SOUNDTRACK: TINY DESK PLAYLISTS (2019).
As on October 1, NPR has started the Tiny Desk Playlist page.
As of today there are 9 Playlists on the page. I’m not going to comment on them, as I’ve already posted about all of these shows (except CHAI as of now). I might disagree with some of these lists, but whatever the case they are a good introduction to Tiny Desks if you haven’t already seen one.
5 Tiny Desk Concerts That Will Literally Make You Cry
• Julien Baker (read more)
• Yusuf/Cat Stevens (read more)
• Bernie and The Believers (read more)
• Rev. Sekou and The Seal Breakers (read more)
• Barbara Hannigan (read more)
The 5 Most Uplifting Tiny Desk Concerts
• Lizzo (read more)
• Superorganism (read more)
• Fragile Rock (read more)
• Dan Deacon (read more)
• Mucca Pazza (read more)
The 5 Wildest Tiny Desk Concerts
• Gogol Bordello (read more)
• Red Baraat (read more)
• The Cristina Pato Trio (read more)
• George Li (read more)
• Dirty Three (read more)
The Best-Sounding Tiny Desk Concerts, Vol. 1 [selected by “the guy mixing the performances and bopping his head along just off (and sometimes on) screen” Josh Rogosin].
• Monsieur Periné (read more)
• Andrew Bird (read more)
• Nick Hakim (read more)
• Tedeschi Trucks Band (read more)
• PJ Morton (read more)
The Best Of The Very Beginning Of Tiny Desk Concerts
• Laura Gibson (read more)
• Vic Chesnutt (read more)
• Tom Jones (read more)
• Thao Nguyen (read more)
• Dr. Dog (read more)
The 5 Best ‘Before They Were Stars’ Tiny Desk Concerts
• Brandi Carlile (read more)
• Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals (read more)
• Adele (read more)
• H.E.R. (read more)
• Mitski (read more)
Tiny Desk Trick Or Treat: Our 5 Favorite Concerts In Costume
• Neko Case’s Halloween Special (read more)
• Blue Man Group (read more)
• Mucca Pazza (read more)
• CHAI (read more)
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band (read more)
#ElTiny: The Best Latinx Tiny Desk Concerts, Vol. 1
• Natalia Lafourcade (read more)
• Jorge Drexler (read more)
• Juanes & Mon Laferte (read more)
• iLe (read more)
• Café Tacvba (read more)
Lianne La Havas’ 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts
• Tank And The Bangas
• Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals
• Noname
• Tamino
• Mac Miller
[READ: October 28, 2019] “God’s Caravan”
This story opens with boys crouching in the dirt shooting marbles. I assumed it was set in the 1950s, so I was surprised to see that the boy knew of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. But it is set in Memphis, Tennessee–“Soulsville the black part.”
Earl was kicking butt and winning marbles left and right when the boys heard an ice cream truck trundle up. But this was no ice cream truck. Rather it was a van and it was playing “I’ve come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee.” On the side of the van, painted in “blood of Jesus” red were the words “God’s Caravan.” The speakers then broadcast “When I say, ‘Ride or die’…you say ‘Amen.'”
The voice said “Ride or Die” and Earl and the other boys all shouted back “Amen.”
The door opened and there was the pastor, dressed in black judge’s robes. He said he had sweets for their hearts.
Earl was from Ellenwood. His father was diagnosed with schizophrenia and his mother sent him to Soulsville to stay with his Aunt and Uncle and, more importantly, with his cousin Brent who might harden him up a bit. Brent taught him things–about sex, about drugs and about rock n roll. While his Aunt taught him about Grace Baptist Church.
But Michael Jackson and the music at Grace Baptist Church was nothing like the music that Pastor John was playing. “Pastor John’s music was coon, not hymn, though Earl didn’t know that terminology yet.” The lyrics were strange but easy: “Coon on the moon, oh yes, we on the moon.” The song was so catchy that the boys sang it all the way home, “like that was a completely peachy thing for black boys to be singing in the birthplace of Stax Records and the deathplace of Martin Luther King, Jr.:”
Pastor John told Biblical stories although no one had ever seen them in the Bible. Like the one about Boy Jesus withering the hand of a child who;d stolen his favorite toy–a carving of a boat that Joseph had made for him. The thief cried and do you know who that thief turned out to be? St. John! Jesus’ best friend was the thief!
Earl was smitten with the pastor–he felt the spirit. Gram was thrilled, “I always knew you boys would find the Lord some way or other.” Pop went with them the next Sunday, as did many of the boys’ fathers. The van drove up and the Pastor was pleased–even if he said nothing–that the adults were there too,
This time, rather than “Suzanna,” the pastor sang “Catch a Nigger by the Toe” (between this and two stories in the Ghost Box, I am shocked how many times I have seen that word in print in the last week. The Pastor finished singing and said “You must be the new Jesus Riders! Then he looked at Earl and said You wont ride at all will you son? You fly.”
From then on Earl (who never liked his name) asked everyone to call him Fly.
At the dinner table Pop related the events to Gram, beginning with “The pastor didn’t even collect money.” Then he said he enjoyed hearing those stories about “Jesus feeling bad, having greed and being competitive in nature–but also still being the Christ. Stories I admit that I was willing to stand in the sun and dirt to hear. Never felt that staying feeling tat Grace Baptist.”
The next Sunday Gram came as did other mothers as well as more fathers and brothers. They sang the song “No Such thing as a Good Nigger.” And then Fly understood, “for the first time, that there were actual people who’d think he was weak because they thought he was a nigger. He was eight years old, a black kid for the South, but he’d never thought about that before.”
Fly looked at a man who was prostrating himself on the ground. He felt compelled to touch the man. He stated “Not meek” and the man stood with his arms raised: “Fly gave him his manhood.” At home Gram asked him to say the blessing over the meal.
On the fourth Sunday they passed communion around. Fly watched the basket feed everyone. The pastor said “No body hungry. No body thirsty. No famine. No war.”
The pastor wasn’t trying to get them to leave their Church and no one did, his services were a bonus. Gram even gave the Pastor the quilt she’d been working on.
This time the Pastor took Fly’s hand and said they’d find out who he really was. Fly was ready to find out “that he could really dance and sing ‘Beat It’ as well as Brent but instead Pastor began to pray.” Then he said “You know, dear Lord, you should not even be alive now.”
Fly was troubled by this and he called home to ask if he was not supposed to be alive. His mother cried and told him that when he was born he wasn’t breathing. Then “your father held you and told you square in the face that it was time to stop this nonsense. Right now, he told you. And you came to. Just like that.”
The next week Fly had to ask the Pastor why he was there. The pastor told him that was easy–Love. That is your purpose. ”
Then they had another purpose–that’s when the money collection began.
The end happens in the last few paragraphs and it reveals an awful lot about the Pastor and about Fly.
I didn’t know where this story was going, but I really enjoyed the route it took.
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