Black History Month: Michael McDonald

Don't lie to me, child! You know when you first heard Michael McDonald you thought he was BLACK! I know I did.  It wasn't until I saw him and the Doobie Brothers on "What's Happening!" that I was hit in the face with reality: HE is WHITE! Michael McDonald should make white people from Boston to Bejing proud! That's one blue-eyed soul brotha! The man is as soulful as a pot of collard greens after a 4 hour praise-a-thon at a Black Baptist church in the heart of downtown Tuskegee.

I love, love, love Michael McDonald. I had the pleasure of seeing him in Montgomery in 2011 with my dear friend Priscilla. She was so quick on the Ticket Master draw that we sat close enough to feel the floor vibrate when MikeMc rocked side to side like Ray Charles in an earthquake. It was a magical night!

The list of hit songs this man has written and SANG, and I mean, SANG, is ginormous. Michael McDonald is a true Black History pioneer. Michael was in a band named after the marijuana long before high ass Rick James (RIP) concocted the Mary Jane Girls in his glitter-braided head, and as students of Black History, we all know being the first Black person to do something can sometimes be a bad thing---see: first black dude to die in every war, first black dude to try to fly the airplane, and first black dude to hold a grenade.. But, in Michael McDonald's case white America gained the bragging rights to "first white dude to totally fool black people into thinking he was black because he was in a band named after reefer and white folks just don't name bands after reefer, so he's gotta be black, because that is straight up gangsta take that Billy Ocean!"

Whip out your James Earl Jones Voice for this one, chirren, as we salute the BLACKEST SOUNDING WHITE MAN OF THEM ALL, Mr. Michael " I BET HE GOT A SECRET BLACK GRANDDADDY! " McDonald :

Source: Wikipedia

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, McDonald played in several local bands (such as Mike and the Majestics, Jerry Jay and the Sheratons, the Reeb-Toors, the Del Rays and The Guild) while attending McCluer High School in his hometown of Ferguson, Missouri, now a city of some 25,000 people in St. Louis County, Missouri. McDonald was discovered while playing with a group called Blue and consequently moved toLos Angeles in 1970.

McDonald was recruited by the band The Doobie Brothers in April 1975 when lead singer Tom Johnston became ill during a national tour. His time with the band proved so successful that they decided to retain him as a full time member.

As a member of the Doobie Brothers he recorded some of his best-known songs such as "Real Love", "Takin' It to the Streets", "Little Darling", "It Keeps You Runnin'", "Minute by Minute" and "What a Fool Believes" (which became a number one single in the U.S. and earned him a 1980 Grammy Award for Song of the Year along with co-writer Kenny Loggins). At the same time he appeared as a session singer and piano player for artists such as Christopher Cross, Stephen Bishop, Jack Jones, Bonnie Raitt, the rock band Toto and Kenny Loggins.

Trying to pick my favorite Michael McDonald son is like trying to pick my favorite child: Yeah, I have one, but depending on my mood, it could change... So, Yah-Mo-Be on YouTube trying to watch them all...

Here's a bootleg of Michael singing  the  CLASSIC Teddy Pendergrass hit Love T.K.O.

Doing a slow roll dance, wavin' my hands in the air like my Granny at church,yall! Sing it, Michael! Sang that song, BABY!!!

Because I am the "Food Stamp President" of YouTube bootlegs, here is Michael and the Doobies  "Minute By Minute"...with CHORDS, so you can get off welfare and start a band...

That man's voice is like hot buttered CORNBREAD!

I love Black History Month!!!!  I love Michael McDonald, the George Washington Carver of the keyboards!

Black History Month: Billy Vera

Ahhh, 1985... a year in the 80's. Family Ties was one of my favorite shows...."What would I do baby, without your love..Shalalalaaaaa" Well, sing, y'all! It can't be a sing-a-long, if I'm doing all the vocal acrobatics!

When Alex P. Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox, finally declared his love for Ellen, Fox's real-life wife, Tracey Pollen, a beautiful, pensive love song swelled in the background. The brotha singing that song made anyone watching want to fall head first into a big old tub of LOVE!

The song was "At This Moment" and  it became the soundtrack for young republicans and democrats falling in love. It was played on both Black radio stations, both country stations, and Y-102, the pop station with the best stereo sound  in Montgomery, Alabama.

Today we salute Black History Pioneer,  Billy Vera, writer and singer of a song that brought Blacks and whites together with one goal: let's fall in love!  Damn, I thought that dude was black. Nope. He is white. He's a credit to his race.  Vera's voice is  "Sexual White Chocolate."



You must read this in your Barry White, Right On, Right On Voice:   (Source: Wikipedia)

Vera was born in Riverside, California. He began his singing career in 1962 as a member of the Resolutions. He went on to write severalsongs throughout the early 1960s, writing for the likes of Barbara Lewis, Fats Domino, The Shirelles and Ricky Nelson. He also wrote the garage band classic, "Don't Look Back", performed by the Remains.


 In 1985, a producer from the TV show Family Ties was in the audience to hear the band play "At This Moment." The song was featured in the fall of 1985 as a backdrop for romantic interludes between characters Alex (Michael J. Fox) and Ellen (Tracy Pollan). Viewers responded by clamoring for the song, and in 1986, Rhino Records released By Request: The Best of Billy Vera & the Beaters, which featured the song. The single became a number one hit in its re-release,^[2] and remained on the charts for 15 weeks.

We salute you Billy Vera, Drum Major for Justice,  for making us fall in love..

By the way, in 1985 I was bad in love with a short, white republican, too.** He broke my heart. He broke up with me outside of the lunchroom at Sidney Lanier High School. I played this cassette over and over on my Walkman until it snapped from the searing white heat of my pain. *sniff*  I had to bootleg me a copy off of Y-102, WHHY-FM's countdown with dj Phil "The Fish" Horton. You kids today have it easy! You can bootleg with one click of a mouse, but we had to work hard to steal  download music. We had to hold a tape recorder up to the radio and try not to breathe while we were bootlegging ---while walking backwards uphill in the snow!  Y'all are too damned spoiled ! 


** I am now married to a very tall white republican, but I won't let him near a high school lunchroom. Y'all know what President Lincoln said about history repeating itself. 


By the way to the second power, watch this all the way until the end. The dude sounds like Snoop Dog  giving a keynote at a Glaucoma Retreat.