Gimme a funky bass line and a smirking laugh and I just know this is gonna be worth stickin’ 'round for. What’s he laughin’ at? It’s as if the he knows something we don’t. Well shit! I hope so! If he don’t, I don’t wanna stick around no-how.
Okay drums... C’mon in.
Guitar!—-Have at it. Chop it down now like an axe.
The Drells are gonna take it all away for a few minutes.
Hi everybody. I’m not Archie Bell. But I sure as hell wish I was. This is soul music from Houston – 1968. Don’t lose it now. This is more than a post. I don’t only write, but I dance just as good as I walk. In New York, we just started a new way of reading—-called the tighten’ up. These are the writings, we tighten up with.
Alright, that’s enough. No more foolin’. Let’s get serious.
Tighten up now.
Isn’t it time we all tighten up a little bit? Oil spills and missing teen-sailors. Europe’s bust and the world shifts its focus to a futbol tournament. Gaza strip is for sale and Sarah Palin’s got fake titties. Barack is being criticized all over and Wimbledon matches take three days to play. G20 is shuttin’ down Toronto and Apple’s selling a million new iPhones. Good gawd.
C’mon people. Tighten up. Ha ha.
Archie Bell—-he’s not just singin’; he’s preachin! He’s intructin’. He’s askin’ and at the same time he’s tellin’. Aww yeah.
Tighten up. We could all use a little tightenin’ up in our lives. Tighten up the way we dress, the way we carry ourselves. Tighten up the thoughts in our minds. Tighten up how we treat the people around us and tighten up our call-to-action. Archie Bell is pushin’ a message where the soul of a person never dies. Don’t be sloppy. You can do it now. Tighten up. It’s not that tough.
Okay. Time out. Look here. C’mon now. Now make it mellow.
Brass fall away from me...
Wait...
Now, come on back.
And while you are waiting for the horns to slide down a few levels, inhale in preparation for the next part of the verbal dance.
Tighten it up now. Everybody can do it now. We gonna tighten up.
Just listen to that drum and those guitar strings dicin’ through the speakers liked chopped onion; that bass shiftin’ its weight while it tries to decide which leg to stand on; them horns callin’ all so(u)ldiers to the dance floor like the military instruments they once were; that organ groovin’ its way out of church and into religion; two hands slappin’—-the most primitive of human instruments; and that voice, the Archie Drell’s summons-—both orderin’ and plea’n all in one. The man spends a whole song in a state of inspiration, beggin’ his players, beggin’ his band, beggin’ all of us to just forget everything for a while and tighten up.
Isn’t it time we all stopped being so sloppy and wasteful anyhow?
Awww yeah, just tighten it up now.
Laugh. Laugh more. Sock it to me. Tighten it up.
Doesn’t the old cliché go, “there is always room for improvement?” Well then, in the name of the cliché, the passé, the blasé, the reveillé, and the historé--Tighten Up!
Somewhere between Houston, 1968 and New York, 2010 we have forgotten how to tighten it up. Or is it that we are too tight? Perhaps we are tightenin’ up all the wrong knots. And you know when you do it too. This is the funny thing. When was the last time you danced with tight muscles? Steppin to the beat, but holding your arms tight to your body, your fists clenched for strength, your ass flexed for power, your stomach muscles and torso contracted for posture. Some say this is no way to dance. At times I would agree. But at others-—we need to listen to Archie. Tighten up. Straighten up. Posturize. Pull it all in and hold it there. Tighten up. Clap your hands. Play the air trumpet. Peck your neck to the bass. Tap your toes. But keep it tight. Keep what you will loose. Tighten up the rest.
When it needs to be mellow, inhale it.
When it needs to be loose, exhale it.
And when it needs tightenin’ up; hold your breath, and just ride the music until it fades into the ether of the soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment