August 21, 2025 • 40 mins
This week on Vinyl Curriculum, we’re turning up the groove and diving into the funky side of the 1970s. From Parliament-Funkadelic’s spacey jams to Stevie Wonder’s groundbreaking sounds and Earth, Wind & Fire’s unstoppable energy, the decade redefined rhythm and soul. We’ll explore how funk shaped not just the music charts but also culture, fashion, and the dance floor. Tune in as we spin some of the funkiest records of the era and talk about why the 70s still make us want to move today.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Every record tells a story. Independent labels.
I think a lot of interesting songs came out of that.
And every generation has a soundtrack.
The only hip you have in your body is made of titanium.
This is the final curriculum with Logan.
Apparently I don't know very much about anything.
Somebody calls her Tay Tay. Hey, it's Logan.
(00:23):
Just a quick heads up before we get into it.
This episode was originally recorded live on WLRA radio
where we are able to play all the songs that we talked about.
Unfortunately, due to copyright restrictions, we can't include
the music here on the podcast. So anytime you hear this sound,
that means we're skipping over asong that we originally played
(00:44):
on air. But don't worry, Jims put
together a playlist with all thetracks from the episode so you
can still follow along. Just check the link in the show.
Nuts. All right, now on to the
episode. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, boys
and girls, children of all ages,welcome back to your favorite
college radio station, 88.1 WLRA.
This is your favorite weekly episodic podcast, the Vinyl
(01:07):
Curriculum starring me, yours truly.
I'm Logan. That's Jim over on the other
side of the table. Jim, how we doing tonight?
Oh my God, Logan, you went on vacation, now you come back and
you're all hyped up like this. A.
Lot of energy and busted out the100% radio voice for this
episode it makes. Me very, very nervous.
You have no idea how excited I am about this.
You know why? I don't know, I don't either.
(01:29):
We didn't do it last week, so now I'm I'm having the itch to
listen to some vinyl curriculum,you know what I mean?
You're going to love this one though, because it's every one
of them is a dance song, so you're going to love every one
of these, I'm predicting. Well, you're not.
I'm not going to love it as muchas I am the next week because I
think we should again, tell the people what next week is.
Yeah, next week will be my favorite episode of the entire
(01:52):
season. That is because I'm the one
who's choosing the music next week.
So you got to be sure to listen to episode #10 of the Vinyl
curriculum will be live next Monday.
And then we will be posting the podcast as we do every Thursday,
so. Can't wait to hear your the
music you like. I don't have.
I literally have no idea. The Logan Special, that's what
(02:12):
we're. That's when we put a limit.
Only one Taylor Swift song. Only one Taylor Swift song.
I like I said, it's going to be a lot of young gravy.
We're going to be riding on the gravy train, baby, come on back.
I don't even know what that means.
I don't either, but we got a good one today.
Funky 70s. Monkey 70s.
And as you explained to me earlier, that is not disco.
No, this was kind of pre disco, but you'll notice that some of
(02:35):
the stuff here kind of translated into disco.
What? Yeah, like some like through the
Rosetta Stone? How does this work?
Kind of some of the sounds and stuff kind of I think inspired
some of the disco music that came right after this.
OK, and so, but this is funky. Funky and.
Doesn't isn't necessarily disco is from what I'm understanding.
(02:56):
No, no, it's not disco. It's funky music.
And you'll know a lot of, I think every one of these was a
huge hit. I had some of the 45, some of
them I didn't, but I know them well, so it's going to be
interesting to see which of these you know.
Okay, as this works, I, I feel like we need to explain this
every time. Just so people know what's
happening. This is the vinyl curriculum.
Jim has put together a playlist that we're going to be listening
(03:20):
to in just a couple minutes. And then after your song, we're
going to talk about a little bit.
He's going to give me a little bit of a history lesson and then
I'm going to assign it a grade, an impartial grade, as I always
do, very impartial, never bias at all.
And then at the end of the show will I will assign a grade for
the whole topic, the whole classas a day for the day.
(03:41):
And then Jim will give me a grade based on my grading for
the grades. That's kind of true, yes.
And so we've been doing pretty good.
Last week was just a a podcast episode and that was debuts for
early 80s. Debut albums.
Debut albums. So if you haven't heard episode
at #8 of the Vinyl Curriculum, it's live now on Apple Music,
(04:04):
Spotify, pretty much wherever you find your podcast.
So that being said, what is the first song?
Sly and the Family Stone 1969. This is going way back.
Thank you. Way back.
Thank you. My mom was born in 1969.
OK, I was one of 65, so I was 4.But my favorite part of this
(04:25):
song is thank you parentheses for letting me be mice ELF
again. And you just have to look at the
way he they phonetically wrote out the title for kind of the
way they sing it. OK.
Funky, very funky. Reached number one on the
Billboard Top 100. It's got this bass line, this
(04:48):
slap bass technique that a guy named Larry Graham kind of
pioneered and just fun. If you don't dance to this
Logan, something's wrong with you.
Although we did find out last week that you do have a black
hole where your heart is supposed to be.
And this is like, this is not medoing the the Saturday Night
(05:10):
Night Fever. No, no.
But you can still do whatever you want to do, Logan.
OK, so this one's called. Thank you.
And then there's some other stuff in the parentheses, right?
Yep. Let's take a listen.
This is the vinyl curriculum. Thank you for letting me be
(05:34):
myself again, Jim. I don't know what that means,
but I don't either. But I didn't.
Like the way you said that he was, They were funky and
everything and you came in with this radio voice monotone.
Do you hear that bass slap? And you're telling me that's not
disco? See when I think.
Of there was no disco back there, that's what I'm telling.
(05:56):
You. There, that's what I'm saying.
There was no disco in 1969, so this is a precursor to what
ended up happening later on in the 70s.
What do you mean there was no disco?
I mean, isn't that how music is evolved is someone breaks
through the glass ceiling and invents the disco ball, that
when the ceiling shatters all the pieces get turned into a
(06:16):
ball and that's where the disco ball came from?
I don't know where you came from, but this is a precursor to
Disco. I'm not going to say it again.
OK. Thank you.
Number one, number one song slide, The family Sloan, Sly and
the family Stone, James Brown. We're kind of the big The people
(06:39):
who started this whole funk thing are the most popular, most
successful, I would say. This is very.
Funky. Yeah, it's funky.
That's why it's called funky. Yeah, although it's called Funky
70s and this was 69 so. Yeah, so you lied.
You are a liar, Jim. I'm sure it was still popular in
the 70s though. Oh my gosh, I got to go B plus
(07:00):
this is A. Solid start we are if that's AB
Plus we are in trouble this week.
I'm just telling right now. I know you know the next one
though. So what?
Why B? Plus, what was that I?
Don't know, it's just the tempo.So there's there's rhythm and
there's tempo. It's got rhythm.
It's got a good beat. None of these are going to be up
tipo, none of them tempo. Is is but you could have a
(07:23):
tempo. No, you're fixing here 10 or 11
songs and none of them will havewhat?
Is that what is that one song? Play that funky music, white
boy. It's got the same kind of beat.
It's a little faster. No, a little faster.
All right, the next one is the Temptations.
You've heard them. The temptations, You heard of
them, right? Yes.
Yes, I have you. Might want to get this one
started because it takes quite awhile to build up.
(07:46):
OK, you know who did a really good remake of this song?
George Michael. OK, you know who he is?
Yeah. From former Wham.
Yeah. He did a really good remake of
this song. So you had to go listen to that
one of these days. Papa was a Rolling Stone is the
name of this one. Is it ring a bell to you?
No, I mean Rolling Stones, the band, but Rolling Stone I think
(08:11):
of like a cylinder. I don't know why.
Like when I think of a of Rolling Stone, I always think of
a cylinder rock and it's rollingdown a hill.
I don't know why I think of that.
That's just what what comes to mind.
Explain to me what a cylinder rock is.
It's a rock in the shape of a cylinder.
I feel like that's pretty self-explanatory, Jim.
I've never seen a rock in the shape of a cylinder natural, a
natural rock, or a fake rock. No, I don't know.
(08:31):
It's just a cylinder. That's a rock.
That's not to be confused with the rock'n'roll.
I mean, it a cylinder, rock is rolling and it is a rock, but
it's not rock'n'roll. See, it's The Rolling Stones.
I don't know, I'm confusing myself.
So this what year was did this come out?
This one was 72. So this was a little bit later,
yeah, OK. This is a 5 minute and 22
(08:53):
seconds song. Really, I have a 648 on my on my
end over here. So this is this is the extended
version. I think we're not going to
listen to the whole thing because we can't play the whole
thing on the podcast. So if you're confused, we can't
play the whole song on the podcast.
