When I declare bankruptcy, I hope the judge will allow me to name a co-respondent: a radio station in Detroit that’s leading me into financial ruin, 99 cents at a time. You see, Saturdays are all-old school on WGPR, and I rarely get through the day without tracking down some forgotten soul/R&B classic via the iTunes music store. Sometimes it seems they set a short mix on autopilot — I heard Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” twice in one morning a few weeks ago — but every so often they really dig deep in the library, and oh my, but you see then why Detroit is still a cool city, and always will be. I’m talking Motown tracks that never cracked the top 30, Memphis stuff from the Stax/Volt archive. Can’t forget the 103rd Street Rhythm Band, which sort of slipped into the mists of history once top-40 radio fragmented into formats.
Today’s find: “Tramp,” a Carla Thomas-Otis Redding duet that’s simply too wonderful to be believed.
Soon there will be no jingle in my jangle. But I’ll have lots of cool music to listen to.