Well, the news as I write this tonight is that Kevin McCarthy and President Biden have reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling until after next year’s elections, each side doing a bit of give-and-take. Don’t get too excited, though … the bill isn’t completely written yet, then it goes to the House, possibly as early as this morning, and they will have until probably Wednesday to peruse it and decide whether to vote ‘yea’ or ‘nay’. Since the House members are on leave due to the holiday, it may take them longer. Then, if it passes the House, it goes to the Senate and must pass there, too … not as easy a task as you might think. And then, it goes back to President Biden for signature. All of this must happen prior to June 5th, a week from Monday, in order to avoid defaulting on our debt. Will it? I have doubts that it will go smoothly, but I suspect that like the annual budget negotiations, it will be resolved at the 11th hour. We shall see. Meanwhile, I have a few political cartoons that I need to share, and now seems as good a time as any! Be sure to check out the very last one about Josh Hawley — it’s a hoot!!!
I was curious about that last one … I had no idea he had written a book, so I did some digging. Josh Hawley has, indeed, written a book titled … wait for it … Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs
Josh Hawley, the ‘man’ who fist-pumped the rioters from behind a safe fence, then ran for his life once they breached the Capitol! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yesterday we received the sad news that Tina Turner had died at age 83. While I was saddened by the news, 83 years is a long time to live, and she contributed so much to the world of music that she will not soon be forgotten.
She had suffered ill health in recent years, being diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016 and having a kidney transplant in 2017.
After two decades of working with her abusive husband, Ike Turner, she struck out alone and – after a few false starts – became one of the defining pop icons of the 1980s with the album Private Dancer. Her life was chronicled in three memoirs, a biopic, a jukebox musical, and in 2021, the acclaimed documentary film, Tina.
Here’s what Tina had to say in 2019 on the occasion of her 80th birthday:
She looked better at 80 than I looked a decade ago when I was but a youthful 60!!! The links above from The Guardian tell you a bit about Tina, the woman and the singer, and rather than tell you about her music, I’d rather let it speak for itself … hopefully these will bring back happy memories for you …
A day or two ago, one of you mentioned Al Green and so I asked around and …
… look folks, it’s our friend Al Green! What you got for us tonight Al? Ah yeah … that’s great …
Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. He was referred to on the museum’s site as being “one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music”. He has also been referred to as “The Last of the Great Soul Singers”. Green is the winner of 11 Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Let’s Stay Together … that tune turns me inside-out! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner! Thanks Al!
Al Green wrote the lyrics to this song; the music was written by Al Jackson Jr., and Willie Mitchell. Jackson is a legendary soul drummer who recorded with Booker T. & the MG’s; Mitchell was Green’s producer. Green did about 100 takes before he got one he liked, and even then he wasn’t sure the song was any good. It was Mitchell who set him straight, telling him it “had magic on it.”
According to Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 songs, after Willie Mitchell gave Al Green a rough mix of a tune he and drummer Al Jackson had developed, Green wrote the lyrics in 5 minutes. However, Green didn’t want to record the song and for two days he argued with Willie Mitchell before finally agreeing to cut it.
Tina Turner’s 1983 cover of this song revitalized her career, returning her to the charts in both the UK and US for the first time for over a decade. Now, I am a big Tina Turner fan, but for this song, only Al Green will do. However, since Tina Turner’s version was bigger in the UK, and I have a lot of UK friends, I will play her version too.
Barack Obama sang a couple of lines of the song during an appearance on January 19, 2012 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem for a fund-raising event. Al Green was the opening act and as the American president took to the stage, he noted the soul legend’s presence in the audience and surprised his staffers close by with an impromptu spot of crooning. “Those guys didn’t think I would do it,” he joked. “I told you I was going to do it. The Sandman did not come out.” I have included that short clip just because … I wanted to.
I used to believe that someday, some guy would sing this to me. Sigh. 🐺
Let’s Stay Together Al Green
Let’s stay together
I, I’m I’m so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is all right with me
Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you
Let me say that since, baby, since we’ve been together
Loving you forever
Is what I need
Let me, be the one you come running to
I’ll never be untrue
Oh baby
Let’s, let’s stay together (‘gether)
Lovin’ you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah
Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad
Why, why some people break up
Then turn around and make up
I just can’t see
You’d never do that to me (would you, baby)
Staying around you is all I see
(Here’s what I want us do)
Let’s, we oughta stay together (‘gether)
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Come on
Let’s stay, (let’s stay together) let’s stay together
Loving you whether, whether times are good or bad
For some reason, this song popped into my head a couple of nights ago, and I bookmarked it for future reference. I don’t know if somebody mentioned it, or if it just popped in through one of the many holes in my mind, but here it is and it won’t likely leave until I share it!
Written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, this is the theme song to the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. The third installment of the post-apocalyptic Mad Max series finds star Mel Gibson at the mercy of a nefarious leader named Aunty Entity, played by Tina Turner, who is determined to secure her power over Australia’s Bartertown. Now, I have never seen a movie by the title of Mad Max, nor am I likely to in this lifetime, much as I do love Tina Turner, her voice, her persona, and her music.
It was Turner’s first film role in over a decade, the previous being The Acid Queen in the Who’s 1975 rock opera Tommy. But the glamorous ruler, clad in a chain-mail gown, wasn’t quite what Turner had in mind for her big-screen comeback.
“Aunty Entity was not as fierce as I wanted her to be. I wanted her to go back into the trunk and pull out the clothes that she was wearing when she built that city, because she built herself up from nothing and she definitely wasn’t wearing that chain dress and those high-heeled shoes.”
Okay … um … whatever, I guess.
On the heels of Turner’s multiplatinum album Private Dancer, the song was released as a 7″ single, an extended version was released as a 12″ single and on the film’s soundtrack album. In the UK, a shaped picture disc was also released.
The power ballad received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1986. As songwriters, Lyle and Britten received the 1985 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
This song charted at #1 in Canada, #2 in the U.S., and #3 in the UK … not half bad, yes?
We Don’t Need Another Hero Tina Turner
Out of the ruins
Out from the wreckage
Can’t make the same mistake this time
We are the children
The last generation (the last generation)
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we
Are ever gonna change, change
Living under the fear
‘Til nothing else remains
We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome
Looking for something
We can rely on
There’s gotta be something better out there
Love and compassion
Their day is coming (coming)
All else are castles built in the air
And I wonder when we
Are ever gonna change, change
Living under the fear
‘Til nothing else remains
All the children say
We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome
So, what do we do with our lives?
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light
Or end in the dark
Is it all or nothing?
We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond Thunderdome
All the children say
(We don’t need another hero)
We don’t need another hero
(We don’t need to know the way home)
(All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome)
Tina Turner had just turned 80 years old when I first played this back in November 2019. Listen to what she had to say about turning 80 …
I am ten years younger now than she was then, but I’ve got to give it to that lady … she’s got more spunk in her little finger than I have in all ten of mine! You go, Girl! You da Woman!
That said, my friend Brian commented on one of my posts the other night with this comment “who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?” (we were talking about pets, not Tina Turner), and this song immediately embedded itself into my mind.
Tina Turner has, in my book anyway, a voice that … man, it just doesn’t stop! She is one of the bestselling recording artists of all time, and has often been referred to as The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
This was Tina Turner’s comeback song. She first hit the pop charts with her husband Ike in 1960, and their biggest hit came in 1971 with a cover of Proud Mary. After enduring years of spousal abuse, Tina split from Ike in the mid-’70s and her career was in limbo until this song thrust her back in the spotlight 13 years after Proud Mary.
This is really an anti-love song, and Turner hated it. She balked at recording it, but had the good sense to defer to her manager, Roger Davies, who was engineering her comeback and was sure the song would be a hit. Davis got the song from his friends, the songwriters Terry Britten and Graham Lyle (who was in the duo Gallagher and Lyle), and it was Britten who produced the track.
This song won Grammys in 1985 for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Female Vocal Performance. Turner gave one of the awards to Davies, whom she credited with reviving her career. Davies, an Australian who was new to the business, met Turner in 1979.
