18/02/2024
Good Sunday Morning Record Everyone!
Today we’re listening to Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun.
Growing up astrology was taught to me as sin. Devil work and the such. When I broke away from my religious indoctrination I wasn’t fast to adopt astrology, as honestly I was still afraid of it. But one day I heard “...& On” with the lyrics:
“Said I'm a Pisces
Zika deka del
Well well I'm raising hell
People always tryin' to find the world I'm in
I'm the envy of the women and I rule the men
Two fish, one swimmin' up stream
One swimmin' down livin' in a dream
But when she loves she tends to cling”
This blew my tiny little skull. This person was just like me, We’re both artists and we’re sensitive about our s**t! We’re both Pisces and it’s fine that I cry at movies and shows and commercials and songs and all the time, cause that’s what Pisces do and I’m a Pisces just like Erykah Badu.
Pisces season is upon us and Erykah Badu is the Highest Piscean Monarch in existence. For me at least.
So this song not only opened my astrological heart, which is only cracked open, but it also introduced me to the idea of an artist revisiting a central theme from a previous album. Later in life I realized that this is way more commonplace. But when I first heard “...& On” I just didn’t understand that someone could do this. Take a song from the first album, drop a whole different live album that made everyone call Tyrone, at a time when there weren’t many unlimited phone plans, and come back with a new album where she revisits one of the biggest singles of that album, but adds flow and these extra levels of depth I didn’t know to look for. Run-on sentences aside, this opened me up in a massive way. But let’s take a step back and look at the project as a whole.
From Alpha: "Penitentiary Philosophy" to Omega: “Green Eyes” this album flows like water through rocks, which is to say effortlessly and weathering as it goes. I’m the rock here. One drop of water wouldn’t do much but after a while I’m not the same stone I was.
Penitentiary Philosophy starts with a whisper that smoothly opens up to a raucous explosion of instruments and the High Piscean Monarch exclaiming the song's title and explaining to the uninformed what that mindset really is.
I don’t know if this album was originally in two sides, mine is 180g so It’s two records. The first record encompasses the first nine songs and ends with “A.D.2000”. This feels very much like a spiritual halftime to the album. From the first song with strong energy the second takes a slight dip and keeps a certain jazzy funk to it, while riding the next few tracks in pretty high spirits it brings us down to a reflectiveness in “A.D.2000”. If this album ended here it would still be a perfect album. A great way to run, dance or meditate. But it don’t stop there, now do it? Not at all y’all.
The second record comes with this other energy. This soulful jazzy creamy joint. “Orange Moon” plays like a standard in a New York Autumn movie. I can see a couple walking east through St. Nicholas Park, down the hill at sunset, with a big old Orange Moon in a grapefruit clouded sky. I might be saying this all wrong but I’m talking about the time the Sun is about to dip for the night and catches a full moon in just that right angle.
Then we get the acoustic Stephen Marley duet, which honestly just sticks a fork in me. For a long time this song dictated my standards of romance.
Song after smooth song, each one remarkable, culminate with one of my favorite songs ever, “Green Eyes”. This ten minute, three part epic begins with a phonographic old-timey jazz intro that takes you right back to prohibition. For most musicians that go on TIny Desk, they play three or four songs, but when Erykah stepped up to the plate she played two songs. The first is the intro to her freshmen album Baduizm “Rim Shot”. Sweet short and sets the mood in the room. The second is Green Eyes. Everyone go watch this right now. Here Badu takes control of the entire concert with one song. If people didn’t know the tune they might think she’s stringing along three different songs, but this is one firm true song that gives you everything you’ll ever need in times of despair. Maybe not everything but I do love me a hyperbole.
This album has been with me for over two decades now, and it’s never the same listen. I understand things now in my forties that I would’ve never caught in my twenties. But also my twenties live in this album. The love affairs, the heartbreaks, the striving and growing and aches and bumps and the whole thing. This album is a love letter to growth. Or at least that’s what I’m getting from it. I
love it. Please give it a listen friends. It’s amazing.
Thanks for joining me for another Sunday Morning Record. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and have a great week.
