May 12: Steve Winwood Birthday

steve winwood

Listening to music for me is like homework. Music will give me enjoyment, but as soon as it’s giving me that enjoyment, I want to analyse it, and then it becomes work. Why does it sound like that? How?… then I dissect it.
~Steve Winwood

To make a living from doing something I love is fantastic. As long as people want to listen to me, I’ll keep doing it. In fact, to tell you the truth, even if no one did want to listen to me, I’d still be doing it!
~Steve Winwood

Networking is rubbish; have friends instead.
~Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood exploded onto the London music scene as a teenager with his powerful, soulful tenor — notably on “Gimme Some Lovin'” and “I’m a Man” with the Spencer Davis Group. “I thought he had the greatest voice,” said Billy Joel, “this skinny little English kid singing like Ray Charles.” The frontman for the jazz-infused pop of Traffic and then the jam rock of Blind Faith (with Eric Clapton), Winwood re-emerged in the mid-Eighties with the hits “Back in the High Life Again” and “Higher Love” — highly polished soul pop that made him a star all over again. “He was able to copy Jimmy Reed, and I thought, ‘Where the hell is this voice coming from?’ ” said Spencer Davis. “From a diminutive guy, at that age, how can he do it? But he did it.”
~rollingstone.com

Gimme Some Lovin’ (Letterman Show – 22 july 2010)

Spencer Davis Group – Gimme Some Lovin’ (1966)

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May 3: The Late Soul Legend James Brown Birthday

When I’m on stage, I’m trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don’t go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.
~James Brown

The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.
~James Brown

“Soul Brother Number One,” “the Godfather of Soul,” “the Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” “Mr. Dynamite” — those are mighty titles, but no one can question that James Brown earned them more than any other performer. Other singers were more popular, others were equally skilled, but few other African-American musicians were so influential over the course of popular music. And no other musician, pop or otherwise, put on a more exciting, exhilarating stage show: Brown’s performances were marvels of athletic stamina and split-second timing.
~Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)

Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – from TV program Shindig:

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