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Isley's Ohio/Machine Gun appreciation thread. I'm sure it's been discussed here many times before but the version from the live CD is kicking! The vocals lead and background, Ernie, The whole band.
For the kids today who only know the Isleys from their recent work should check this out. Ronnie was singing his a** off! "The first time I saw the cover of Dirty Mind in the early 80s I thought, 'Is this some drag queen ripping on Freddie Prinze?'" - Some guy on The Gear Page | |
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carlcranshaw said: I'm sure it's been discussed here many times before but the version from the live CD is kicking! The vocals lead and background, Ernie, The whole band.
For the kids today who only know the Isleys from their recent work should check this out. Ronnie was singing his a** off! yup 
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Man, these kids don't know jack s**t about that kind of realness. And YEAH, The Isleys were fire back in the day. They were mixing rock and funk long before Prince and in a different way than Parliament and Funkadelic. They don't get the credit they should, nor the respect IMO. People acknowledge them as legends but the material doesn't get discussed to as great of an extent as some of the other legends. | |
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BlaqueKnight said: Man, these kids don't know jack s**t about that kind of realness. And YEAH, The Isleys were fire back in the day. They were mixing rock and funk long before Prince and in a different way than Parliament and Funkadelic. They don't get the credit they should, nor the respect IMO. People acknowledge them as legends but the material doesn't get discussed to as great of an extent as some of the other legends.
Then it got even better with the 3+3 era!  "Whitney was purely and simply one of a kind." ~ Clive Davis | |
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funkpill said: carlcranshaw said: I'm sure it's been discussed here many times before but the version from the live CD is kicking! The vocals lead and background, Ernie, The whole band.
For the kids today who only know the Isleys from their recent work should check this out. Ronnie was singing his a** off! yup
All Ready !!
Can't cha see tha sooooouuuulllljahs... umm hmm iii seeeen'em maarchin' holdlotta sooooouuuulllljaaahs eayeiii! seen'em maaarchin' one summa day   National Funk League✮✮ | |
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BlaqueKnight said: Man, these kids don't know jack s**t about that kind of realness. And YEAH, The Isleys were fire back in the day. They were mixing rock and funk long before Prince and in a different way than Parliament and Funkadelic. They don't get the credit they should, nor the respect IMO. People acknowledge them as legends but the material doesn't get discussed to as great of an extent as some of the other legends.
Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. SynthiaRose said "I'm in love with blackguitaristz. Especially when he talks about Hendrix."
nammie "What BGZ says I believe. I have the biggest crush on him." http://ccoshea19.googlepa...ssanctuary http://ccoshea19.googlepages.com | |
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blackguitaristz said: BlaqueKnight said: Man, these kids don't know jack s**t about that kind of realness. And YEAH, The Isleys were fire back in the day. They were mixing rock and funk long before Prince and in a different way than Parliament and Funkadelic. They don't get the credit they should, nor the respect IMO. People acknowledge them as legends but the material doesn't get discussed to as great of an extent as some of the other legends.
Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. 100% agree.  | |
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...
Ndeed!!!!
