20+ years later and still as relevant today as ever

[Number23]

Why oh why must it be this way?
Before you can read me you gotta learn how to see me, I said
Free your mind and the rest will follow
Be color blind, don't be so shallow…
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/envogue/freeyourmind.html

Though "color blindness" is a goal that can never be reached (and probably shouldn't be) everything else is the truth.

Before you can read me you gotta learn how to see me

[Kind of Blue]

1. +1000 Oh, yes!

I wish I could rec a thousand times!

[Number23]

3. A great paraphrase of a truly phenomenal quote

The original: Free your mind, and your ASS will follow

by the phenomenal, incomparable Parliament Funkadelic (though it is BEYOND obvious they were tripping hard as hell on this track)

[Chitown Kev]

5. "High as hell" is the ONLY state

to be in to truly appreciate this track.

[Kind of Blue]

7. I like the way you think

[Number23]

10. You ain't lying!

Though I can still dig it...

[Kind of Blue]

8. My peoople! Those were the days

and jamming right now!
Gawd, I'm glad I've got this afternoon off!

[lovemydog]

15. Yup.

And my national anthem:

[Number23]

20. That is TRULY the jam right there. Holy shit.

Will be FOREVER dope. I will be playing that in my nursing home and pissing off the orderlies.

[lovemydog]

33. I've been thinking, we need

nursing homes that specialize in the music and lifestyles we enjoy. We could join, jam on P-Funk & other dope music, keep posting here and laughing our butts off. What a way to go!

[Kind of Blue]

39. I'm signing up to this thread that will never die!

Really, so much music is still as relevant today as 20 years ago and before

[Number23]

41. Hell yeah!! The Hip Hop Honeys Nursing Home and Nightclub!!

Sign me up... in about 30 years!

[lovemydog]

44. Same.

We'll need a bunch of these too.

[Number23]

47. You are soooooo wrong...!!

You know them rims are nowhere big enough for the HHHNH&N!!!



THAT'S what I'm talking bout!

[lovemydog]

49. Okay.

I may need one of these for trips to the store.

[Kind of Blue]

43. Reminds of this beautiful video of the Power of Music

[lovemydog]

45. Yes!

Beautiful.

[Kind of Blue]

51. It is a wonderful thing!

[Kind of Blue]

32. +1000! This and Knee Deep!

Instrumentally, lyrically, vocally is a masterpiece, like a religious experience.
Music from the '70s, '80s & '90s off the hook and so many of the geniuses before then alive and still performing, we had it so good!

My favorite verse, "That music and the beat HA! Started tryin' liberating my feet. Can this be me, immersed in funk so deep?"

[lovemydog]

34. That's 15 minutes of mind-expanding soul inspiring funk

right there. De La Soul sampled the opening riff for Me Myself and I. Other beats were sampled by Rick James, Snoop, Dre etc.

There's a church of John Coltrane in San Francisco.

We're all part of the church of P Funk.

Something about the music, it got into my dance
Something about the music, it got into my pants
I got ants in my pants and I need to dance!

[Kind of Blue]

36. Yes! Yes! Yes! and Yes!

I saw the Coltrane documentary about a year ago and have visited their site, ColtraneChurch.org
My husband and I have the church on our bucket list as mecca the next time we're up there. "We're all part of the church of P Funk," well said. We have the church of P Funk in our spirits. Amen.

[lovemydog]

37. In our spirits.

Yes.

I watched the first ten minutes and will watch the rest later.

Thanks for posting it here K o B!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones.

[Kind of Blue]

40. Happy Thanksgiving, lovemydog to you

and your loved ones! There's so much to be grateful for

[Ferretherder]

28. I was in a band in New Orleans,...

...back in the early 90's, with the only white-boy to ever play with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic......a guy from Monroe, LA, named Doug Duffey. Look him up on the intertubes.........you'll understand why they wanted him on the tour (Mothership Down)!

...good times!

[lovemydog]

35. That is so cool.

You should write an article about it for Mojo or Uncut or some other cool magazine. I'm sure they'd be interested. Hell I'd order a book by you about all those experiences. Keep on funking my friend.

[Number23]

42. I don't know how I missed this post before

To Doug!

[Person 2713]

31. +1

[zappaman]

38. God, I still love that record!

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Speak on it, #23!

[Number23]

4. Girl... you know it!

Check out the Parliament clip I posted above too!

[randys1]

6. uh huh

[SidDithers]

16. If you like Sly...

here's a great vid from a concert they gave at the Harlem Cultural Festival about 6 weeks before Woodstock.

Quality isn't great, but the talent more than makes up for it.



Sid

[randys1]

17. Awesome, will check it out in full over the weekend. Try some

&list=PLFxGEGxnQ0Mj6GmFHnnRdogvsyTp6WINs

[sheshe2]

9. This!

Why oh why must it be this way?
Before you can read me you gotta learn how to see me, I said
Free your mind and the rest will follow
Be color blind, don't be so shallow…
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/envogue/freeyourmind.html

Girl that was amazing. Thank you so much for posting the vid. Power there, so much power!

Thanks 23~

[sheshe2]

11. Kick

[betsuni]

12. K&R!

[kwassa]

13. Everyday People and Everybody is a Star

from 47 years ago?

[lovemydog]

14. Love this song!

Holy crap, over 20 years.

Still sounds great to me.

[monicaangela]

18. This group was fierce back in the day!

Love this song also, as you say, 20 years later and still as relevant as the day they made it. In reference to the color blind statement, I think they mean see me before you see my color, know me before you assume you know my culture, etc., etc., etc.

Thanks for this, hadn't heard this song in a while, gotta get my En Vogue CD's out and start listening to them again.

https://thrillcall.com/artist/En-Vogue

[Number23]

19. If I could have been the fifth (and only non-singing) member of En Vogue I would have done it

in a minute. They wouldn't even have had to pay me I loved them so much.

En Vogue and TLC were like the living, breathing personification of the 1990s (a very formative time) for me. I will never, ever stop loving these gorgeous talented sisters and feel angry that there is hardly anyone like them today for young black girls to look up to in the music industry.

[monicaangela]

21. Absolutely Number23

I am in about the same age group as the members of En Vogue, and some girlfriends of mine and I had a group that patterned itself after En Vogue, you couldn't tell me I wasn't one of the group back in those days. LOL!! I remember traveling with a friend to Germany just to catch one of their concerts, that's how much of a fan I was. Loved TLC also...my favorite:

[Number23]

22. My favorite TLC track was kind of my theme song. It summed up how I felt about people trying

to tell young women how they should dress/act/be perfectly.

[monicaangela]

23. Love that too

these songs really bring back memories, thanks for posting this.

[lovemydog]

24. Damn, that's so cool.

Germany was super receptive to hip hop & early electronica. I remember some Detroit techno friends going over there and playing sold out shows in soccer stadiums. Where in Germany did you see En Vogue? Were any other artists on the bill? That must have been so badass being a group doing all that music.

[heaven05]

25. great OP

free your mind and your a** will follow is one of my favorite quotes. Sadly too many don't want free minds they want them imprisoned by Fox News and the rest of the RW poison present in the media and culture in this day and age of american society.

[Number23]

26. Hey Heaven!

Did you see the Free your Mind track from Parliament that I posted upthread?? That was some seriously wild isht.

And yes, you're right about people wanting to have their minds imprisoned. Reminds me of what Daenyrs on Game of Thrones said when she was going around freeing slaves from all of the cities that she conquered. She worried how the slaves would respond to her and one of her advisers said, "why are you worried?? You've freed them!" and she replied "yes, but people learn to love their chains."

Be it ignorance, racism, drugs, or whatever, people do learn to love their chains. And will react violently towards anyone who tries to remove them.

[heaven05]

27. I couldn't agree more

[chervilant]

29. Love this song

Love the whole CD.

[SunSeeker]

30. K & R

[Kind of Blue]

46. "Dress me up for battle when all I want is peace," Harvest for the World

"Gather everyman, gather every woman
Celebrate your lives, give thanks for your children
Gather everyone, gather all together
Overlooking none, hopin' life gets better for the world"

[Number23]

48. Girl, you ALWAYS bring the deepness. The depth. And the soul

And I love you for it.

[Kind of Blue]

50. I love you too, Number23, especially for this thread

that connects us to our souls. The best of our music that's too daggone many to count is always deep and from the soul.

[Kind of Blue]

52. It's raining like a big dog here in SoCal, for a change. But this morning

I'm walking on sunshine. Why? Holtzclaw is guilty!