Foto by tgw, New York City, 2010-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[We're sorry to say but we've lost the following great ones:
Abbey Lincoln has passed at 80; Herman Leonard (jazz photographer) is gone; and Richie Hayward (Little Feat drummer) has kicked.]
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Being Passed By
Young people are no different now than when I was one of them--and it has been many moons since I was one of them. Every coming-up generation comes up with their own stuff--eccentricities, idiosyncrasies, revolutions out of which come particular tribal dress styles, their own twists on their parents's language norms, and the bright ones step off into innovations in just about any field they take an interest in and are determined to master.
Can you imagine an old staid fart like Brahms sitting down and listening to a New York City rap-hip-hop-house-music station and being told that this is the most popular music in the world right now--young still wet-behind-their-ears Black men mostly and Black women have gone back to the days of street-corner harmonizing out of which came Doo-Wop. They have taken the back-beat rhythmic jive of the Doo-Woppers mixed it in with James Brown background kicks, or jazz licks, or Max Roach drum licks, or B.B. King singing the first few measures of "The Thrill Is Gone," or even droopy-drawer White licks, to evolve this non-musical extension of old-fashioned American street-corner music out to where it is currently universally accepted as THE music. I mean Russians are rapping--I've heard them; and Latinos are rapping so fast in Spanish they're audibly outrapping the Black dudes, though unless you know Spanish you don't know they're simply imitating the Black dudes; there are even Palestinian and Vietnamese rap groups.
Study the following lyrics--they're by Lil Wayne--don't worry, he's already a multimillionaire--and here's "Lollipop," Lil Wayne struttin' his stuff. I study it because it's out of my world so far I find it fascinating:
Lollipop
Ow...uh huh...young moola baby
She say he so sweet make her wanna lick the rapper
So I let 'er lick the rapper
Shawty say I lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
She say I lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
She say I ..... like a lollipop
(Chorus)
Shawty wanna thug
Bottles in the club
Shawty wanna hump
And ooo I like to touch, ya lovely lady lumps
(Repeat 2x)
Okay, lil mama had a swag like mine
Even wear her hair down her back like mine
I make her feel right when its wrong like lyin
Man, she ain't never had a love like mine
N' man I ain't never seen a ass like hers
And that pussy in my mouth had me at a loss fo words
Told her to back it up like "erp, erp"
And make that ass jump like shczerp shczerp
And that's when she said I lo-lo-look like a lollipop
(Oh yeah I like that)
She said I lo-lo-look like a lollipop
(Oh yeah I like that)
She said I lo-lo-look like a lollipop
(Oh yeah I like that)
Shawty I lo-lo-lookin like a lollipop
(Oh yeah I like that)
(Chorus)
Shawty wanna thug (oh yeah I like that)
Bottles in the club (oh yeah I like that)
Shawty wanna hump (oh yeah I like that)
And ooo I like to touch ya lovely lady lumps
(Repeat 2x)
Shawty said the nigga that she with ain't shit
Shawty said the nigga that she with ain't this
Shawty said the nigga that she with can't hit
And shawty I'ma hit it (hit it) like I can't miss
And I can't do this
And I don't do that
Shawty need a refund need a bring that nigga back
This trypa refund; I tell her bring that ass back
And she bring that ass back (she bring that ass back)
(Chorus)
Shawty wanna thug (oh yeah I like that)
Bottles in the club (oh yeah I like that)
Shawty say I lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
She say I lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
Wanna lick the rapper
So I letta lick the rapper
Shawty wanna thug (oh yeah I like that)
Bottles in the club (oh yeah I like that)
Shawty wanna hump (oh yeah I like that)
And ooo I like to touch ya lovely lady lumps
(Repeat 2x)
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Call me so I can do it juicy for ya
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Call me so I can do it juicy for ya
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Call me so I can do it juicy for ya
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Call me so I can do it juicy for ya
(Chorus)
Shawty wanna thug (oh yeah I like that)
Bottles in the club (oh yeah I like that)
I get her on top she drop it like it hot
And when I'm on the bottom she hit the very bottom
Then we in the bed givin gettin head
(Givin gettin head, givin gettin head)
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Call me so I can do it juicy for ya
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Call me so I can do it juicy for ya
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Call me so I can do it juicy for ya
Shawty say I lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
She say I lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-look like a lollipop
Wanna lick the rapper
So I letta lick the rapper
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Lil Wayne is really Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. He's from New Orleans. He's been a rapper since 1999 (Prince's year) on the Cash Money label, a label named after a fictional street gang in the 1991 film "New Jack City." Lil Wayne gets pissed off if you spell his name wrong--it's Lil--that's it, no apostrophe or nothin', you dig? (Oh am I AM showin' my age using "you dig"--"Cho, Shawty, you still got a lollipop gettin' licked?") Lil Wayne is 30 years old now. His first big hit, "Fireman," sold 800,000 records--now he's up in the heavenly ranks of rapper-a-day successes.
Like all "Lil" people, Lil Wayne is poking out his hard extension of his witty brain, seated in the head of his Lollipop dick, though, the dude admits he likes getting pussy juice on his lips. OK. OK. I've made several points here.
