DJ DL MUSIC

This has been a bizarre week for yours truly. My brother and I just recently moved back uptown for the next month or so until he moves to L.A. and I go on tour with my band and I don’t know whether it’s the change of scenery or the clean air up here, but something just does not seem right. Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t lived in close quarters with so many english speaking whites in two and a half years, but I definitely feel bizarre being uptown. As the change of season falls upon me once again, I can’t help but remember just about one year ago when I found myself at a “sidewalk crossroads.” I reached a point with my music, my love life and my profession that seemed to culminate years of wondering what aiming for the stars would really feel like. It’s tough man. However, after a year has passed I can tell you that “I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave,” as one of my many mentors, Jimmy Cliff, once stated. I know it’s a real shotgun blast to the left foot to hash out some hackneyed piece of advice telling you to follow your dreams or whatever the fuck, but if you really do feel the need to do something with your life, do it. Write a song, steal a painting, take ecstasy on New Year’s Eve, fall in love with a girl who you know will break your heart, break the speed limit, smash a guitar, and fuck a stranger in your lifetime because we’ve only got one to live my dears and we might as well make it count. If there are any of you beautiful readers out there who find yourselves at your own “sidewalk crossroads” this week, here are some tunes that I’ve picked out just for you….. Enjoy.

1. Elvis Presley - “Stranger In The Crowd”

I must admit, when I first heard this tune, I had no idea it was one of Elvis’ songs. My ace, shout to the big homey STES aka Micah Deetz aka Matt “Muthafuggin’” Lenski, directed a music video for Cee-Lo Greene of Gnarls Barkley fame covering this timeless tune. After he got an unmastered cut he sent it over to us and we flipped. We thought Cee-Lo was fixin’ a be the new George Baker meets Tony Orlando for serious. About three months after while embarking on what I thought at the time was an impossible quest to find live footage of the cut, I found out it was an Elvis song. It really captures the idea of the fall blues both compositionally and lyrically. In addition, this is a Fat Elvis song so at the end of his rope, you can almost feel his heavy heart through that sad croon. Amazing track.

2. The Mighty Diamonds - Untitled

I first heard about The Mighty Diamonds when I was in high school and was geeked from the get go. They wrote “Pass The Kutchie,” which was the predecessor for Musical Youth’s “Pass The Dutchie.” We were doing a handful of reggae numbers when we had a saturday night residency at Snitch R.I.P. A friend of mine, who we’ll call “Screw Loose” for now, was put on house arrest out in New Jersey for doing something he shouldn’t have been doing and I went out there a couple of times to help him write music and learn how to play the guitar. We we’re going to cover one of The Mighty Diamonds’ better known tracks called “Have Mercy,” with him two days after his release, but he skipped to Jamaica and I haven’t heard from him since we last spoke. I found this little untitled gem a while ago and would like to dedicate it to the one and only “Screw Loose.”

3. The Creation - “If I Stay Too Long”

I was watching a youtube interview with Agathe Snow after searching for some footage of her record breaking week long dance party at the Armory on the upper east side and found this one young dude’s promo on himself signing up for the project. In the video the young guy cut he included this song and I literally have listened to it twenty times since I’ve found it this morning. It has become my unofficial anthem of the fall and suggest that everybody listens to this number on a fall day in Central Park. It is just astounding to me that there is so much music I still have to discover in my almost old age and sometimes I arrogantly believe that I’ve already discovered every song I will ever fall in love with. Keep the treasure hunt going kids, there’s only more gold at the end of that next rainbow.

4. The Staple Singers - “Brand New Day”

After that last cut, I’d like to leave y’all with a song I found almost exactly one year ago. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, a song finds you at the perfect moment. I really needed this song last fall and it became my gospel for a long while after it. My brother actually was going to use it as the theme song for a show he pitched to MTV last year and it would’ve been so legendary. There is something about Mavis Staples’ voice that creeps into your soul and gives it a huge southern bear hug when you hear her sing. She has the capability of really helping you find light during dark moments and leaving you with the certainty that every problem you have will work itself out if you just have faith in a better tomorrow. This number was also used as a theme song for an early 70’s film called “The Landlord” that was supposed to be very groundbreaking for its time because Beau Bridges tries to court a young black girl. It’s so epically bad that I suggest everyone who is in need of a good laugh get stoned and watch it, you will not regret it.

The fall is a time for new beginnings whether or not we are in the last few months of the year. As Mavis shouts, “it’s a brand new day,” so let’s all live it up while we’re still here. We have lost too many good friends in the past couple of months to sacrifice a single day that we are blessed with so let’s all keep our chin up mang! Until next time…..

DRUGS AND KISSES,

E.B.