How Deep Is The Ocean? How Far Is A Journey To The Sun?

Monae Take-OFF.  Image: Billboard.

Thought I'd post a quickie about a song i'm really deeply in love with right now--How Deep Is The Ocean? I was hovering above the Atlantic when i discovered (hee-hee, my post-colonial nod to soappropriate use of that word, LoL) Eric Clapton's cover--LOVE that man!  And how much inspiration do stylish divas Janelle Monae and Corrine Bailey Rae (L, Image: New York Post) sound out in the curve and shape of their haunting voices and thought provocative fashion?  Am especially thinking of everything said and left unsaid by Monae's tux-lux uniform.  I wonder tho, what does she rock up wearing in the morning to pick up a carton of milk? Monae's Tightrope is SICKness incarnate but Sincerely, Jane leaves me in a cold shiver that's disturbingly beautiful.  Corrine's I'd Do It All Again is heart-wrenching. I'm actually quoting the collective maw of Youtube's comment section (apparently the maw is not always gaping), "Wow, I think I could actually cry my entire body weight worth of tears, everything to do with her and this performance is so beautiful it's actually heartbreaking." 

But of course I gotta stuff your earlobes with something ancient and real proper. KoKOFIFI is seriously, completely and utterly heartsore for anything recorded by Alan Lomax, circa early 20th Century. His recordings of Negro Prison Songs (try I don't want no bald headed woman/cuz she too mean/Oh Lord/She too mean by Southern African-American prisoners) leave me in a fix; anything by Bessie Jones makes you want to soar (not to mention making Moby's career!)  and The Macintosh County Shouters' "Move Daniel" is a real live jive that'll zap something raw outta you.