But don't worry, Jim has a playlist on both Spotify and
Apple Music where you can hear the full version of the song and
(09:16):
listen along with us. So this is Papa was a Rolling
Stone by the Temptations. What?
What was their Temptations biggest song?
Why are you asking me that? Because you're the teacher,
you're supposed to have these answers.
Let me see if I can figure it out.
OK, well, you figured out. Let's take a listen.
Papa was Rolling Stone here on the vinyl Curriculum it.
(09:38):
Was the 3rd of. September.
Interesting. That reminded me of like a 1970s
policeman show. Like a, you know.
Like Shaft, that was another Shaft was another movie.
That song was really popular. I didn't play it because it's
(10:00):
mainly instrumental and I knew you'd have a nervous breakdown.
Yeah. But that was that was exactly
what that was. It was ATV movie and you'd know
that song too. OK, Papa was Rolling Stone by
the Temptations. Wherever he let his left his hat
was a home, and when he died, all he left him was alone.
(10:21):
Very sad I. Think I'm leaving that one with
a B minus. That's what I'm leaving that one
with. I mean, again, it's, it's, it's
got the it's got the the funky base.
I don't know if that's what if that slap base you were talking
about earlier, I don't know if that's what that.
I'm telling you right now, none of these are going to be upbeat,
so you just need to stop it. I know.
(10:43):
I think I was excited because. It's funky music.
This isn't dance. This is not disco.
Funky disco I don't. There is no funky disco.
Duck was funky disco. I like disco duck.
I know you did. No, you didn't.
You actually gave it a bad. Grade.
No, I did not. I think you did.
I did not. OK.
Now the next one. This is interesting if you go to
(11:04):
Wikipedia and you look at Lewis University.
I was going to bring this up. I was going to.
Bring this up. She came here.
I don't know how accurate that is I.
Don't either we need to find outSomebody in Register's office
find out if Chaka Khan came to Lewis University like Wikipedia
says. I'm I actually kind of upset
that you knew that because I wasthat was going to be my one
piece of no anecdotal evidence for today.
OK, so. Chaka Khan Chaka.
(11:26):
Khan Chaka. Khan Chaka.
Khan, Khan. OK, this is Rufus.
This is back when she sang with Rufus.
Who is Rufus? Her partner.
Ah, I don't know. Let me see if they were married.
But yeah, they used to sing together and then she kind of
went on her own. OK.
And I've never heard of Rufus. I have heard of Chaka Khan.
(11:47):
I don't know. It's it was Rufus featuring
Chaka Khan. Yeah, it's American Funk Band,
so it's not even a person. See, I always thought it was a
person and it launched Chaka Khan's career so.
Chaka Khan's not a person. No, Rufus.
Rufus was a Yeah group, not a person.
OK, but Chaka? Khan is a person.
Yeah, that's what I thought. So she started off singing with
(12:08):
him and then she kind of went onher own.
OK, and so this one's called. Tell me something good.
Yes, and this is even slower than the other one, so I can't
wait to hear this crap. Can't say that.
I'll tell you what, by the end of this hour, I'm gonna be in a
very bad mood. No, you're just.
I can. No, you're not.
This is but Chaka Khan's going to tell you something good right
here on vinyl curriculum. That was amazing, Logan.
(12:42):
There's that black hole coming out again.
I mean, the, the intro was a little too long for me, like
when it got to tell me so that was OK.
But the intro was just like, wow.
Like they're walking down the street in slow MO.
Like you're it, you're what I, Ipicture you're walking through a
grassy field in slow motion, butyou're like walking through the
(13:05):
mud and you're just like, you got the mud and you're just like
can't move very fast 'cause yourworst is like the mud's pulling
the shoe off your foot. How sad of a life you live where
the only music you want to hear is dance.
It's just a sad commentary on you.
It's not this is no, it's not the I.
So what do you give that a or an?
(13:26):
A minus? I didn't hear.
C plus golly Logan. I mean it.
When, when is an appropriate time to listen to this song?
When you feel funky, when you want to drive down the road and
just kind of. What?
Yeah. What are you feeling?
Funky, I love You Can Dance to that.
You just have to kind of do the funky groove and you kind of
(13:48):
you're not doing the whatever you do to your disco music, you
did the. Disco.
You're doing the disco well, you.
Know the disco like the disco is.
You're you're taking, you're taking the soup can off the top
shelf is going on the shopping cart.
Top shelf shopping cart. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah. My own, my own.
My own, my own. Not this.
This is walking through the mud,big chunks of mud in between
(14:12):
your. Toes not disco.
This is called funk. So obviously you're not a funk
fan. And we've got we're three songs
in. That's why I'm telling you I'm
going to be so upset by the timethis is over.
I'm going to need counseling. Yeah.
All right. Well, let's move on then.
OK, a minus for that one. I mean it's.
Possible Louis alum. Yeah, we got now.
So the lore if she came here, that would make it like ABI.
(14:36):
Think that would just give me more of a reason to like, I
don't know, I, I maybe if she can, I don't know.
I don't think it would affect meliking that song.
I Chuck Con does have some good music.
Yes, she does. But not that one.
Not that. One, by the way, the temptation
saying my girl ain't too proud to beg.
Just my imagination. My girl, that one.
(14:57):
Yeah, OK. I like that song.
All right, the next one I'm gonna, when this is over, I'm
gonna ask you where they're from.
It's the average White band Is the name of the group, 1974
creative name. Yep.
Hit #1 again. Yeah, I think you're gonna like
this because it is a little bit more upbeat, but it's called
Pick Up the pieces. The only problem is there are no
(15:18):
words. There, there's no words at all.
Nope. Oh, that's that's never a good
thing. You should start off your
introduction of the song with that well.
Say this is a good beat, say. This has a good beat, all right.
This would pick up the pieces bythe average white band here on
(15:38):
the vinyl curriculum. That's that's a step in the
right direction. I can't believe it.
It has no words. I just knew that was going to be
a automatic disqualification. No, not necessarily.
(15:58):
This is this was good like thememusic.
That's that's my other way I quantify songs is if I could
like see myself in like a movie doing something to this song.
It's. Just so weird how you always
have to live in life in context with some, I don't know, you
know, back that we talked about this before, but back then you
had a lot more instrumentals that were very successful.
(16:18):
Yeah. You remember Kenny G, He did it
like in the was it the 80s or 90s?
He did it a lot, but he was kindof the last one I remembered.
It became very popular with it. I don't know, I don't know,
Kenny GI know Kelpie G from the popular children's TV show
SpongeBob. No.
You know, so where you know the average white.
(16:40):
Band is from. I don't know, somewhere S
Scotland, really. Yeah, I would not have it, would
not have had that one. It was rare for funk to come
from outside the USA at the time, but they were from
Scotland. That's that does sound like ATV
(17:00):
movie thing like Saturday Night Live.
Yeah, You know, I was asking youoff air.
I wasn't sure. Like what?
This sounds like a saxophone, but that earlier it we were
trying to decide if it was a trumpet or a saxophone or what
it was. I don't know anything about
horned instruments so someone can let us know if they do.
(17:20):
Yeah, what antelope? A Unicorn?
We don't know. Oh gosh, what do you give?
Pick up the pieces. I'm gonna go a minus, I think.
Wow, OK, a minus that's come andsurprise you there.
And then that was fun. I like it.
The next one? You've heard of Earth, Wind and
Fire, right? Yes, Shining Star is the next
(17:41):
one. It was their first number one
hit and they actually won a Grammy for this one.
OK. And.
Shining star. What Earth, Wind and Fire is
like a group that I know the name of, but I don't know if I
could like name any songs by Earth, Wind and Fire.
I know Sabrina Carpenter just recently at Lollapalooza 2025
(18:04):
brought out Earth, Wind and Fireas part of her act.
I don't know how that relates, but that's a local connection
for you. They did Let's groove tonight.
They did Let's groove tonight. Boogie Wonderland.
Oh yeah. See, I these are the songs that
I know. Yeah, but this one shining star.
This was you'll know this. I think you're going to know
this. One, OK.
(18:25):
And this was what year 1975? 75 We're moving on up.
OK, 1975 halfway through the 70s, Disco still isn't a thing
yet. Not yet.
OK, let's take a listen. Earth, Wind and Fire on the
Vinyl curriculum. I wish we had a camera in here.
(18:52):
So the moment where it clicks inmy hat that I've heard this song
before, the excitement that I feel is unmatched by any other
experience that I have in life. But that's what's so sad about
it, is you. If you have a history with it,
you're automatically going to like it.
If you don't, it's so hard for you to accept anything new.
Well, it's not. That's not always.
True Logan, this is. We.
(19:14):
We. This, there's a tradition here
of this is our 9th episode and Isee a trend.
No, you saw the Mistakes episodeand that was some news things
that I've never heard before, and I was very excited about
that. The one you liked the most was
popcorn, though, and you had known that one.
