SYSE: Episode 6

The soul wants what the soul wants.

Welcome to the sixth episode of Stuff You Should experience.

I’ve been away for a week. Let me make it up to you today. I’ve been listening to some random stuff lately. I listened to quite a few desi rappers. I listened to Tamil, Telegu, Punjabi rap. It’s a whole new world, trust me. But more on that some other day.

Blues, Rock & Roll, R&B have been my go-to songs for a quiet time (which has been quite a lot lately). For a very long time, I didn’t know something called soul music existed. I stumbled upon a few artists and it was a new addition to the songs for a quiet time.

To quote Rolling stone from its 2004 Album Guide, "Voices such as Donny Hathway's come along maybe once a decade. Before his brief but influential career was cut short by suicide in 1979, Hathway proved himself a maestro of protest soul who effused equal amounts of political anger and romantic tenderness."

I’ve been listening to his album from 1970, Everything is Everything. Two songs from this album will certainly make you fall in love with Donny. It’s The Ghetto and Voices Inside.

Albeit longer, the live version of this song is something else, I’d highly recommend listening to it here.

The same goes with this song, click here (this one’s so smooth I can’t even).

I think Boz Scaggs was sort of my gateway to soul music. I used to listen to a lot of Blues a while ago, that was when I came across him. Some of his music is astounding. In the right setting (or with the right amount of alcohol in your system) you might even cry, it’s that touching.

The first song that I am about to share is from his 1969 album by his stage name Boz Scaggs. It’s the lengthiest and probably the best. It’s Loan Me a Dime (keep the tissues handy).

For the YouTube link, click here.

The next one’s a bit funky from his 1976 album Silk Degrees. It’s also one of his most popular ones.

For the YouTube link, click here.

Something interesting I read recently
History no doubt was one of the most boring classes in school. I don’t want to go on and rant about all the people/institutions at fault but it’s one of the most interesting things out there. After Sapiens, history was not just history, it was like a storyline for me. Never before was I drawn towards reading more history. Then I heard of Will Durant and Ariel Durant’s The Story of Civilization. It’s a massive 11 volume collection, each book runs roughly 1000 pages. But no, I haven’t read it yet (I wish). Someday soon I will. Though, I did read The Lessons of History, relatively a very small book of theirs with nuggets of wisdom. One of the interesting ones is:

The first biological lesson of history is that life is competition. Competition is not only the life of trade, it is the trade of life—peaceful when food abounds, violent when the mouths outrun the food. Animals eat one another without qualm; civilized men consume one another by due process of law. Co-operation is real, and increases with social development, but mostly because it is a tool and form of competition; we co-operate in our group—our family, community, club, church, party, “race,” or nation—in order to strengthen our group in its competition with other groups. Competing groups have the qualities of competing individuals: acquisitiveness, pugnacity, partisanship, pride. We are acquisitive, greedy, and pugnacious because our blood remembers millenniums through which our forebears had to chase and fight and kill in order to survive, and had to eat to their gastric capacity for fear they should not soon capture another feast.

If you want to read some notes from the book, it’s here. You should most definitely check the book out though.

What am I watching over the weekend?

I’ve been playing a lot of chess during the corona time (if you play, I’d love to play with you). So much so that I have even had a few Chess dreams. Apparently, it’s Tetris Effect. Netflix recently released a miniseries, The Queen’s Gambit. I watched the first episode, it’s damn nice. Can’t wait to finish it off.

What am I thinking?

I recently read that it was the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown (the 1930s), the effects of which set the stage for World War II. Is that so? I’ll share something next week.

Bonus Track

Since it was Dussehra last weekend, Amit Trivedi released a kickass trance song.

रावणोऽहं कामये, अखिलं निखिलं कामये।
कामयेऽहं कीर्तिम्, कामये प्रसिद्धीम्।
कामये सामर्थ्यम्, कामये प्राबल्यम्।

Have a really nice Saturday… :)

Request you to create a filter on your email so that you’ll receive the episodes directly in your primary inbox. I started SYSE to recommend music and share some unfiltered thoughts. I’d love your feedback, questions, and comments.