January 2023 - Page 3 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

TSOP: Thom Bell, 1943-2022

The Sound Of Philadelphia

When Thom Bell died in late December 2022, I needed to link to some of his songs. After all, he, along with “Mighty Three” partners Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, created “The Sound of Philadelphia,” which was “a dominant sound of the early and mid-’70s.”

As the page highlighting his induction into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame noted, he was “one of R and B music’s most prolific hitmakers…

“Born in 1943 in Jamaica, Bell studied classical music as a child… He learned to play multiple instruments and planned to become a classical conductor, but at age 22, he became a staff writer and touring conductor for The Twist singer Chubby Checker. He then earned his first production gig for a local group called the Delfonics in 1968…

“Bell’s early work set the stage for his style of production and arrangements. He created unique arrangements using seemingly odd instruments, such as sitars and bassoons, to create first-of-a-kind Soul sounds that others would try to emulate for years afterward. His productions tended to be lush and orchestral (influenced by his classical background) but with hot, pulsating beats and excellent vocal arrangements.”

(A) Brand New Me – Dusty Springfield, co-written by Kenneth Gamble and Jerry Butler (1969)

The Delfonics

All songs were co-written by William Hart, lead singer of the group.

La-La (Means I Love You) – #2 for four weeks RB, #4 pop in 1968. Co-produced by Stan Watson.

Ready Or Not, Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love) – #14 RB, #35 pop, #41 in the UK in 1968. Co-produced by Stan Watson. The song has been sampled and interpolated in numerous songs, including Ready or Not by The Fugees

Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) – #3 RB for three weeks, #10 pop, #81 in Australia in 1970. #22 in the UK in 1971. Gold record. It won the Grammy for Best R and B Vocal Performance by a duo or group

The Stylistics

Linda Creed co-wrote all songs.

Stop, Look, Listen (to Your Heart) -#6 RB, #39 pop in 1971

You Are Everything – #10 RB, #9 pop in 1972, gold record

Betcha By Golly, Wow – #2 for two weeks RB, #3 pop in 1972, gold record. It was initially titled “Keep Growing Strong” and recorded by Connie Stevens on the Bell label in 1970.

People Make The World Go Round-# 6 RB, #25 pop, #25 adult contemporary in 1972

You Make Me Feel Brand New – #5 RB, #2 for two weeks pop in 1974

The Spinners

Known as “Detroit Spinners” in the UK

I’ll Be Around-#1 for five weeks RB, #3 pop in 1972. Co-written by Phil Hurtt. “It was initially released as the B-side of the group’s first single on Atlantic Records, How Can I Let You Get Away. The group’s first gold record

Ghetto Child – #4 RB, #29 pop in 1973. Co-written by Linda Creed.

The Rubberband Man – #1 RB, #2 for three weeks pop in 1976. Gold record. Co-written by Linda Creed. The song was about Bell’s son “being teased by his classmates for being overweight. Intended to improve his son’s self-image, the song eventually evolved from being about ‘The Fat Man’ to ‘The Rubberband Man.'” I own the album with the seven-minute version.

Two years of Joe Biden

“Who dares to mock Dark Brandon now?”

After two years of Joe Biden as President, a few things are rather clear.

His accomplishments will be underestimated and probably underreported. As Salon noted, “Who dares to mock Dark Brandon now? Joe Biden keeps rolling up the wins.” Moreover, “Republicans badly underestimated [him] — and in his first two years in the White House, he’s driven them nuts.”

From gun control to the CHIPS Act to respecting marriage, he’s getting things done. Under Biden, more jobs were created than the last three GOP Presidents Combined. He signed a bill to end profiteering from prisoners’ calls to loved ones. If his infrastructure bill is insufficient, it’s because Presidents and Congresses have kicked the issue down the road for decades.

January 6

I’m pleased that he marked “the second anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to 12 individuals associated with that day and the 2020 presidential election.” This signals he takes the assault on our democracy seriously, unlike others.