Yeah. No, no.
(19:35):
Well, I didn't know it, but thatwasn't my favorite one.
OK, hooked on classics. So what do you think of?
A solid. A good solid.
A earth, wind and fire. There was a guy, one of the
singers on this is Bill Phillip Bailey, and he had a song when
he did a solo album called Walking on the Chinese Wall.
Love it. One of these days when we do a
cover one or a solo one or something, I want to do that
(19:56):
one. OK.
The next one I had to call my sister today.
Uh. Oh.
Because in my mind, I went and saw the Ohio Players at
Mississippi State when I was a kid, but I don't remember
anything about it. So you saw the Ohio Players in
Mississippi? Mississippi.
Not in Ohio. That's a.
That's an automatic one letter grade reduction.
OK. And I asked her, is that true?
(20:19):
And she said yes. She said.
I don't remember much about it, but we did go see the Ohio
Players in Starfield, Mississippi at Mississippi
State. Now, the interesting thing about
this song if if you go like 2 minutes and a half into it,
there is a scream and the room rumor was that while they were
(20:39):
recording to someone was hurt and we believed it.
That is, I was 10. And so when I googled it,
they're like, Oh yeah, that was,I mean, it was a popular theory.
It wasn't just in Mississippi. That and it's a roller coaster.
I'm sure it was supposed to be like a girl screaming going down
a roller coaster, but the the rumor was someone was murdered
while they were. Was Google a thing when you were
(21:01):
10? No.
Well, you just said you googled.It I just googled it for this to
see if it was it just us in Mississippi or in a no it was a
thing. OK, so this is love roller
coaster. It not to be confused with the
bleachers roller coaster, no that we heard last week.
Again, if you haven't heard lastweek's or what was that?
(21:22):
That was indie. If you haven't heard the indie
episode that was episode #7 Yep,go take a listen.
This is Love Roller Coaster by the Ohio Players here on the
Vinyl curriculum. Feel like we're taking a detour
(21:44):
through the car wash that song. Yeah, that was the next car
wash. That was the next year.
So they they took it from the sample players must have no Did
you hear the scream I. Did I did hear the scream?
And as a 10 year old, I was like, Oh my God, did you hear
someone was murdered? I was alarmed.
That was alarming. Yep, that one like, you know,
(22:07):
those things like out in front of car dealership, the wacky
waving inflatable arm flailing tube man yes, I feel like that
that would be the song that plays like and when I when I
hear that song, I just kind of want to I feel my body like
that. I feel like if I watched you
dance, that's what you would look like.
(22:29):
I Yeah, you're tall. And limber and skinny and.
Yeah, I actually each when I dance, and I think we've talked
about this before, each part of my body just kind of moves
incorrectly, like it's not everything kind of moves
independent of each other. But love roller coaster by the
Ohio Players. That's that's another a.
(22:49):
That's another a all. Right.
See, I think you just, you were had a little bit of no that was
coming off of vacation. It was hard for you to kind of
get back in the groove things. No, that was some poor music
selection for the first song. This is what?
That was you. Just didn't like Early's bonk.
You just like it because now Disco is coming out.
Oh. OK, so now the time disco is go.
I see. So it's kind of murder is
(23:10):
evolving. OK, Now I know you know, this
next one. This next one, though, is David
Bowie. Yes, And I know him.
And you might think, huh, what does David Bowie have to do with
funk music? But this one's funky.
Is it 2? It was 75 again.
Just a lot of, a lot of happenedin 1975.
(23:30):
OK and I mean is this pre like popular David Bowie songs?
No, you don't know this one. I will know this.
One, yeah, this is not pre, it'sthis is a.
Popular song? Oh, I know this one, yeah.
Oh, yeah, But it's slow, so I know you're not going to like.
No, but you do know it, so you're going to like it.
(23:51):
Yeah, I see how it works. This is kind of like that Brick
House saw. Yeah, Brick House.
I had that one on the album for that one.
By the way, Commodores, it was live and the whole half of a
song was Brick house. Well, this one was not like half
of an album. Let's take a listen.
Fame. This feels like, I don't know if
(24:22):
they had like a word limit of how many songs they could, how
many words they could say, but they just keep repeating a lot
of the same lyrics. That happens here.
Come on now. Yeah, no, you're right.
But this is like just one word though.
Remember how Rihanna found love in a hopeless place over and
over and over? Every time that song comes on,
my wife will cite me. Do you know that she found love
(24:44):
in a hopeless place? Or yeah, under the umbrella Ella
Ella. Yeah, hey, hey.
This was actually David Bowie's first number one in America.
Oh, it's good. I've heard it before.
I'm gonna go a minus, I think. If you hadn't heard it, I'd
guarantee it would have been AB minus.
You are correct, but I have so my impartial grading strikes
(25:04):
again. That's what I like to hear.
And that was Co written by John Lennon.
Really. Yeah, really.
Without David Bowie. Another game now named another
guy named Carlos Alomar and JohnLennon wrote that together.
Did John Lennon there's just like a cover then of that song
or what? I've never heard it.
If it is, I know he did a Bowie did a release of this, a re
(25:28):
release and then he kind of changes a little bit later on.
I don't remember. Well, I think that's pretty
common in the music industry forpeople like, I know, like I
think it's Dolly Parton. She said something, she wrote
like 800 something songs or like, like writes a song a day
or something, some nonsense. Yeah.
So I think they just like, they write.
(25:49):
To have that in your head, like all this music, to just be able
to write that is fascinating. Yeah.
For me. And then like, you know, Dolly
Parton has one. If you have one, if you write
8000 songs and you have one out of every thousand, you know
that's still 8 very good songs. Yeah, she's got so many songs
you wouldn't even. Well, exactly.
That's what other people. Yeah.
(26:10):
And, you know, they write songs for other people.
And who's the guy who wrote like?
I think it's his name is Benny Blanco.
You know him, You probably heardsome of the songs he wrote.
He writes like he wrote for Ed Sheeran.
He wrote for a whole bunch of different people.
And you would like, never know. He's like a ghost writer almost.
(26:35):
So I just think that's really interesting anyway.
Well, the next one. Have you ever heard of Stevie?
Stevie Wonder. Have I ever heard of Stevie?
Wonder. Yeah, I have.
Yeah. This was, as a matter of fact,
1976. OK.
And #1 again, most of these were#1?
(26:58):
Not all of them, but most of these were #1.
OK most of the songs. They were playing.
Yeah, I wish. All right.
And it's kind of, if you listen to the lyrics, it's kind of
funny. He's just talking about how how
it was when he was a kid. And I kind of wish those days
were back. It's kind of fun.
OK, I think. You're going to like it though.
And this is Stevie Wonder. He's he's pretty funky.
(27:19):
Right, This is my daughter's child to Grace is her favorite
artist, and she saw him in concert last year and said it
was amazing. He can see though, right?
No. I do know that song of.
(27:42):
Course you do. It's.
A little Stevie Wonder action. There's a story.
The reason I said that about himbeing able to see is because I'm
pretty sure Shaquille O'Neal thinks he can see because there
was a thing where he got on the Shaquille O'Neal got into the
elevator like in a parking garage, and Stevie was already
on the elevator. And he said, Stevie, as soon as
(28:03):
Shaq got on the elevator, he said what's up, Big diesel?
And that was without Shaq sayinganything.
I. You know what else that reminded
me? I looked up Dark Side of the
Rainbow from last week that reminded you of that a bunch.
Because that's folklore and you know it's a rumor.
Rumor and this is the dark side of the rainbow was just the
(28:23):
crock of all Get out. It's a 40 something minute album
in the movies, like 2 hours. So how is that going to?
Work. I don't know.
I wish though by Stevie Wonder it's an A minus.
That's that's. I like the big band sound like I
like the horns. I like that kind of punch to it.
(28:46):
And that song had it. Fame had it, and.
So what? What made it that minus, though?
You don't like Stevie? Wonder a little little what I
mean that's you can groove to it, but it's it's not not my
favorite song, not one I would put on a playlist.
OK. You know, all right, this next
(29:06):
one though, I'm excited about this was reference earlier.
Yes, it was Wild Cherry. You know what's I might be wrong
about this, but there's a small town north of where I'll used to
live called Shannon, Mississippi.
And they had a place called BarsFerry landing and I'm pretty
sure, or it might have been Shannon High School had them for
(29:26):
their prom. They while Cherry came to
Shannon. So this was years later.
So this one album did this one song didn't send them to
Richville. They were playing at a prom.
Either that or it was bars ferrylanding, wouldn't you?
You would you'd be surprised sometimes these very successful
artists, you know. They're back in the 80s.
(29:49):
They get to but, but that's not necessarily true.
Young Gravy. Another perfect example.