actually, the whole album is slammin- but you're right, Ron's singin' his ass off, and Ernie's Wailin' on Ohio/Machine Gun ... " I've got six things on my mind --you're no longer one of them." - Paddy McAloon, Prefab Sprout | |
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blackguitaristz said: Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. Man! You ain't neva lied! You look at the album covers and they were unmistakably BLACK. Of course they dressed in the style that was in at the time. but the music was solid! They were funk AND crossover and raw as hell. And, as you said, they did it without sacrificing their core audience. In the 80s, artists were selling their identities left and right for crossover appeal. The female R&B performers still do today. These boys were funky, tho. You can put on fight the power pts 1&2 to this day and still get charged up from the grooves. It was a time when the black community embraced the strong black man whereas everyone else had fear in their hearts. These boys made it prominent in their music. Its funny, every time I would see Ron with R. Kelly I would be thinking "He must be thinking: Fool, you're lucky this ain't the 70s or I'd blow your ass away on the stage" They were political as hell and showed no fear in their statements. Nowadays, you have to threaten to kill an R&B singer's mom to get him/her to write a politically themed lyric. The problem with these new cats is that they feel the need to explain themselves all the time. Back then, an artist would write a lyric and say something either overt or outright and wouldn't explain themselves no matter who they offended. Nowadays, everybody backpedals and clarifies because they have been conditioned to believe being politically correct is more important than the truth. The Isleys would spill the truth and make it simple and plain. I had this discussion with a rapper and used the Isley Bros. as an example to make my point. I said that communicating ideas is harder for singers than rappers. He swore I was wrong. I said a singer has to get across what they have to say with FEWER WORDS, so in effect, they tend to be better songwriters than rappers who usually have 16 bars instead of 4 or 8 and have a lot more room for more words. Its funny because a lot of cats STILL ain't doin' it even with all the room they have. I explained how well the Isley Bros. used to do this. Real life shit; few words. The point still always came across AND the song still sounded great. Its that level of song craftsmanship that's missing in today's music. Everybody plays it safe and say what they think people want to hear instead of what they NEED to hear. R&B singers are the WORST these days. Its all cheating this and that. Where are the songs about Darfur? The songs about bullshit politics? The war? The economic state of the community? The media's attempted division of the black family structure? The demonization of Easterners and the exploitation foreign peoples? The lie of saftey and the overblown threat of terrorism. Singers should be singing about this shit and they're NOT. Fuck your love for some stripper in the club, what about the love for your peoples as a whole? The Isleys were singing about that. You ain't gonna get it from Usher, R. Kelly, Beyonce, or none of these other R&B bobbleheads on the charts these days. They're SCARED. Man, let me stop. I know you understand. Shit's pathetic. Sometimes I hate these new artists. That's why Anthony Hamilton did so well in the community when he dropped. He tapped into that old way of writing. | |
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BlaqueKnight said: Man, let me stop. I know you understand. Shit's pathetic. Sometimes I hate these new artists. That's why Anthony Hamilton did so well in the community when he dropped. He tapped into that old way of writing. [/b][/color]
BK, get OUT of my HEAD. NOW. | |
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blackguitaristz said: BlaqueKnight said: Man, these kids don't know jack s**t about that kind of realness. And YEAH, The Isleys were fire back in the day. They were mixing rock and funk long before Prince and in a different way than Parliament and Funkadelic. They don't get the credit they should, nor the respect IMO. People acknowledge them as legends but the material doesn't get discussed to as great of an extent as some of the other legends.
Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. You're right, and I always thought that was an interesting point! Can you imagine 'Voyage to Atlantis' without Ernie's lead lines wafting throughout? or 'Who's That Lady' without his smokin' Solo? or their version of 'Summer Breeze', sans guitar? and those tunes were staples on Black Radio....( you wouldn't hear in your face guitar like that on Black Radio again until the 80's, when mega-hits like Prince's "Let's Go Crazy"and Michael J's "Beat It" hit the Black airwaves a decade later)..... ... " I've got six things on my mind --you're no longer one of them." - Paddy McAloon, Prefab Sprout | |
