Hank Williams - Luke the Drifter 1950

I don't know how this album eluded me for this long.  I found out about this from a Hank Williams documentary I watched, and it's interesting how all his band mates, personal friends and lovers all say that this is the REAL Hank Williams.  Apparently he was extremely disillusioned by his fame and didn't see it fit that they turned him into such a commodity or product.  This is what he wanted to tell us, the first track opening up with a speech to a courtroom by a father of a convicted prostitute warning the audience of the ills of judgment.  One of the songs is about the sorrow and sadness of divorce, not only emotional but slightly philosophical.  Another addressed to Joseph Stalin, warning him of being an evil man.  Each song has reverend-like sermons by Hank where he professes some pretty real and heartbreaking material.  It's poetic, it's reverent, it's philosophical, it's loving, it's moral, and it's sad.  Most of all it's extremely insightful.

Jukebox owners wouldn't buy it under the name Hank Williams because it was so strange at the time, and it still is so he was convinced by Fred Rose, the great country music publisher, to create the pseudonym Luke the Drifter, which is also the name of the record.  If you like Hank Williams or country music, you have to hear this.    

http://www.mediafire.com/?2wqcnnyhzzz

George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic - The Mothership Connection 1978, Live in Houston

George Clinton was always known to say that his and his group's favorite place to play was in Houston, Texas.  There used to be a pretty vibrant and diversified funk and blues and soul scene up until the 80's, and even through the 90's if you, like me, are inclined to include DJ Screw and the plethora of R&B artists that sprouted from here in that decade.  I was lucky enough to see P-Funk in Houston at an outdoor venue on a beautiful day, and they performed for over 3 hours!

Clinton started the doo-wop group The Parliaments in the early 60's out of Plainview, New Jersey, and the group enjoyed some commercial success, but mainly at this time Clinton's bread and butter was as a staff writer for Motown Records out of Detroit.  He worked on ridiculous amount of records through them and probably honed his writing and arranging skills to a high degree.  Obviously, writing for Motown at that time was no joke. Hitsville, USA was producing some of the most widely listened to music and George Clinton was partly the reason why.  The Parliaments had a sister group called Funkadelic (you can download one of their albums off of this blog from a previous post) and they had interchangeable musicians for both groups that eventually joined together in the 1970's to make a super group that well now know as George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic.

So it's important to note that these guys make serious concept albums.  There is live footage of this concert, which was held at the Astrodome (where the Houston Astros used to play), which at that time was one of the biggest stadiums in the United States.  Along with George Clinton, the group hosts Bootsy Rubber Band Collins on bass who you may know played for James Brown all those years, and Eddie Hazel on guitar who was also one of the main arrangers for the group.  I could go on about them forever, but I'm just going to let you listen.

01 - Cosmic Slop

02 - Do that Stuff (Intro)

03 - Do that Stuff

04 - Gammin On Ya

05 - Standing on the Verge 

06 - Children of Production

07 - Mothership Connection

08 - Swing Down Sweet Chariot 

09 - Dr. Funkenstein

10 - P. Funk

11 - Tear the Roof Off the Sucker

12 - Funkin' for Fun

http://www.mediafire.com/?ioqtcmtqoji