Young Gravy a couple years ago. Playing Lollapalooza this year?
The Louis Joliet Mall parking lot.
There you go. So you have to next week you
have to at least do one young Gravy song, 'cause I don't know.
What you Oh, it's going to be a lot of young gravy, no.
You can only have one is the limit, one is the limit.
(30:09):
One was a Taylor limit for every.
I don't play more than one person.
I don't do 2 songs If you want to do a 2 bleachers songs.
Let let two weeks ago. That's different.
They're the best. Oh, OK, OK.
They're the best. Young gravy.
Oh, all right. So yeah, play that funky music,
white boy. That feel like this?
(30:30):
There's a song by Weird Al called White and Nerdy which I
very truly believe is my theme song.
If it not this Wild Cherry song.This is my theme song.
(30:55):
Is it? Yeah, hey, lay down a boogie and
play that funky music. But you don't like funky music?
I like this song. You don't like early funky?
Music. I like this song though.
Do you how? How much do you like it?
Hey, solid A, good, solid A, which for me is pretty much the
top grade that we're. Getting Yeah, you've never
(31:16):
you've. Never get a name in a plus Next
week all a pluses. I doubt it.
Yeah, I tried to look to see if I could find a website or
something that said whether Cherry, while Cherry played at
the Shannon High School or at bars, Ferry Landing, and I
couldn't find it. So I could have made that up.
I don't think I did. And is this like their only?
Oh they have? What are some of their other
(31:40):
songs here? I could have to look because
I've never, I don't remember anything else hold.
On Baby Don't You know what? In the font, do you see hot
trot? I'm just reading.
No, I've never heard this, No. 123 kind of love.
No, I don't know. But I know this next one.
(32:02):
Wild Cherry though, it was good.What's the next one?
This next one is Parliament and I had this 45.
Not to be confused with the wig wearing type of Parliament.
It could be they might be the same people, they might have
come from England and sang. From the Funk album, from the
courts of England into the recording studio.
(32:23):
No, Parliament and the next group, Funkadelic, were George
Clinton's groups and one of themwas the lead and the other was
like the backup. And then he would do albums, our
albums with the backup and they all have similar sounds.
This was called Flashlight though, and I had this 45.
It's a long song, but we're onlygoing to play a clip of it.
(32:45):
This flashlight song, the last song, the Funkadelic song, is
also one of the longer songs. It's very long.
Yes, and there is, there's actually on the show notes.
If you go, I put a video to well, we'll go top of that
later. All right, this is I'm jumping
the gun. Yeah, this is Parliament
Flashlights here on the vinyl curriculum.
(33:15):
That is pretty funky. That was funky.
That was 77. I was 12, so I had that 45.
Some might even say that's a funky, cold Medina.
And some, some might not tone loke right.
Tone Loke. Yeah.
You know, I saw him in concert, him in Vanilla Ice.
Where? At the Shorewood.
(33:36):
No, no, no, rodeo the Shorewood.No this.
That was in Aurora, at the River's Edge Park.
Did well, he did funky cold Medina.
And I saw Coolio. That was Coolio's last
Chicagoland performance before he died.
I didn't. I don't even know Coolio.
You would. Would I?
Parliament B plus. Oh yeah, yeah, I.
(34:02):
Can't tell you how much I used to love that song.
I mean, I really love that song.Jim was saying he wished there
wasn't glass in the studio otherwise he'd get up and dance.
He was worried. He's worried about people
walking by and filming him though, and I reassured him that
I would definitely be filming him.
Yeah, remember how I don't? There's no photos of me in my
Mohawk. There's going to be no video of
(34:24):
me dancing. But you have dance lessons.
You, you know how to dance. Yeah, but I'm not.
I'm doing the rumba. I'm not doing the.
The disco the this. Is not disco.
This is not disco. This is funky music.
Yeah. OK, now the last one, like I
said, it's a long album. It's it was Uncle JM wants you.
(34:45):
You can't find it on Spotify. It's not on Apple Music.
So there's a video of the entiresong on YouTube.
It's on the show notes. It's actually being like there's
a commercial out route. Not right now, where they're
sampling it. And De La Soul did it with me,
myself and I OK, so listen to. And this is this is.
(35:06):
Not just knee deep in parentheses.
Not just knee deep. This is interesting and so is
there. Is this just like instrumental
then the? Whole song no.
And the the 15 minute version, it's just listen to it.
It's really it's it'll be guitarparts, it'll be singing parts,
it'll be bass parts. It's just it's great.
(35:28):
I love it. All right, let's take a listen.
Something about that, I think it's making Jim want to dance
again. Yeah, I love that. 15 minutes
(35:49):
and 23 seconds on the album. It kind of drags on.
Well, when you're sitting there like a log on the not on a log
it does. But when you're up enjoying
yourself. What you have to be on a log
actually. Like I'm not on a log have.
You ever just seen? Have you ever seen a lumberjack
show? That's impressive.
Why would I watch that? I don't know why they you
(36:12):
mentioned top. Ground trees.
Yeah, well, they do. I'm a lover of trees.
They do a show. They do a show not just knee
deep by Funkadelic Grade a name.I will tell you that 19. 79,
yeah. A top tier name for a group.
I think though, for we're just going to have to go solid B for
that one. That's sad that you're entering
that way, let me tell you. Listen, it's not my fault.
(36:36):
Uncle Jam won't She was the album here.
The name side one was Freak of the Week, which is 5 minutes and
then not just knee deep which was 15 in 23 seconds.
This side 2 was Uncle Jam Field Maneuvers, Holly wants to go to
California, and then Foot Soldiers.
Parentheses Star Spangled Funky.If you had a game where you had
(37:01):
to drink something every time someone said the word funky or
freak and listen to that, you would be bloated.
Yeah, I'd say so. I don't know.
I, I think as a whole, I'm a fanof the disco, the second-half of
the 70s, not really that song, but the second-half, a little
(37:22):
bit more upbeat, can dance a little Saturday Night Fever
action. I could dance to every one of
those. I.
Disagree. It's just a different kind of
dance. I disagree.
So Chaka Khan is going to come looking for you.
I'm just telling you right now with AC plus.
We look into that. Who?
I don't even know who. We talked to, but I'm going to
find out. We should figure it out.
That was a Grammy. So obviously, and it was #1 So
obviously you are going against the industry professionals and
(37:46):
the public. That's those are all rigged
anyway. Those are all rigged.
The Grammys, the Oscars, you know how that works, right?
They have to buy the commit likethe Academy.
Is that what you're telling? Me bags with iPads.
You you never heard any of this?I'm sure, Well, I'm sure it's
like Dark Side of the Rainbow. You should you should look into
it and. The fact that Stevie Wonder can
see, well, you're going to if wehad listers, they would write in
(38:10):
and tell you how offensive that was.
No, no, no, I I'm just repeatinga story from a rumor.
Jack's mouth to your ears. And you trust that man?
Well, I mean, I mean, yeah, he is big diesel.
He does have decent clothes though in JC Penney for big and
tall man, did you know that? And he also has a shoe brand at
Walmart. Oh, he's a shoe line of shoes at
(38:31):
Walmart. Affordable shoes that are nice.
They're nice. Don't don't give you that look,
but yeah. We saw him in Vegas and my son,
you would have thought he had seen a superstar.
I mean, they were. He is a superstar.
But he's a man who plays basketball.
So was Michael Jordan, but. He's a man who used to play
basketball. I saw Shaquille Owens in college
(38:53):
play basketball. OK?
As a whole today. Be nice.
I would assign the grade. Taking it all into
consideration. I I think I'd have to say B plus
still because I think there is alot there.
I think the execution of song choice was poor on your end,
but. I'm going to give you AB minus.
(39:14):
No, I'll give you AB because I feel like you're still upset
that you're not on vacation anymore or something.
Or maybe you were in the boat too long.
I don't know. There's too much sun last week
because I don't think you started off like you should have
and if you had then these would have been higher.
I disagree, but I know you know what we're all entitled to our
own opinions. I was about to stop.
(39:36):
You know how in halfway through class sometimes the teachers
have to do like an intervention because midterms things aren't
going well? I was about to stop you, but
then you turned it. Around.
You were about to pull me out ofthe hallway.
After that, C plus on the third song.
Yeah, but you pulled it out. I'm proud of you.
OK. Well, you have to give me a
grade. I did.
I told you AB. Oh, I'm sorry, I was.
(39:57):
I don't listen. When you no you don't sorry,
that's maybe should be B minus then OK.
Well, Bab plus for me, yeah, AB for me, yeah, man, I.
Can't wait till next week, Logan, I I expect a lot from
you. I.
Expect a lot from me too. So again, if you haven't heard
any of the Vinyl Curriculum podcast, it's live right now on
(40:18):
Apple Music and on Spotify and wherever you get your podcast,
you can find us the Vinyl Curriculum, Search it up.
