ModestGeniusXL

Go-Gone

Those of you that may have a greater affinity for go-go music than myself will have to excuse the brevity of this post.  I almost didn't say anything about it at all.  However, being that there was song in particular that comes to mind everytime I think of go-go music then I would be remiss if I didn't say a little something about the passing of this legend.

The Godfather of Go-Go music Chuck Brown passed away last Wednesday due to complications from sepsis.  He was 75-years-old.

Maybe if I lived in DC then I would have a greater appreciation for the impact that Chuck had on music with his creation of the go-go sound.  However, having lived in the midwest for all my life then the only thing I can relate to in terms of a genre that a region created is house music.  And even then I couldn't tell you who would be considered the godfather of house music. 

Honestly, I never even heard a Chuck Brown song until the news of his passing.  Then I started catching them much more frequently on the likes of Sirius and Pandora.  Although to be fair it was always the same song they played:  "Bustin' Loose".  Didn't know that was his.  I had a sound much more different in mind when I think of go-go.

The extent of my go-go is the one-hit wonders EU who came up with "Da Butt" from the "School Daze" soundtrack.  LOVED that song.  I still occasionally pump it to this day.  Mainly because it brings back fond memories of the AKA Catilion my senior year in high school.  One of the very last things I did before I would end up leaving for a summer with the Air National Guard a couple of days later.

So if Chuck Brown was the godfather that helped to later inspire groups like EU to give us cuts like "Da Butt" then it was imperative that I give him his due credit.  I understand that he would perform tirelessly at his shows making it hard to believe that he was 70+.  I can always appreciate that type of work ethic and it will definitely be missed in an era where that is what is lacking in today's music. 

Rest in peace, Godfather.

Thank You for That Last Dance

Why does it always seem like when I come back to posting that after a brief layoff that it always has to be about death?  Maybe if I would post a little more often I wouldn't have that problem.  It is what it is though.  I'm certainly not going to let some of these important folks go uneulogized by me when they played a part in my pop culture in one way or another.  

The Queen of Disco Donna Summer passed away last Friday as a result of lung cancer.  She was only 63-years-old.

You all know I'm a child of the 70s so I'm very familiar with the artists of that era.  Not so much disco per se, but I clearly remember Donna's records getting frequent play on my favorite Kansas City station KPRS.  Cuts like "Bad Girls" and "Street Life" stuck with me for years.  In fact, I doubt there's anyone from my age group who doesn't remember the intro from that KUCB talk show that came on at 6pm.  If you never heard "Street Life" before you at least definitely know it from that intro.

My favorite recollection of her though was her role in "Thank God It's Friday".  Just as "Breakin'" would later become movie that highlighted the breakdance culture, "TGIF" did that for disco.  It is one of the corniest movies you'll ever see, but that's what made it SO good.  Summer played a struggling artist trying to catch a big break at a local disco with her classic cut "Last Dance" being the hit of the film.  Ever since seing that that flick that's the only thing I can think of whenever someone mentions "TGIF".

The interesting thing about her illness is Donna's people say the cause of her lung cancer was not related to smoking because she was not a smoker.  She had indicated in her last days that it was something she had caught as a result of being in very close proximity to Ground Zero when 9/11 took place.  If that truly is the case then that makes her passing all the more tragic.  Whatever the case may be she will be missed.

Rest in peace, Queen.

Where the Wild Things Were

Okay...finally caught up on the photos so time to knock out some posts before I get busy with another weekend of shooting.  This entry was long overdue because it meant to coincide with the passing of two other celebrities during the same time period.  I ended up waiting so long that there were two other significant deaths in the meantime.  We'll get to that in a second though.  For now...a great writer is gone...

Famed children's author Maurice Sendak passed away last Thursday due to complications from a recent stroke.  He was 83-years-old.

I have to be honest...I don't even remember what "Where The Wild Things Are" was about.  Remember when it was made into a movie a couple of years back and everyone was making a big deal out of it because of what a popular children's book it was?  Well it has been YEARS since I read it.  The only thing I could remember was the pictures and what all the characters look like.

Still, there's a lot to be said for the fact that Sendak's characters struck such a memorable chord that they resonate even with the youth today.  Even though I didn't help contribute to it at all by never reading it to my children.  I know...it's a dang shame.  I think we even had the book in our collection too.  I don't know what I was thinking.

At least we will always have dude's books to remember him by.  He may be gone but those literary works of art will remain forever.  Maybe I'll even read one in his honor.  Or at least look at the pictures.

Rest in peace, Maurice.

 

 

One Lonely Beastie He Be

What is the deal with us losing our hip-hop legends at young ages?  No, I don't mean the senseless (though, let's face it, expected) deaths of Pac and Biggie years ago.  I mean the 40-somethings.  Or maybe it was just that Heavy D's passing was so huge that it seemed like there have been more.  Regardless, this latest one was another one I didn't see coming.

