The 500 - #217 - Two Steps From The Blues - Bobby Bland

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #217
Album Title: Two Steps From The Blues
Artist: Bobby Bland
Genre: Blues, Soul-Blues
Recorded: Universal Recording Corporation (Chicago)

Released:  January, 1961 
My age at release: Not born
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: I Pity The Fool

Throughout my 29-year teaching career I have always coached teams and run intramural clubs. In fact, I began volunteering in 1984 at the  helm of a bantam (13-14-year-olds) hockey team in my hometown of London. That experience prompted me to pursue teaching as a career. Mentorship is a powerfully rewarding pursuit. Not only does volunteering help build relationships with students, colleagues and parents, it has been scientifically proved to enhance happiness.

An infographic on the four key components to happiness.

Psychologists have distilled the recipe for happiness to four keys (detailed above). Contributing to my community by mentoring, teaching and coaching gives my life additional meaning. The Japanese have a word that describes the achievement of occupational harmony -- Ikigai. Achieving Ikigai occurs when you secure a paid profession you love, are good at and is attentive to worldly needs. If I may be so bold as to imply that I have met these targets, I have achieved Ikigai and giving my time to the community simply adds to my joy.

The Japanese Venn Diagram for achieving Ikigai.

This year, I coached the Sir Arthur Currie Volleyball team and recently held tryouts for the Slo-Pitch Club. Team tryouts are the only part of the process that I dislike. It is tough to tell hopeful 12- or 13-year-old kids they didn’t make the school team. It is a “gatekeeper” task I don’t like one bit.

It was a gatekeeper who played a significant role in the release of Two Steps From The Blues, the debut record from American singer and songwriter Bobby Bland. The gatekeeper in this case was Don Deadric Robey, the first African-American record mogul. Robey established Peacock Records in 1949, a decade before the legendary Berry Gordy created the Motown label in Detroit. Robey went on to take control of Duke Records, founded in Memphis, Tennessee.

Don Deadric Robey.

However, instead of being celebrated for this remarkable achievement, Robey is primarily remembered for his nefarious and financially predatory business practices. Jerry Leiber, of the legendary songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, called Robey "a gangster who managed his various entertainment enterprises using violence, the threat of violence, and murder."

Leiber (right) with his writing partner Mike Stoller (left) and
Elvis Presley.

At a time when African-American artists had few options when it came to signing a record deal, Robey, as head of Peacock/Duke Records, was able to leverage his position as "gatekeeper". Performers signed to his label were required to agree to exclusive booking and rapacious management contracts that allowed Robey to double and triple-dip on their performance income. Additionally, under the pseudonym Deadric Malone (generated from his middle name and his wife's maiden name) he gave himself songwriting credits to further profit through royalties.

Robey in studio, holding sheet music he, likely,
claimed to have co-written.

Bland, who was illiterate with only a Grade 3 education, was easy pickings for Robey. Consequently, Robey's name or pseudonym appears in the songwriting credits for eight of the 12 tracks on Two Steps From The Blues. He is credited as the sole songwriter under the name of Deadric Malone for the record's biggest hit, I Pity The Fool. 

 I Pity The Fool reached #1 on Billboard's R&B Chart in 1961 and made it to #43 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart later that year. It has been re-recorded by many artists, including by one of David Bowie's earliest bands, The Manish Boys -- at a time when he was still known by his birth name, David Jones. This version featured future Led Zeppelin musician Jimmy Page on guitar.

The Manish Boys - Bowie is second from left.

Music historians now believe that I Pity The Fool was likely written by American singer and songwriter Joe Medwick. Medwick is officially acknowledged with a few song-writing credits, However, it is believed (although not officially documented) that he wrote dozens more, many of which were surrendered to gatekeeper Robey for ready cash in lieu of royalties.

Singer-Songwriter Joe Medwick (c. 1950)

Bobby Bland continued to work for Robey and Duke records throughout the 1960s. In 1968, he and his band stopped touring due to financial pressures. He struggled with depression and alcoholism, but stopped drinking in 1971. At about the same time, Duke Records was sold to the larger ABC Record Company. The sale resulted in many of Bland's records being re-released and he benefited with a second chance at a performing and recording career overseen by more benevolent gatekeepers at the larger, more professional, ABC corporation.

I Take It On Home - Bobby Bland, on the ABC label

Despite health issues, Bland continued to perform into his ‘80s. He died on June 23, 2013, at his home in Germantown, Tennessee, at the age of 83. Unlike Robey, Bland is celebrated for his achievements. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 and, in 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Bland at number 163 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. There is a statue of him in downtown Memphis.

