Why Don Cornelius Matters
———————– The significance of Don Cornelius to American culture — and to the American culture business — is told nowhere more eloquently than in one brief exchange between Cornelius and singer James Brown, a story that Cornelius himself recalls in VH-1’s excellent 2010 documentary Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America. It was the Godfather […]
She’s so out there, she’s in there.
Erykah Badu has finally given us a new album, only her third full LP of new music in, oh, eleven years. Now she says she’s learned to use iChat and Garage Band, so she’s got two, maybe three more albums coming this year. “New AmErykah, Pt. 2” in the Spring. Then her alterego “Lowdown Loretta […]
He Gave His Nose
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=See4Y0hJyqI] It’s the 25th anniversary of the release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Writing my review in the Washington Post gave me occasion to really think on the album’s importance, which runs so much deeper than it’s status as the greatest selling album of all time. More than all of that, in 1983, “Thriller” almost singlehandedly […]
It’s not about the music. It’s about the songs.
Just to show you how big of a Prince fan I was in high school: On Class Night — the annual party where the outgoing seniors ripped the teachers, and the teachers roasted us back — the faculty sketch ended when Principal Chestnut came out dressed as yours truly, holding a framed portrait of the […]