Famed co-founding Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (better known as MCA to us hip hop heads) succumbed to his battled with cancer last week.  He was only 47-years-old.

I will never forget the first time I heard the Beastie Boys.  Run-DMC were at the height of their popularity and had successfully crossed rap over to the mainstream.  There were some naysayers that tried to dismiss it as a cultural phenomenon that wouldn't last primarily because it had such a narrow fan-base.  What they really meant was it wouldn't last because only our folks were doing it.  Then along came the Beastie Boys.  And unlike the gimmick of a Vanilla Ice that would come along later, these were white guys that actually had skills.

Honestly, I didn't think the Beasties would have the lengthy career that they did.  They managed to keep recreating theirselves so that they could grow a broader audience.  Sure, they lost most of us true hip-hop fans once they started going off in that spacesound alternative music they went to, but somebody must have liked it because they kept selling records.  It's all good because no matter what they did we always had their hip-hop classic "License to Ill" to remember them by.

I had no idea that MCA even had cancer.  Apparently he had been treating for it since 2009 after they discovered a tumor in his salivary gland.  I have never known anyone to have cancer and lived with it peacefully so it's good to know that he no longer has to live with any pain.  One of hip-hop's true pioneers shouldn't have to live his final days in distress.

Rest in peace, MCA.

 

Thank You #55

Once again it's past time for me to update this joint.  You could probably tell that I've been busy shooting.  Which also reminds me that I need to update the XL-Images website too.  In the meantime, as much as I hate making a scriptual (yes, just made that word up) return on a solemn subject, it still has to be done.  There were three fairly significant passings (because as you know the celebrity ones always happen in threes) that I had to speak on.  f

First ups is Junior Seau.  This one was rather shocking although not entirely unexpected as much as I hate to admit it.  I was just listening to the Jim Rome Show the day before this news broke and he was asking Philadelphia Eagles head coach about what the League is doing to better help those retired NFL vets make the transition to retirement.  It was a rather random subject but very relative given the recent news of the NFL being faced with new concerns of concussions.  Then this happens.

Seau passed away from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound last Wednesday.  He was only 43-years-old.  I didn't even realize until I heard the news that the brotha was only a year older than me.

Any true football fan remembers what a great player Seau was.  Especially us Chiefs fans.  I used to dread the Chargers coming up on Kansas City's schedule at least twice a year.  Seau was a one man wrecking crew who always made that San Diego game a rough one whenever they faced my Chiefs.  It was a treat watching him play but it was agonizing seeing him constantly terrorizing Kansas City.

I've said before in instances such as this one that we never know what type of demons other folks are dealing with.  Even more importantly for him was I wasn't aware until just recently that the Charger Super Bowl team which Seau was a part of had a strange history of players dying due to various reasons.  So maybe it was a strange curse that contributed to his dealings?  Sure it's reaching, but it doesn't matter.  The fact remains that one of the best linebackers to every play the game is gone WAY too young.

Rest in peace, Junior.

Farewell to the Oldest Teenager Ever

I almost forgot that I hadn't said anything about this most momentous passing that occurred this past week.  Probably because my father's birthday was more significant so it overshadowed the event.  But make no mistake, to someone like me whose life is filled with a passion for music, this latest death was huge. 

Music and television icon Dick Clark passed away Wednesday after suffering a massive heart attack.  He was 82-years-old.

As old as I am I'm still not old enough to remember Clark when he first pioneered the very influential "American Bandstand".  However, I knew enough about my television and music history to realize how crucial that show and he was to the music scene.  For instance, he was one of the first show to successfully integrate his show.  He actually had partners of different races dancing together.  That was huge back then.  That alone was enough to mark what an impact he had.

There was also the most obvious fact that he introduced generations to music that would be legendary for years to come.  The young Beatles, the fledgling Jackson 5ive, newcomer Prince...just a few of the future greats that would all grace his show.  While Soul Train gave us that urban element that America so desperately needed, American Bandstand brought it full circle by incorporating an even wider musical palate.

My earliest memory of Dick Clark was his hosting duties as the New Year's Eve countdown on ABC.  New Year's Eve was not complete until I tuned into that show at least once during the night.  I never watched the entire thing, but I would at least check out a little bit of it.  It was almost as if I had to see Dick Clark on New Year's Eve to somehow validate it was actually New Year's Eve.  He became as much a part of that evening as Santa Claus was with Christmas.

I think everyone would be kidding themselves if they didn't admit they saw the writing on the wall when Clark suffered that stroke in 2007.  I was surprised that he made it back from that.  Then when they kept using him very sparingly on air afterwards, it was obvious that he was in bad shape.  Despite the fact that he was still looking very young for his age.  We all knew that his days were numbered from that point forward but at least the days behind him were filled with some great memories he shared with us.