What’s Love Got to Do with It Tina Turner
You must understand though the touch of your hand Makes my pulse react That it’s only the thrill of boy meeting girl Opposites attract It’s physical Only logical You must try to ignore that it means more than that ooo
What’s love got to do, got to do with it What’s love but a second hand emotion What’s love got to do, got to do with it Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
It may seem to you that I’m acting confused When you’re close to me If I tend to look dazed I’ve read it someplace I’ve got cause to be There’s a name for it There’s a phrase that fits But whatever the reason you do it for me ooo
What’s love got to do, got to do with it What’s love but a second hand emotion What’s love got to do, got to do with it Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
I’ve been taking on a new direction But I have to say I’ve been thinking about my own protection It scares me to feel this way oh oh oh
What’s love got to do, got to do with it What’s love but a second hand emotion What’s love got to do, got to do with it Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
What’s love got to do, got to do with it What’s love but a sweet old fashioned notion What’s love got to do, got to do with it Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
ooh got to do with it (What’s love but a second hand emotion) What’s love got to do, got to do with it Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken (What’s love got to do with it) got to do with it (What’s love)
After the events of the evening (the aforementioned cat fight), I was pretty sure there could be no music post tonight, but then … dear David mentioned this song by the wonderful Marvin Gaye, and I knew I had my song for the night! Thank you, David!
It Takes Two is a hit single recorded in late 1965 by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston for Motown’s Tamla label.
Produced by Weston’s then-husband, longtime Gaye collaborator William “Mickey” Stevenson, and co-written by Stevenson and Sylvia Moy, It Takes Two centered on a romantic lyric that depicted many things in life (dreams, love, wishes, etc.) being better with two people instead of one. The single became Gaye’s most successful duet single to date, later outperformed by Gaye’s duets with Tammi Terrell.
According to Kim Weston …
“Marvin and I went into the studio together to record the album Take Two. We didn’t pick the tracks, they were picked by Mickey Stevenson, my then-husband, and our producer, but ‘It Takes Two’ had been written by him and Sylvia Moy especially for us and it really worked. Being in the studio with Marvin, I saw a new side to him. I’d traveled and shared bills with him so we knew how each other worked. In the studio he was really encouraging. He added little ad libs, intonations here and there and suggested things for the arrangements. I saw the genius shine out of him but also the frustration. You could hear it in his voice. He wanted more control. It was a shock when they released the song as a single. I’d already left Motown and gone to MGM. I don’t think Motown knew I was going to leave and I was upset that this came out after I’d gone. I regret never having the chance to sing it live with Marvin. I felt my duets with Marvin really paved the way for what he did with Tammi Terrell next. Our songs influenced theirs, and if I’d stayed at the label I think I’d have been singing those songs with him instead.”
Though Gaye had already racked up a number of hits in the US, this was his first Top 40 hit in the UK. The song reached #14 in the U.S. and #16 in the UK … the Canadians apparently didn’t like it, for it didn’t chart there.
In 1990, the song was covered by Rod Steward and Tina Turner, where it was a Top Ten throughout Europe.
It Takes Two Kim Weston and Marvin Gaye
One can have a dream, baby Two can make a dream so real One can talk about being in love Two can see how it really feels
One can wish upon a star Two can make a wish come true, yeah One can stand alone in the dark Two can make a light shine through
It takes two, baby It takes two, baby, Me and you You know it takes two
It takes two, baby It takes two, baby Make a dream come true It just takes two
One can have a broken heart Living in misery Two can really ease the pain Like a perfect remedy One can be alone in a bar, Like an island he’s all alone Two can make just any place Seem just like bein’ at home
It takes two, baby It takes two, baby Me and you It just takes two It takes two, baby It takes two, baby, To make a dream come true It just take two
Just takes two Just takes two
One can go out to a movie Looking for a special treat Two can make that single movie Something really kind of sweet And one can take a walk in the moonlight Thinking that’s it’s really nice But two lovers walking hand in hand Is like adding just a pinch of spice
It takes two, baby It takes two, baby Me and you Just takes two It takes two, baby It takes two, baby To make a dream come true
Tina Turner has, in my book anyway, a voice that … man, it just doesn’t stop! She is one of the bestselling recording artists of all time, and has often been referred to as The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
This was Tina Turner’s comeback song. She first hit the pop charts with her husband Ike in 1960, and their biggest hit came in 1971 with a cover of Proud Mary. After enduring years of spousal abuse, Tina split from Ike in the mid-’70s and her career was in limbo until this song thrust her back in the spotlight 13 years after Proud Mary.
This is really an anti-love song, and Turner hated it. She balked at recording it, but had the good sense to defer to her manager, Roger Davies, who was engineering her comeback and was sure the song would be a hit. Davis got the song from his friends, the songwriters Terry Britten and Graham Lyle (who was in the duo Gallagher and Lyle), and it was Britten who produced the track.