Robey died of a heart attack in 1975. No one built a statue in his honour, which provides a lesson for us all... if you are, or become, a gatekeeper, do the job with respect and kindness.

The 500 - #218 - The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #218
Album Title: The Queen Is Dead
Artist: The Smiths
Genre: Indie Pop, Jangle Pop, Post Punk
Recorded: Three Studios in England (London, Surrey, Manchester)

Released:  June, 1986 
My age at release: 20
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, moving up 105 places to position 113
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Frankly Mr. Shankly

In my mid-teens, I experienced an existential crisis that redefined me and how I saw the world. A specific moment is difficult to pin down, but I can identify some key events that served as the impetus.

• The death of my grandfather, "Pop". He was the first of my grandparents to pass and we had built a strong relationship throughout my childhood.
• A high school course on The History of Art from Prehistoric Man to the Romantic Age, which was taught by Mr. Rick Woods -- who remains one of my favourite educators. "Woodsy" organized a class trip to Italy attended by 30-plus students, including me, during the March Break of 1982 -- a mind-blowing experience.
• I also found "my tribe" -- that group of friends with whom you connect perfectly and who accept you for who you are. I detailed this in my Jethro Tull blog-post in December, 2021.
• Finally, reading Douglas Adams’ novels, particularly The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series, bent my perspective toward the ridiculous and the philosophic concepts of nihilism and cosmic insignificance -- a path toward the tenets espoused by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus, and reinforced by the absurdity of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus films and television episodes I had grown up loving and was now old enough to understand.

• 

Change is tough. It is particularly hard when that change pushes against the values, beliefs and traditions of your family. Consequently, I knew it broke my mother's heart when I announced that I no longer believed in God. Prior to age 17 I was devout, attending St. Anne's Anglican Church in Byron with her weekly. I was also a "server", helping the vicar (Canon Pinkney) with the Sunday Communion Service, and a proud member of S.T.A.Y. -- The St. Anne's Anglican Youth group. Granted, the ratio of males to females in that group was about 1:10 – so, there was certainly an additional hormonal agenda behind that membership.

St. Anne's Anglican Church in Byron (London), Ontario.

In retrospect, I could have been kinder and more gentle with my declaration of atheism. Sadly, like many teenagers, I delivered the news with sledgehammer subtlety. Truth be told, I was really transitioning to agnosticism. I appreciated the "historical evidence" of Jesus and had not abandoned the positivity of his teachings. However, I could not be convinced that mankind could fully understand the complexity of the universe and distill the truth about it all. Additionally, I could not reconcile the paradox created by multiple faiths; each by virtue of their own doctrines and claim of exclusivity in the god(s) department. At best, only one of the 4,000 recognized faiths on our planet could be right. That's not taking into account the vastness of our universe and the chances of intelligent life on other planets.

My monarchist mother's heart was further battered as I learned more about history and became vocally critical of the British Royal Family. I had, until high school, been a product of an education system that celebrated everything colonial and downplayed (or outright eschewed) the impact colonialism had on indigenous populations.

Which brings me to this week's record, The Queen Is Dead, a 1986 masterpiece from Manchester quartet The Smiths, the title song parodying the media’s fascination with the British Royals. For those of you who have followed me on this journey through The 500, you will know that I became a reluctant convert to the post-punk sound of (lead singer) Steven Morrisey and his backup band comprising Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Roarke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums).

The Smiths are (l-r) Roarke, Morrisey, Marr and Joyce.

In January 2019, when I wrote about their self-titled debut record (#473 on The 500) I began my post with the words: "I hate The Smiths."  By May, 2021, when my pal Steve Monaghan was a guest blogger for album #369, Louder Than Bombs, I was starting to soften my stance. By the time I got to #296, Meat Is Murder, in October, 2022, I had been won over by the sound of the backing band, particularly the guitar work of Marr. However, the vocals from Morrissey just didn’t land for me.

Morrissey (2005)

This week, that changed. I was missing out on a critical piece of information that has been staring me in the face the whole time. Not only is Morrissey well read -- a trait I had recognized in his earlier lyrics -- he is also funny. In fact, the more I dug into the lyrics of the album's title track, The Queen Is Dead, and the nine songs that follow it, the more I recognized a kindred spirit. Morrissey seems to be a bit of an absurdist and nihilist who, despite the fame and wealth he had achieved, recognizes the cosmic insignificance of it all.

A quote from the animated series Rick and Morty, which
also revels in the absurd comedy of nihilism.

Looking back, I should have been a Smith's fan in my teens. Morrissey's clever wit would have fit in better with my juvenile temperament and childish grasp on history and philosophy. As I near 60, I still grapple with the same existential issues. However, I have learned to shut my mouth more often -- recognizing that I don't really have the corner on any truths when it comes to complex issues like faith, the monarchy or colonialism. I simply look to learn more.

