Challenge accepted! Arrgh, how could I. My 20 to 30 most important songs up until now? Just impossible to boil down my musical life to a microsecond. Shouldn’t there be at least 10 songs from Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Chic EACH? What about the Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow, my heroes of the Old Old School? Total disgrace to leave them all out but applying some serious rule and mind bending I’ll cope.

The weekend starts here

By all means the journey needs to start with Earth, Wind & Fire. Included on one of the first three albums I ever bought (in a bundle with Al Jarreau, sigh, and T-Connection, yeah) “Sun Goddess” hits the soft spot right inbetween the lofty original by Ramsey Lewis and their very own music machine band jazz-funk that made them so unique throughout the seventies. Also my first “real” gig at Grugahalle Essen when they performed magic on stage while the whole band disappeared in their signature triangle aka spaceship.

Only a short stroll from EWF’s jazz-funk I stumbled (or rather stomped) upon Brothers Johnson “Get the funk out ma face”. A 2:27 minutes slap-bass blueprint disco-funk impossible to resist.

Together with the following songs this one brings back memories of my first car: A green, partially hand-painted Opel Kadett very similiar to the one depicted here. Its main feature was of course the sound system with self-assembled speakers that just LAY in the back seat.

A sound system designed with rolling drums and heavy bass in mind. Just like the iconic “Bustin loose” by Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. Later labeled “GoGo” because of the extensive use of percussion that triggered a short-lived hype around a small like-minded music community in Washington D.C. later introduced to a mainstream audience by director Spike Lee in his movie “School Daze”.

OK, the list can do without Michael, Stevie and even Chic (although as I just read recently that “Nile Rogers guitar is strung with unicorn hair”. Love it!) but it sure cannot without the Godfather, Soulbrother No. 1 and undisputed creator of Funk and nearly everything that followed in Black Music: Jaaaaaaames Brown! Taking a pick here is easy as every emblematic pattern he ever invented surfaces in “People, get up and drive your funky soul”. The intro, the horns, the bassline, the guitar riffs, the breaks, the Jazz heritage and the pure repetitive force. A monster throughout its full 9 minutes vast beauty (forget the shorter versions).

Talking about Intros there’s of course no match for the epic piano kicking-off Richie Havens “Going back to my roots”. Still after a thousand times listening and spinning the first minute can electrify (almost) any dance floor. As the No.3 tune (No.1 “Say No Go” by De La Soul, No.2 “Let no men put asunder” by Positive Force) at the party celebrating my 2nd wedding it did just that.

While Havens big hit surely drew a straight line to the 60ies Folk and Soul of the original by Lamont Dozier it also triggered a half-baked yet very successful ‘disco version’ . Being the dominating force in 70ies dance music by far ‘Disco’ was one man’s meat and another man’s poison. Hated and even fought (unbelieable footage from the Anti-Disco Movement burning, yeah, burning records) by some it was a revelation for many creating a string of unresistable stompers that became the blueprint for the HOUSE music phenomenon and everything that followed. Stompers like Jimmy ‘Bo’ Horne’s “Spank”.

A four-to-the-floor disco smash if there ever was one. Uniquely relying on Horne’s Gospelesque voice (compare this to Chicage House’ first world hit “Love can’t turn around by Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk & Darryl Pandy and you know whom to thank for House) and a heavy bassline the 12'’ (inch that is aka a vinyl record 12 inches in size) spares its absolute climax until 6 minute and 6 seconds when dancers — after cheering through two incredible horn-fueled bass breaks — are really being spanked by doubeling the bass drum with thundering hand-claps. Phew!

But despite disco and full-throttle hedonism life in the 70ies and early 80ies wasn’t all hunky-dory and one of the strongest voices (ever!) to remind us of the flipsides was Gil Scott-Heron.

His masterpiece “B-Movie (Intro, Poem, Song)” channels his frustration (“Mandate, my ass”) and rage about the election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States into a 12 minute protest monument. With almost Nostradamical foresight Heron anticipated all the neo-liberal nightmares (“Voodoo economics”) Reagan’s Junta (including George “Papa Doc” Bush and Don Cheney, the man with a 1000 faces) evoked in their own country and the rest of the world. Nightmares so profound we’re still suffering in the 21st century.

