This Time Make It Sweet

The Moments: With You
from Moments With You (Stang 1976) and The Best of the Moments (Rhino Records 1996)

Ray, Goodman & Brown: Inside Of You
from Ray, Goodman & Brown (Polydor 1979) and 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection - The Best of Ray,Goodman, and Brown


Two different names but essentially the same group. The change of names didn't mean that there would be a change in style as the sound of The Moments were essentially the same sound as their latter namesake although in Ray, Goodman & Brown a more playful 50's doo-wop style tended to pervade their songs.

The first joint, "With You" is classic 70's soul. From the heavy waltz time bass-line accented by the airy, resonant keyboards, the strings quietly creeping in on the second verse and the engaging bridge with that mock laugh and its crescendo into the chorus, the song will sound vaguely familiar and yet wholly unique. When compared to modern day slow jams this song lacks sophistication and brazen sexuality but more than makes up for it in innocence and a gushing sincerity that borders on naivete. When Harry Ray sings "loving you is easier than breathing" he lifts the lyric (in other less capable hands it would just be a lyrical platitude) and makes it sublime soul. The songs simplicity is actually its greatest strength, because its effectiveness lies in its ability to quickly capture the listener and tug at their heartstrings. A quick note about this recording that I offer, for some reason it sounds awful on QT player, so if you use that to play your mp3's I suggest that you switch to another player for this song.

The next cut "Inside of you" is from their Ray, Goodman & Brown days. Leaving the Stang label, they used their own names for their group, their former label owned the rights to The Moments name, and infused their music with a little more polished harmony and yet still retained that Moments sound. Probably better known for their song "Special Lady" which reached #1 and #5 on the R&B and Pop charts respectively, Inside Of You (a double entendre of a title if ever I've heard one) is for me a more memorable song. While the playful harmonies aren't as pronounced as Special Lady, but belive me there's no mistaking that they're still there, this I think is it's strength as it allows for the lead vocals to shine more. Harry Ray again takes the lead and carries the song capably. and when the falsetto kicks into high gear, you know it's over. This song and the aforementioned Special Lady are probably best known for their intros, where they fine tune their harmonies, and for their codas where the music fades and all your left with is their acapellas. You would think that over 20 years later Ray, Goodman & Brown would be a footnote in the canon of soul music but surprisingly (or maybe not so with how divergent R&B has become) they're still around and still relevant. Despite the death of vocalist Harry Ray, they still put out albums and have even done backing vocals for Alicia Keys.

Like A Pound Or A Key

Al Green: Belle
from The Belle Album (The Right Stuff 1977) also on Greatest Hits (Capitol 1995)

Every once in a while I'll discover a song and find myself so enamored with it I'll constantly play it to the point of exhaustion. I might return to it after a while hoping to rediscover that initial feeling that struck me when I heard it for the first time. Most of the time, I'll find out that my obsession with the song was a superficial one. It might have been a catchy melody or a witty line or the context in which I heard the song (being drunk at a club can be especially deceiving for judging the value of a song), but for whatever reason my obsession is just an ephemeral one. The songs which stay with me forever, the ones that I can come back to again and again and not find my interest dwindling are sometimes the ones that have to grow on me. At first I might find myself simply enjoying the song, but with each listening I find that initial feeling of the discovery of the beauty of the song growing instead of diminishing.

Case in point, Al Green's "Belle." Recorded after the Willie Mitchell production era (an era that produced all of his most famous songs), this song captures the spiritual rebirth that had occured several years earlier. Just as much confession as a song, Belle still retains the Willie Mitchell sound which only helps to emphasize the theme of the struggle between the singers secular and his spiritual yearnings. Everything about this song works perfectly. The introspective keys of the piano complements the warm bass line, the reluctance in Greens voice as he delivers the line "seems so easy to me/ to try to act naturally" or his confidence when he sings "He brought me safe thus far/ through many drunken country bars" and when the synthesizer kicks in on the second verse, it's perfectly prefaced by the pithy line, "It's you I want but it's Him that I need." By the time he breaks it down at the end of the song it almost sounds as if the tug-of-war is one sided, but just as the song fades out, it becomes evident that the struggle is much longer and deeper than you might have previously been led to believe.

See Me Cocoa Might Go Pop

Paul McCrane: Is It Okay If I Call You Mine
from Fame Soundtrack (Rhino Records 2003)

Nina Gordon: Straight Outta Compton

Blondie: Once I Had A Love
from The Platinum Collection (Capitol 1994) also on Parellel Lines (Captiol 2001)

Over a week later comes day 2 of what was supposed to be a consistent effort on my part. Well here it is, the official jumping off point of Filthy Choice, my foray into those lives of quiet desperation, what the rest of the world refers to as Audioblogging. So what separates this from the million other audioblogs that litter the net? Honestly, nothing much. While a lot better blogs than mine highlight the obscure and out of print, my intention for this audioblog is to include songs from albums and artists that may not have been given their just due or may have been glossed over in an effort to get to the latest chart topper or may have simply been forgotten. This audioblog is my lighthouse in the rough waters of corporate machinations and artistic egos.

First up to bat is Paul McCranes "Is It Okay If I Call You Mine" from the Fame Soundtrack. Unabashedly treacle with lines like "I love your love" this song, when removed from its synth laden soundtrack, has a lot going for it. Stripped of instrumentation save for guitar and voice, McCrane carries the song further than its lyrics try to hold it down. The greatest aspect of the song: its length. Clocking in at under 3 minutes the song gets started with barely an intro and quickly reaches a terse conclusion and like a well planned meal, it leaves you satisfied without being full and doesn't require any more of your participation than what you're willing to bring to the table. If the name Paul McCrane sounds familiar, you probably might remember him from his liquescent moment in Robocop when he gets hit by the car and bursts into liquid guts.

Switching things up, we have Nina Gordon's rendition of Straight Outta Compton. Taken from an EP of cover songs, Gordon's cover of the NWA "classic" (I can't with all honesty label it a classic just yet, to paraphrase KRS "The song isn't even twentty years old") is altogether humorous, jarring, insulting and enjoyable. Covering only one verse, Ice Cube's, the song almost mockingly reduces Cube's lyrics to adult pop pablum. Taking lines like, "When I'm called off/ I got a sawed off/ squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off" her rendition exposes one of the pet peeves that most people who misunderstand Gangster Rap like to point out, the disparity from the reality of the rapper's life and the lyrics that he recites. Well without going into all of the nuances about the narrative voice and the responsibilities of the celebrity-as-role-model, I must say this song is just damn entertaining.

Finally, we have the original version of the disco classic Heart Of Glass. Titled Once I Had A Love this demo version uses a more laid back beat and is just as good, if not better in a "turn down your car radio whenever you don't want anyone hearing you bump any disco" type of way. Play this whenever you have someone who's mildly familiar with Blondie (yes there are some people like that out in the world) and you can smirk in your superiority as they quizically scratch their head trying to figure out where they heard the song before.

And Drrrroooooop!

Day 1 of many more to come.