“Hmm, early November – must be almost time for the December issue of The Word to drop through the letterbox”, and so it did the morning after I had this thought. Not quite a record for advance delivery, I think I had one delivered on the 3rd of the (preceding) month once. The Word is always a good read I think, probably due in part to the fact that I must be a near contemporary to the editor (Mark Ellen) and at least one main writer (David Hepworth). MP3 blogs, audioblogs, or whatever you want to call things such as this wot you are reading now seem to have been getting an increasing number of references and name drops in the mainstream press recently. The Word’s team seem to be quite disposed to them. In this month’s edition David Hepworth has written an article on MP3 bloggers and their output (I thought of saying "art", but that’s pushing it a bit I guess) that is almost reverential in tone. It seems David spends many a Saturday morning clicking from blog to blog, whether mine is one of them I don’t know. “MP3 bloggers don’t make any wild claims. They just put the stuff there” he says, and he concludes his article with : “… By then they will have formed themselves into the Society For The Protection of Unpopular Music (see in the phone book under SPUM) and will have royal patronage. Here’s to them, for they shall inherit the earth.”
On behalf of all the bloggers on my blogroll and the thousands of others out there I would like to say thanks to David for the kind words. I’m sure we all approach this MP3 blogging lark as a labour of love, but nevertheless it’s nice to get a comment or two now and then and it strikes me that with his article David has just posted a huge communal comment.
Just one thing, though – SPUM? It sounds like a cross between scum and spam. Surely we bloggers deserve a better sounding acronym/initialism?!
So what to play to accompany this post? Well, I can’t believe I have been doing this for almost eight months now and I haven’t yet posted a Rufus track. Time to put that right. I’m sure Rufus & Chaka Khan need no introduction from me – they had a unique sound and were pure class. "Stop On By" was the last track on their 1974 "Rufusized" album when they were just hitting top form. There are plenty of Rufus tracks that make me cry whenever I hear them and this is one of them, maybe it's the strings on this one that does it. The label scan is of the UK single but I've posted the album version of the track as it has a sublime fade out-in-out. Don't be fooled - stay listening for the sax at the end.
4 comments:
Great track, this - I also like "Your Smile" a lot.
I remember buying this LP in 74 when all around me were listening to Deep Purple, Wishbone Ash etc - different!
David Hepworth's musings also struck a chord with me, although I'm like him, trawling the blogs for downloads and filling up the iPod. I should really get the deck linked up to the Mac and then start posting some of my old vinyl...
Nice one Darcy
Phil: Yep "Your Smile" is another gem. I remember John Peel turned me onto this album, he played I think 3 tracks on his program includng "Your Smile" when it was first released. JP used to play some really good soul stuff interspersed in his show. I was leading a sort of dual life back around 74 - mad for Rufus and soul music in general and at the same time lapping up anything from the likes of Roxy Music, Bowie, Zep, and even a bit of Wishbone Ash.
Great post Darcy! Thanks for passing on the "huge communial comment".
Has it been eight months? Congatulations. "A labour of love" is right, Darcy, and it shows in your posts. Excellent choice of tune to accompany this post. I wasn't familiar with the album version of "Stop On By". That sax ending just puts you in the right place at the right time.
I grew up listening to the Rufusized lp over and over and OVER again. I have the cd and the vinyl copy and it is on my itunes and ipod. I also have the rare Quadrophonic version on vinyl. Need I say more?
PS Another amazing track is "Pack'd My Bags" with the piano solo intro. Sheer heaven.
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