60+ minutes of sound: november 2014

Griffith Park, Los Angeles

November 2014 Playlist

Cold Sweat -- James Brown

Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars) -- Mark Ronson

Good Thing -- Fine Young Cannibals

Los Feliz, Los Angeles

  Trick Pony -- Charlotte Gainsbourg

Never Tear Us Apart -- INXS

Funky Drummer -- James Brown

Freestone, CA

 Orange Juice Blues -- Bob Dylan & The Band

Viola Lee Blues -- Grateful Dead

Empty Pages -- Traffic

Street Life -- Randy Crawford

 

Bodega Bay, CA

 What is Life -- George Harrison

Bell Bottom Blues -- Derek & The Dominos

Moving in Stereo -- The Cars

Model of Disneyland, Walt Disney Museum, SF Presidio

Watch: Mr. Dynamite

Tonight is the HBO premiere of Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown. Produced by Mick Jagger and directed by Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, I can't wait to see how they chart Brown's influence on music.

Sadly, I never saw James Brown in concert before his death in 2006. My father has told me stories of seeing him in the 1960s at the Howard Theater in Washington D.C, a theater then nearly as famous for its black performers as New York's Apollo. I hope they show clips from some of the Washington performances - they have lived in my imagination as absolutely incredible.

The Godfather of Soul, revealed.