Yesterday I was interviewed by Staci Layne Wilson for her Rock & Roll Nightmares podcast where we chatted about music, journalism/writing, horror and the merits of Substack. Incidentally, this interview with Staci Wilson came via the Substack platform. My segment should be airing in about a week, so lock onto this link and rock ‘til you drop with Staci!
Speaking of, I’ve been at this Substack thing for two weeks now and I’m hella-pleased by the upward momentum my page, Lucky Burns has gained. Today I launched the newsletter portion to my subscribers at Substack, “Sick Burns,” which is where I’ll do the most talking about what I’ve got going on in my writing and downtime life and what you can expect to see coming from me down the horizon. Thank you to all of my new subscribers and followers. I’m squeeing inside like classic Harley Quinn.
I will be running other content at Lucky Burns not appearing here at Roads Lesser Traveled, such as my “Ten Scenes of Horror that Did a Number on Me and Lit Up My Writing” published this week. So come on by to my Substack page via the link and become a regular!
Fall is just around the corner and I will be doing signing events during the season. Announcements to follow, but you can also order my four books released within three years, Behind the Shadows, Coming of Rage and Revolution Calling from Raw Earth Ink and Bringing in the Creeps from Anuci Press. Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble .com, Walmart .com and numerous online retailers. Digitally at Kindle, Nook and Kobo. As always, thank you for your support. If you like what you read, online reviews are appreciated!
When people take over your favorite meditation spot, you go find another one and kick out a four mile schlep through Bear Branch. Making a friend along the way.
When I look at two iconic soul and funk groups of yesteryear, I pinpoint Kool & The Gang and The Isley Brothers, two bands who began their runs with one signature sound, then morphed into something wholly different.
I prefer the early years of Kool & The Gang, the funk and jive ensemble from 1969 to 1976 before they broke out huge from 1979 through the mid-Eighties with their popping commercial hits “Ladies Night,” “Get Down on It,” “Celebration” and “Too Hot.” You can actually get two best-of compilations breaking the band down between these eras. The latter year stuff is what sold, though you could readily add “Jungle Boogie,” “Open Sesame (Get Down With the Genie)” and “Summer Madness” as bridges to the commercial era, even if they were still more horn-driven and chittering synthesizer than the moneymakers were. I love all these tunes, but the real Kool & The Gang for me is “Funky Stuff,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Give it Up,” “Love the Life You Live” and “Kool It (Here Comes the Fuzz).”
The Isley Brothers, who threw down Sixties rump-shaking party jams like “Shout,” “I Turned You On” and “It’s Your Thing” evolved into a soul-kissed, lightning bright funk troupe with some of the most sizzling guitar solos out there dealt by Ernie Isley. No doubt picking up what Funkadelic was laying down, the Isleys of the Seventies were the real deal. They could fry your brains with hard funk and acid washes on “That Lady,” “Take Me to the Next Phase,” “I Wanne Be With You,” “Fight the Power,” “The Pride” and red-hot “Live it Up.”
In the Seventies, the Isley Brothers became social protestors with their music aside from sultry smooth gigolos. Their influence was so huge you can hear “Footsteps in the Dark” sampled by Ice Cube for his biggest hit “It Was a Good Day” and the Notorious B.I.G. flooded his work with the Isleys “Between the Sheets.” More recently, hip hop superstar Kendrick Lamar hoisted the Isleys’ “That Lady” for his banging cut of positivity, “i.” Eighties supergroup The Power Station did a slamming cover of the Isleys’ “Harvest for the World” on their only LP. This as the Isleys themselves did a stirring, emotive cover of Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze.”
I had the hardest time picking what I wanted to bring you all from the Isley Brothers for this week’s Thursday Throwback Jam. That was, until I put myself into my little kid shoes and let my mind drift to my mom (a soul loving whitey sista who seldom missed an episode of Soul Train) gliding around the living room with the radio on to this sensuous classic, “For the Love of You.” It’s a song that stops me in my tracks and makes my head slide and my hips move, as recently as a few months ago in a furniture store where I think I endeared myself to our soul sista rep watching me geek out to this cut.
Two bands, one I love more in their beginning steps, the other in their colossal overhaul many years later. Dig it.
There’s a special magic to the music from this legendary martial arts epic. Far East meets American 70s funk that frequently lands in my player for writing sessions. I have a story first written six years ago. I always believed in it, despite it being a rambling turd by self-admission. A submission call gave me the idea how to cut 3000 words and rebrand the first two pages into something with actual meaning. On went Lalo Schifrin’s chop sockey masterpiece and now this thing is LIT. Or so I hope the editors agree. Engage submission button!
Yep, I’ve stepped into the Substack world with my author’s newsletter and anecdotes of assorted shenanigans, “Lucky Burns, With Ray Van Horn, Jr.” Have a gander and you know what to do with that Subscribe button!
Signed some copies of Bringing in the Creeps and Behind the Shadows at Snug Books in B-more this morning. Get your signed books by supporting a popping local bookshop. 4717 Harford Road, Suite 1C, Baltimore, MD 21214. Thanks, Team Snug, for being a terrific ally.
Roads Lesser Traveled 