Onomatopoeia, a Playlist

I give you a playlist full of vocal incantations. With poetic license, I've named it onomatopoeia rather than vocable which arguably better captures the sound effects I have in mind, the la las, the ding dongs and the sho-be-doos. We hum, we sing and we chant; the words are immaterial, it is the sound that enthralls. Listen without prejudice

Onomatopoeia, a playlist (spotify)

• Doobie Doobie Do by Omar
  The very definition of infectious, a celebration. I find myself nodding my head and singing along, Doobie Doobie Do. Effortless soul
• Shoop by Salt-N-Pepa
  Shuffling and sexy rhythms
• Ooo La La La by Teena Marie
  Slowly and langorously, the golden voice delivers a hook with staying power
• Zungguzungguzungguzeng by Yellowman
  The endless inventiveness of the Dancehall master, no one could toast quite like him, he rode any riddim relentlessly
• Din Daa Daa by George Kranz
  The vicious drums and the sum total of the lyrics:

  Din Daa Daa / Don Doon Doon.

  Onomatopoeic perfection
• Tutti Frutti by Little Richard
  Rock and roll was changed by the immortal chorus:

  A wop bop ba lu ba a wop bam boom.

• Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check by Busta Rhymes
  Even a subdued Busta Rhymes is action packed. Vocal gesticulation at its finest
• Yabadabadoo by Chubb Rock
  Simply Authoritative.

  The fat lady sang, I crushed her / Word up the Chubbster / Yabadabadoo

• Rub a Dub by Mikey Dread
  Nursery rhymes reinvented with a reggae vibe
• Oops Outside Your Head by Gap Band
  Charlie Wilson and the boys, Oklahoma's finest funkateers delivered bonafide party jams, perfect for barbecues and family reunions. Note the disingenous title: I don't believe you want to get up and dance
• Na Na Hey Hey by Donna Summer
  Dance with the disco queen, unarguable fun
• Da Da Da by Trio
  There's repetition and there's radical simplicity in structure in this piece of German pop. Da Da Da
• Poom Poom by Prince
  The chorus must be at least twenty poom pooms, vocal percussion in this vault track. From the man who sang about joy in repetion we get hundreds of poom pooms by song's end
• Bam Bam by Sister Nancy
  This is a hit. Sister Nancy may have never got paid for this lethal track inspired as she was by Yellowman and other toasters at the time, dancehall at its finest.
• Beng Beng Beng by Femi Kuti
  Dionysian and ferocious, no wonder it was banned in Nigeria, a song guranteed to cause commotion on dancefloors
• Boom by The Roots
  Adrenaline from a lethal lyricist

• Eeni Meeni Myni Mo by Omar
  We start the b-side with another nursery rhyme to punctuate some soul. Omar always delivers
• Rub a Dub All the Time by Dennis Brown
  The crown prince of reggae had so many hits, rub-a-dub style.
• La La La He He He by Prince
  Challenged to write a song to this title, our man came up with this slice of funk.
• Sho-Be-Do-Sho by Beres Hammond
  A consumate showman, Beres has to be experienced live
• Da Da Da by Prince
  The kind of song you can do when you get control of your masters, emancipation was the album
• Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Dey by Stevie Wonder
  A preview of the exuberance that was about to let loose in his virtuoso run in the seventies
• La-La Means I love you by The Delfonics
  The ultimate ballad
• Don Dada by Super Cat
  For a few years, Super Cat was inescable.
• Ding-Dong The Witch is Dead by Ella Fitzgerald
  No one has ever objected to Ella Fitzgerald, she could sing anything.
• Fu-Gee-La by Fugees
  Harkening back to Teena Marie on the hook, this was the album that would take them to the stratosphere
• Na Na Hey Hey by Bananarama
  Their brand of 80s pop might have been lightweight but you still had to dance to it
• They Want EFX by Das EFX
  The heart of this playlist is probably the effusive piece of vocal gymnastics. The intricacies of their rhyming in unparalleled.
• Din Da Da by The Roots
  Questlove and Black Thought took on the challenge of revisiting George Kranz'a masterpiece on the Tipping Point
• Ting-a-ling by Shabba Ranks
  The master of the dancehall
• Shing a Ling by Desmond Dekker
  Reggae greatness
• Ha! by Dianne Reeves
  Scat and vocalese virtuosity
• Sho Be Do Be by The Clarendonians
  The early reggae bands harkened to the doo bop bands
• Woo by Erykah Badu
  Apparently this album came after a bout of writer's block. Woo is all you need to get back to work
• Ding-Dong the witch is dead by Glenn Miller
  I'm always minded that this was the song that was sang in the streets when Margaret Thatcher died.
• Bam Bam by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires and Toots and the Maytals
  What a Bam Bam, Toots is sorely missed
• Doo wa Ditty by Zapp
  Zapp and Roger always deliver dancefloor bangers