The medals were given to seven affiliated with the Capitol Police or D.C. Police departments: Harry Dunn, Caroline Edwards, Aquilino Gonell, Eugene Goodman, Michael Fanone, Daniel Hodges, and the late Brian Sicknick.

Politicians who “refused to buckle to pressure to overturn the presidential election results in their states” were Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, departing Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, and Al Schmidt, former city commissioner on the Philadelphia County Board of Elections.

“The final two recipients, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, were election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, who reportedly endured threats and harassment after the election. Freeman and Moss have been accused by former President Donald Trump and some of his allies of election fraud by including fake ballots in Georgia’s election total. All of the recipients were mentioned in the final report by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot.

The House GOP

The Republicans in the House of Representatives will try to make his life miserable. For instance, “the powerful Oversight Committee Chairman is pushing a baseless narrative that Biden is ‘compromised.’”

U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky “has promoted the false theory of fraud in the 2020 election, blaming alleged “troubling reports of irregularities and improprieties” on Democrats,” for which he has been regularly criticized. If it’s not Joe’s fault, it’s his son Hunter’s doing.

When Jim Jordan tried to jump the gun on oversight requests, the Biden White House rightly told him to wait his turn. Expect retaliation for that.

Even when Joe Biden errs, he’s measured by a different standard. The AP conducted a side-by-side look at the Trump and Biden classified documents issue. Yet many Republicans, starting with former Veep Mike Pence, make a false equivalence.

Add to that the narrative of him as a “bumbler” – the rightwing media is rife with it. They also mislead.

Will anything happen this year?

Joe Biden’s disapproval rate will be high, in part because progressives want him to do MORE in the areas of housing, healthcare, tax reform, criminal-justice reform, prison reform, and most notably, climate change mitigation. Of course, politics is the art of the possible, and I don’t know what will be possible with the clown car in the House.

There’s a lot of conversation about whether Joe Biden will run again for President. Here’s my thought: I don’t care yet. Moreover, if he’s NOT running, as soon as he announces that, he becomes a lame duck. I realize the 2024 election cycle has begun already, but he could wait until May Day to decide, and the earth will not fall off its axis.

Movie review: She Said

#MeToo

In late November, my wife and I saw the new movie She Said at the Landmark cinema Spectrum 8 in Albany. It’s about New York Times reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan), who broke the story that helped drive the #Metoo movement, especially as it applied to the Hollywood establishment.

It felt like real journalism, partly because of the shots inside and outside the Times offices. Among the big takeaways is that good journalism is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.

Finding the information and getting people to go on the record about sexual assaults by powerful people that took place years ago is difficult. When there are non-disclosure agreements involved, it’s even harder.

Add to this the reporters trying to have a semblance of a real life, with husbands and children – which felt genuine – and you also get the struggle of being working moms.

We liked it. The acting by the leads and by Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, and others was uniformly solid.

Compare and contrast

My issue is that it was a little too low-energy. I could not help but think about the film Spotlight. The stories are similar, the real-life story of a great northeastern newspaper – the Boston Globe – taking on a powerful institution – the local Roman Catholic church – over abusing the less powerful.

Spotlight, though, was tenser. In She Said, Harvey Weinstein offered threats of retaliation on the phone. But in Spotlight, it felt that if the reporters didn’t get it right, their investigative unit might have been dismantled, and the paper excoriated literally from the pulpits. In Spotlight, the movie made me feel that a lot was at stake; She Said proclaimed it but was less successful in presenting it.

Still, I would recommend She Said. It ought to be seen. It did a terrible box office, despite decent reviews. There were fewer than a dozen people at our Thursday matinee, two men and the rest, women.

Chaos as Civics Lessons

Emoluments

I’ve been trying to reframe the last few years. Maybe we should embrace the chaos as civics lessons.

