I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ARTISTS FROM THE “TAKE ME TO THE RIVER” TOUR-Tiny Desk Concert #692 (January 15, 2018).

This is a touring band playing classic soul.  But I found the modern updates to be unpleasant and almost undermined the tone of the show.  The blurb says:

“Take Me To The River” is a 1974 song from the legendary Al Green and guitarist “Teenie” Hodges. And though it wasn’t a big hit at the time, this song’s mix of religion and desire has become part of pop music’s canon.

Here at the Tiny Desk, some of the original players of this deep southern soul have come together to honor and update this tradition. It’s a celebration of Memphis soul old and new, with 13 musicians wedged behind the desk.

Some of those players of the old include singers Bobby Rush and William Bell; on the Hammond organ, Rev. Charles Hodges and LeRoy Hodges on bass. But it’s what’s new that makes this more than a look back – the addition of southern rappers Frayser Boy and Al Kapone – that truly puts this project on new musical ground.

But it is this update–Frayser Boy and Al Kapone who really ruined this show for me.

I’m not suggesting that the original lyrics to “Push and Pull” are profound.  They are not, but Frayser Bay’s rap is just up front and graphic whereas the original song is more understated (as much as something called “Push and Pull” can be).  Bobby Rush is a great singer and he looks spectacular in his sequined jacket.  Rush has a nice harmonica solo too.  That rap just seemed to come in and mess the whole thing up.

“I Forget To Be Your Lover” suffers from the same problem.  William Bell has a great sound–a cool rough voice.  And the original has this conceit: “I forgot to be your lover and I’m sorry.”  Al Kapone  comes in with a fairly explicit and hardly apologetic rap.  And what’s even stranger is that Rev. Charles Hodges who plays an outstanding organ throughout the show (I loved seeing the organ’s spinning fan that makes the great organ sound), plays really sour notes while Kapone is rapping.  Each verse has this weird nauseating sound. In every other section it sounds amazing, but during the rap it’s almost like he’s commenting on the rudeness of the rap.  The contrast is even more stark when Bell takes back the song mid way through and holds a high falsetto note for about 10 seconds–which really shows his power and range.

The backing vocals by Ashton Riker and Evvie McKinney are a nice touch.   Then on “Take Me to the River” Riker shares lead duties with Bobby Rush and they sound great together.  Riker hits some powerful high notes while Rush keeps it all together.  This is the song that really sells the show.  But look at how uncomfortable Frayser Boy looks during this song.

The rest of the band sounds just fine, playing quiet and understated:  LeRoy Hodges (bass), Edward Cleveland (drums), Andrew Saino (guitar), Jamel Mitchell (sax), Scott Thompson (trumpet), Martin Shore (percussion).

[READ: November 10, 2017] The Talented Ribkins

I saw Ladee Hubbard on Seth Meyers.  She was really interesting (and went to Princeton) and her book sounded fascinating.

On the surface the book is fairly simple, even fairly uneventful. Johnny Ribkin has to come up with $100,000 in a week because he has run afoul of a powerful man.

A few things separate this from similar books.  The first is that over the course of his life, Johnny buried various amounts of money and possessions in random places around the state of Florida.  He should be able to find the money fairly easily.  The reason why he buried all of this is part of the story.

Another thing is that he and his siblings all have special powers.  Not exactly superpowers, but certainly special powers.  And while these powers don’t exactly come into play in the quest, they are ever-present and unavoidable.

So what the heck is going on here?

Johnny Ribkin was a map maker–this is the most obscure and never fully defined superpower of them all.  It’s not like her was a cartographer, he was more of a map maker for people’s future.  He could see what they were going to do and where they were going to be.

His father also had a gift.  He could see colors that no one else could.  His half-brother Franklin could scale walls like it was nothing–he even seemed to feel more comfortable while doing it.

See, weird special powers.

And the origin of the Ribkin name is pretty spectacular.

When they were younger, Johnny and some others (he hadn’t known about Franklin yet) decided to form the Justice Committee.  They sought out heroes who needed assistance and did whatever was in their special powers to help them.  Johnny’s unique power allowed him to make maps of areas where black folks weren’t exactly welcome.

She had explained that this premised was inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s famous essay “The Talented Tenth” that one in ten black men will become leaders of their race in the world, through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly involved in social change.

They were successful in minor ways.  However, through various problems, the Committee disbanded.

Then Johnny met Franklin (when his father revealed that he had been sleeping around).  He and Franklin got along really well, and they decided to use Franklin’s powers along with Johnny’s vision for what eventually became a con game.

They got mixed up in Florida politics when one of the candidates tried to use the Ribkin brothers to fetch a piece of incriminating evidence from his opponent.  That night changed Franklin forever. Johnny thinks he knows why but he really has the wrong idea entirely.  Eventually they stopped speaking and then Franklin died.

This trip back down to his brother’s house to retrieve the first box of cash leads him to a number of discoveries.  The first is that his brother had a daughter–he had no idea (they hadn’t been speaking when his brother died).  This girl, Eloise, has a special power of her own–she can catch anything at is thrown at her–but she doesn’t realize the full potential until much later.

Johnny finds this special power to be rather said–defensive rather than offensive.  And I Love the way that it is unfurled.

Eloise winds up accompanying him on his mission.  And it proves to be a trip down memory lane as Johnny has buried money near all of his relatives houses.  He visits with some, filling in gaps in his life as he trying to introduce Eloise to her past.

I really enjoyed this book a lot.  It was a breezy read (a lot of driving).  And while the book sounds episodic, it really doesn’t feel that way.

The threat–but not really a threat–of the two guys following him in the Camaro (just to make sure Johnny isn’t running off on his debt) is a contrast thread.  One that does impact the story a few times.  And there is a sense of wonderment about all of the special powers and how even special powers can’t really help you when the actual power is not yours.

This was great stuff.  I look forward to her next book.