I leave you singing Doobie Doobie Do

File under: music, language, whimsy, culture, fun, Comfort Suite, toli

Writing log: July 7, 2022

Impounded

There's a script to be written and one of the plot points
Should be about a precious, but illicit cargo
Contraband, now impounded on the big stuck boat

An act of God, force majeure clauses
Call it Waiting for Godot in Suez
Imagine a duel with high stakes
Not a tale of pirates but a test of wits
Not on the high seas but on the canal
Not an action heist, not that kind of drama
But rather hardboiled, the theater of the absurd
And, in the background, the big stuck boat

The backstory would involve General Sisi's fixer
Four dodgy salvage agents and a claims adjuster
The Japanese owners would be cracking the whip
Ratcheting up the tension as their deadlines slip
On the one side the supply chain enforcers
On the other the logistics operators
And via diplomatic channels, Bonecutter bin Salman
And we'll cut away often to the big stuck boat

Throw in a Moslem Brotherhood angle
A few bellydancers to ramp up the tension
Bond shouldn't be the only one to have gratuitous fun
But in this tale there are no villains
Or, rather, everyone gets their comeuppance
For no one ever paid their soul insurance
The premiums due, to free the big stuck boat

Let's pitch it to Netflix or one of the majors
It's provocative and edgy but still heartwarming
We'll bring in Roddy Doyle to doctor the script
Or Irvine Welsh if you insist on a counterintuitive premise
The fresh take on age old issues will seal the deal
And ultimately, at the climax, we'll have the big reveal
The reversal of fortune occurs on the big stuck boat

There'll be multiple seasons worth, just think: containers!
We'll be taking meetings next, all we need is an agent
They should be hungry these days, the pandemic's got Hollywood idled
Remember you heard it all here first, this scribe's for hire
On the ground floor of the dream factory, the idea production line
The chief toli monger with the crystal ball and batik print
And it all happened, it was written, on the big stuck boat

Big Stuck Boat, a playlist

A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

• Don't Rock the Boat by Midnight Star & Whodini
• Get on the Boat by Prince
• When my Dreamboat Comes Home by Jimmy Smith
• Stuck by Norah Jones
• Rock the Boat by The Hues Corporation

...

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

See also Soul Inspiration

File under: humour, whimsy, imagination, culture, observation, fun, fiction, Observers are worried, toli

Writing log: May 7, 2021

Teddy Mink

Along came Teddy Mink, as usual, with the girls in tow
The Mink Quadrant was a tight unit, a hard act to follow

Sheila, Joyce, Melissa, and Stephanie came up in lockstep
The classic lineup, they danced as if they were doing it to death

But Teddy insisted, he laid down the funk rules of the beat
And Diana and Mary couldn't handle the supreme heat

They’d opted for Motown and greener pastures
Get down on the one, the groove was the master

The drum is a woman, The Duke had said it before
Teddy agreed with this aspect of Ellington's Law

He'd had a falling out with Cucumber Bones
Over the woman, and the song, Aretha is Home

Something about the credits and, as usual, the royalties
But, mostly, it was the oversight in the liner notes that he found petty

And now that he had something to prove on his hands
He was determined not to lose the battle of the bands

As a bandleader, he drilled the musicians harder then the Godfather
His work ethic approached Prince, truly, no one did it better

In the warehouse, the grooves and ideas flowed, the pace was unrelenting
And as for the dancers, he wouldn't let them quit - man, it was exhausting

His love language was a jam session, he lived for music, it was an obsession
But who the hell knew if they would defeat Cucumber Bones and Frankie Ocean?