While DJing at the infamous post-hippie club “Meddle” “B-Movie” used to conclude the rougher nights as a final high before the painful floor lights went on.

And here comes yet another pre-floor-lights goose bumps intro. A cheering crowd, a deep deep voice speaking about the theme of the song (well, literally joy and pain) backed by a bass drum, hi-hat, snare until THE CROWD REALLY kicks-in. Yes, you guessed it — this is a live recording:

Aaaaaah, Maze. Whenever I have a dream of being on stage and singing I picture myself behind Frankie Beverly’s Yamaha piano singing “Joy and Pain” . Surely a “slowie” as we used to call it back in the 80ies but it never failed to draw a late late night crowd moving and wailing along. Take that one down for my funderal’s playlist!

Apropos funeral — I missed my one and only option to see Bob Marley live on his final tour in 1980 due to a memorable yet all too post-juvenile trip to the Canary Islands. What a waste. I’d rather seen the buffalo soldier on his last tour because he was not only the first global superstar coming from a ‘developing country’ but also opened up a whole musical genre and its inevitable herbal side effects to the world (including myself of course) with repercussions still tangible today. Choosing from his giant repertoire isn’t easy until it is. Let’s go for Jamming a simple yet infectious mid-tempo mover containing all the good stuff Marley represented throughout his unprecedented career. “I hope you like jamming too”.

About the same time when Bob was at the peak of his musical journey a small guy in Minneapolis began his meteoric rise to become another worldwide music icon:

PRINCE!

Starting small with fully self-written, self-played and self-produced album he quickly was on par with the other black superstar of the 80ies, Michael Jackson, but regarded as far more innovative and agenda-setting than the obviously deeply damaged Michael.

Listing all of Prince’s achievments and transformations up to now is virtually impossible in one paragraph. But especially during the early to the mid to late 80ies he proved to be impeccable!

From the epic Purple Rain to his thrilling masterpiece”Sign ‘o times” Prince was one of the (if not THE) most talented musician on the planet. A song very rarely included in his “best of” compilations is still one of my favorits: Erotic City

While Erotic City and many other dance tunes during this period still mixed Electronic music and ‘conventional’ instruments others already explored the boundaries of “digital only”. With Herbie Hancock landing a huge hit in 1983 with”Rockit” it was another Jazz musician — bass player Tyrone Brunson — that produced a big electronic smash the same year: “The smurf”

Banking on sounds created by the very first Electro HipHop Movement
Brunson like Hancock used his Jazz background to construct a futuristic dancefloor gem that can do without vocals.

Talking about influences. The 80ies also coined the phrase “world music” and the big success of African musicians was one of its major drivers. This trend resurfaced many of Africa’s musical legends maybe most notably …

Manu Dibango’s “Abele Dance” still sounds so unique and fresh that in retrospect one critics exclamation “I’m going to eat this record” still seems well deserved (btw the only record cover I ever framed and hanged).

Only a drumbeat away The Unknown Cases from Cologne(!) applied the same formula as Dibango. “Masimbabele” mixes a repetitive Electro Dance Groove with African music. In this case a percussion session from former Rolling Stones’ percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah who died shortly before the record was released.

Masimbabele instantly hit the dancefloors of the more progressive clubs in Germany and throughout the world. Still today it is one of the most requested tracks in world music themed parties. Trust me, I know ;)

Silly bonus: each year my favorite music magazine featured an annual list called “Peinlichstes Lieblingsstück” (most embarrassing favorite song). My alltime entry in this category comes from a Dutch(!) band named — the embarrassment starts here — “Blue Feather”. Their “Let’s funk tonight” (DON’t miss this video with the band sporting EVERY no-no of eighties fashion like a champion) was so popular in the aforementioned post-hippie discotheque I had the honor of gathering my first DJ experience in, that the short version was for wimps. It had to be the full 8:48 to get lucky!

