eddie ken

Eddie Kendricks: People...Hold On (Tamla Motown, 1972)
Is this one of the best soul albums ever? In a similar way to how Weldon Irvine is criminally overlooked in comparison to Stevie Wonder, Eddie Kendricks is criminally overlooked in comparison to Marvin Gaye.
I could have chosen perhaps the most obvious cut from this LP, which in Kendrick's catalogue stands equivalent to Gaye's What's Going On: the stormer track "Girl You Need a Change of Mind", or the irresistibly romantic "Day by Day" (which I'm actually quite sure Eric Clapton has been bitin'!).
But instead we're focusing here on the crushingly short "Date With the Rain", and the title tune, "My People...Hold On", which is a key milestone in Black music's celebration of consciousness, heritage and pride.

Eddie Kendricks: My People...Hold On
("My People...Hold On" can also be found on the Harmless compilation Stand Up and Be Counted)

Eddie Kendricks: Date With the Rain

trip to chicago

Just came back from Chicago, heartland of funk & soul. Also went to Minneapolis - which used to host the purple premises of Prince (Paisley Park). Ironically, the latter city surprisingly turned out to be the better one of the two for record digging.
Too much / hype list: (for when Europeans go crazy on midwest sh*)
* carne asada burritos
* John Klemmer
* Mizell Bros
* "Bomb the Suburbs"
* Chicago suburban radio: it's all Toto & John Cougar Mellencamp (crackers in the area are all still stuck in the 1980s)
* Eddie Kendricks "People...hold on"
* Ahmad Jamal "Jamal plays Jamal"
* Grain Belt beer
* NCAA basketball (go Gators!!!)
* Four Tet vs. Steve Reid, "Exchange Sessions" live @ the Empty Bottle