Welcome, music sloots, to the latest edition of Music Manor Monday, a time to share our music favorites - past and present - and go clubbing at one of the Manor's many dazzling venues. Tonight at "Lickalottapus Lounge," our exclusive after hours club, DJ Li'l Scratch will be laying down tracks from a jazz and blues legend who can touch you like an angel and so much more.
Her bold vocal delivery - listen as she slaps down the lyrics like cards in a high-stakes game; sharp, deliberate, impossible to ignore - has long made her a favorite of jazz aficionados, something which has almost been overshadowed by her acting career, even to this day. Whom do I speak of? You may know, of course, since she remains popular with multiple generations of audiences.
She was built to last. And sometimes stars like her, when they've been around that long and reach a "certain age," just don't give a fuck a good gumdrop about what anybody thinks. Yes, they'll wear a lemony, color-coordinated outfit - but with leopard-print tennis shoes and clumsily dyed black and gray streaked hair - and let fly with just about anything that pops out of their pie-hole.
Exactly like our dear Della Reese, who could go from sincere proselytizing in "Touched By An Angel" to something a bit more colorful, as she did in the underrated "Harlem Nights" where she played a madam who perfectly described her most prized hooker:
And speaking of not giving two gumdrops, get a load of Della's picture below on her album cover for "Some Of My Best Friends Are The Blues," The hair says, "Yeah-yeah-yeah, whatever," the dress says, "Somewhere in the world, pink polyester is bomb," while the clutched handkerchief calls out, "We don't perspire, we sweat."
Yet the cover's just a preamble for this fantastic 1996 live recording in which Della keeps the audience in stitches and let's it rip with a series of scorching blues numbers, like "Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On" and "You've Got The Right Key, But The Wrong Keyhole."
If you have a friend who's only familiar with "Nice Della," give this a spin when they're around and watch their jaw drop...and drop and drop till it falls past their knees and hits the floor. They may even turn into sunshine. "Do you like the blues?" Della asks in the opener. "Then you're really gonna have fun, 'cause I've got some glad blues and some sad blues, I got some make-love blues and some sexy blues, and I got some - oh! - low down, dirty, funky blues. So whatever you like, we've got something for your palette." She ain't kidding!
You can hear the rest of Della's album, one of her best, I think, right HERE.
What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know. Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾
Getty Images Get in, loser! We’re going roasting! But we’re taking the long way around, so be patient while I tell you a story. A story of my youth. That’s right, we’re talking about the Before Times. Before Trump. Before Covid. Before Y2K. Before, yes, before Madonna was A Thing. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth, or at least Dino Martin did. Back when I was a wee sprog, I, like all GenXers, watched a lot of cartoons. And one thing all of them (other than Looney Tunes) had in common was a cool vehicle. The Banana Splits had a dune buggy. Scooby and the gang had the Mystery Machine. Archie had his jalopy. Josie and the Pussycats had a party van. The Partridge Family had a cool skoolie. Yes, they had a cartoon. Naturally, I concluded that when you became a teenager you got a fun vehicle and drove around with your friends solving mysteries and singing pop tunes. Obviously . I also believed that they carded you when you ordered a teenburger at A&W, but I digress. I was so innocent then...
Greetings music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Can you hear birds whistling tuneful songs? Or little animals singing cheerful ditties in three-part harmony? If so, then you are psychotic and should really speak to a doctor about your visual and aural hallucinations. I kid, I kid, because we all see and hear singing birds and animals, right? Right? Anyway-I-swear-I'm-not-on-Thorazine, the songstress we're celebrating today is both famous and not famous. And sang with animals. Confused? You won't be if you swing by "Rumpy-Pumpy Wowza-Powza," the Manor's newest after-hours club and sausage-sizzle eatery, where DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing this gal's sweet-as-syrup and twice-as-nice LP that just might make you feel all kinds of gentle and good. "It was another time," as they say, and gentle and good was allowed. Look! Singer Ilene Woods was so pretty she just popped to life. "Wait," you ask. "Ilen...
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