Few bands have killed it as hard as The Strokes did in 2001.
Memphis, Tennessee was only 90 miles west of Jackson, my childhood home. But Memphis was as far away as the north pole in my mind. The history that we were given about it was done in light pencil that hopscotched its way to a semi-solid landing with Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sun Records considered itself the fuse that lit the 1950s with Elvis and rock’n’roll. With Carla and Rufus Thomas and Otis Redding, Stax Records brought blues to the hit parade with hooks and horns and a solid beat, evolving into Al Green and Willie Mitchell. Memphis meant music.
And unless you stop to think for a minute, you might forget that it was in Memphis that Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was shot and killed on a motel balcony on 4 April 1968. Stevie Wonder did not forget. In 1980, Stevie joined with the members of the Black Caucus in the US congress to speak out for the need to honour the day King was born, to make his birthday a national holiday.
From his memoir, Gil Scott-Heron’s recalls the 1980-1981 tour with Stevie Wonder to establish Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday.
The other afternoon, when you fell asleep on my shoulder, I drifted off, too. But before I did, it occured to me looking around at all of your things and your work and going through years of work in my mind, that of all your work, you are still your most beautiful. The most beautiful work of all.
A letter from Patti Smith to Robert Maplethorpe.
Happy Birthday, Mrs. Smith.
Chet Baker - “My Funny Valentine”
Reblogged from neutralmilkurl with 31 notes / Music Audio Chet Baker
Patti Smith’s favorite books.
Reblogged from explore-blog with 236 notes / Literature Books Music Patti Smith