As I write, I have a commitment to accompany my 84-year-old mom to the Anglican cathedral tonight. The new rector, Kevin George, is to be installed as Dean of Huron and my mother is excited I am sharing this spiritual event with her. I am delighted to attend – it's a small bit of penance for the know-it-all teenage prat who lived under her roof in the '80s. We survived my existential crisis and all. At least I didn't bring a record titled The Queen Is Dead into her house.

The 500 - #219 - Licensed To Ill - Beastie Boys

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #219
Album Title: Licensed To Ill 
Artist: Beastie Boys
Genre: Rap Rock, Hip Hop
Recorded: Chung King Studios, New York City, NY

Released:  November, 1986 
My age at release: 21
How familiar was I with it before this week: Quite

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, moving up 27 places to position 192
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn

I love novelty songs -- those catchy humorous ditties that often parody popular culture. Humorous titles first appeared on my radar in 1976 when K-Tel records released two compilation novelty albums consisting of 48 songs -- Goofy Greats and Looney Tunes. When I was 11, my friends and I were easy marks when the commercials began airing on kid-friendly afternoon television. Within a few weeks, my pal David McNeilly owned copies of both.

The albums contained songs that had hit the charts in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Some even held the #1 spot, including Yakety Yak, My Ding-a-Ling, Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and, of course, the perennial October favourite, The Monster Mash, by Bobby “Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Keepers. The successful novelty song trend continued through the ‘70s and ‘80s as I began to develop my musical tastes. However, by the time Rick Dees landed at  #1 with Disco Duck in 1977 and Joe Dulce's Shaddap You Face became one of the biggest hits in Canada in 1981, I was starting to outgrow this often rudimentary form of comedy. Not only had my comedic tastes advanced, so had my understanding of music.

Album cover for Joe Dolce's Shaddap You Face.

The first time I heard Beastie Boys, the American hip hop/rock group from New York City, I thought they were a novelty act. The song, (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!), hit local radio stations in the spring of 1987 and climbed the charts quickly. It was actually the fourth single release from their debut album Licensed To Ill. The previous three singles, issued before the album was released, had failed to crack the Top 100 in Canada and had performed only slightly better in the United States.

Album cover for the single release of (You Gotta) Fight For
Your Right (To Party!).

I dismissed the song off-handedly when I first heard it. It was an obvious parody of the hard-rock party culture prevalent in the '80s. It was certainly poking fun at the glam-metal rebel party anthems of the time, including Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock, Poison's Nothin' But A Good Time , Motley Crue's remake of Smokin' In The Boys Room or Turn Up The Radio from Autograph.

Album cover for Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock.

I suppose, as a long-haired hard-rock devotee, I also took some offence. Beasties’ Fight For Your Right seemed like a swipe at fans of the hard-rock genre. It was fairly common at the time for the media to distill the metalhead to an unfair stereotype – a low-intelligence, grubby, head-banging moron perpetually intoxicated and with little ambition or few prospects. While this generalized view had some merit, most of the metal fans I knew were intelligent, well read and artistic, with the same penchant for libation and celebration as other cliques -- the preppies, the jocks or the punks.

A stereotypical 80s metal/hard rock fan.

If you’d asked me in the spring of 1987 to define Beastie Boys and their seemingly omnipresent hit, Fight For Your Right, I would likely have shrugged them off as a one-hit wonder. I figured that, by that summer, they would be relegated to the "where are they now?” file occupied by the aforementioned novelty artists, Joe Dolce, Rick Dees and Bobby “Boris” Pickett.

Album cover for Monster Mash, by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett 
and The Crypt-Keepers.

I was wrong. Beastie Boys followed up their initial success with three tremendously catchy numbers, Brass Monkey, No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn and Girls. By the summer, I had reluctantly accepted that the band was here to stay and, slowly, I was won over by the trio's tongue-in-cheek blend of hip hop, rock and comedy.  

Mike "Mike D" Diamond (), Adam "Ad Rock" Horovitz and
Adam "MCA" Yauch.

I may have been late to the "party", but I wasn't alone. Licensed To Ill became the first rap album to top the Billboard chart and the second, after RUN DMC's Raising Hell (#123 on The 500), to go platinum. The record also enjoyed overwhelming critical acclaim. Slant Magazine called Licensed To Ill the "Best Album of the 1980s" saying:

"Rife with layer upon layer of sampling, start-stop transitions, and aggressive beats, it helped transform the genre from a direct dialogue between MC and DJ into a piercing, multi-threaded narrative" and "helped set an exciting template for the future".