A brief sketch, as told to me by the then 4 year old

The names of my son's imaginary friends have become more interesting. Who is this Cucumber Bones? And what is he singing with Frankie Ocean?

Teddy Mink, a playlist

A soundtrack for this jam session. (spotify version)

• Doing it to Death by James Brown
  The immortal groove

  We're gonna have a funky good time.
  We gotta take you higher

• Jerk Out by The Time
• Another Part of Me by Michael Jackson
  Before the then 4 year old got into Cucumber Bones and Teddy Mink, he was obsessed with Michael Jackson and the Bad tour. Or perhaps it was the other way around? The performance for Another Part of Me especially got him moving.
• Teddy's Jam by Guy
• Let's take it to the Stage by Funkadelic
  Both of my children are grounded in funk
• Battle of the Species by Antibalas
• Battle Royal by Count Basie and Duke Ellington
• Blues at the Five Spot by Oliver Nelson
• Blues for M.F by Oliver Nelson
• The Cocoa Boys by Prince
  We'll end with this soundtrack for a mooted film about a battle of the bands. Essential funk. Let's take it to the stage.

See also Mingering Mike: The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar

File under: culture, youth, children, imagination, music, whimsy, competition, storytelling, humour, parenting, family, fun, Small Things, poetry, toli

Writing log. Concept March 25, 2017. May 5, 2021

After Tom Sawyer

The fence was in a state of disrepair
A household with some children going crazy with stir
The self isolation blues reminded one of Tom Sawyer
Inspiration struck: cue a one-click order
Some paint was duly delivered a few days later
You would have liked to tip Amazon's essential worker
But the software's design favored capitalism over labour
But you know, it's really not a lot of money to spend
Further, the property values will work out in the end
Maybe we'll foster some Picassos or Da Vincis
Or rather our own Wizs, Glovers and El Anatsuis
We might even discover a pot of black gold
These minor art pieces, perhaps, a prelude to riches untold
Back to basics, Nyame had suggested, it's about nuts and bolts
The cement of society by way of Home Depots
A saving grace, and a morning's fun activity
Behind the yam, a respite from the outside agony
The memories here are painted in colors at the rainbow's end
Fence painting as a covidious dividend.

Further Reading

• elevator inspectors, Magnus Mills is the Tolstoy of the fence installation trade.
• Fences by August Wilson
  This play was the work of a master and stands out even among his considerable oeuvre. Parenting is a fencewalk. The later movie, featuring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, is a labour of love. That "I ain't got to like you scene" stands in the pantheon.

After Tom Sawyer, a playlist

When conjuring a soundtrack for this note, I could only think of one song to start and end it. Mandrill was a fearsome funk band and a hard act to follow. Fencewalk is their magnum opus to my ears. (spotify version)

• Fencewalk by Mandrill
• Let's Work by Prince
• Come 'N Play by House of Bamba
  A collaboration by my in-laws. They should do this more often.
• Thought@Work by The Roots
• I Go to Work by Kool Moe Dee
• Player's Ballin' by Ohio Players
• Workout by Hank Mobley
• The Work Song by Oscar Peterson Trio with Milt Jackson
• Working up a sweat by First Circle
• Fencewalk (live) by Mandrill

See also: Colors, a playlist (spotify version)

Previously: Nuts and Bolts

Note: a Harry Potter motif was a later addition, The 9 year old insisted on a departure from the original maternal suggestion. Needless to say. I approved of this redirection.

