Sunny, Sexy & Soulful

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It's sunny in the Netherlands (at last!), so this cloudcast is all about that star at the center of the Solar System! It's a variation on the ‘Groovy, sexy & soulful’ series.

One of the most remarkable characters in recent pop history is Green Gartside from Scritti Politti. He started Scritti Politti as a political punk band, but changed his style after hearing 'Off the wall' from Michael Jackson. He became more R&B orientated and developed a very distinctive way of singing. It comes close to some kind of natural auto-tune! He became very successful in the mid eighties with electro pop hits like 'Wood Beez', 'Absolute' and 'The Word Girl'. But he was very unhappy being a superstar and after a string of hits he disappeared for almost ten years from the music scene.

In the 1990s Green visited his local pub frequently and bought loads of hip hop records. By the end of the decade he returned as a hip hop artist, looking quite different. He had changed his hair cut from long blond into short and black. People didn't expect him to look like that and to change his musical direction so drastically, so his album didn't sell at all. Green vanished again, but he came back in 2006, as a singer-songwriter this time. He even did some gigs after suffering from stage fright for almost 30 years! In 2007 he made a few tracks with Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) that sounded quite similar to his sound of the 1980s. Nowadays Green is still working on new material and a new album is planned to come out this year. He will be doing some gigs as well, starting next week. I selected 'Snow in sun' from his album 'White bread, black beer' (2006).

The track from The Sandpebbels of Barbados is from the album 'The Best Of Disco Demands: A Collection Of Rare 1970s Dance Music' that is compiled by Al Kent. This is what he has to say about the Sandpebbles of Barbados:

"It appears that the Sandpebbles of Barbados are some sort of calypso group. This disco track just happens to appear on one of their albums for no apparent reason. This was pretty cheap or I wouldn't have bought it. I'm glad I did because it's turned out to be pretty bloody rare. And it's got an advert for Barbados Airlines on the back, which is a nice touch."

Beautiful picture on the left above and below from Tim Navis. Enjoy the sunshine!\

Tracklist:

Hot Summer Sounds Intro
Pulse – Sunshine (1978)
The Chi-Lites – I Found Sunshine (1973)
Fat Larry's Band – Here Comes The Sun (1979)
The Sandpebbles Of Barbados – Suntan [Al Kent Re-Edit] (2005)
Incognito – When The Sun Comes Down (2008)
The Futures – Sunshine And You (1978)
Ramsey Lewis – Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In (1979)
Herbie Hancock – Sun Touch (1975)
M-Swift – The Sun Interlude (2009)
The New Rotary Connection – I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun (1971)
Benny Golson – High On Sunshine (1978)
Scritti Politti – Snow In Sun (2006)
Giovanca – Flirting With The Sun (2011)
Pink Martini & Saori Yuki - Du Soleil Plein Les Yeux (Eyes Full Of Sun) (2011)
Paul Carrack – Sunny (2001)
The Dutch – Another Sunny Day (1985)
Leo's Sunshipp – Give Me The Sunshine (1980)
Bill Withers – Ain't No Sunshine (1971)
Kris Berry – Morning Sun (2012)

Sunny, Sexy & Soulful by Professor Eddy on Mixcloud