Stoned Pt.1 – Lewis Taylor

The first time I’d ever heard of Lewis Taylor was on the internet some time in the late 1990s. I believe it may’ve been on iMusic.com’s old forum, or perhaps even the old Prince discussion board that I used to frequent around that time. Either way, folks were raving all about this artist, saying that he was just brilliant. Eventually I saw a video clip of his for a song called “Whoever,” which was your typical soul number…..very Marvin Gaye influenced and what not. Although he claimed not to like that song very much at the time, as it was quite a dramatic departure from his other songs, which were much trippier sounding efforts and therefore quite rock influenced. I came to understand that he had released two albums under the alias “Sherrif Jack” in 1986, which are apparently much more rooted in the whole psychedelic rock sound.

Spicks and Specks on Rage

“Spicks and Specks” is an Australian music-based quiz show which was first brought to my attention some time in 2007. Being that I am a natural born music freak who is more than just a tad bit attached to his ever growing collection of CDs, DVDs and LP Records, it was a show that pretty much instantly appealed to me. I mean, what else could you possibly ask for? The show was hosted by a zany comedian by the name of Adam Hills, accompanying him was the bubbly, busty, big bootied Myf Warhurst and of course, the hilarious, New Zealand born Alan Brough. Both Warhurst and Brough seemed to have quite a wide knowledge of all things musical. Hills on the other hand claims to know practically nothing at all. Interesting….although that shouldn’t necessarily surprise me, he’s just the host after all.

Doggystyle – Snoop Doggy Dogg

The rapper born Cozodor Calvin Broadus Jr released his debut album “Doggystyle” in 1993 in America and in 1994 in Australia, when this here blogger was all of 12 years of age. At the time, I was told that “doggystyle” was a sex position, which…..I’m not even going to try & explain what it involves, as it would be far too much information!!!

A few random thoughts about Rahsaan Patterson

On the evening of Monday July 27th 2009, I was sitting in my room, listening to a compilation that I had put together back in 2005, when the song “Fly High” by Rahsaan Patterson began to play. For some reason, I decided to do a Google search for it because I felt as though it were a collaboration with another artist and I therefore wanted to discover which artist Rahsaan had collaborated with on the song in question. Unfortunately, I rather clumsily typed another song title of his into the search bar, which was “Rahsaan Patterson What Am I Gonna Do,” so obviously I never found the answer to my initial question.

Maya Who?! – Maya Azucena

Maya Azucena is an independent soul artist who hails from a place in New York called Flatbush. According to the documentary featured on the ehanced portion of her debut album, she was the only girl in her neighbourhood aside from her very own sister. Hmmm. Interesting. Although the album “Maya Who?!” was apparently released in 2003, it was first brought to my attention some time in 2006 by this guy I know who used to run a record store down here in Sydney, which, unfortunately no longer exists.

Can’t Get Enough – Eddy Grant

I don’t know very much about this artist at all, but from what I understand, his birth name is Edmond Montague Grant (hence the abbreviation simply to “Eddy Grant”) and he was born in Guyana, which is a state on the North coast of South America. It appears that Eddy is quite the control freak like Prince is, not only does he play every single instrument on his album, sing all the vocals and put it all together, he also owns his own master tapes. To my knowlegde, his albums are only available in second hand stores, independent stores, probably on special order at major chains (if you’re lucky!), or as digital downloads on his official site eddygrant.com.

The Colour Of Success – Morris Day

Those of you who have seen the Prince film “Purple Rain” would most probably remember the cat with the loud, pimpish voice who would always be rockin loud suits and Stacey Adams shoes. In that particular film, he fronted a funky ass group called The Time who performed songs that Prince had done pretty much entirely on his own, except of course for the lead vocals, which were handled by Mr Day. Way before “Purple Rain,” though, Prince and Morris were the best of friends in high school. They’d met when they were about 14 years of age and had stuck together ever since.

Black Summers Night – Maxwell

Unless you count the “Unplugged” CD that was released in between “Urban Hang Suite” and “Embrya,” (which I don’t) this is the fourth album by Maxwell. His last album was called “Now” and was released some time in mid-to-late 2001. The man then decided to disappear for a good eight years before making his fans aware of a brand new trilogy that he was working on in around 2007. His explanation was that he was taking time out to experience life and was “becoming a man,” as he was in his twenties when he released his first few albums but had reached his thirties when “Black Summers” first materialised.

History DVD – Michael Jackson

In 1995, Michael Jackson released his first ever Greatest Hits package, which was a double disc set comprising of all of the old favourites and another separate disc of mostly new recordings. To coincide with the album was a video cassette, which I personally dubbed from a friend of mine who lived around the corner from me.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

Words cannot describe the overall shock, disbelief and yes, the odd tinge of sadness that I was feeling when I was informed that the King of Pop had passed away on Thursday June 25th, 2009. In fact, for the longest time, I was quite speechless. Although he was a big star from quite an early age, he was also painted as some sort of “freak” who lived a rather strange kind of life and allegedly “bleached” his skin. I feel that these sorts of comments are inappropriate and should not be brought up now that he has left this precious Earth. Even when he was alive, it was sickening!