Donny Hathaway - "Little Ghetto Boy " (1972)

The legendary Donny Hathaway (1945-1979) created a masterpiece here. Note the pleading towards the end of the song. The well-known sample (on Dr. Dre's 1992 "The Chronic" album) is a pernicious usurpation, but alas His ways are not our ways, and its existence has kept the sounds of hope in Donny's voice alive to new generations.

Pesach 5768 in Puerto Rico

This is where I worked in Puerto Rico 5768

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"White Ones, Baby!" Final Scene from "Super Fly" (1972)

This is a great scene from a worthy movie. This is the final scene and it is powerful. Note the defining of 'cool' by Priest (played by Ron O'Neal (b.1937)); his attitude, and the victory over the un-cool. But dig the script, the power in the poetry: "you, your wife, that big-legged daughter and even that faggot son", "White Ones, baby!", "Nothing..." Everyone must find their own piece that they must repeat. Me and my Brother dug this whole scene and would recite it back and forth to each other. The movie (you're not privy to the new shit, man) is "Super Fly" (1972) and it is a classic. The soundtrack is also among the most worthiest in the history of cinema. The legendary Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999) was in a zone of epic proportions when he shared these songs with the world. If you are not familiar with them, then you must make a strong seder in them now. Dig this scene and see the whole movie and listen to the soundtrack. Peace.

It's All in the Game

Well this is a song with a history. I first heard it from Van Morrison from his 1979 album "Into the Music", but it goes way back. "It's All in the Game" is a song that was a 1958 hit for Tommy Edwards (1922-1969) and it was performed by him on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. The lyrics were composed by Carl Sigman (1909-2000) in 1951 to fit a wordless 1911 composition entitled "Melody in A Major," written by Charles Dawes (1865-1951), who would later become the 30th Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933). It is the only #1 pop single in history to have been co-written by a U.S. Vice President. Here I have provided the Tommy Edwards version, then Ricky Nelson (1940-1945) of Teaneck, New Jersey puts it out in 1963, and then the cover by the legendary Four Tops (1970).