Hamilton Bohannon was already such a legend on the drums in 1981 that the Tom Tom Club– an outgrowth of Talking Heads– immortalized him on their now classic record, “Genius of Love.” See below, at 2:22 in the video. Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon.

Bohannon died today in Georgia at age 78. Starting in 1975 he was Stevie Wonder’s touring drummer, and became famous for his Motown band that played with all their acts that were on the road through the mid 80s. He was also a recording artist on his own, with hits on urban radio. Foot Stompin Music and Let’s Start the Dance were the two big ones.
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Even if you hated disco in the mid 70s (as I did) you couldn’t deny or get away from Bohannon, whose music I would say was more funk than disco. There wasn’t a club you’d walk into without hearing him. I have no doubt he’s been sampled countless times by rappers. Many of the beats you hear today or over the last 20 years came from Bohannon. The website WhoSampled counts at least 126 instances of Bohannon music “interpolated” into contemporary recordings.

Also, I loved his album covers. RIP.

Below you can listen to Rose McGowan’s sort of electronic dance music album, “Planet 9.” Here is my review: this the album cousin Serena always wanted to make on “Bewitched.” Since Rose played a witch on “Charmed Lives,” this all makes sense. Is it good? You can’t apply these mundane judgments. That “Planet 9” is digital only and is self-released says it all.

However, Rose has written liner notes:
Hello, I appreciate you taking the time to read this. I’m Rose McGowan and for a long time, I worked in a strange place called Hollywood. Being an actress was my day job, but behind the scenes I was honing my skills as a multi-media artist, writer and thought leader. After realizing I’d worked on sets for over 57k hours, I knew it was time to assert my own voice, so I directed a short film called Dawn which was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. After Dawn, I began a three-year writing project, my book, BRAVE. While writing about my life and thoughts on society, I needed to create art that would be soothing. I’d always loved using my voice, it was my favorite part of performing. When I was a small child going through tough times, I created a utopian world in my mind and I named it Planet 9. I felt safe on this invented planet of mine. I also used to wonder what sounds existed on my planet. As life went on, I forgot about how special my planet was, I forgot I could go there in times of trouble. Six years ago, astronomers found a new planet they named Planet 9 – It’s the new planet that demoted Pluto to a star. Holy s! They found my Planet 9! Around the same time, I met some French electronic musicians and I decided to make music that has the power to lift your spirit. I know this, art heals. Planet 9 takes you on a very special journey. I am not trying to be a pop star, I will not be performing this album. By using my knowledge of cinema sound design, I carefully created the sounds and words for a better place, an unknown world in our own mind that we can all travel to. Planet 9 is an artistic endeavor that I hope will help others meditate in a unique way. Let go, come to Planet 9.

Fetch the Champagne!

Fiona Apple’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” sold 30,000 albums and paid downloads this week. Apple’s fifth album since 1996 sold the most of any release, almost three times as many as the album by Da Baby (who will not be here in 26 years. Or months, maybe.)

Even so, “Bolt Cutters” finished in fourth place because it had little streaming– just 15,000 copies’ worth. Da Baby (yes. him again) streamed the equivalent of 115,000 copies. Plus his 11,000 downloads. So he wins. The Weeknd’s hit album, “After Hours,” finished in second place.

Fiona’s “hit” (30,000 copies is like nothing, really) was nevertheless a success for Sylvia Rhone at Epic Records. It was very well marketed. I mean, Fiona Apple? How they pulled that off, I’ll never know.

Will “Bolt” cutters even sell 250,000 copies in its lifetime? Who knows? I’m sure it will get Grammy nominations, as will The Weeknd’s record. If we have the Grammys. Good lord.

This week’s top 100 even with streaming was another low in the history of sales charts. Without each week’s new number 1, there would be no chart. Nothing is selling. Everything is stagnant. But at least the Rolling Stones are number 1 on iTunes today.

Billy Porter has camped it up so much the last couple of years that we almost forgot why he won a Tony Award. He’s actually a very talented singer.

Now he’s recorded a cover of Stephen Stills’s Buffalo Springfield classic “For What It’s Worth.” Billy’s dumped the artifice and gotten serious on this one, and it’s a relief. Even Stills gave approval. The song is produced by Zack Arnett (not the football player/coach) for Arnett Music and executive produced by Bill Butler and Carmen Cacciatore for The Butler Music Company Inc.

Let’s hope if Billy performs this somewhere, it’s not in a gold lame dress. This is too good to have distractions.

Actually I did find a video of him performing the song at Cyndi Lauper’s house last December. That version, and then the better studio version, follow:

The live album Taylor Swift was carping about yesterday it out and available at least on Spotify.

“Live from Clear Channel Stripped 2008” is streaming but it’s only on some platforms. It has a copyright 2020 Big Machine Records.

Swift is furious that Big Machine would issue such a record without her permission. But Big Machine owns her masters and catalog, so they can do whatever they want.

This sort of thing is part of the record industry tradition, it’s been going on for decades. That’s how we got Elton John’s “Here and There” live album in the mid 70s. Elton said in his book recently that he hated it, but I always liked. Best version of “Crocodile Rock.”

Anyway, Taylor will just have to Shake it Off and move on. Big Machine seems like they’re going to do more of these, so let’s get used to it.