturated then years later it can’t help but seep out.
Just discovering now Big Mama Thorton. Yeah. Shit yeah. As soon as the guitar player learns to play Hound Dog, I can submit a small offering at the feet of Her Holiness Big Mama.
How am I just now discovering greats like Big Mama Thorton and Memphis Minnie? (I know you didn’t mention her but she must be mentioned.) When I hear them, something in my blood, some long lost atom of dust from the Mississippi delta activates inside me and I am reborn.
Halleluiah. Amen. Glory Be.
(note to self: find a tamborine. also horn section.)