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BlaqueKnight said: blackguitaristz said: Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. Man! You ain't neva lied! You look at the album covers and they were unmistakably BLACK. Of course they dressed in the style that was in at the time. but the music was solid! They were funk AND crossover and raw as hell. And, as you said, they did it without sacrificing their core audience. In the 80s, artists were selling their identities left and right for crossover appeal. The female R&B performers still do today. These boys were funky, tho. You can put on fight the power pts 1&2 to this day and still get charged up from the grooves. It was a time when the black community embraced the strong black man whereas everyone else had fear in their hearts. These boys made it prominent in their music. Its funny, every time I would see Ron with R. Kelly I would be thinking "He must be thinking: Fool, you're lucky this ain't the 70s or I'd blow your ass away on the stage" They were political as hell and showed no fear in their statements. Nowadays, you have to threaten to kill an R&B singer's mom to get him/her to write a politically themed lyric. The problem with these new cats is that they feel the need to explain themselves all the time. Back then, an artist would write a lyric and say something either overt or outright and wouldn't explain themselves no matter who they offended. Nowadays, everybody backpedals and clarifies because they have been conditioned to believe being politically correct is more important than the truth. The Isleys would spill the truth and make it simple and plain. I had this discussion with a rapper and used the Isley Bros. as an example to make my point. I said that communicating ideas is harder for singers than rappers. He swore I was wrong. I said a singer has to get across what they have to say with FEWER WORDS, so in effect, they tend to be better songwriters than rappers who usually have 16 bars instead of 4 or 8 and have a lot more room for more words. Its funny because a lot of cats STILL ain't doin' it even with all the room they have. I explained how well the Isley Bros. used to do this. Real life shit; few words. The point still always came across AND the song still sounded great. Its that level of song craftsmanship that's missing in today's music. Everybody plays it safe and say what they think people want to hear instead of what they NEED to hear. R&B singers are the WORST these days. Its all cheating this and that. Where are the songs about Darfur? The songs about bullshit politics? The war? The economic state of the community? The media's attempted division of the black family structure? The demonization of Easterners and the exploitation foreign peoples? The lie of saftey and the overblown threat of terrorism. Singers should be singing about this shit and they're NOT. Fuck your love for some stripper in the club, what about the love for your peoples as a whole? The Isleys were singing about that. You ain't gonna get it from Usher, R. Kelly, Beyonce, or none of these other R&B bobbleheads on the charts these days. They're SCARED. Man, let me stop. I know you understand. Shit's pathetic. Sometimes I hate these new artists. That's why Anthony Hamilton did so well in the community when he dropped. He tapped into that old way of writing. One funny note on this point, and a song like "Fight The Power"...according to Marvin Isley, It was the older Isleys, Rudolph, O'Kelly, and Ron that wanted to keep the line "all this Bullshit...." - The younger Isleys were worried that they'd catch a lot of flak for it. But Ron persisted, saying, " Man, this is Happening Now...It Needs to be said, just like that." ... " I've got six things on my mind --you're no longer one of them." - Paddy McAloon, Prefab Sprout | |
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paligap said: One funny note on this point, and a song like "Fight The Power"...according to Marvin Isley, It was the older Isleys, Rudolph, O'Kelly, and Ron that wanted to keep the line "all this Bullshit...." - The younger Isleys were worried that they'd catch a lot of flak for it. But Ron persisted, saying, " Man, this is Happening Now...It Needs to be said, just like that." ... And they were right. Go to a club where they play the old school jams and thats the line that everybody says simultaneously. It was a bold move for the time but it was a poignant line. | |
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paligap said: blackguitaristz said: Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. You're right, and I always thought that was an interesting point! Can you imagine 'Voyage to Atlantis' without Ernie's lead lines wafting throughout? or 'Who's That Lady' without his smokin' Solo? or their version of 'Summer Breeze', sans guitar? and those tunes were staples on Black Radio....( you wouldn't hear in your face guitar like that on Black Radio again until the 80's, when mega-hits like Prince's "Let's Go Crazy"and Michael J's "Beat It" hit the Black airwaves a decade later)..... ... U remember that thread I wrote sometime ago about me growing up as a kid in the 70's & 80's and hearing black artists playing rock on the radio and how much that influenced me. Not only as a guitarist, but a black guitarist. Their impact on me is the kind of impact I want to have on younger kids today. To inspire them to want to pick up and LEARN to play something. Put time into it, woodshed. Have passion and a desire for it. Take their mind somewhere else. As much as I adore Hendrix, Hazel, Isley, Prince, etc., I always strove to play better than these cats. They pushed me to WANT to do that. And I credit them for that. That's what I want to inspire in younger black kids of today. To not just dig my playing but to WANT to pass me. To at least, STRIVE for that. That's how it should be. It should keep going. It NEEDS to keep going. To me, that's success. More than platinum albums and bullshit ass MTV Awards. If I can acomplish that, then I've truly done something. SynthiaRose said "I'm in love with blackguitaristz. Especially when he talks about Hendrix."
nammie "What BGZ says I believe. I have the biggest crush on him." http://ccoshea19.googlepa...ssanctuary http://ccoshea19.googlepages.com | |
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Damn. What I can I add to this that already hasn't been said? The Isleys are funk rock royalty. | |
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"Climbin' Up The Ladder" from GO FOR YOUR GUNS is NEVER discussed as one of the "greatest" Funk/Rock jams that it IS!!!!! Ask Jesse Johnson who his favorite guitarists are, and he'll probably tell you Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Hazel & Ernie Isley!!!!!
