…makes this a dull blog.

It’s that time of the month again (no, not that time), I’m up to my tits in work. Though if I spent less time online reading other people’s blogs I might get more done. Which makes me wonder how much work I used to get done before the internet was invented, of course everything took a lot longer to do in those days (you had to actually talk to people on the phone and sometimes even go and see them in person) so it probably all comes out the same in the wash.

Download: You Got To Have A Job (If You Don’t Work, You Don’t Eat) – Marva Whitney (mp3)

I used to have a regular feature on my old blog called “Boogie Friday” and I’ve been trying to stay away from the soul and dance music end of things here because, well, you know, been there and done that. But the weather has been so lovely this week I’m feeling a spring in my loafers and want to knock the maudlin nostalgia on the head for a day and DANCE.

These are all English records anyway, so I’m still on message. I did post “London Town” on my old blog many moons ago but it’s worth a second go.

Download: London Town – Light of The World (mp3)
Download: British Hustle – Hi-Tension (mp3)
Download: The Crunch – Rah Band (mp3)
Download: Intuition – Linx (mp3)

“The hardest thing about being James Brown is I have to live. I don’t have no down time.” – James Brown

He was 73 years old, but the news was still a huge shock. James Brown was a guy you almost expected to live forever, he was so much bigger than life you thought he would be bigger than death too. There’s no way I could even begin to capture the man in a crappy little blog post so I’ll just give you my favourite record of his as a tribute. “Cold Sweat” came out in 1967 but still sounds incredibly alive and vibrant today, 7.25 minutes of astonishing – no other word for it – genius.

Our normal programming will resume tomorrow.

Cold Sweat (Parts I & II) – James Brown (mp3)
Buy: “Foundations of Funk: A Brand New Bag 1964-1969″ (album)