Now what you hear is not a test

Without the slightest doubt Rap & HipHop as impersonated still best by its “founding fathers” The Sugarhill Gang (although those of you who are in the know definitely recognize Cool Herc as the THE MAN) is probably the most important musical genre of the 20th century (for those of you who disagree please cf. here). At least for me nearly everything musically that followed my reminisence bump (aka your most emotional and therefore best remembered memories usually occurring between age 15 and 25) was and is deeply rooted in this blend sustaining and developing the very essence of Black Music (in case this term is still PC?). So if this Top 30 list would need a No 1 spot one of the hottest candidates is “Catch the beat” by T-Ski Valley (the gentleman with the extra-broad leather jacket above).

Sampled numerous times after its release in 1981 and featured prominently on my favorite old school rap compilation “Genius of Rap” I can never (never) stop listening until the song fades out. Again it’s the intro that drags everyone (everyone) into the groove until T-Ski’s “got another funky break for you”. Yeah!

Many, many songs of the old school area lived up to T-Ski’s standard yet the first rap wave seemed to have ebbed out by the mid 80ies when “Genius of Rap” sold for pennies in Cologne’s record outlets. It took a second generation of rap (now HipHop) artists that finally established the genre in full bloom. Artists like Eric B & Rakim that stripped HipHop down to the bone. Just beats and rhymes. Like “Paid in full”

A hymn celebrating the basics of HipHop: beats, rhymes and getting paid. While the original already brought wealth and respect to the duo the song went stellar withColdcut’s Remix incorporating TV show snippets as well as sequences from “Im nin alu” by Israeli singer Ofra Haza. Thus creating a world music hit, the start of the remix craze and the dominant groove for the rest of the 80ies and the beginning of the 90ies.

Fast forward a few years …

Music moved to the background while family and work took the top spots. Yet the musical universe kept expanding and the next golden generation of HipHop kids entered the arena. Cut to the East Coast / West Coast rivalery with De la Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, The Jungle Brothers vs. N.W.A., Ice T, Tupac et. al. While always heavily leaning toward the East Coast one album changed my course: The Chronic by Dr. Dre.

Featuring the young and yet unknown Snoop Dogg it churned out various monster hits and patented a new style: G-Funk or Gangsta Rap if you like. One of the last real 12' Vinyl records I bought was “Nuthin’ but a G thang”by Dre. What seemed just like one more funky jam (borrowing heavily from Leon Haywood “I wanna do something freaky to you”) developed a much much deeper meaning 4 years after the song was released. I survived a traumatic 1996 listening to “G thang” 10.000 times channeling definitely non-PC emotions through G thang’s boombastic bassline and unprecedented hostile lyrics.

But things got back to the bright side soon and the so did the music of the 90ies benefiting largely from cheaper production and distribution. Yet another flavor of HipHop emerged and got the label “TripHop”(hmmm). Fitting perfectly into the first wave of “chill” or “lounge” it combined the usual electro and rap ingredients at a particular slow pace.

For me it brought another runner-up to my personal top 3: “Suntoucher” by Groove Armada featuring Jeru the Damaja Listen to the tension building up for precisely 1 minute and 11 seconds until the snare hits and the bassline explodes. “Super human MC powers”?

You bet! A song produced for high-end convertible sound systems!

Same recipe, different song: The Underwolves “So blue it’s black” is so hip it hurts. The funkiest keyboards pave the way for an irresistible groove mixing sirens, dub reggae and drum breaks into one killer track. My favorite part is of course the intro again but the fade out as well when it’s all wailing away “so good”.

With the further diversification of music into a myriad of niches at the beginning of the 21st century it proved harder to find ‘cool’ music or a ‘cool’ artists everyone could agree on.

However in 2000 everybody loved St. Germain (aka french artist Ludovic Navarre) and his album “Tourist”. A fresh but not so suprising blend of house, pop, blues, jazz and funk Navarre produced various dancefloor fillers but to me the bluesy “Sure thing” is his chef d’ouevre.

