He is one of only 3 singers from the Top 40 era that could've easily sung Opera had he been ****cally trained. Don't believe me? Listen to the High C's on "Just Ask the Lonely"
A man of amazing power, grace and showmanship, we will not see his like again. My fave memory of him is when the Tops and Temps were touring together about 10 years ago. At the end of the night both groups came on stage and did each other's routines and hits. The Tops gave as good as they got. I will miss him so.
Why bored you ask? Well for a time I was lead singer in a local "reggae" band called "Pangea". Nice enough guys, good musicians and decent blokes but the repetoire was almost 85% Marley and if you do anything too long you can come to hate it. I left the band after I felt I'd sooner stick my head in an oven rather than sing one more Marley tune.
So on went the DVD which was a note for note recording of a 1977 show at the Rainbow Theatre. I sat back and closed my eyes as the familiar songs began to wash over me. But not being visibly "distracted" the words and lyrics began to hit me.
"One good thing about music, when it hit you feel no pain."
"If you get down and quarrel everyday
You're saying prayers to the devil, I say
Why not help one another on the way
Make it much easier"
"Cost of livin' gets so high
Rich and poor they start to cry
Now the weak must get strong
They say oh, what a tribulation"
I sat up and watched for a while amazed that some of these lyrics 30 plus years old were just a relevant today, even more so because it now apply to the "First World" as well as "The Third World". Soon I found myself transported in a dub trance right along with him and the rest of the band. I felt transfixed, then calmed and finally... uplifted. I've played music for money since Nixon was President, it's been a part of my life since I could recognize it. I always felt that "music heals" now I KNOW it does.
My son found me sitting there and crying a little. He's always concerned when crusty dad "gets emotional". I told him that watching Bob Marley play and sing was like watching a "prophet of old from the days of miracles." I don't think he got it, but I did. Music heals, it'll help get you through hard times it can even wash away the blues.
Da Worfster
I was wandering through mall land the other day looking for a copy of "The Prince" my Machiavelli for my son's AP HIgh School History class. During my travels I discovered that the local Borders Books had decided it had had enough of getting it's brains beaten out by Barnes and Nobles and was closing. Being the anarchist I am I rejoiced at the downfall of another retail chain giant. But of course this didn't stop me from going in to "pick at the bones" of the carcass. The sale had been on for almost two weeks so all the good stuff was long gone BUT of course they had "The Prince", (who here read's classics any friiggen how).
What was amazing though was not the pathetic collection of un purchased literature parked next to the completely empty aisle of "Star Wars" books, but the unparalelled plethora of human detritus on display in the aisles. Never in my life (and I've been around a bit) have I seen so many, fat, pasty, overweight, mouth breathing, mon's basment living, Twinkie gobbling, biological experiments gone awry. Dear God and Sonny Jeezus what a collection of booger eatin', nose picking, foul smelling, lice ridden nerd flesh. Most looked like refugees for a Jenny Craig meeting and smelled like a LoveCraftian nightmare. None appeared to have seen sunlight since conception.
Personal hygene was/is a theory to these folks, the only thing worse than their smell was the chortling, pig like grunts that emitted from then when they discovered one more morsel of meat on the bones left by one of their nearsighted brethren. I wasn't in there two minutes before I'd been sneezed on about 10 times. It was a hellish spectacle straight out of one of Rod Serling's tobacco induced nightmares. .....
How is this movie related... well, while Ian was off looking for his text books, I discovered a Jewel squrrelled away in a stack of books on 18th Century English Poets. Obviously the item was stashed there by some drooling dork in hopes that it would be overlooked until his return, fat chance. So I'm proud to annouce that I am now the proud possessor of a "Hammer Films" Dracual 4 Pack:
Draculas: 4 Film Favorites - Horror of Dracula / Dracula Has Risen from the Grave / Taste the Blood of Dracula / Dracula A.D. 1972 (2DVD)
These four "classics" now grace my coffee table. If Hammer Films knew the horrors (the horrors) I faced in collecting these films they'd sign me for the movie rights tomorrow. Reviews to follow.
Da Worfster
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