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WHAT'S TURN IT ON 50

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  WHAT'S GOING ON TURNS 50   On Wednesday 1/21/2021 the state of Michigan declared the date "What's Going On Day" on state calendars. 50 years ago on one day...there came a LP that I would argue engaged more change and hard-honest discussion than any LP released since. There were songs that came before...A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke (1964), Turn Turn Turn by The Byrds (1965), Love Child by The Supremes  (vastly under rated and should be written about more from 1968.) I don't recall a soul LP before that had the urgency of What's Going On. Sponsored By HL Nichols In 2009 I had the blessing of interviewing Mr. Smokey Robinson shared a story with me. Seems Mr. Robinson was at his California home when the phone rang. It was Marvin Gaye on the online. Mr. Robinson tells me the conversation went something like... "Yeah Smoke. I'm working on this album and God is writing it." Mr. Robinson laughed and said with pride...that album turned out to be
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Vintage Heat Number One: ESCAPE BY WHODINI /Remembering John "Ecstacy" Fletcher

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  Vintage Heat Number One:  35 Years Of Escape By Whodini Remembering John “Ecstasy” Fletcher Words By Raymond Tyler I purposely and thoughtfully refrained from writing about John “Ecstasy” Fletcher before now. Like most, I prayed his passing was just another bad Covid dream. I also wanted to take the time to get my thoughts in order. I apologize now, because I know, I do not have the words to do his memory and what his music means to me and my generation justice….but I’m going to try. 35 years ago (more or less) I was listening to Power 99 on a jury-rigged set up in my bedroom. In order to get FM radio stations from Philly to Va...myself and almost every hip hop head I knew in Atlantic City would attach a TV antenna to our radio to get static filled broadcasts from out of state. (In fact I am going to write about that whole situation another time) I fell asleep but left my cassette on record and when I played the broadcast back the next day on my walkman headset? A song came on called
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