#464: The Isley Brothers, '3 + 3'
T-Neck, 1973
This week has been a lot of me following, unfollowing, and then again following Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) on Instagram.
It’s been a lot of napping and taking melatonin so I can sleep at night. It has been a lot of “Nicolle, you’ve got this. Go to the gym, you need to fit into your jeans again.”
And finally, it has been a LOT of meditation and telling myself that I am just built differently while I walk in public spaces as the only masked patron.
I’ve been working on choosing dissociation instead of anger. I don’t know if that is better but it is easier on my immune system. Hopefully, I can move from disassociation to compassion for my fellow men eventually. We are not there yet but I *think* I am on that path?
This week has also been a lot of the Isley Brothers. They have been around — ohhhh baby, they have definitely been around hiding in the corners of my life — but I never gave them enough time.
After this week, The Isley Brothers are now the main attraction of my day. I cannot stop listening. Move over Kardashians, a new way of escaping the world entered the room: meet the album, ‘3 + 3.’
Woof, they are good and fun and interesting and strong and it seems like my adolescent playlists were all a bunch of cheap samples of the Isleys.
The biggest surprise in this album is that one of the best Mario songs in the world, “Nikes Fresh Out The Box,” samples the entire song, “You Walk Your Way.” And then Mario uses an interpolation of their song, “Shout.” The whole Nikes’ song is just a series of cuts and pastes of The Isley Brothers. Amazing. Clever AND fun.
Take a listen:
Mario was/is a fixture of the Okoren household. I sang “Nikes Fresh Out The Box” almost every day driving to Heritage High School in my red Ford Escort all dinged up from when my brother took the car off-roading. I felt cool. A little bit too cool for everything I was about at that time.
Yes, Mario rocks but it seems I’ve been caught in a little Cyrano de Bergerac love triangle.
I never loved Mario.
It has always been the Isley Brothers for me.
Even before I knew how to say their name, I loved them.
I think next week will be a lot of disassociation but also a lot of The Isley Brothers, I hope.
PS. I still love Mario but I am here for the drama so your Nicolle had to be a bit extreme up there.
Top songs: That Lady, Parts 1 & 2; You Walk Your Way; Listen To The Music; When It Comes Down To