This note is part of a series: In a covidious time.

File under: poetry, life, coronavirus, parenthood, fun, pandemic, art, culture, humour, whimsy, observation, family, Social Living, covidious, toli

Bullet From A Gun

I give you the Toli Remix of Derek B's Bullet From a Gun, a hip-hop photo essay in the vein of South London's vibe. Part II of the London's Got Soul Trilogy.

• South London Brew
• Bullet From A Gun

South London Brew

I lived in North London for 5 years in the late 80s and early 90s joining my mother during her 18 year stretch of exile from the insanity of Jerry Rawlings' Ghana. More precisely we lived in the "civilized" part of London, that's the Hampstead, Golders Green, Hendon and Brent Cross Axis of Civility. Throughout that time, I only made occasional forays into South and East London. It all seemed strangely alien to me: all hustle and bustle, poorly served by public transport, schools and local governments in disarray etc. Certain parts seemed more like Accra, Karachi or Lagos, in a word: messy. As an example, in all my time in North London I never walked into an argy-bargy (pub brawl) or got harassed by roving youths at night. Since I've left though, I've come to think of those parts of London as more interesting and certainly more vibrant even if they are indeed more difficult to live in. A lot of the cultural energy of the city comes from these less telegenic parts.

Thus I give you a photo essay on South London, This time however, your narrator will be Derek B who was there at the False Dawn of UK Hip Hop in the 1980s. Derek B truly is a Bad Young Brother with braggadocio and inventiveness to spare as you'll see from his wordplay. As a rapper he had impeccable taste, for example sampling the Oh Yeah bit from Prince's Sign O' the Times recognizing its importance long before others. The music scene in England at that time had a lot of soul (artists like Mica Paris, Omar, Neneh Cherry, Soul II Soul and Loose Ends), jazz funk and rare groove (Paul Laurence, Courtney Pine) from which the Acid Jazz movement emerged, as well as the beginnings the house and rave scene. DJs like Pete Tong and Westwood kept things moving. There was a lot of cross-pollination and the music produced had a multi-faceted sensibility. Other notables on the hip-hop side of things include Monie Love (Monie in the Middle and It's a Shame being the standouts) and the much-overlooked Cookie Crew who really put it on the line with I Got To Keep On, that hyperactive Old School joint.

Give them the proof that
We're down by the South Side
So you can confide
In the Cookie Crew

I got to keep on
I can't sleep on
Gaining respect
With a cool british dialect

Bad Young Brother is Derek B's most popular song, a fiercesome groove as befits the title; it even crossed over to this side of the Atlantic. For me however, Bullet From a Gun, the title track of his debut album, made a greater impression. It is a song firmly in the vein of Kool Moe Dee's Wild Wild West or great posse cuts like The Juice Crew's The Symphony. Its lyrics threw down a witty and theatrical challenge to the rest of the world affirming the existence of a soulful vibe in London. There is a direct line from Derek B to influential groups like Massive Attack or Portishead and latter-day poets like The Streets and Dizzee Rascal. He speaks to a youth culture that continues to make London the most exciting city in Europe. Although he is an East Londoner, we'll relocate him to Catford for the purposes of this post.

[Update May 2020, I've made video version you can find on Youtube]

For the musically inclined, you can sample the song here. I'll leave the mp3 up for a few days before slipping it back into the Long Tail of music and file sharing networks. Allow me then to do what the Cookie Crew suggested and

Grab the mic tightly
Serve the crowd rightly
Cause we were born
To keep it on

South London style.

Bullet From A Gun

Narrator: First There Was A Dream...

Narrator: Now there is reality...

