Jon and Nikki Wedding

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DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ   Some Photo Credits to Anna Rozenblat Photography  

Mark and Yomi Wedding

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Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come

Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come. Sam Cooke born Samuel Cooke 1931-1964. Since I posted the Otis Redding video and review the other day I asked, “Why Otis Redding, why not Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come?”

Answer was simple, “I was motivated to write about Otis due to the release of the Kanye and Jay-Z song as a professional DJ.” Then it occurred to me, “Why not Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come too!”

 

His contribution in pioneering Soul music many believe led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green,Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and popularizing the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown. Cooke had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964.  Cooke was also among the first modern Black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.

martin luther king jr Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come

On December 11, 1964, Cooke was fatally shot by the manager of the Hacienda Motel at the age of 33. At the time, the courts ruled that Cooke was drunk and distressed, and that the manager had killed Cooke in what was later ruled a justifiable homicide. Since that time, the circumstances of his death have been widely questioned.

Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come was Released Posthumously.

Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come was played upon the death of Malcolm X, and was featured in Spike Lee’s film Malcolm X. Rock star Rod Stewart once revealed to VH-1 that as a teen in the UK, he would lock himself in his room and spend hours studying Cooke’s vocal phrasings.

  • In 1986, Cooke was inducted as a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.]
  • In 1999, Cooke was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him #16 on their list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.
  • In 2008, Cooke was named the fourth “Greatest Singer of All Time” by Rolling Stone.

 Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come Music Video with A Powerful Slideshow

http://youtu.be/JkWZjTPlQhc

There are enough names and recognition included in this post to not add my appreciation for him personally. I would like to say that some of my favorite and most influential artists, film-makers and leaders seem to be connected to Sam Cooke and his legacy. That would be plenty to include him in our music video archive but his music is what moves me the most, especially Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come and its message.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ 

Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness

Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness was one of the great Soul songs and artists of the Twentieth Century. I grew up listening to his music and had a pleasant reminder of his brilliance at an Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performance back in the mid-nineties in Bloomington, IN. They did an entire set of Redding Classics and it was inspiring and moving. Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness was one of the bright moments.  Any professional DJ or music lovers would have been inspired.

 

Since there is new attention being shined on Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness due to the new song “Otis” by Jay-Z and Kanye West, it seemed like a good time to revisit him and his legacy.

 

Although he wasn’t very successful among white audiences in the United States, his concerts in Europe established the opposite. His performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was one of his last big concerts until his death in a plane crash at the age of 26, one month before his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of The Bay,” sold about 4 million copies worldwide, was released. Reddings’ contribution to soul music led him to his nickname “King of Soul.”

 

Redding was born in the small town of Dawson, Georgia. When he was three, his family moved to Macon, Georgia, where Redding sang in a church choir and as a teenager won the talent show at the Douglass Theatre for fifteen weeks in a row, which led to his discovery by Syd Nathan of King Records. His earliest influence was Little Richard (Richard Penniman), also a Macon resident. Redding said, “If it hadn’t been for Little Richard, I would not be here. I entered the music business because of Richard – he is my inspiration. I used to sing like Little Richard, his Rock ‘n’ Roll stuff, you know. Richard has soul, too. My present music has a lot of him in it.”

 Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness Music Video

http://youtu.be/TXmLjbTBcdU

According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 1989, Redding’s name is “synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of Gospel and Rhythm and Blues (R&B) into a form of funky, secular testifying.” In 1993, the U.S. Post Office issued an Otis Redding 29 cents commemorative postage stamp.  Redding’s music was featured in the 1991 film The Commitments, including “Mr Pitiful”, “Try a Little Tenderness”, “Hard to Handle”, and “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember”.

Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness Wedding DJ Music

Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness Rhode Island Wedding DJ

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Aparna and Guillaume Wedding

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Joe and Nalini Wedding

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Alex and Lauren Wedding

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Nicholas and Michele Wedding

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Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye

It is interesting how songs change their cultural shape and form over time. When Steam released the song “Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” in 1969, I doubt very much Gary De Carlo thought it would be a song used as a way to hate and taunt people fifty years later. It is actually a love song in a way, not your traditional love song but still not hateful or a way to give somebody ‘the finger’ through music.

 

I think the first seeds of the negative perspective of the song  Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye originated with cheerleaders leading this song as a way to say ‘goodbye’ to the fans and players of the other team that they beat after a game; pretty simple and harmless stuff. It may be indicative of todays culture that this simple song, Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, has gone from a number one hit on Billboard Hot 100 in 1969 to a cheerleaders chant to a way to disrespect a person or group with anger and force. The artist literally meant for the person to actually kiss the man goodbye, like a real kiss. He says, “I still love you girl, I still need you girl”. These are not words of hate or taunting…

Steam Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye Music Video

Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye was meant to be the ‘B side’ of Gary’s first single because he did not like it. The record company wanted him to release it as an ‘A side’ single so Gary changed it from his real name to Stream, to not be identified with the song personally. Bananarama released a cover of Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye in 1983, which also enjoyed commercial success. The video of Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye has a woman punching a man in the face, as a way to ‘kiss him goodbye’. This may be when the song changed from a soft, playful tune to one of hate and anger. This goes in line with the current climate in the USA that supports women taking their anger out on men physically, as if it will solve the cycle of violence of men towards women.

Reaction To Women Abusing Men In Public

Hate and violence do not quell hate and violence, they expand it. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us this many years ago (click the link for the entire speech).

“…Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King Famous Quotes Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye

Bananarama Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye Music Video

http://youtu.be/dmUtqBF_YZY

Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye gained another round of popularity following the success of the film, Remember The Titans. The film’s last scene includes the men humming the chorus. The song itself was played earlier during the film as well.

http://youtu.be/wgxeMrNlM8s

Again, Na Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye is not a song about violence or taunting.

Here is the exact quote from the last scene from allsubs.org:
Older Sheryl: "People say that it cant work, black and white; well
  here we make it work, everyday. We have our disagreements, of
  course, but before we reach for hate, always, always, we remember
  the Titans."


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Canh and Nogc Wedding

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