I'll happily admit I was wrong. Beastie Boys were not a flash-in-the-pan novelty group destined for the discount record section. But neither was I entirely inaccurate. By 1989, with the release of Paul's Boutique (#156 on The 500), the trio from Manhattan had reinvented their sound and image. They continued to grow and innovate, releasing seven platinum-selling albums. Eventually, Fight For Your Right was dropped from their live set-list.

Beastie Boys perform in 1987.

The group revealed that Fight was intended to be a send-up of Frat Boy Culture (not heavy metal devotees). They were frustrated that it had become an anthem for the same individuals they were parodying. Mike D. later said:

“The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were actually totally different. There were tons of guys singing along who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them. Irony is often missed.”

One-off performances of Fight dotted their live performances in the early ‘90s. But, by the 1994 Lollapalooza festival tour Beastie Boys retired the song for good.

Lollapalooza Tour Poster (1994).

I really liked where Beastie Boys took their career after Licensed To Ill. I'll try to explore that in a little over a year when we get to Paul's Boutique.

 

 

The 500 - #220 - Look-Ka Py Py - The Meters

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #220
Album Title: Look-Ka Py Py 
Artist: The Meters
Genre: Funk
Recorded: Le Fevre Studios, Atlanta, Georgia

Released:  December, 1969 
My age at release: 4
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, moving down 195 places to position 415
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Look-Ka Py Py

Initially, I thought  The Meters’ second studio record, Look-Ka Py Py, would be a new discovery. In many ways, it was. It turns out, I have heard songs by The Meters before – their distinct instrumental brand of New Orleans Funk making it an immediate reminder. Some rudimentary research showed their music has been featured in several commercials and on television programs and movies which I was aware of.

An example was The Meters’ biggest hit, Cissy Strut, which was featured humorously in the 2020 Danish black comedy Druk (labelled Another Round for English releases) that my wife and I watched during the height of the pandemic. The film stars Mads Mikkelsen, who had already secured success in Hollywood as the Bond villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale (2006) and as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the television series Hannibal (2013-15).

Danish movie poster for Druk (2020)

Druk/Another Round tells the story of four high-school teachers who commiserate about their careers and mid-life malaise. They struggle to motivate their students and feel their lives have become routine and boring. At a dinner celebrating a 40th birthday, the foursome discuss a ‘theory’ from Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud.  Skårderud (sort of) postulated that humans are born with a deficiency in their blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05%. It didn’t take long for the characters to conjecture that elevating one's BAC to a positive 0.05% would improve relaxation and creativity. By way of comparison, 0.05% is achieved by most adults knocking back two standard drinks.

Mikkelsen on the poster for the 
English release of Another Round.

The group decides to embark on an experiment, punctuating each day with enough alcohol to maintain this slightly positive BAC. At first, things go swimmingly and this emboldens the quartet to up the ante, often drinking to excess in the evening and on weekends. During one scene featuring a robust session of imbibing, the song Cissy Strut from The Meters is played on a turntable. The montage that follows captures the delightful bacchanalian excess that an evening of intoxicated celebration with friends can bring. Predictably, the darkly funny film also addresses the short and long term effects of boozy celebration. I won't spoil it as the Academy Award winning flick is worth your time watching.

Slightly intoxicated is a good way to describe how listening to The Meters makes me feel. The music features light, infectiously melodic grooves, punctuated by punchy, fun bass riffs and a danceable drum beat. Much like the characters in Druk/Another Round, it triggers an impulse to dance on the furniture. Formed in 1965 in New Orleans, The Meters comprise Zigaboo Modeliste (drums), George Porter Jones Jr. (bass), Leo Nocentelli (guitar) and Art Neville (keyboards). Look-Ka Py Py is the group's second release and the title track, along with Cissy Strut from their debut albums, are considered funk classics.

The Meters - clockwise from left: Zigaboo Modeliste,
Art Neville, George Porter Jr. and Leo Nocentelli

The group did not experience much mainstream success but are highly-regarded by critics. Along with James Brown, they are recognized as the originators of the funk genre. They also served as back-up band for multiple artists, including Leo Dorsey, Robert Palmer, Allen Toussaint and Dr. John. Coming across this bit of trivia reminded me I had also seen the band perform on Saturday Night Live when I was twelve-years-old. It was in 1977, when SNL was  routine viewing for me. That performance can be seen here.

Dr. John's sixth album, In The Right Place, which features
The Meters as his backing band.

We will revisit The Meters in 81 weeks when we reach album #139,  Rejuvenation, on The 500 list. However, I suspect I will listen to it well before the November, 2025 date. The Meters is a band  I was thrilled to re-discover after unknowingly being locked up in my head for more than 40 years.