IHeartRadio. IHeartRadio we will be back next
week and we'll we'll talk to youthen.
Thanks so much. And we'll catch you on the next
one. Bye.
Every record tells a story. Independent labels.
I think a lot of interesting songs came out of that.
And every generation has a soundtrack.
The only hip you have in your body is made of titanium.
This is the final curriculum with Logan.
Apparently I don't know very much about anything.
Somebody calls her Tay Tay. Hey, it's Logan.
(00:23):
Just a quick heads up before we get into it.
This episode was originally recorded live on WLRA radio
where we are able to play all the songs that we talked about.
Unfortunately, due to copyright restrictions, we can't include
the music here on the podcast. So anytime you hear this sound,
that means we're skipping over asong that we originally played
(00:44):
on air. But don't worry, Jims put
together a playlist with all thetracks from the episode so you
can still follow along. Just check the link in the show.
Nuts. All right, now on to the
episode. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, boys
and girls, children of all ages,welcome back to your favorite
college radio station, 88.1 WLRA.
This is your favorite weekly episodic podcast, the Vinyl
(01:07):
Curriculum starring me, yours truly.
I'm Logan. That's Jim over on the other
side of the table. Jim, how we doing tonight?
Oh my God, Logan, you went on vacation, now you come back and
you're all hyped up like this. A.
Lot of energy and busted out the100% radio voice for this
episode it makes. Me very, very nervous.
You have no idea how excited I am about this.
You know why? I don't know, I don't either.
(01:29):
We didn't do it last week, so now I'm I'm having the itch to
listen to some vinyl curriculum,you know what I mean?
You're going to love this one though, because it's every one
of them is a dance song, so you're going to love every one
of these, I'm predicting. Well, you're not.
I'm not going to love it as muchas I am the next week because I
think we should again, tell the people what next week is.
Yeah, next week will be my favorite episode of the entire
(01:52):
season. That is because I'm the one
who's choosing the music next week.
So you got to be sure to listen to episode #10 of the Vinyl
curriculum will be live next Monday.
And then we will be posting the podcast as we do every Thursday,
so. Can't wait to hear your the
music you like. I don't have.
I literally have no idea. The Logan Special, that's what
(02:12):
we're. That's when we put a limit.
Only one Taylor Swift song. Only one Taylor Swift song.
I like I said, it's going to be a lot of young gravy.
We're going to be riding on the gravy train, baby, come on back.
I don't even know what that means.
I don't either, but we got a good one today.
Funky 70s. Monkey 70s.
And as you explained to me earlier, that is not disco.
No, this was kind of pre disco, but you'll notice that some of
(02:35):
the stuff here kind of translated into disco.
What? Yeah, like some like through the
Rosetta Stone? How does this work?
Kind of some of the sounds and stuff kind of I think inspired
some of the disco music that came right after this.
OK, and so, but this is funky. Funky and.
Doesn't isn't necessarily disco is from what I'm understanding.
(02:56):
No, no, it's not disco. It's funky music.
And you'll know a lot of, I think every one of these was a
huge hit. I had some of the 45, some of
them I didn't, but I know them well, so it's going to be
interesting to see which of these you know.
Okay, as this works, I, I feel like we need to explain this
every time. Just so people know what's
happening. This is the vinyl curriculum.
Jim has put together a playlist that we're going to be listening
(03:20):
to in just a couple minutes. And then after your song, we're
going to talk about a little bit.
He's going to give me a little bit of a history lesson and then
I'm going to assign it a grade, an impartial grade, as I always
do, very impartial, never bias at all.
And then at the end of the show will I will assign a grade for
the whole topic, the whole classas a day for the day.
(03:41):
And then Jim will give me a grade based on my grading for
the grades. That's kind of true, yes.
And so we've been doing pretty good.
Last week was just a a podcast episode and that was debuts for
early 80s. Debut albums.
Debut albums. So if you haven't heard episode
at #8 of the Vinyl Curriculum, it's live now on Apple Music,
(04:04):
Spotify, pretty much wherever you find your podcast.
So that being said, what is the first song?
Sly and the Family Stone 1969. This is going way back.
Thank you. Way back.
Thank you. My mom was born in 1969.
OK, I was one of 65, so I was 4.But my favorite part of this
(04:25):
song is thank you parentheses for letting me be mice ELF
again. And you just have to look at the
way he they phonetically wrote out the title for kind of the
way they sing it. OK.
Funky, very funky. Reached number one on the
Billboard Top 100. It's got this bass line, this
(04:48):
slap bass technique that a guy named Larry Graham kind of
pioneered and just fun. If you don't dance to this
Logan, something's wrong with you.
Although we did find out last week that you do have a black
hole where your heart is supposed to be.
And this is like, this is not medoing the the Saturday Night
(05:10):
Night Fever. No, no.
But you can still do whatever you want to do, Logan.
OK, so this one's called. Thank you.
And then there's some other stuff in the parentheses, right?
Yep. Let's take a listen.
This is the vinyl curriculum. Thank you for letting me be
(05:34):
myself again, Jim. I don't know what that means,
but I don't either. But I didn't.
Like the way you said that he was, They were funky and
everything and you came in with this radio voice monotone.
Do you hear that bass slap? And you're telling me that's not
disco? See when I think.
Of there was no disco back there, that's what I'm telling.
(05:56):
You. There, that's what I'm saying.
There was no disco in 1969, so this is a precursor to what
ended up happening later on in the 70s.
What do you mean there was no disco?
I mean, isn't that how music is evolved is someone breaks
through the glass ceiling and invents the disco ball, that
when the ceiling shatters all the pieces get turned into a
(06:16):
ball and that's where the disco ball came from?
I don't know where you came from, but this is a precursor to
Disco. I'm not going to say it again.
OK. Thank you.
Number one, number one song slide, The family Sloan, Sly and
the family Stone, James Brown. We're kind of the big The people
(06:39):
who started this whole funk thing are the most popular, most
successful, I would say. This is very.
Funky. Yeah, it's funky.
That's why it's called funky. Yeah, although it's called Funky
70s and this was 69 so. Yeah, so you lied.
You are a liar, Jim. I'm sure it was still popular in
the 70s though. Oh my gosh, I got to go B plus
(07:00):
this is A. Solid start we are if that's AB
Plus we are in trouble this week.
I'm just telling right now. I know you know the next one
though. So what?
Why B? Plus, what was that I?
Don't know, it's just the tempo.So there's there's rhythm and
there's tempo. It's got rhythm.
It's got a good beat. None of these are going to be up
tipo, none of them tempo. Is is but you could have a
(07:23):
tempo. No, you're fixing here 10 or 11
songs and none of them will havewhat?
Is that what is that one song? Play that funky music, white
boy. It's got the same kind of beat.
It's a little faster. No, a little faster.
All right, the next one is the Temptations.
You've heard them. The temptations, You heard of
them, right? Yes.
Yes, I have you. Might want to get this one
started because it takes quite awhile to build up.
(07:46):
OK, you know who did a really good remake of this song?
George Michael. OK, you know who he is?
Yeah. From former Wham.
Yeah. He did a really good remake of
this song. So you had to go listen to that
one of these days. Papa was a Rolling Stone is the
name of this one. Is it ring a bell to you?
No, I mean Rolling Stones, the band, but Rolling Stone I think
(08:11):
of like a cylinder. I don't know why.
Like when I think of a of Rolling Stone, I always think of
a cylinder rock and it's rollingdown a hill.
I don't know why I think of that.
That's just what what comes to mind.
Explain to me what a cylinder rock is.
It's a rock in the shape of a cylinder.
I feel like that's pretty self-explanatory, Jim.
I've never seen a rock in the shape of a cylinder natural, a
natural rock, or a fake rock. No, I don't know.
(08:31):
It's just a cylinder. That's a rock.
That's not to be confused with the rock'n'roll.
I mean, it a cylinder, rock is rolling and it is a rock, but
it's not rock'n'roll. See, it's The Rolling Stones.
I don't know, I'm confusing myself.
So this what year was did this come out?
This one was 72. So this was a little bit later,
yeah, OK. This is a 5 minute and 22
(08:53):
seconds song. Really, I have a 648 on my on my
end over here. So this is this is the extended
version. I think we're not going to
listen to the whole thing because we can't play the whole
thing on the podcast. So if you're confused, we can't
play the whole song on the podcast.
But don't worry, Jim has a playlist on both Spotify and
Apple Music where you can hear the full version of the song and
(09:16):
listen along with us. So this is Papa was a Rolling
Stone by the Temptations. What?
What was their Temptations biggest song?
Why are you asking me that? Because you're the teacher,
you're supposed to have these answers.
Let me see if I can figure it out.