This song won Grammys in 1985 for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Female Vocal Performance. Turner gave one of the awards to Davies, whom she credited with reviving her career. Davies, an Australian who was new to the business, met Turner in 1979.
What’s Love Got to Do with It Tina Turner
You must understand though the touch of your hand
Makes my pulse react
That it’s only the thrill of boy meeting girl
Opposites attract
It’s physical
Only logical
You must try to ignore that it means more than that ooo
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
What’s love but a second hand emotion
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
It may seem to you that I’m acting confused
When you’re close to me
If I tend to look dazed I’ve read it someplace
I’ve got cause to be
There’s a name for it
There’s a phrase that fits
But whatever the reason you do it for me ooo
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
What’s love but a second hand emotion
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
I’ve been taking on a new direction
But I have to say
I’ve been thinking about my own protection
It scares me to feel this way oh oh oh
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
What’s love but a second hand emotion
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
What’s love but a sweet old fashioned notion
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
ooh got to do with it
(What’s love but a second hand emotion)
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken
(What’s love got to do with it) got to do with it
(What’s love)
I had a song in my head all day. It was Cat Stevens’ Wild World. I really, really wanted to play it tonight. But … alas … I played it in August 2018. I thought about redux-ing it, but … sigh. No doubt I will play it again here someday, but … not today. So, I listened to it four times, had my fill, cried each time, and finally moved on. To … Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly. But nope, already did that one, too. Okay … NEXT …! Oh … hey Al …… look folks, it’s our friend Al Green! What you got for us tonight Al? Ah yeah … that’s great …
Let’s Stay Together … that tune turns me inside-out! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner! Thanks Al!
Al Green wrote the lyrics to this song; the music was written by Al Jackson Jr., and Willie Mitchell. Jackson is a legendary soul drummer who recorded with Booker T. & the MG’s; Mitchell was Green’s producer. Green did about 100 takes before he got one he liked, and even then he wasn’t sure the song was any good. It was Mitchell who set him straight, telling him it “had magic on it.”
According to Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 songs, after Willie Mitchell gave Al Green a rough mix of a tune he and drummer Al Jackson had developed, Green wrote the lyrics in 5 minutes. However, Green didn’t want to record the song and for two days he argued with Willie Mitchell before finally agreeing to cut it.
Tina Turner’s 1983 cover of this song revitalized her career, returning her to the charts in both the UK and US for the first time for over a decade. Now, I am a big Tina Turner fan, but for this song, only Al Green will do. However, since Tina Turner’s version was bigger in the UK, and I have a lot of UK readers, I will play her version too.
Barack Obama sang a couple of lines of the song during an appearance on January 19, 2012 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem for a fund-raising event. Al Green was the opening act and as the American president took to the stage, he noted the soul legend’s presence in the audience and surprised his staffers close by with an impromptu spot of crooning. “Those guys didn’t think I would do it,” he joked. “I told you I was going to do it. The Sandman did not come out.” I have included that short clip just because … I wanted to. Because seeing a real man as president still brings a tear to my eyes, remembering how things once were.
I used to believe that someday, some guy would sing this to me. Sigh. 🐺
Let’s Stay Together Al Green
Let’s stay together
I, I’m I’m so in love with you
Whatever you want to do
Is all right with me
Cause you make me feel so brand new
And I want to spend my life with you
Let me say that since, baby, since we’ve been together
Loving you forever
Is what I need
Let me, be the one you come running to
I’ll never be untrue
Oh baby
Let’s, let’s stay together (‘gether)
Lovin’ you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah
Whether times are good or bad, happy or sad
Why, why some people break up
Then turn around and make up
I just can’t see
You’d never do that to me (would you, baby)
Staying around you is all I see
(Here’s what I want us do)
Let’s, we oughta stay together (‘gether)
Loving you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad
Come on
Let’s stay, (let’s stay together) let’s stay together
Loving you whether, whether times are good or bad
I was curious about that last one … I had no idea he had written a book, so I did some digging. Josh Hawley has, indeed, written a book titled … wait for it … Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs
… look folks, it’s our friend Al Green! What you got for us tonight Al? Ah yeah … that’s great …
… look folks, it’s our friend Al Green! What you got for us tonight Al? Ah yeah … that’s great …
Filosofa's Word 