"A Peek into My Rhythm Vaults"

When I was a tyke, maybe 5 or 6 years old, my sweet, loving dad brought home the Beatles' new Hard Day's Night album to make me feel better-I had the chicken pox!! If you know that album cover, you're immediately picturing the 4-way layout with each individual black and white photograph of the fab four framed in red; they were sporting serious looks on their faces and seriously silly mop-top hair!! Paul at that time was my favorite; later, of course, when I got political, my allegiance shifted to John, but, hell, what could a 6 year old possibly know about world peace? Paul was the cutest and that's all that mattered. In the corner of his photo I wrote in bold but childlike letters, PM + JB (I was Judy Benedetti back in the day). Please notice I didn't write JB + PM. Oooh no! Paul had a thing for me!! I still have that very album, and, yes, the cover is worn and thin, and the album is scratched and thick, but it makes me chuckle every time I see my first attempt at rhetorically articulating my love!

I still love and admire the Beatles, but my heart has always been rhythmically connected to Black American music. Despite Dad's sweet rock n roll-inflected gesture, my older sister was simultaneously listening to Motown music, and apparently that soulfulness locked in at what psychologists call the formative years-I've been hardwired ever since!

Remember when Rob was reorganizing his record collection in High Fidelity (book or film) and in, like, 5 minutes, you felt like you totally knew him just by his taste in music? Yeah? Well, if you don't know me, then consider my tastes in music as one way for us to get acquainted. I love to get bluesy with Elmore, BB, and Bobby Blue Bland, and Jimmy Reed, Zora Williams, and Esther Philips, and even newer blues artist like Keb' Mo. And then there's my favorite genre of all: classic RnB and deep soul--Aretha, Brother Ray, Marvin, Etta, Stevie, Curtis, Irma, Solomon, Sam, and every Motown and Stax band! ah when those instruments blend and those voices intertwine, it's like settling into a wonderfully soft pillow--it's heaven!! Just try to stop me from dancing on that opening drum roll of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg"-I truly am hardwired! And clearly I'm a funkateer--Bootsy, Clinton, Sly, and JB, Karl Denson, and every configuration of Parliament! And of course a day without Bob Marley is sinful. Every LP of his is superb, but my fave is Dreams of Freedom--amazing production on that one. I also dig intelligent, conscious hip-hop, mostly ole skool-Grandmaster Flash, KRS-One, Common, Arrested Development, Jurassic 5, Fugees, Michael Franti. And I love albums-vinyl-yep, I still play em, and I'm so careful about not scratching them, (which seems a tad anal considering that I also love to scratch �em up on the ones and twos!) There's something so personal and demanding and connected to changing the music every 20 minutes; sounds pretty ridiculous in today's world of walking around with an mp3 player filled with, what, like, a month's worth of music. Later, gotta go flip the album--it's The Impressions' Ridin' High.