OK, well, you figured out. Let's take a listen.
Papa was Rolling Stone here on the vinyl Curriculum it.
(09:38):
Was the 3rd of. September.
Interesting. That reminded me of like a 1970s
policeman show. Like a, you know.
Like Shaft, that was another Shaft was another movie.
That song was really popular. I didn't play it because it's
(10:00):
mainly instrumental and I knew you'd have a nervous breakdown.
Yeah. But that was that was exactly
what that was. It was ATV movie and you'd know
that song too. OK, Papa was Rolling Stone by
the Temptations. Wherever he let his left his hat
was a home, and when he died, all he left him was alone.
(10:21):
Very sad I. Think I'm leaving that one with
a B minus. That's what I'm leaving that one
with. I mean, again, it's, it's, it's
got the it's got the the funky base.
I don't know if that's what if that slap base you were talking
about earlier, I don't know if that's what that.
I'm telling you right now, none of these are going to be upbeat,
so you just need to stop it. I know.
(10:43):
I think I was excited because. It's funky music.
This isn't dance. This is not disco.
Funky disco I don't. There is no funky disco.
Duck was funky disco. I like disco duck.
I know you did. No, you didn't.
You actually gave it a bad. Grade.
No, I did not. I think you did.
I did not. OK.
Now the next one. This is interesting if you go to
(11:04):
Wikipedia and you look at Lewis University.
I was going to bring this up. I was going to.
Bring this up. She came here.
I don't know how accurate that is I.
Don't either we need to find outSomebody in Register's office
find out if Chaka Khan came to Lewis University like Wikipedia
says. I'm I actually kind of upset
that you knew that because I wasthat was going to be my one
piece of no anecdotal evidence for today.
OK, so. Chaka Khan Chaka.
(11:26):
Khan Chaka. Khan Chaka.
Khan, Khan. OK, this is Rufus.
This is back when she sang with Rufus.
Who is Rufus? Her partner.
Ah, I don't know. Let me see if they were married.
But yeah, they used to sing together and then she kind of
went on her own. OK.
And I've never heard of Rufus. I have heard of Chaka Khan.
(11:47):
I don't know. It's it was Rufus featuring
Chaka Khan. Yeah, it's American Funk Band,
so it's not even a person. See, I always thought it was a
person and it launched Chaka Khan's career so.
Chaka Khan's not a person. No, Rufus.
Rufus was a Yeah group, not a person.
OK, but Chaka? Khan is a person.
Yeah, that's what I thought. So she started off singing with
(12:08):
him and then she kind of went onher own.
OK, and so this one's called. Tell me something good.
Yes, and this is even slower than the other one, so I can't
wait to hear this crap. Can't say that.
I'll tell you what, by the end of this hour, I'm gonna be in a
very bad mood. No, you're just.
I can. No, you're not.
This is but Chaka Khan's going to tell you something good right
here on vinyl curriculum. That was amazing, Logan.
(12:42):
There's that black hole coming out again.
I mean, the, the intro was a little too long for me, like
when it got to tell me so that was OK.
But the intro was just like, wow.
Like they're walking down the street in slow MO.
Like you're it, you're what I, Ipicture you're walking through a
grassy field in slow motion, butyou're like walking through the
(13:05):
mud and you're just like, you got the mud and you're just like
can't move very fast 'cause yourworst is like the mud's pulling
the shoe off your foot. How sad of a life you live where
the only music you want to hear is dance.
It's just a sad commentary on you.
It's not this is no, it's not the I.
So what do you give that a or an?
(13:26):
A minus? I didn't hear.
C plus golly Logan. I mean it.
When, when is an appropriate time to listen to this song?
When you feel funky, when you want to drive down the road and
just kind of. What?
Yeah. What are you feeling?
Funky, I love You Can Dance to that.
You just have to kind of do the funky groove and you kind of
(13:48):
you're not doing the whatever you do to your disco music, you
did the. Disco.
You're doing the disco well, you.
Know the disco like the disco is.
You're you're taking, you're taking the soup can off the top
shelf is going on the shopping cart.
Top shelf shopping cart. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah. My own, my own.
My own, my own. Not this.
This is walking through the mud,big chunks of mud in between
(14:12):
your. Toes not disco.
This is called funk. So obviously you're not a funk
fan. And we've got we're three songs
in. That's why I'm telling you I'm
going to be so upset by the timethis is over.
I'm going to need counseling. Yeah.
All right. Well, let's move on then.
OK, a minus for that one. I mean it's.
Possible Louis alum. Yeah, we got now.
So the lore if she came here, that would make it like ABI.
(14:36):
Think that would just give me more of a reason to like, I
don't know, I, I maybe if she can, I don't know.
I don't think it would affect meliking that song.
I Chuck Con does have some good music.
Yes, she does. But not that one.
Not that. One, by the way, the temptation
saying my girl ain't too proud to beg.
Just my imagination. My girl, that one.
(14:57):
Yeah, OK. I like that song.
All right, the next one I'm gonna, when this is over, I'm
gonna ask you where they're from.
It's the average White band Is the name of the group, 1974
creative name. Yep.
Hit #1 again. Yeah, I think you're gonna like
this because it is a little bit more upbeat, but it's called
Pick Up the pieces. The only problem is there are no
(15:18):
words. There, there's no words at all.
Nope. Oh, that's that's never a good
thing. You should start off your
introduction of the song with that well.
Say this is a good beat, say. This has a good beat, all right.
This would pick up the pieces bythe average white band here on
(15:38):
the vinyl curriculum. That's that's a step in the
right direction. I can't believe it.
It has no words. I just knew that was going to be
a automatic disqualification. No, not necessarily.
(15:58):
This is this was good like thememusic.
That's that's my other way I quantify songs is if I could
like see myself in like a movie doing something to this song.
It's. Just so weird how you always
have to live in life in context with some, I don't know, you
know, back that we talked about this before, but back then you
had a lot more instrumentals that were very successful.
(16:18):
Yeah. You remember Kenny G, He did it
like in the was it the 80s or 90s?
He did it a lot, but he was kindof the last one I remembered.
It became very popular with it. I don't know, I don't know,
Kenny GI know Kelpie G from the popular children's TV show
SpongeBob. No.
You know, so where you know the average white.
(16:40):
Band is from. I don't know, somewhere S
Scotland, really. Yeah, I would not have it, would
not have had that one. It was rare for funk to come
from outside the USA at the time, but they were from
Scotland. That's that does sound like ATV
(17:00):
movie thing like Saturday Night Live.
Yeah, You know, I was asking youoff air.
I wasn't sure. Like what?
This sounds like a saxophone, but that earlier it we were
trying to decide if it was a trumpet or a saxophone or what
it was. I don't know anything about
horned instruments so someone can let us know if they do.
(17:20):
Yeah, what antelope? A Unicorn?
We don't know. Oh gosh, what do you give?
Pick up the pieces. I'm gonna go a minus, I think.
Wow, OK, a minus that's come andsurprise you there.
And then that was fun. I like it.
The next one? You've heard of Earth, Wind and
Fire, right? Yes, Shining Star is the next
(17:41):
one. It was their first number one
hit and they actually won a Grammy for this one.
OK. And.
Shining star. What Earth, Wind and Fire is
like a group that I know the name of, but I don't know if I
could like name any songs by Earth, Wind and Fire.
I know Sabrina Carpenter just recently at Lollapalooza 2025
(18:04):
brought out Earth, Wind and Fireas part of her act.
I don't know how that relates, but that's a local connection
for you. They did Let's groove tonight.
They did Let's groove tonight. Boogie Wonderland.
Oh yeah. See, I these are the songs that
I know. Yeah, but this one shining star.
This was you'll know this. I think you're going to know
this. One, OK.
(18:25):
And this was what year 1975? 75 We're moving on up.
OK, 1975 halfway through the 70s, Disco still isn't a thing
yet. Not yet.
OK, let's take a listen. Earth, Wind and Fire on the
Vinyl curriculum. I wish we had a camera in here.
(18:52):
So the moment where it clicks inmy hat that I've heard this song
before, the excitement that I feel is unmatched by any other
experience that I have in life. But that's what's so sad about
it, is you. If you have a history with it,
you're automatically going to like it.
If you don't, it's so hard for you to accept anything new.
Well, it's not. That's not always.
True Logan, this is. We.
(19:14):
We. This, there's a tradition here
of this is our 9th episode and Isee a trend.
No, you saw the Mistakes episodeand that was some news things
that I've never heard before, and I was very excited about
that. The one you liked the most was
popcorn, though, and you had known that one.
Yeah. No, no.
(19:35):
Well, I didn't know it, but thatwasn't my favorite one.
OK, hooked on classics. So what do you think of?
A solid. A good solid.
