Back to the sunshine

A belated hats-off to the recently-deceased George Duke. Apparently, he was not only the cuddly, well-Afroed keyboardist in Frank Zappa's most musically acrobatic band, but also made a string of mid-'80s albums that I have just recently discovered and am now totally addicted too. Here's a delicious summertime groove. And if you think old Fusion dogs can't learn new tricks, dig the keytar solo at 3:15.

George Duke — Got To Get Back To Love

Pop creole

Italo grooves + early '80s American pop R&B singers = my wheelhouse. Producer Pete Bellotte is technically British, but as half of Munich Machine (the other being Giorgio Moroder), he gets honorary citizenship.

I've had enough failed evangelical situations to know that if you don't like this stuff right off the bat, I probably can't convince you. I can only appeal to an inside-out exoticism. Which is to say, you know all about machines making pop and you know all about lite R&B of this era, but this mixture has the strange pull of a strange dream that you know isn't real, but easily could be. Or like realizing that you speak a creole that you never learned.

Sue Ann - My Baby My

Cuckoldry, late-'80s style

In answer to the impressive escape velocity of Flynn's track yesterday, I offer one about a sad fool whose girl is running around on him and yet wraps his bewilderment in a sweet groove and a triumphantly dumb lyrical conceit. He's family man alright. But you know, there's loving your family and then there's putting your naked child on your album cover. An Awkward Family Photo, to be sure.

Womack & Womack - MPB (Missin' Persons Bureau)

Take a walk down the avenue

Songblague is always happy to add to its stable of street struttin' songs. The unfortunately named Crusaders have a nice fat discography that I need to dive deeper into. But I'm mostly loving this album start to finish. Part of me thinks that Larry Carlton's entire career is simply gravy after the "Kid Charlemagne" guitar solo (except of course for this other highpoint), but his tone is always such a joy. I almost hesitate to put this in the Claire Huxtable file. What do you think, lawyers and law school people? Could you keep your head in the books while this excellent toe-tapper is in the air?

The Crusaders - Chain Reaction

I reasoned with the law

And the law reasoned back. It was all very civilized. The Brooklyn Supreme Court saw fit to spring me from jury duty after taking only 10 hours of my life. Good thing to know that little has changed in the process. They've still got that ridiculous medieval justice re-enactment (I know I've mentioned this before, but it's worth pondering what it was like to be on set making that film.) The late Ed Bradley is still there to break it down for the citizenry. He actually starts it off with "In olden times..."

All that hanging out with The Law got me thinking of Claire Huxtable. Today's song is what I imagine her law school study mixtape sounded like. Not to be mistaken for Jackee Harry's dishwashing mixtape, which I'll get to later. Seriously, I love Patrice Rushen. And if you ever see one of her records at a flea market, scoop it right up. Dig the break at 2:08. Oh, sweet amicus curiae.

Patrice Rushen - Time Will Tell