[Every Friday #25] > Gloria Jones – Tainted Love {1964}

It seems that Gloria Jones was living more than just one life. Born in Cinicinnati she moved to California and recorded her first music in the beginning of the 60s. She studied piano and a acquired an advanced classical degree primarily in the works of Bach, performed in several musicals (Hair amongst others), became a songwriter for Motown, supported Bob Marley on his first tour of the UK as a member of the band Gonzalez, and moved to England where she met Marc Bolan. They became a couple and she gave birth to their son Rolan Bolan, while she was singing background vocals for T.Rex, and also drove the car that killed Marc Bolan eventually. In 1995 she moved to Africa and opened a musical school.

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[Every Friday #22] > Serge Gainsbourg – Melody {1971}

I just brought my two sons to the station, leaving for their first solo trip to Paris. So this needs to be a French tune.

Serge Gainsbourg was a genius. Starting with chansons and clever lyrics in the late 50s, he soon made a point releasing music that always captured the spirit of the times, venturing off to some amazing groovy beat tunes with Brigitte Bardot, erotic ballads with Jane Birkin, funk, disco, reggae, and dub eventually. And I probably forgot a couple of genres as well.

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[Every Friday #21] > Sonya Spence – Let Love Flow On {1981}

It isn’t much of a surprise that, having worked tirelessly to compete in the male-dominated Kingston music scene, producer Sonia Pottinger staunchly supported the efforts of female singers in making their mark. She also wasn’t afraid to dabble in other musical genres than the “in” reggae sound of the time.

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[Every Friday #20] > eden ahbez – full moon {1960}

eden ahbez was a wild man. He was the prototype hippie, living under the Hollywood sign in the 1940s, propagating vegetarianism and an anti-capitalist lifestyle way before anyone had long hair and beards.

He recalled once telling a policeman: „I look crazy but I’m not. And the funny thing is that other people don’t look crazy but they are.“

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[Every Friday #19] > Tullio de Piscopo – Primavera (Stop Bajon) {1984}

This is a weird one.

Far from rare (you can cop it on any fleamarket in Germany for way less than 5€), almost everybody knows this tune but only few people know the artist and the correct title of the song.

Tullio de Piscopo is a jazz drummer from Naples who, besides being a sought after session musician, started to record his own music in 1976 with the album Suonando La Batteria Moderna, which became a holy grail for hip hop producers and the like as it just contains pure funk and jazz solo drumming waiting to being sampled and became a pricey sought after item in the past twenty years or so.

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