A earth, wind and fire. There was a guy, one of the
singers on this is Bill Phillip Bailey, and he had a song when
he did a solo album called Walking on the Chinese Wall.
Love it. One of these days when we do a
cover one or a solo one or something, I want to do that
(19:56):
one. OK.
The next one I had to call my sister today.
Uh. Oh.
Because in my mind, I went and saw the Ohio Players at
Mississippi State when I was a kid, but I don't remember
anything about it. So you saw the Ohio Players in
Mississippi? Mississippi.
Not in Ohio. That's a.
That's an automatic one letter grade reduction.
OK. And I asked her, is that true?
(20:19):
And she said yes. She said.
I don't remember much about it, but we did go see the Ohio
Players in Starfield, Mississippi at Mississippi
State. Now, the interesting thing about
this song if if you go like 2 minutes and a half into it,
there is a scream and the room rumor was that while they were
(20:39):
recording to someone was hurt and we believed it.
That is, I was 10. And so when I googled it,
they're like, Oh yeah, that was,I mean, it was a popular theory.
It wasn't just in Mississippi. That and it's a roller coaster.
I'm sure it was supposed to be like a girl screaming going down
a roller coaster, but the the rumor was someone was murdered
while they were. Was Google a thing when you were
(21:01):
10? No.
Well, you just said you googled.It I just googled it for this to
see if it was it just us in Mississippi or in a no it was a
thing. OK, so this is love roller
coaster. It not to be confused with the
bleachers roller coaster, no that we heard last week.
Again, if you haven't heard lastweek's or what was that?
(21:22):
That was indie. If you haven't heard the indie
episode that was episode #7 Yep,go take a listen.
This is Love Roller Coaster by the Ohio Players here on the
Vinyl curriculum. Feel like we're taking a detour
(21:44):
through the car wash that song. Yeah, that was the next car
wash. That was the next year.
So they they took it from the sample players must have no Did
you hear the scream I. Did I did hear the scream?
And as a 10 year old, I was like, Oh my God, did you hear
someone was murdered? I was alarmed.
That was alarming. Yep, that one like, you know,
(22:07):
those things like out in front of car dealership, the wacky
waving inflatable arm flailing tube man yes, I feel like that
that would be the song that plays like and when I when I
hear that song, I just kind of want to I feel my body like
that. I feel like if I watched you
dance, that's what you would look like.
(22:29):
I Yeah, you're tall. And limber and skinny and.
Yeah, I actually each when I dance, and I think we've talked
about this before, each part of my body just kind of moves
incorrectly, like it's not everything kind of moves
independent of each other. But love roller coaster by the
Ohio Players. That's that's another a.
(22:49):
That's another a all. Right.
See, I think you just, you were had a little bit of no that was
coming off of vacation. It was hard for you to kind of
get back in the groove things. No, that was some poor music
selection for the first song. This is what?
That was you. Just didn't like Early's bonk.
You just like it because now Disco is coming out.
Oh. OK, so now the time disco is go.
I see. So it's kind of murder is
(23:10):
evolving. OK, Now I know you know, this
next one. This next one, though, is David
Bowie. Yes, And I know him.
And you might think, huh, what does David Bowie have to do with
funk music? But this one's funky.
Is it 2? It was 75 again.
Just a lot of, a lot of happenedin 1975.
(23:30):
OK and I mean is this pre like popular David Bowie songs?
No, you don't know this one. I will know this.
One, yeah, this is not pre, it'sthis is a.
Popular song? Oh, I know this one, yeah.
Oh, yeah, But it's slow, so I know you're not going to like.
No, but you do know it, so you're going to like it.
(23:51):
Yeah, I see how it works. This is kind of like that Brick
House saw. Yeah, Brick House.
I had that one on the album for that one.
By the way, Commodores, it was live and the whole half of a
song was Brick house. Well, this one was not like half
of an album. Let's take a listen.
Fame. This feels like, I don't know if
(24:22):
they had like a word limit of how many songs they could, how
many words they could say, but they just keep repeating a lot
of the same lyrics. That happens here.
Come on now. Yeah, no, you're right.
But this is like just one word though.
Remember how Rihanna found love in a hopeless place over and
over and over? Every time that song comes on,
my wife will cite me. Do you know that she found love
(24:44):
in a hopeless place? Or yeah, under the umbrella Ella
Ella. Yeah, hey, hey.
This was actually David Bowie's first number one in America.
Oh, it's good. I've heard it before.
I'm gonna go a minus, I think. If you hadn't heard it, I'd
guarantee it would have been AB minus.
You are correct, but I have so my impartial grading strikes
(25:04):
again. That's what I like to hear.
And that was Co written by John Lennon.
Really. Yeah, really.
Without David Bowie. Another game now named another
guy named Carlos Alomar and JohnLennon wrote that together.
Did John Lennon there's just like a cover then of that song
or what? I've never heard it.
If it is, I know he did a Bowie did a release of this, a re
(25:28):
release and then he kind of changes a little bit later on.
I don't remember. Well, I think that's pretty
common in the music industry forpeople like, I know, like I
think it's Dolly Parton. She said something, she wrote
like 800 something songs or like, like writes a song a day
or something, some nonsense. Yeah.
So I think they just like, they write.
(25:49):
To have that in your head, like all this music, to just be able
to write that is fascinating. Yeah.
For me. And then like, you know, Dolly
Parton has one. If you have one, if you write
8000 songs and you have one out of every thousand, you know
that's still 8 very good songs. Yeah, she's got so many songs
you wouldn't even. Well, exactly.
That's what other people. Yeah.
(26:10):
And, you know, they write songs for other people.
And who's the guy who wrote like?
I think it's his name is Benny Blanco.
You know him, You probably heardsome of the songs he wrote.
He writes like he wrote for Ed Sheeran.
He wrote for a whole bunch of different people.
And you would like, never know. He's like a ghost writer almost.
(26:35):
So I just think that's really interesting anyway.
Well, the next one. Have you ever heard of Stevie?
Stevie Wonder. Have I ever heard of Stevie?
Wonder. Yeah, I have.
Yeah. This was, as a matter of fact,
1976. OK.
And #1 again, most of these were#1?
(26:58):
Not all of them, but most of these were #1.
OK most of the songs. They were playing.
Yeah, I wish. All right.
And it's kind of, if you listen to the lyrics, it's kind of
funny. He's just talking about how how
it was when he was a kid. And I kind of wish those days
were back. It's kind of fun.
OK, I think. You're going to like it though.
And this is Stevie Wonder. He's he's pretty funky.
(27:19):
Right, This is my daughter's child to Grace is her favorite
artist, and she saw him in concert last year and said it
was amazing. He can see though, right?
No. I do know that song of.
(27:42):
Course you do. It's.
A little Stevie Wonder action. There's a story.
The reason I said that about himbeing able to see is because I'm
pretty sure Shaquille O'Neal thinks he can see because there
was a thing where he got on the Shaquille O'Neal got into the
elevator like in a parking garage, and Stevie was already
on the elevator. And he said, Stevie, as soon as
(28:03):
Shaq got on the elevator, he said what's up, Big diesel?
And that was without Shaq sayinganything.
I. You know what else that reminded
me? I looked up Dark Side of the
Rainbow from last week that reminded you of that a bunch.
Because that's folklore and you know it's a rumor.
Rumor and this is the dark side of the rainbow was just the
(28:23):
crock of all Get out. It's a 40 something minute album
in the movies, like 2 hours. So how is that going to?
Work. I don't know.
I wish though by Stevie Wonder it's an A minus.
That's that's. I like the big band sound like I
like the horns. I like that kind of punch to it.
(28:46):
And that song had it. Fame had it, and.
So what? What made it that minus, though?
You don't like Stevie? Wonder a little little what I
mean that's you can groove to it, but it's it's not not my
favorite song, not one I would put on a playlist.
OK. You know, all right, this next
(29:06):
one though, I'm excited about this was reference earlier.
Yes, it was Wild Cherry. You know what's I might be wrong
about this, but there's a small town north of where I'll used to
live called Shannon, Mississippi.
And they had a place called BarsFerry landing and I'm pretty
sure, or it might have been Shannon High School had them for
(29:26):
their prom. They while Cherry came to
Shannon. So this was years later.
So this one album did this one song didn't send them to
Richville. They were playing at a prom.
Either that or it was bars ferrylanding, wouldn't you?
You would you'd be surprised sometimes these very successful
artists, you know. They're back in the 80s.
(29:49):
They get to but, but that's not necessarily true.
Young Gravy. Another perfect example.
Young Gravy a couple years ago. Playing Lollapalooza this year?
The Louis Joliet Mall parking lot.
There you go. So you have to next week you
have to at least do one young Gravy song, 'cause I don't know.
What you Oh, it's going to be a lot of young gravy, no.
