Curtis Mayfield:

Curtis:(1970)

There's not enough time in the day to talk about all the ways that I believe Curtis Mayfield was a genius. He just was. His work with the Impressions we've already talked about. This may be the only solo Curtis I own on vinyl right now, but it's so damn good. Curtis seemed to have a way of harnessing the positivity in his societal rage that few posses. And, thank the good lord above he did. We certainly need more of it. If an album like this doesn't encourage you to want to make a positive change, well, I'm not sure what will. I mean, it includes these two songs alone....

(Don't Worry) If There's Hell Below We're All Gonna Go

Move On Up

Woody Guthrie:

The Legendary Woody Guthrie In Memoriam:(1967)

1940-1946 Original Recordings Made By:(1977)

Dust Bowl Ballads Sung By Woody Guthrie:(2009)

What a guiding light this man continues to be, a benchmark for honest defiant sympathetic songwriting. Woody was more perfectly embodied that Rock'n'Roll, Punk, American spirit than just about anyone. And did it all during a time there wasn't necessarily gold at the end of music fame rainbow. Whenever I feel a bit down about my chosen profession or the world in general, I can play a Woody record, and get back on the path. Here's Woody in his own words:

I hate a song that makes you think you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody.No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim. Too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling. I'm out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.

I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own songs and to sing the kind that knock you down farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow.