It’s Friday. It’s raining. But we can still have fun. And even though it’s not quite beer-o’clock yet, I’m going to share with you my musical guilty pleasures!
I could have gone on for a while digging through the one hit wonders of my listening journey, but I’ve limited myself to these 15 One Hit Wonders! #OneHitWonderDay
And it can come from anywhere, anytime. I literally stumbled upon this 1 min 20-sec video of the one and only Bootsy Collins explaining the power of The One and it lit my whole morning up. I’m sure I’ll be buzzing the rest of the day just from this video.
The #1 rule of funk: Keep it on the One. Listen to Bootsy lay it down:
“It’s however you feel, you just gotta fit it in that little space that you’ve got…. Once you got it, you can do anything you want to do with it! Just keep it on THE ONE.”
Why am I so fired up about this? Because The One is both practical and mystical. It’s about freedom through the constraint of form, but it’s also about something bigger. Think the Magician, who occupies the position of One in the Tarot:
In the Magician’s right hand is a wand raised toward heaven, the sky or the element æther, while his left hand is pointing to the earth. This iconographic gesture has multiple meanings, but is endemic to the Mysteries and symbolizes divine immanence, the ability of the magician to bridge the gap between heaven and earth.
Or as James Brown lays it down:
“The ‘One’ is derived from the Earth itself, the soil, the pine trees of my youth. And most important, it’s on the upbeat—ONE two THREE four—not the downbeat, one TWO three FOUR, that most blues are written. Hey, I know what I’m talking about! I was born to the downbeat, and I can tell you without question there is no pride in it. The upbeat is rich, the downbeat is poor. Stepping up proud only happens on the aggressive ‘One,’ not the passive Two, and never on lowdown beat. In the end, it’s not about music—it’s about life.”
Bridging the gap between heaven and earth, tapping the Divine for inspiration.
You can bet, I’ll be keeping it on The One all day today.
P.S.
Do you want to take a mystical journey today?
Wait till it’s dark, then find a quiet room. Put your headphones on, turn off the lights, and listen to the original version of Maggot Brain.
Monday’s Musical Journey Show in case you missed it.
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars…”
My friend Sarah and I met for a coffee. We were both trying to figure out where the heck to go to next with the podcast we’ve been working on for nearly 2 years. It’s a habit now, one that we want to grow. I can think of worse habits than a philosophically oriented podcast. One that helps us kind of figure out what the hell we’re doing here. And sometimes, maybe, if we’re lucky, it helps us figure out why we’re here.
My overarching conclusion was it’s time for an all out assault! Time to go all in to infinity and beyond and whatever other trite saying that means it’s time to commit in the way the pig is committed.
It was blues night on my radio show last night. If you like the blues – listen. If you don’t like the blues – listen. In conclusion, just listen. It’s a good show. If you want to listen on the move, download the Mixcloud app and follow me there. Otherwise you can listen right here:
After about an 18 month hiatus, The Musical Journey Show is back. I’ll be kicking off the reboot with a trip back to 1982 when all us MTV babies were discovering bands like Dexys Midnight Runners, Culture Club, Men at Work, Soft Cell, Duran Duran and others. Yet still rocking the radio with the likes of The Steve Miller Band, America, Toto, A Flock of Seagulls, Fleetwood Mac among others.
For the best experience listen from our main site. I’ll be in the Musical Journey Show Chat Room to expand on the tunes. You can also listen using the TuneIn app.
If you’re not doing what you want to do in this life, it’s on you. We live in a time where you can just about make a living doing anything you set your mind to provided you have the heart, the stamina, and the patience to succeed. If you’re willing to hustle and by that I mean, you’re willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, then you can make your dreams a reality. This is a pep talk for me as much as it is for you.
Note: the some of links in the following paragraph are NSFW or around small children.
And here’s why I’m saying this. If people like Blue Tiger, Bruce P. Grether, Other Elias, and Vanessa Marin can make a living as masturbation coaches, then anything is possible. I’m not trying to take anything away from these guys, in fact, I applaud them. Imagine telling your friends and family that you’re about to set up a coaching practice centred on masturbation. Enough said.
So no more excuses. Do what you came here to do!
Alright. Let’s get the weekend started. I made this playlist for you. And actually, it’s very apropos to the previous topic. It’s a playlist about dreams – the wild kind, the fun kind, the dark kind, and the aspirational kind. As Tupac would say, you can pop this in your iPod, sit back and smoke a beedi to it (or drink some Gin) and day dream about how you’re going to change the world with your mission.
I’m driving down to Bristol this evening. I have some family stuff on Saturday and then I’m either going to go on a little urban adventure or sneak off to the Brecon Beacons for a little mountain air.
If you’re on Spotify, I’ve created a collaborative playlist, called, My Music Friends. I’d love for you to drop some tracks on there like what songs do you have on repeat right now, or something new you’ve discovered or just a song that you LOVE.
