Audiography: Fall 2012

Audiography: Fall 2012 at Soundcloud.

Listen to a DJ set inspired by our class, my version of a final project. If you are interested in the music, please download to your favorite listening device. (I don't know if I can host the track indefinitely on Soundcloud.)

---

Does it get better? Arthur Russell's "This is How we Walk on the Moon" looks onward and upward but his signature sound is far from optimistic. His life was a comet of creativity and productivity, but he died young from AIDS-related illness. Donald Byrd's "Sky High" continues in the same bittersweet trajectory. His career has spanned the American musical 20th century, from serious jazz in the 50s, to poppy crossover music in the 60s, to Afro-influenced genre-breakers in the 70s, to straight-up (and pretty gay) disco with the Blackbyrds. Russell also worked across genres and has disco hits.

Sade. "It's never as good as the first time." Is this what Sappho sang to departing brides? If so, the fragment is lost.

Violeta Parra is a Chilean folk superstar/artist/activist and she is quoted in Borderlands/La Frontera. This song, "Aracuo tiene una pena," is about centuries of violence against indigenous people in the city of Arauco. Like Borderlands, her subject is local but her message is broadly relevant.

Stuart Hall, quoted in Looking for Langston, calls history the "smiler with the knife." The 1971 Motown track "Smiling Faces Sometimes," by the Undisputed Truth, has a similar message. The band has several social issues songs in this style, and later some interesting afro-futurist concept albums.

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" was first recorded by the Supremes in 1966 as a 2:40 minute pop song. The Vanilla Fudge covered it in '67, turning it into a 7 minute, sprawling psychedelic whine. The song has been covered many times by many artists, but women tend to do a tight pop song while men tend to do a lot of screaming and extra bars. (Although there are notable exceptions.) This dynamic strikes me as revealing about the difference between Hella's and Giovanni's relationships with David. This version, by Wilson Pickett in '69, goes out to David. (My favorite version by Hugh Masekela, goes out to Giovanni.)

Audre Lorde. "The Uses of the Erotic." The essay is in the book Sister Outsider, the recording is on YouTube. Listen to it or read it every semester.

"Reckless with your Love" is by Azari & III, a Toronto-based group producing classic 80s house, today. They recently performed in Austin and they start a queer dance party wherever they go.

Nicki Minaj sure is quare. Plus, this set needed an anthem that wasn't by Lady Gaga.

RuPaul says, "You better work!" Rupaul also says, "You're born naked and the rest is drag." RuPaul is brilliant.

After our semester, you may catch a few more references in the last and most literate track, "Reading Rainbow" by The Lost Bois—but probably not all of them. Still, it's something to aim for!