Definitely underrated in the Funk/Rock genre. They get more props for their "bedroom ballads". Which is a SHAME!!!!! | |
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Oh, how I long for the days of the Part1, Part2 songs on the Isley's albums. Those classic Isley Brothers albums have always been about consistency. You know you're gonna get classic funk featuring the classic Ron Isley vocals and Ernie playing his ass off on guitar and drums. I don't think Chris Jasper gets his props for his keyboard work. The intro to "Highways of My Life" - priceless stuff. And gettin' back to Ernie, as a guitar player, he was on the radio ALL the time during my younger years - it was something I took for granted. Only as I got older did I realize how special it was to have uncut funk rock on black radio. Nowadays, you're lucky to hear guitars in songs...
Also, I love the Isley's funkified covers - I dig their covers better than the originals. Also, these cats formed their own label and wrote/produced their own albums. They knew the business as well as the music side of things. I think it's a tragedy of our school systems that young people aren't learning instruments and the arts in general. I see so many of them just sitting around, literally staring into space - when they're not causing trouble...And for a lot of the young 'uns who are attempting to learn an instrument, I find that they spend too much time posting videos of songs they just learned how to play (barely) on YouTube and asking posters to "be kind" instead of really learning to play...just too many distractions for today's youth 
Anyway, long live the Isleys!!! [Edited 11/3/06 1:07am] [Edited 11/3/06 1:07am] My author page: https://www.amazon.com/au...eretttruth | |
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climbing up the ladder is my favourite isley jam.
its strange more people dont apricciate is that ron on vocals??? | |
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thebanishedone said: climbing up the ladder is my favourite isley jam.
its strange more people dont apricciate is that ron on vocals??? This is "great" thread yes the Isley's were indeed Thuh Bomb and brought black funk/rock straight to the ghetto! Right into their earholes. | |
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blackguitaristz said: BlaqueKnight said: Man, these kids don't know jack s**t about that kind of realness. And YEAH, The Isleys were fire back in the day. They were mixing rock and funk long before Prince and in a different way than Parliament and Funkadelic. They don't get the credit they should, nor the respect IMO. People acknowledge them as legends but the material doesn't get discussed to as great of an extent as some of the other legends.
Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. Preach! I got into the Isley's 70s material while I was in high school, during the early 90's. I could not believe how great their catalog was. The musicianship, fusion, lyricism and vocals were all on point. I just hate that so many in my generation only know Ron Isley as Mr. Biggs. True story, during my senior year of high school (1995), I met Ron Isley at Super Bowl 28 in Miami. I saw him at a 49ers victory party after the game and ran up to him to shake his hand. He had a look of disbelief that a 17 year old kid knew who the hell he was. Now this was before his R. Kelly connection that would surface a little later that year. So he really took pride in the fact that a young kid actually knew about his previous work. I told him that Summer Breeze, Voyage to Atlantis and At Your Best were three of my favorite songs and his expression was hilarious. I asked him to take a photo with me and he obliged along with his lovely wife at the time Ms. Angela Winbush. Needless to say that moment will be etched in my mind forever. I just hate I lost the picture when I left home for college [Edited 11/4/06 20:27pm] | |
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BlaqueKnight said: blackguitaristz said: Negro please, please, please don't get me started about the Isley's. HIGHLY underrated. EVerybody always talking about E,W, & F and they were great, BUT The Isley's were pushing the envelope musically and at the same time, making their shit r&b accessible. Which takes great songwriting craft. Sure, Parliament, musically, couldn't be fucked with, but a lot of times, that lost them their crossover audience cuz their shit was waaay out, concept wise. E,W, & F was on the universal, everybody's beautiful shit, which gave them that bulletproof crossover appeal. The Isley's were STONE black, pushed their blackness, like Parliament. BUT as where P-Funk sung about escapism through outer space and being underwater and shit, the Isley's dealt with reality head on and right here on earth! And at the same time, taking where Hendrix had left off like a motherfucker, musically, and