[Sound Of Footsteps]

"My Name Is Q. Easy Q"
"Who is Number One?"
"I Am Number One"

[snippet of James Bond theme, Bullets fire and ominous break beat begins]

James Bond 007
Licensed to kill
Easy Q, Derek B
Licensed to ill

On Her Majesty's Secret Service of rap
America, you're under attack
From the Crown Prince of poetry
The Man With The Golden Mic is me

You thought you'd never hear
Anybody with the gall
But Easy Q and Derek B
Got Thunderballs

I'll Never Say
Never Say Never Again
I'm not Russia With Love
You see I'm from England

I'll Live And Let You Die
Your soul will get cold
Your body paralyzed
As my rhyme unfolds

A billion dollar brain
Ticking inside my head
Like Diamonds are Forever
And I've got street cred

From the East End
Always say it loud
Def B-Boy
Black and proud

I'm a warrior
Like Attila the Hun
That's why my posse call me
Bullet From A Gun

(South London Chorus)
"Who's Number One?"
"Bullet From A Gun"
"My Posse Having Fun?"
"Yeah Bullet From A Gun"
"You're Sure Gonna Get Some"

East London Posse
Raving all over town
Not invited to the party
We break the door down

Cooling with my homeboys
To a real lame beat
As the girlies stand around
About to fall asleep

16 Strong, my posse takes over
D on the decks, Easy Q mic controller

All of the sudden the party starts to rock
To the def beats and sounds of my hip-hop

The volume increases
Your ears wanna bleed

B-boys going crazy
Suckers doing speed

Fight breaks out
Place gets wrecked
Don't bother me boy
You'll only get decked

Out
at the speed of light
We came to party
Not to fight

So the fridge gets raided
Brew and Tennent's gone.

The quiet start rocking
The sensi smells strong

Shuffling and shaking
Speakers start to pump
The amps overload
The party's gotta stop

A roar from the posse
With the gold around the neck

Each one against the wall
With the girlie in check

Mate
The game's over and won
We're out of here
Like a Bullet From A Gun

South London Chorus (x2)
"Who's Number One?"
"Bullet From A Gun"
"My posse having fun?"
"Yeah Bullet From A Gun"
"You're sure gonna get some"

Word

Take a trip through a park
To see an mc battle

Hot sunny day
Skeezers like cattle

The E.L. Posse
All over the place
Like government agents
No time to waste

Standing in the corner
With my arms crossed
Laughing at the rapper
Who just lost

Sucker taken out
And I guess it's kind of funny
'Cos he's rapping for nothing
While I'm making the money

Now he comes over and asks me what
He has to do to get all the way to the top
I said, "I'm a funky junky of the hip hop sound
I take this shit serious, no messing around"

"My rhyme's like a bull
And oh so strong
I wear the freshest clothes
Like Louis Vuitton"

"I get to jams early,
You get there late.
Then set up cold ambush
On the 808"

"I'm a Pro, Bro
And when it's time to go,
I make sure I'll let the people
Know who's running the show"

"When out on the mic
I make sure I rock the night"

"Make the girlies go crazy
Throw their panties on stage"

"One more thing
While you're listening son
Make sure the rap's delivered
Like a bullet from a gun"

"Who's Number One?"
"Bullet From A Gun"
"My posse having fun?"
"Yeah Bullet From A Gun"
"You're sure gonna get some".

That's right I am Number One
And I'm here to stay.
I ain't going no place no way

One more time

South London Chorus
"Who's Number One?"
"Bullet From A Gun"
"My posse having fun?"
"Yeah Bullet From A Gun"
"You're sure gonna get some"

That sounds right to me. You like that?
"Yeah!"
OK let's chill

[bullet fires]

Fade out with breakbeat.

---

See also: Catford Bridge and London's Got Soul.

Bullet From A Gun - photoset

Derek B - Bullet From A Gun on Youtube

My man Derek B passed away in 2009. I am priviledged to know that he approved of my toli tribute. Rest in peace, soul brother

File under: London, Derek B, travel, journalism, whimsy, life, photo, essay, culture, music, fun, hip-hop, observation, perception, South London, art, collage, hubris, soul, hustle, flow, remix, toli