Monday, July 16, 2007

WHITE SOFT ROCKS THAT ROLL!
Personally, I am not an avid TV watcher anymore. Sadly, television has suffered the same fate as urban radio over the last few years by becoming predictable, uneventful, and basically just a waste of time. Even though the excessive amount of reality shows on TV these days is annoying, I feel that television's biggest tragedy are those damn infomercials! I hate those things with a passion just for the simple fact that everything from car waxing winter gloves to pipe cutting butter knives all end up costing the same low-low phuckin' price of only $19.99 (plus shipping & handling of course)! I can't believe that people actually buy some of that mess? Even though the majority of America's television programming has gone down the picture tubes over the last decade, there are a few exceptions I'd like to point out. I am actually pretty entertained when I watch sporting events, ESPN, Man vs. Wild, King of Queens (re-runs), Family Guy, and the occasional late night movies that Cinemax airs on Saturday nights (that should actually be on the Playboy channel) after the kiddies have gone to bed! Besides those few occasions, if the television is on in my house it's basically just playing the position of background noise while I am doing something else more constructive.

Recently, I had fallen asleep with the television was on staring at me after watching an hilarious late night episode of the Family Guy, when I was suddenly awakened by the sounds of a melodic tune playing? This familiar song made my unconscious mind pay total attention like being slapped in the face with leather glove. Reluctantly, I opened my very tired eyes to peek at the television screen, and after a few seconds I realized that I was watching a phuckin' infomercial! How could I have fallen for the late night TV trickery dammit? Looking through blurry eyes, I could have sworn that I saw Chuck Norris? I immediately thought it was probably, Chuck Norris and Suzanne Summers sweating to the oldies for 8 minutes with a Total Gym-Thigh Master duel workout machine or some shyt like that? If you haven't figured it out, wasting my precious eye juices looking at things of no relevant value really bugs the hell out of me! So, as I was angrily reaching for the remote control to put the television out of its misery, I heard another familiar song that made my earwax vibrate with overwhelming blissfulness! It was the classic song "What You Won't Do For Love" performed by one of my favorite old school white singers named Bobby Caldwell (shown in the pic above). For all of you youngsters that truly enjoy quality adult contemporary music, Mr. Caldwell is that dude! I know Bobby is sporting a freshly cut mullet in that photo above, but let's not make hasty judgments based on the man’s hairstyle people. Not only is this talented white man soulful, but he also sounds like a black man when he's singing, kind of like Jon B and Michael Jackson! After hearing Bobby playing through the television, I was totally focused at that point (infomercial or not). You don't sleep on Mr. Caldwell snitches...

After a few seconds, I finally figured out that the good folks over at Timelife were sponsoring the infomercial. They sell all genres of classic music from yester-year, but this particular infomercial was centered on promoting their 10-disc collection of Soft Rock Classics. Now, I bet when you most you saw the words 'SOFT' and 'ROCK' together in the previous sentence, you automatically became uninterested, right? If that's the case, I encourage you to keep reading anyway. Please, don't let genre titles deter you from discovering more great music. Personally, I think a lot of black folks (especially the young ones) have become conditioned to only allow themselves the opportunity to enjoy music from two basic genres...SOUL and RAP? Believe it or not, there are many more great artists and songs that should be heard by all. How can you ever discover if you never explore? I feel if more people opened their minds and ears to all genres of music instead of just two, there would be less folks giving up on music as a whole? With that being said, I will step down off of my musical soapbox and get back to the topic at hand...

As I was saying earlier, the folks over at Timelife have lots of classic music for purchase, if that's your thing? This infomercial reminded me of many groups from soft rock's past that had some real hits back in the day. If you watch any television commercials, I bet that you have heard the majority of these songs in many of your favorites. Those catchy commercial jingles that you thought were originally created by that particular company were probably ripped from an old soft rock tune. Even though plenty of you youngsters are probably not old enough to remember many of these old school classics, most of them sound pretty good today. While a lot of you are in your whips yelling out "Hey Bay Bay" and playing mediocre tracks from T-Pain and Akon, I'm playing Michael McDonald and Bobby Caldwell's greatest hits snitches! Sincerely though, I challenge all of my visitors to take a chance and put your ears on some this classic goodness. You can freely peruse through the Timelife.com catalogs of music at your leisure. I am actually pretty curious to know what you folks think about it...

Lastly, don't eva, neva, eva, eva think that SoundNexx is just another hip-hop or soul blog, because it's actually about a musical movement. We dabble in a little bit of everything out this way, and to prove it I'm doing a post on Folk music and Polka dancing next week, so stay tuned!

I have posted the TimeLife link below:

The Timelife Music Catalogs

Bobby Caldwell - What You Won't Do For Love (Video)

Get this Bobby Caldwell "What You Won't Do For Love" joint here...

I'll leave you with this Bobby Caldwell joint as well just for good measure! Who thought Dwele did it first??

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was listening to his greatest hits album the other day.

Lola Gets said...

Hey, dont sleep on "...and Im never gonna make it like you do, making love out of nothing at all..."
Truer words have never been spoken, lol.
L

Anonymous said...

Bobby Caldwell is the man for sure. Smooth as butter with the vocals too. Good post!

Anonymous said...

Where do I start? Firstly, you watch horrible television, even your taste in movies is mundane. Also you take the time to name all of these somewhat underground artist but not one book. WTF is that? Secondly, where are you receiving this information that younger kids only listen to hip-hop. More kids listen to indie bands, rock and pop more than ever. I suggest you do a bit of research before you create ridiculous posts like this one. I realize this is your opinion, but your perception of reality is limited & skewed. I would mention a few insightful movies, tv shows or movies but you probably would not read it. The O

DJ SoundNexx said...

@Big H - I knew you were down with Bobby playa...

@Lola - U got that right!

@Musikhound - I agree and thanks!

@Anonymous? - I actually took time to read your negative comment, but what always amazes me about folks like you is that you take all of time to talk smack, but you hide behind the 'anonymous' moniker like a scared child!

Firstly, you need to loosen up, because you obviously take this blogging stuff way too seriously! Why would I talk about books in my profile, when this is a MUSIC blog slow poke? It's really none of your business what I read, is it? Secondly, stop taking my words out context. I never said younger kids 'ONLY' listen hip-hop! You need to re-read that statement to gain a clearer understanding of what I really said. Also, I am a African-American, so the teenagers from my part of life are NOT listening to indie bands, rock and pop more than ever silly. It's mostly what I said...hip-hop and soul. Thirdly, I am a real deejay out here playing music for all kinds of people on the regular, so I think my views are objective enough to have pretty solid opinions when it comes to music. My music endeavors didn't start with stealing music from the internet like yours probably did? So, when you make hasty statements about my perception being limited and skewed, it just validates to me that you have not been reading the post on this site as much as you should?

Furthermore, television for the most part is a waste of time overall. There are some quality programs on TV, but I was merely joking when I named those few shows in my post. Judging by your skillful use of the English language, I gather that you have been decently educated? I suggest that you start your own blog, web site or forum where you can freely express your opinions, and allow people make inaccurate assumptions about you and see how you like it! See if you can really hack it? If you already have a site, please leave your address so that I can stop by...

An the last piece of advice I will leave you with before I end this session is this: Don't judge people solely by what you read on the internet, because the reality is you don't really know anything about them! If you like what they are posting on their blog or site...read it or download it, but if not just keep it moving. There is no need to take things personal. Everybody has opinions so get over yourself. Also, if you decide to leave another comment on my blog, be mature enough to use a name other than anonymous. Have an identity at least.

P.S. - Thanks for stopping by though, I appreciate your comment and visit sincerely. Please, come back soon! I hope you and I can chat again...

Anonymous said...

hmm, well I do not know the purpose of your blog I'm guessing to enlighten others of music that you enjoy. The reason I wrote the sentence above was to explain to you the way blogging works. Most people only work 40% of the time while attached to their cubicles or corner office (me) sooo they do a basic search they type in their interests (algorithms) and poof your site will pop up the first thing they will check is your profile. Which I did, Kid with the Golden Arm is great btw I didn't know others were on that, I liked silver foot personally. Thats a reply to the majority of your retort that was pertinent, um, I do not take blogging, or your blog personally, hmm maybe if it was viewed by millions I would. My point, I'm simply giving you an alternate viewpoint. I bet you those kids from your neighborhood have a few songs on their ipod you would not expect. As far as contacting me I'll be on your site as well as others.

p.s I signed at the end of my rant, I'm famous.

DJ SoundNexx said...

@Mr. O - I am happy to see that you have replied...

I consider myself a pretty positive person, but I am opinionated (like most folks I guess)? What struck me odd about you leaving a comment yesterday is not really about what you said so much, but it's the fact that you only chose to leave a comment on the post that you obviously disagreed with? As many posts as I have on this blog, you only left one comment and you had something negative to say when you did. Not knowing you personally, that says a lot about your character in my opinion. You'd rather spew negativity rather than saying something positive? Again, this could be a misconception, but it's just my first impression. I actually hope that I am wrong though?

A profile is nothing more than a brief synopsis of the blogger, that may not even be accurate? I deliberately play the background around here because it's not about me, it's about the music.

I encourage you to give your alternate spin on my posted comments if you desire, but you'll probably get a better response if avoid crossing the personal line. I know that two people can have a sensible debate about a topic without resorting to cheap shots and personal attacks. I have those kinds of debates all of the time, and sometimes it ends with us just agreeing to disagree, which is fine.

Yes, The Kid With The Golden Arms is definitely a martial arts classic! I have actually considered doing another blog totally dedicated to martial arts. Yes, Silver Foot was a memorable character, but my favorite would probably be the Drunken. U can't be all bad if you know about classic martial arts movies? I have a massive DVD collection actually...

Anonymous said...

I was drawn to Bobby Caldwell and Soft Rock. I did a search.

Anonymous said...

Loves it! great post Jamz! and damn you wrote a novel as your reply,lol! Your right and I'm feeling your "movement" on here.