taking it straight to black radio. And I mean, Hendrixfied uncut, on black radio. Black radio wasn't fucking with early to mid 70's Funkadelic. Parliament yes, but not Funadelic. That's a MAJOR difference between the two. Black radio embraced the hell out of the Isley's in the early and mid 70's with all of the in your face Hendrix rock in tact. They were singing about the black plight in America while all the while playing straight up Hendrix in the same song. U can't fuck with The Isley's. Man! You ain't neva lied! You look at the album covers and they were unmistakably BLACK. Of course they dressed in the style that was in at the time. but the music was solid! They were funk AND crossover and raw as hell. And, as you said, they did it without sacrificing their core audience. In the 80s, artists were selling their identities left and right for crossover appeal. The female R&B performers still do today. These boys were funky, tho. You can put on fight the power pts 1&2 to this day and still get charged up from the grooves. It was a time when the black community embraced the strong black man whereas everyone else had fear in their hearts. These boys made it prominent in their music. Its funny, every time I would see Ron with R. Kelly I would be thinking "He must be thinking: Fool, you're lucky this ain't the 70s or I'd blow your ass away on the stage" They were political as hell and showed no fear in their statements. Nowadays, you have to threaten to kill an R&B singer's mom to get him/her to write a politically themed lyric. The problem with these new cats is that they feel the need to explain themselves all the time. Back then, an artist would write a lyric and say something either overt or outright and wouldn't explain themselves no matter who they offended. Nowadays, everybody backpedals and clarifies because they have been conditioned to believe being politically correct is more important than the truth. The Isleys would spill the truth and make it simple and plain. I had this discussion with a rapper and used the Isley Bros. as an example to make my point. I said that communicating ideas is harder for singers than rappers. He swore I was wrong. I said a singer has to get across what they have to say with FEWER WORDS, so in effect, they tend to be better songwriters than rappers who usually have 16 bars instead of 4 or 8 and have a lot more room for more words. Its funny because a lot of cats STILL ain't doin' it even with all the room they have. I explained how well the Isley Bros. used to do this. Real life shit; few words. The point still always came across AND the song still sounded great. Its that level of song craftsmanship that's missing in today's music. Everybody plays it safe and say what they think people want to hear instead of what they NEED to hear. R&B singers are the WORST these days. Its all cheating this and that. Where are the songs about Darfur? The songs about bullshit politics? The war? The economic state of the community? The media's attempted division of the black family structure? The demonization of Easterners and the exploitation foreign peoples? The lie of saftey and the overblown threat of terrorism. Singers should be singing about this shit and they're NOT. Fuck your love for some stripper in the club, what about the love for your peoples as a whole? The Isleys were singing about that. You ain't gonna get it from Usher, R. Kelly, Beyonce, or none of these other R&B bobbleheads on the charts these days. They're SCARED. Man, let me stop. I know you understand. Shit's pathetic. Sometimes I hate these new artists. That's why Anthony Hamilton did so well in the community when he dropped. He tapped into that old way of writing. 
Oustanding as usual! | |
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woogiebear said:
Definitely underrated in the Funk/Rock genre. They get more props for their "bedroom ballads". Which is a SHAME!!!!! Most of these kids today think The Isley Brothers were a group that only did ballads. I can see why they would think that though....the dead ass radio won't play anything except their slow songs. They just don't know, The Isley Brothers were some hard jammin' motherfuckers. Andy is a four letter word. | |
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vainandy said: woogiebear said:
Definitely underrated in the Funk/Rock genre. They get more props for their "bedroom ballads". Which is a SHAME!!!!! Most of these kids today think The Isley Brothers were a group that only did ballads. I can see why they would think that though....the dead ass radio won't play anything except their slow songs. They just don't know, The Isley Brothers were some hard jammin' motherfuckers. Yep, yep... And somebody need to give Ernie the props he deserves as a guitarist...The man was sick.... | |
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