playing catch up: last three shows

Hello, friends of Oh My Soul! It's been awhile. That's what happens in the summer sometimes... but the show's been going on almost every week, even though I haven't been updating the blog. Let's play catch-up, courtesy of the CFRC archives:

Wattstax (1973) (June 14, 2009)

First Day of Summer: Canadian "Soul" Special (June 21, 2009)

Michael Jackson tribute night (July 5, 2009)

Enjoy, and please leave a comment if you have a soul request! Is there a particular theme that you'd like to hear? An artist you love that I should focus on? Let me know!

June 7, 2009

Take a listen to this week's show, all about Otis Redding! Track listing and facts to follow - I'm a little off this week, having just returned from a conference. But that shouldn't stop you from listening!

Rabindranath Tagore

"Music fills the infinite between two souls."

Ooh! My soul!

"You ready yet? Okay, we're rolling... this is "Ooh! My Soul," take nine. And please slow it down a little bit more!"

Here's a great live track of Little Richard recording a take of "Ooh! My Soul" that I came upon while looking for Otis Redding tracks for this Sunday's show. I was tickled by such a great song with the same title as this show! The idea to use "Oh My Soul!" as my show's title came from a Thrush Hermit song I love... but this Little Richard song is even better. Have a listen!

Otis Redding lyrics: These Arms of Mine

"These arms of mine/They are lonely/Lonely and feeling blue/These arms of mine/They are yearning/Yearning from wanting you/And if you would let them hold you/Oh how grateful I will be."

May 31, 2009

LISTEN to the archived show!

This Week's Track Listing

STAX: WEEK 2
Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd
Who's Making Love - Johnnie Taylor
Private Number - Judy Clay & William Bell
What a Man - Linda Lyndell
I Got a Sure Thing - Ollie & the Nightingales
Make It Me - The Premiers
Soul Man - Sam & Dave
You Don't know Like I Know - Sam & Dave
Hold On, I'm Comin' - Sam & Dave
Hot Dog - Four Shells
In the Twilight Zone - Astors
Blue Groove - Sir Isaac & the Do-Dads
The Boogaloser - Fuad & the Feztones

Interesting Facts of the Week

(Just a couple this week, but I think they are interesting and meaningful ones.)


1. Linda Lyndell, a white girl who grew up singing in both black and white gospel churches, had a hit with Stax called "What A Man" - its success gave rise to threats against her from white supremacist groups, halting her career.


2. In 1993, Salt-n-Pepa sampled "What a Man" for their hit single "Whatta Man;" as a result, Lyndell started playing live again, and performed "What A Man" live for the first time ever at the Stax Museum in 2003.

Tune in for the Otis Redding special, coming up!

Oscar Wilde on soul... I mean, the soul.

"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."

May 24, 2009

LISTEN to the archived show! *

This Week's Track Listing

STAX: WEEK 1
'Cause I Love You - Carla & Rufus Thomas
Can't Ever Let You Go - Rufus Thomas
Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes) - Carla Thomas
Last Night - The Mar-Keys
Morning After - The Mar-Keys
About Noon - The Mar-Keys
Be My Lady - Booker T. & the MGs
Soul Limbo - Booker T. & the MGs
Green Onions - Booker T. & the MGs
You Make Me Feel So Good - The Chips
Burnt Biscuits - The Triumphs
There's A Love - Del Rios
Wait A Minute - Barbara Stephens
DB Buxton Revue - No Refund

Interesting Facts of the Week

1. The name "Stax" is a portmanteau of the names of the two original owners of the company: Jim STewart and his sister Estelle AXton


2. Now that's good business: Jim Stewart ran the recording studio, while Estelle Axton ran the record shop and refreshment stand. Mmm.


3. When he started Stax, Jim Stewart was a white country fiddle player with little previous knowledge of, or interest in, rhythm and blues music - but it was what the people wanted.


4. Carla Thomas, later to be known as the Queen of Memphis Soul, had Stax's first #1 hit with her dad: "'Cause I Love You."


5. The Mar-Keys/Booker T & the MGs were the house band at Stax, but had a number of their own hits as well - including "Green Onions," one of the most iconic songs of the 1960s.


6. Stax's signature style was an accident; since their recording studio was in a converted movie theater that still had the sloped floor where the seats had once been, the room was imbalanced, creating an acoustic anomaly that translated into the recordings, often giving them a big, deep yet raw sound.

Tune in next week for Stax Records, Week 2!

* Seems like the clock was off again this week, so the recording cuts in to the show already in progress. Ah, technology.

quick note...

Stay tuned for an upload of last week's show... a lost USB key caused some problems for me this week, but I found it and will upload the show later this evening!

Isaac Hayes on music

"Have you ever wondered why young people take to music like fish to water? Maybe it's because music is fun. Plain and simple. It opens up their minds to dream great dreams about where they can go and what they can do when they get older."

Wilson Pickett on soul

"Soul ain't nothing but a feeling."

Otis Redding respects James Brown's moves

"If I was a dance floor, I would like to have James Brown 'mash potato' all over me."

Billy Corgan, dissin' Motown

"A lot of great music got easily dismissed because the baby boomers threw their weight around and we had to listen to Motown 'til our ears bled."

May 17, 2009

LISTEN to the archived show! *

This Week's Track Listing

MOTOWN: WEEK 2
Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)
The Miracles - Shop Around
Jimmy Ruffin - What Becomes of the Broken Hearted
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston - It Takes Two
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers - Does Your Mama Know About Me
The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back
Fuad & the Feztones - Soul Camel
The Contours - Do You Love Me?
The Miracles - You've Really Got A Hold On Me

Interesting Facts of the Week

1. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, although they "played" lovers on their albums, were never romantically involved.


2. The backing musicians for the majority of the Motown hits were a group of men who went by the name The Funk Brothers. By the end of their 14 year run, they played on more #1 hits than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and Elvis combined.


3. Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers guitarist Tommy Chong went on to be half of the comedy duo Cheech & Chong. Bobby Taylor went on to be a Motown producer, and discovered The Jackson 5.


4. For publicity's sake, Motown decided that it would be better for Diana Ross to have "discovered" The Jackson 5.


5. When Motown went about publicizing The Jackson 5, they reduced the ages of all the members. Michael's age was changed from 11 to 8 to make him appear "cuter."


6. When Barry Gordy Jr. (CEO of Motown) first heard Marvin Gaye's song What's Going On, he said it was "the worst record [he] ever heard." The song would later become a #1 hit, even with no backing from Motown, and was later called the fourth best song of all time by Rolling Stone.

Tune in next week for another episode of Oh My Soul!
(* Please note that this week, the computer timer was a little off at the station, so the file is a little off - at the beginning, you'll hear the end of Alley Cat Café, the show on before mine. Hold on, I'm coming. This also means that the end of my show is cut off - listen here (while it works) for the end. You don't want to miss the amazing promo that we made last Friday night.)

Advice from Barry Gordy Jr.

"Don't judge yourself by others' standards ... have your own. And don't get caught up into the trap of changing yourself to fit the world. The world has to change to fit you. And if you stick to your principles, values, and morals long enough, it will."

music is a part of Ray Charles

"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me - like food or water."

What gets Marvin Gaye going?

"Music, not sex, got me aroused."

listening post-Sundays

Through the magic of technology (and a lot of help from my tech-savvy brother), I'll be uploading an archived version of my show each week! The inaugural May 10th show is up now, but will only be available for a limited time!

advice from James Brown

"The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing."

The future is now.

Oh my word, we have a Facebook group. Come join, won't you?

Contribute to Oh My Soul!

Do you know something about soul music? Is there a particular artist that you love that you think should get the spotlight at some point this summer? Do you know stories from soul's history that I could include on air?

Contributor credits are up for grabs! Oh My Soul wants to have contributions from or interviews with YOU! Email Lindsay with your suggestions, ideas, and stories!

May 10, 2009

LISTEN to the archived show!

This Week's Track Listing

INTRO TO SOUL: THE THREE FATHERS OF SOUL
Ray Charles - I Got a Woman
Sam Cooke - You Send Me
James Brown & the Famous Flames - Try Me

MOTOWN: WEEK 1
The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud To Beg
The Supremes - I Hear a Symphony
The Isley Brothers - This Old Heart of Mine
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas - Dancing in the Street
Jr. Walker & the All Stars - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
Mary Wells - My Guy
Stevie Wonder - Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day
Stevie Wonder - Signed Sealed Delivered (I'm Yours)
Stevie Wonder - I Was Made To Love Her
Ray Charles - What'd I Say

Interesting Facts of the Week

1. Soul music can be thought of as a mixture of the sacred (gospel music) and the profane (the blues).


2. Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown Records, was the seventh of eight children and had a brief career as a featherweight boxer in his late teens.


3. Berry Gordy's first record store, 3D Record Mart, went out of business because all he stocked was jazz, running counter to what his customers wanted to hear and buy.


4. Motown is a portmanteau for "motor" and "town," two words that together make another name for Detroit, the city where Motown Records was founded.


5. Motown producers believed strongly in the KISS principle - Keep It Simple, Stupid.


6. Motown made significant contributions to the soul canon in the 1960s even though it styled itself as a manufacturer of pop music.

Tune in next week for Motown part two!