The 27 Club: Fuzzy Needle’s Friday newsletter
Greetings Fuzzy Needle friends,
Hope everyone enjoyed the wintry weather last weekend. There’s been a few moments over the years where I look around and realize how special Wilmington is, and usually, it’s been when downtown is buried in snow. I love walking to Bespoke and sitting outside with Carrie and Alec, watching people slide around on boogie boards. Also seeing snow on the beach. That’s one of the coolest things ever.
It’s already February 6th! It’s the beginning of Black History Month. We’ve been putting some great records, books, and other works by Black visionaries on our shelves, and I’ll be spotlighting a selection of them in this week’s recommendations.
It’s also the day before my 27th birthday. Usually I get really freaked out round this time, often because I haven’t accomplished as much as I wanted to. This year, I feel a sense of almost preternatural calm — in part because I knocked off a couple of cool life changes this year, I think. But also because I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the 27 Club, and specifically, the way we valorize young, gifted, and troubled artists.
You know, I was twelve years old when Amy Winehouse died. I hardly knew who she was at the time. But now, as an adult who knows her work inside and out, I’m angry beyond words that we lost her. Sometimes I’ll be listening to Frank, and I’ll think about her noodling around with these jazz standards, and rolling crappy little joints at 19, and how excited she was to be alive and making music, and I’ll get so enraged that I have to cut it off and drive in silence. You could say I feel that we’ve been cheated out of a long, illustrious musical life — maybe one day she would have covered Betty Carter, or done a crazy dub thing with Fun Boy Three, or featured on a Minions soundtrack. But what hurts more is that she herself was cheated out of this life; of all the satisfaction that comes with making art for decades instead of only for years.
Some music fans have a grim notion that musicians like Amy Winehouse sensed they were destined for early graves, and were thus inspired to produce as much as they did early on. I think that’s dumb. I think when you’re in the throes of addiction, your early death definitely feels predetermined. But everything is a collision of choices and forces. She was neither helpless to the whims of the universe, nor wilfully chose her end. She was a musician and a star, but also a person, and she died. At 27 years old.
I hope all of our talented young artists live long, and have plenty of crazy career arcs — divorce albums, yacht rock phases, going country, and so on. Not because they owe it to us, but because they owe it to themselves. Tomorrow, I’m gonna eat a steak frites and re-read that Eve Babitz essay about Janis Joplin. (You can read it here, starting on page 272.) I’ll feel content with the stuff I’ve done, and excited for the things I’m gonna do.
Now, a selection of great Black artists you should read and listen to this month…
Eccentric Soul: The Shoestring Label - Various artists
This release from Numero Group spotlights the “cosmic midwestern disco” out of a small record company in Alton, Illinois. The producer and drummer Howard Neal founded that company — called the Shoestring Label — in 1978, and would go on to release a bunch of really nifty funk 45s. Neal passed away last month after this record came out. Here’s a writeup about his very cool life.
Moving Target - Gil Scott-Heron
The 1982 release from an inimitable spoken word poet and his backing band the Amnesia Express. My favorite track is “Washington, D.C.”
Legacy: The Greatest Hits Collection - Boyz II Men
Real music. Yes it includes the duet with Mariah Carey. And it’s purple.
Jamal at the Pershing, Volume Two - Ahmad Jamal
I highly recommend this record because it’s beautiful - Jamal is the first jazz musician that really got me to appreciate the piano as an instrument - but I also secretly hope no one buys it because I love listening to it in the shop.
Space 1.8 - Nala Sinephro
A truly gorgeous minimalist work from the Belgian-Caribbean artist. Her mod synth setup is something to behold. If you’re into Shabaka Hutchings’ new music, I’d check this record out too.
Some great 33 1/3s - Various writers
Three of the 33 1/3s we have in the shop right now are about Black artists. First is James Brown’s Live at the Apollo, 1962, which I’m listening to now. Next is Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, one of the most influential alternative hip hop albums ever. Finally, it’s Faith Pennick’s deep dive into D’Angelo’s Voodoo. I’ve read that one cover-to-cover, and thought it was a great piece of music writing.
Sorcerer - Miles Davis
Yup, that’s Cicely Tyson on the cover. And check out the liner notes:
Awesome.
Museum - Rita Dove
Dove was the United States’ first Black poet laureate (1993-1995) and the second Black poet to receive a Pulitzer Prize. We’ve got a really nice edition of her 1983 collection Museum here at Fuzzy.
Tremor - Teju Cole
The second novel from the Nigerian-American writer Teju Cole. He’s also a photographer, and I think that really comes through in his writing — he seems really good at evoking discrete, detailed images.
Olio - Tyehimba Jess
Jess fuses journalism, poetry, fiction, ethnography, and more into this book, which both documents and dramatizes the lives of Black entertainers from Reconstruction on. His subjects include the performers and conjoined twins Millie and Christine McKoy, who were born into slavery in Whiteville in 1851. Olio can be a harrowing read at times, but it’s also a testament to the strength, talents and humanity of Black American artists. I’m really glad I read it.