Rest in peace, Mr. Clark.

 

Another "60 Minutes" Reunion

At first I was just going to put up a pic only of this cat as an homage to his legacy.  You know...because of the whole time constraints issue I've been dealing with lately.  Then I figured that wouldn't even be right considering that he was another pioneer in the field that I studied. 

"60 Minutes" legend Mike Wallace passed away this past Saturday in Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn.  He was 93-years-old.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention what an influence Wallace had on the journalism game.  He was renown for asking the tough questions.  Moreover, he didn't seem to ever be intimidated by his interviewees.  It's a trait that's hard to find in journalists these days with so many of them wanting to cater to the egos of their subjects.

What I remember most about Wallace is how he helped turn "60 Minutes" into one of the most feared journalism shows out there.  Actually, were there even any other journalism shows out at the time?  I just know that back in the 80s, having a "60 Minutes" crew come to your business would be the equivalent today of having Chris Hanson and the "Dateline" homies show up.  You know the outcome won't be good.

I don't think there's much of that "60 Minutes" gang left now.  Ed Bradley and Andy Rooney had already left within the past few years and now Wallace.  That infamous ticking clock that marked ever Sunday night just won't ever be the same again.

Rest in peace, Mr. Wallace.

There He Goes...

If someone would have told me this would be the first Monkee to go, I would have never believed them.  Not that I was making bets on how they would keel off, but I could have sworn Mickey Dolenz would be the lead-off man.  That's why this one was definitely shocking. 

Monkees lead singer Davy Jones passed away last Wednesday after suffering an apparent heart attack.  He was only 66-years-old.

My first exposure to Davy Jones was watching "The Brady Bunch" in syndication.  It was the renown episode where Marsha was set on getting him to perform at her prom and he was the guest star.  I had no clue who he was at that time.  Little did I know that he had already made a huge splash with The Monkees and was actually embarking on a solo career by the time that episode rolled around.  But thanks to MTV I would be schooled on that later on. 

That was the one good thing about MTV going with non-music video programming in those early days.  They exposed my generation to the greatness that was The Monkees while we were still in our impressionable high school years.  I don't know anyone from my circle of friends that were big on the Beatles at all.  However, give us a knockoff group that was created for the sole purpose of trying to be a comedic alternative to that group and we were all in.

The most ironic thing about the news of his passing was I had just recently discovered that this local cable station here called Inspiration runs "The Brady Bunch" episodes in the late afternoon.  Of course I started watching them.  For some odd reason, I had been thinking about that Davy Jones episode wondering when they would get to that one.  Then this news came.  Definitely not the way I wanted to have that episode resurface.  Although it was nice that they decided to run it back to back in memory of him.

I've long been clowned for having some corny music among my favorites.  It's the curse of having a diverse musical palate.  I will have no problem making a mix cd that will include Kanye's "Blame Game" and The Monkees' "Daydream Believer" on the same list of tracks.  And I still rock Monkees' tunes to this day due in large part to Davy's vocals.  At least we will aways continue to have those even though he is no longer with us.

Rest in peace, Davy.

An Iconic Farewell

Greatest. Voice.  Ever.

There's no other way to accurately categorize what Whitney Houston was to our generation.  In spite of the demons she would battle later and the tasteless jokes that ignorant people will try to use, hers was quite simply put the greatest voice many of us have ever heard during our lifetime.  And now she's gone.

Legendary music icon and multi-Grammy award winning artist Whitney Houston passed away yesterday in Beverly Hills.  She was only 48-years-young.

I never thought I would feel a void like there was when MJ left us, yet here I am again with a very similar surreal feeling.  I grew up listening to Whitney.  From way back when she made that cameo appearance on "Silver Spoons" to watching her be the only Black woman whose video played on MTV.  Regardless of the issues she's had in recent years I just assumed she would be around for years to come and this memorial would be much too far away to anticipate. 

It's ironic because was just discussing icons with someone else the other day when they tried to rationalize that Madonna is not in the same category as Michael Jackson.  I contended that she is.  I still do.  In fact, there are few people that are at that stratospheric level of iconism (yes, I just made that word up).  Yet it never dawned on me at the time to include Whitney in the discussion.  Maybe it's because it had been so long since she has been relevant that we had taken for granted what she had given us. 

Whitney stuck out like a sore thumb when she first came on the scene.  It was the age of the supermodel when all those folks like Christine Brinkley and Cindy Crawford were all on the rise.  We were used to seeing the lanky, skinny girls with pretty faces model.  Not sing.  Then along comes Whitney who has that look AND can sing.  But it wasn't like she could only sing.  The sista could flat out SANG.  It was a voice that matched by no one.