My feelings? I don't get rap. Why should I? I've grown up here in NYC with rap from its very beginnings--Grand Master Flash was from up near where I lived in Mount Vernon. Hell, I lived briefly in the 70s only a few blocks away from where P. Diddy was still a little kid. Born in Harlem; moved to Mount Vernon. Grew up in a very middle-class mixed neighborhood. Went to private Catholic school in Manhattan. I lived in Mount Vernon in and out and off and on from the time P. Diddy graduated from high school and headed off to Howard University. Street? What street? And P. Diddy isn't a talented entertainer at all--as an actor he was laughable--but as a promoter, an impresario, that's where Sean shines. Lil Wayne, by the way, entered the University of Houston as a Political Science major in 2005, though soon afterwards he said he'd switched majors, and that he was now studying Psychology.
Here's a lyric to a song I wrote that became one of my most-requested tunes when I was a band singer back in the 80s--and don't worry, I am NOT a multimillionaire:
Who Do You Love Tonight? (or Hoo-doo Love Tonight)
You came along from wherever I'd been
I got in beside you, I got right in
You started to love me; it got red hot
I thought you loved me, but I guess not
Chorus:
Hey, baby, who do you love tonight?
Yeah, baby, Who-Do-You-Love tonight?
I came in peaceful, but I'm going out mad,
Still I can say, I had what I had
Maybe it was lovin' or maybe it was sin
Whatever it was, I'm sittin' here thinkin'
Chorus:
Hey, baby, who do you love tonight?
Yeah, baby, who do you love tonight?
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If I'd'a sang "Hey, baby, who's eating your pussy tonight?" I wouldn't have gotten any gigs--maybe at CBGB--I did sing "The Signifyin' Monkey" one time in a club, The Life version, and it got no applause at all--hushness--the quiet a musician hates.
The Signifyin' Monkey told the Lion one day,
There's a bad motherfucker back down the way,
He's talkin' 'bout yo mama and yo lil sister, too
He's even talkin' 'bout how good you're old granny can screw,
He's talkin' 'bout yo daddy, and yo sissy brother Joe,
He said he thinks you eat pussy, but he ain't for shore.
Chorus:
Look out for that monkey/Look out for that monkey/Look out for that monkey,
And all his off-the-wall jive.
The Lion took off like a jungle breeze,
Knockin' coconuts down and giraffes to their knees,
He came upon the elephant and he said,
'Hey, big bad motherfucker, I hear some shit about you,
'Bout all the bad stuff you s'pose to do.'
The elephant looked at the Lion out the corner of his eye
And he said, 'Hey, motherfucker, why don't pick on somebody your own size?'
Well, the Lion got back and made a fancy pass
But the elephant simply kicked him right square in his ass,
Then the Lion got up and again swung round
And the elephant kicked his ass right back down
Repeat Chorus
Well, the Lion came back more dead than alive
And that's when the monkey really started his jive
He said, 'I thought you called yourself the Jungle King,
Why, man, you don't show me a god-damn thing;
Why, my old lady said, before you left,
That she could probably kick your ass her motherfucker self'
Repeat Chorus
So the Monkey got happy and started jumpin' up and down
And that's when his little leg missed the limb and his little ass hit the ground
The Lion was on the Monkey's ass with all four feet
Like a bolt of lightnin' and a strike of heat
The Monkey said, 'Please, Mister Lion, let my nuts out the sand
And I'll stand up and fight you like a natural man.'
The Lion got up, got back, got ready to fight,
And that's when the Monkey said, 'Bye, motherfucker,'
And ran dead out of sight.
Repeat Chorus and out.
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I remember those words in the 1978 off a Reverend Johnny Otis album--Johnny was later famous for doing it in his shows though he did have a cleaned up version that he sometimes did.
Johnny Otis is an interesting character who though Greek posed as Black a lot of times. Here's Johnny's Wikipedia entry--check him out. He was a drummer, a pianist, a vibraphonist, a singer, a politician, a preacher, a disk jockey--still alive, I think, in Los Angeles.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Otis
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My life's accomplishments may be turning into dust in an long-lost attic--to be left ignored after I'm not around to blow my own horn and reveal their dusty presence. But also so will today's minute-to-minute famous rappers also disappear in an attic dust storm--already Grand Master Flash is doing Public Service announcements on teevee--and whatever happened to Run DMC? And Public Enemy is back having to gig; Chuck D. is currently big-time on NYC radio--at least he poses as big time. Jay Z is now so rich he's moved beyond his clothing line to become a real estate developer, 'cause anybody who is anybody has a clothing line these days--Justin Timberlake just this past week announced his new clothing line is coming out. Who wears his crap? Piddly little high-school squirts I assume. I don't know if Lil Wayne has a clothing line yet. Maybe not--by now, he could be a prominent psychologist like Dr. Phil. Hey, he may be Dr. Lil Wayne by now. Seems like I'd a chosen Gynecology if I'd a been Lil Wayne.
It's hard to believe, but I saw in the Village Voice Saturday that Leon Russell is still gigging. Also, Jerry Jeff Walker. Holy crap, who the hell remembers Jerry Jeff? Mr. Bojangles? There's always hope on the morrow in the music game--here today, but sometimes not gone until the Reaper rips you down off the charts.
thegrowlingwolf
for The Sunday Edition of The Daily Growler
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