ITEM: There were discussions about whether the previous guy in the White House was profiting off the office. “Generally, these anti-corruption provisions, the so-called Emoluments Clauses, prohibit the president from receiving any profit, gain, or advantage from any foreign or domestic government. Impeachment, as outlined by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 65, is a political remedy (though not the only remedy) for a president’s egregious violations of these prohibitions.”

Alas, in January 2021, the justices of the Supreme Court “dismissed two cases about then-President Trump’s alleged violations of the Emoluments Clauses… In doing so, the Court forfeited a golden opportunity to clarify just what these mandates mean for future presidents. And its refusal to rule one way or another may inadvertently encourage another president to brazenly leverage his or her power for profit.”

I dare say most readers had never heard of the word “emoluments” before 2017. So the citizenry is better informed, right?

Counting the electoral votes

ITEM: Did you know that Congress meets on the 6th of January after the Presidential election to count the electoral votes? Well, since 2021, NOW you do. It’s right there in 3 U.S. Code § 15.

As an old poli sci major, I was aware of it, but I never paid any attention until 2001, when there was some noise about challenging the Bush victory, but it was all bluster. I did follow it in 2009 because I couldn’t believe, in a good way, that Barack Obama was going to become President. But I all but forgot in 2005 and 2013, after W and Obama were reelected.

I noted it in 2017 because I couldn’t believe, in a not-so-good way, that djt was going to become President. Then I heard him, in his idolatry, say that Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 election results.

Still, the 2021 event was supposed to be largely ceremonial, with Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and others bringing their families to watch the beginning of the peaceful transfer of power. That didn’t work out as well as it might have.

And the US has exported political chaos to Brazil as Bolsonaro backers stormed government buildings in a January 6-style attempted coup. The country’s President, Congress, and its top court have jointly said the actions were terrorist acts. Last I checked, Bolsonaro had taken refuge in Florida.

Picking the Speaker

ITEM: Electing a Speaker of the House is usually a pretty straightforward process, though some horsetrading takes place. For instance, when Nancy Pelosi was up for the job in early 2019, she agreed to limit her tenure to two two-year terms. (I remembered that, but I also read it in a right-wing publication trying disingenuously to show that Kevin McCarthy’s difficulties weren’t all that uncommon.)

Well, a 15th ballot is rather unusual.

I knew one did not need to be a member of the House of Representatives to be the Speaker, though I believe it’s always been a Congressperson. So when Matt Gaetz nominated djt, there was no specific prohibition against that.

What ARE the legal requirements?

“Constitutionally, a current member of the Executive branch is prohibited from simultaneously holding office in the Legislative Branch. The Ineligibility Clause (Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 states:

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

But I could find nothing SPECIFICALLY that indicates whether the Speaker must be a certain age; members of the House have to be 25. I suppose someone too young to vote could be selected.

Incidentally, during the first week in January, C-SPAN Was America’s Hottest TV Drama.

Word of the Day: Scrablize

Word of the Day

The Word of the Day guy, Anu Garg, wrote about how he loved the game SCRABBLE when he was a kid. This led him to create the game Scrablize.

My aunt Deana (1908-1966) played SCRABBLE with me a lot, from when I was in first grade, c. 1959 until she died. I learned to love the game, though I haven’t played it in over a decade.

A more obsessive Anu has an even more compelling story, which you should read. The relevant part is only 300 words long.

“Last year, I started wondering what if there’s a way to arrange any text into a Scrabble-like grid. So I created Scrablize.

“You give it any text, names of your family members or the full-text of ‘Romeo and Juliet.” It will return you the words in a beautiful grid.” I tried it with the names of my family members, which was fun. And sharable.

“Give it a try, and let me know what you think. It’s a work-in-progress, so any bugs and suggestions are most welcome. It works in dozens of languages.”

The text I used for this post should be familiar to most Americans. In the tradition of old Marvel Comics, there will be a No-Prize for the first person who can identify it.

By the way, I think Scrablize works better with the one B he used than with two for various reasons, including as a pronunciation guide.