I don't know if I could eloquently put into words how phenomenal Whitney's voice was in her prime.  Everyone with that strong Baptist background will know just where I'm coming from though.  Whitney had that soul-stirring voice that took you back to church whenever you heard it.  It didn't matter what she was singing about.  She had the uncanny ability to make you feel a song deep down to your core.  To make your hair stand on end when she went to her upper range with such angelic flawlessness.

There are countless examples I could refer back to to reference how amazing her vocal ability was.  The one that readily comes to mind was her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXV.  Just as Prince would later do with his Super Bowl halftime show, Whitney gave a Super Bowl vocal performance that will NEVER be topped.  The Star Spangled Banner would never sound that epic again.  How many other renditions of The Star-Spangled Banner would top the modern music charts?

It was more than just the voice that propelled her to the top though.  She had the full package.  If Helen had a face that could sail a thousand ships then that young Whitney was our version of the same thing.  Not to mention that Colgate smile she had to match.  Then add on top of that how she carried herself with such an air of class that it was evident she had been well-groomed by the legends before her that she could call Mom (Cissy Houston), cousin (Dionne Warwick) and godmother (Aretha Franklin).

Some say the beginning of the end for her came when she hooked up with Bobby Brown.  I'm going to take a different approach.  A bit of a controversial one.  I would venture to say that it was many of our own folks that helped make that union possible.  Whitney had gotten to the crossover point where she was started to get a little backlash.  Where Black folks were saying she wasn't as much soul and not quite Black enough for them.  Does anyone else remember when she got jeered at the Soul Train Awards?  So she showed us.  She would married the then ultimate bad boy of R&B.  The rest would be infamous history.

Whitney had so much good will built up with the greatness her voice had provided over the years that we forgave her transgressions no matter how minor or major.  We didn't mind that her acting in her movies was marginal at best.  At least her songs on the soundtracks distracted from that.  We didn't care that she couldn't dance a lick.  She didn't have to dance when she had those unparalleled vocal cords.  And of course we didn't like the drug addiction she struggled with but we hoped she would eventually overcome it so she could age gracefully.  Unfortunately it would never happen.

Even while Whitney was still with us I would argue tooth and nail with anyone that would dare say 'so-and-so' has a voice like Whitney.  It didn't matter who it was.  Not even Adele with as incredible as she is.  Not even Jennifer Hudson with with her no longer underrated skills.  Not Christina.  Not Mariah.  None of them are even close to Whitney in her prime.  Hers was a defining sound of a generation that we may never see again in our lifetime.  I am thankful that I was able to experience it.  Even more thankful that although her presence is gone her music remains forever.

God's choir just increased by tenfold.

Rese in peace, Whitney.

 

 

Thanks for the Legends

It's been a while since I've seen one of these come up where they fall in the "I thought they were already dead" category.  Not to be mean but I seriously could have sworn that Mr. Dundee had left us a while ago.  Since boxers as a whole don't have long life spans I just assumed that the same thing happened with trainers since the mental rigors can be just as strenuous.  But even with that, dude held on for a while.

Renowned trainer Angelo Dundee passed away last Wednesday after recently dealing with blood clot issues.  He was 90-years-old.

Most of us regular folks commonly associate Dundee with what was greatest accomplishment.  Or at the very least the the one he was best known for.  He was the trainer that was in Muhammad Ali's corner for pretty much all of his career.  Under Dundee's tutelage, Ali (then Cassius Clay) became the then youngest man to ever obtain the heavyweight title when he defeated Sonny Liston in 1964.  The two of them never looked back after that.

They would go on to create some of the most epic moments in boxing history.  Sure, I was too young to fully remember or even appreciate the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" against George Foreman in Zaire.  The same goes for his third fight against Joe Frazier in the Phillipines which would be known as The Thrilla in Manilla".  However, I wasn't even out into my teens before I was watching replays of them on television.  I was old enough to know that I was witnessing greatness.  Yet it wasn't until later that I would understand how pivotal Dundee was behind the scenes as part of Ali's successes.

It was more than just Ali though.  All in all, Dundee had a part in training 15 world champions.  Including George Foreman.  But also including Sugar Ray Leonard.  Now Leonard's fights I clearly recall watching as a shorty.  Not so much the Roberto Duran ones but definitely the ones with Hagler and Hearns.  It was obvious that Dundee knew how to not only pick winners but to keep them motivated to stay the way.

It's a shame that boxing has declined to the point it is today where no one could really give two shakes about it.  That's probably why the news of Dundee's passing only made big headlines in the sports world.  Boxing doesn't transcend like it used to so even the legends aren't as newsworthy as they used to be.  But us old heads know how important Dundee was to the world of the boxing.  Even if the sport is dying (or arguably already dead), there's no denying many of it fondest memories would can be attributed to Dundee's teachings.

Rest in peace, Angelo