The french capitol not only brought us “St. Germain” but also The Buddha Bar as the epi-centre of lounge and the “Cafe de Flore” as the homebase of the cities most innovative independent radio station Radio Nova. While paying a visit to Radio Nova English musician Matthew Herbert (aka Doctor Rockit) captured the air of “Cafe de Flore” in a song of the same name. A lofty ode to a special place that immediately triggers images of a perfect café au lait and a late breakfast after a long night. The track features clicking cups and murmur from the crowd in the cafe. You may also want to check out the Charles Webster Remix.

Within the same moodscape but situated on the beach rather than in an urban café here is the only German track that made it into my selection: “Tag am Meer” by Die Fantastischen Vier.

Showcasing the often underestimated musicality of the bands least known member And Ypsilon with a sophisticated jazzy tune and trippy lyrics the song became the soundtrack for the autum of love 1997 and from then on ever since my flip flops hit the sand.

Soul was also back on the block in the early 00ies and brought back a tune from the nineties: Martine Girault’s “Revival”. Almost too good to be true in terms of vocal performance, jazzy laid-backness and funky edge the song is a pure evergreen that always works during late late nights.

On the other end of the BPM scale house had developed various sub-genres from Minimal Techno to Deep House. While especially Cologne School Minimal (cf. the full catalogue of the world-famous Kompakt label)is fascinating and hypnotic club sound I still (mostly) prefer the funkier, soulful flavors and if there’s one single song that captures the soulful euphoria of house it’s “Moment of my life” by Bobby D’Ambrosio featuring Michelle Weeks.

From the unbelievable vocal intro to the sudden death “Moment of my life” takes you on a breathless tear-jerking tour de joy. A sure shot to set the roof on fire (the roof, the roof …)

Wtih only 5 tracks to go it’s about time to at least include one track representing a whole genre sometimes more sometimes less important to my musical journey but always present: “Latin” in the broadest sense. What started with Santana, continued with Mink de Ville and is not finished with Nickodemus needs one item on the list, for example “Ventilator-80" by Ojos de Brujo but let’s go for the Martin Morales remix. In this track the Latin heritage meets a fabulous remix arrangement that takes it to the next level. If you can’t at least wiggle to this you got a problem my friend.

And here’s one more of this kind. Representing the more electrified side of house I choose Equinox (Henrik Schwarz Remix) by Code 718 but this funky techno vs. chill tune could easily be substituted by more obvious choices, i.e. “Insomnia”, “Energy Flash” or “Plastic Dreams”. Listening to “Equinox” on Koh Lanta beach was the incident that lifted the track out of the giant dance pool.

OK the last song to make sure I’ll do not leave whole genres behind is this one: “High on the heels” from The Whitest Boy Alive which is most appropriate as this one covers all the blue eyed soul and white pop bands in my life. Exquisitely funky it has all the ingredients of a sure alltime favorite: bass intro, keyboard groove and a cool singer.

Coming full circle and expertly connecting past and present the final two on the list manage to provide good evidence that despite the deeper emotions connected to the music consumed in the 70ies and 80ies there’s still mind blowing electrifying music out there today.

So let’s conclude the list with 2 highlights form the past 4 years. First Mos Def with “Quiet Dog”. The best HipHop/Rap tune for quite some time. Comencing with a 20 sec statement from African legend Fela Kuti “Quiet Dog” bounces over a steady percussion groove (“Zulu arrangement rockin’ amazement”) interrupted by “simmer down” breaks.

Quiet dog bite hard, my god!

So finally it’s time for a modern classic (and believe it or not but while I’m writing this on my ‘second screen’ broadcaster ARTE airs a short portrait of the artist because he’s nominated for a Grammy. A sure sign that it was about time this musical story HAD TO be told): Gregory Porter “1960 what” (Opolopo Kick & Bass Rerub) is the pinnacle of the musical season 2012/13 with its deep Jazz vocals combined with a wonderful wicked bassline and classy call-and-response chants. A monster! 2014 what?

Labour of Love by Wilfried Runde