You can only have one is the limit, one is the limit.
(30:09):
One was a Taylor limit for every.
I don't play more than one person.
I don't do 2 songs If you want to do a 2 bleachers songs.
Let let two weeks ago. That's different.
They're the best. Oh, OK, OK.
They're the best. Young gravy.
Oh, all right. So yeah, play that funky music,
white boy. That feel like this?
(30:30):
There's a song by Weird Al called White and Nerdy which I
very truly believe is my theme song.
If it not this Wild Cherry song.This is my theme song.
(30:55):
Is it? Yeah, hey, lay down a boogie and
play that funky music. But you don't like funky music?
I like this song. You don't like early funky?
Music. I like this song though.
Do you how? How much do you like it?
Hey, solid A, good, solid A, which for me is pretty much the
top grade that we're. Getting Yeah, you've never
(31:16):
you've. Never get a name in a plus Next
week all a pluses. I doubt it.
Yeah, I tried to look to see if I could find a website or
something that said whether Cherry, while Cherry played at
the Shannon High School or at bars, Ferry Landing, and I
couldn't find it. So I could have made that up.
I don't think I did. And is this like their only?
Oh they have? What are some of their other
(31:40):
songs here? I could have to look because
I've never, I don't remember anything else hold.
On Baby Don't You know what? In the font, do you see hot
trot? I'm just reading.
No, I've never heard this, No. 123 kind of love.
No, I don't know. But I know this next one.
(32:02):
Wild Cherry though, it was good.What's the next one?
This next one is Parliament and I had this 45.
Not to be confused with the wig wearing type of Parliament.
It could be they might be the same people, they might have
come from England and sang. From the Funk album, from the
courts of England into the recording studio.
(32:23):
No, Parliament and the next group, Funkadelic, were George
Clinton's groups and one of themwas the lead and the other was
like the backup. And then he would do albums, our
albums with the backup and they all have similar sounds.
This was called Flashlight though, and I had this 45.
It's a long song, but we're onlygoing to play a clip of it.
(32:45):
This flashlight song, the last song, the Funkadelic song, is
also one of the longer songs. It's very long.
Yes, and there is, there's actually on the show notes.
If you go, I put a video to well, we'll go top of that
later. All right, this is I'm jumping
the gun. Yeah, this is Parliament
Flashlights here on the vinyl curriculum.
(33:15):
That is pretty funky. That was funky.
That was 77. I was 12, so I had that 45.
Some might even say that's a funky, cold Medina.
And some, some might not tone loke right.
Tone Loke. Yeah.
You know, I saw him in concert, him in Vanilla Ice.
Where? At the Shorewood.
(33:36):
No, no, no, rodeo the Shorewood.No this.
That was in Aurora, at the River's Edge Park.
Did well, he did funky cold Medina.
And I saw Coolio. That was Coolio's last
Chicagoland performance before he died.
I didn't. I don't even know Coolio.
You would. Would I?
Parliament B plus. Oh yeah, yeah, I.
(34:02):
Can't tell you how much I used to love that song.
I mean, I really love that song.Jim was saying he wished there
wasn't glass in the studio otherwise he'd get up and dance.
He was worried. He's worried about people
walking by and filming him though, and I reassured him that
I would definitely be filming him.
Yeah, remember how I don't? There's no photos of me in my
Mohawk. There's going to be no video of
(34:24):
me dancing. But you have dance lessons.
You, you know how to dance. Yeah, but I'm not.
I'm doing the rumba. I'm not doing the.
The disco the this. Is not disco.
This is not disco. This is funky music.
Yeah. OK, now the last one, like I
said, it's a long album. It's it was Uncle JM wants you.
(34:45):
You can't find it on Spotify. It's not on Apple Music.
So there's a video of the entiresong on YouTube.
It's on the show notes. It's actually being like there's
a commercial out route. Not right now, where they're
sampling it. And De La Soul did it with me,
myself and I OK, so listen to. And this is this is.
(35:06):
Not just knee deep in parentheses.
Not just knee deep. This is interesting and so is
there. Is this just like instrumental
then the? Whole song no.
And the the 15 minute version, it's just listen to it.
It's really it's it'll be guitarparts, it'll be singing parts,
it'll be bass parts. It's just it's great.
(35:28):
I love it. All right, let's take a listen.
Something about that, I think it's making Jim want to dance
again. Yeah, I love that. 15 minutes
(35:49):
and 23 seconds on the album. It kind of drags on.
Well, when you're sitting there like a log on the not on a log
it does. But when you're up enjoying
yourself. What you have to be on a log
actually. Like I'm not on a log have.
You ever just seen? Have you ever seen a lumberjack
show? That's impressive.
Why would I watch that? I don't know why they you
(36:12):
mentioned top. Ground trees.
Yeah, well, they do. I'm a lover of trees.
They do a show. They do a show not just knee
deep by Funkadelic Grade a name.I will tell you that 19. 79,
yeah. A top tier name for a group.
I think though, for we're just going to have to go solid B for
that one. That's sad that you're entering
that way, let me tell you. Listen, it's not my fault.
(36:36):
Uncle Jam won't She was the album here.
The name side one was Freak of the Week, which is 5 minutes and
then not just knee deep which was 15 in 23 seconds.
This side 2 was Uncle Jam Field Maneuvers, Holly wants to go to
California, and then Foot Soldiers.
Parentheses Star Spangled Funky.If you had a game where you had
(37:01):
to drink something every time someone said the word funky or
freak and listen to that, you would be bloated.
Yeah, I'd say so. I don't know.
I, I think as a whole, I'm a fanof the disco, the second-half of
the 70s, not really that song, but the second-half, a little
(37:22):
bit more upbeat, can dance a little Saturday Night Fever
action. I could dance to every one of
those. I.
Disagree. It's just a different kind of
dance. I disagree.
So Chaka Khan is going to come looking for you.
I'm just telling you right now with AC plus.
We look into that. Who?
I don't even know who. We talked to, but I'm going to
find out. We should figure it out.
That was a Grammy. So obviously, and it was #1 So
obviously you are going against the industry professionals and
(37:46):
the public. That's those are all rigged
anyway. Those are all rigged.
The Grammys, the Oscars, you know how that works, right?
They have to buy the commit likethe Academy.
Is that what you're telling? Me bags with iPads.
You you never heard any of this?I'm sure, Well, I'm sure it's
like Dark Side of the Rainbow. You should you should look into
it and. The fact that Stevie Wonder can
see, well, you're going to if wehad listers, they would write in
(38:10):
and tell you how offensive that was.
No, no, no, I I'm just repeatinga story from a rumor.
Jack's mouth to your ears. And you trust that man?
Well, I mean, I mean, yeah, he is big diesel.
He does have decent clothes though in JC Penney for big and
tall man, did you know that? And he also has a shoe brand at
Walmart. Oh, he's a shoe line of shoes at
(38:31):
Walmart. Affordable shoes that are nice.
They're nice. Don't don't give you that look,
but yeah. We saw him in Vegas and my son,
you would have thought he had seen a superstar.
I mean, they were. He is a superstar.
But he's a man who plays basketball.
So was Michael Jordan, but. He's a man who used to play
basketball. I saw Shaquille Owens in college
(38:53):
play basketball. OK?
As a whole today. Be nice.
I would assign the grade. Taking it all into
consideration. I I think I'd have to say B plus
still because I think there is alot there.
I think the execution of song choice was poor on your end,
but. I'm going to give you AB minus.
(39:14):
No, I'll give you AB because I feel like you're still upset
that you're not on vacation anymore or something.
Or maybe you were in the boat too long.
I don't know. There's too much sun last week
because I don't think you started off like you should have
and if you had then these would have been higher.
I disagree, but I know you know what we're all entitled to our
own opinions. I was about to stop.
(39:36):
You know how in halfway through class sometimes the teachers
have to do like an intervention because midterms things aren't
going well? I was about to stop you, but
then you turned it. Around.
You were about to pull me out ofthe hallway.
After that, C plus on the third song.
Yeah, but you pulled it out. I'm proud of you.
OK. Well, you have to give me a
grade. I did.
I told you AB. Oh, I'm sorry, I was.
(39:57):
I don't listen. When you no you don't sorry,
that's maybe should be B minus then OK.
Well, Bab plus for me, yeah, AB for me, yeah, man, I.
Can't wait till next week, Logan, I I expect a lot from
you. I.
Expect a lot from me too. So again, if you haven't heard
any of the Vinyl Curriculum podcast, it's live right now on
(40:18):
Apple Music and on Spotify and wherever you get your podcast,
you can find us the Vinyl Curriculum, Search it up.
IHeartRadio. IHeartRadio we will be back next
week and we'll we'll talk to youthen.
Thanks so much. And we'll catch you on the next
one. Bye.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.