Donny...

23.01.03

Not Osmond. Hathaway. I first discovered Donny Hathaway by the humble means of an excellent compilation series called "Blaxploitation," a four-volume set (two CDs per volume) made up of - you guessed it - songs from Blaxploitation films of the 60's and 70's. That means we're talking about the original "Shaft" or the original "Superfly," and not the scammy 90's and 2000 remakes. This series of CDs has probably influenced my musical collection to date more than any other lone source. I recommend to anybody interested in soul, disco, funk, and their offshoots, to invest in at least one of the volumes. Even if you know every artist on the back cover, the combination of songs is so well done that it is worth the money. Even in these file-sharing program days.

Donny Hathaway's first single, "The Ghetto," has remained a permanent in my playlist ever since I discovered the song six or seven years ago. It is an excellent song to walk around town to: it is upbeat, funky, and musically just amazing.

Donny has remained a bit of a lesser-known figure in the music history (besides his mediocre hit featured here, and a few bigger hits in the form of duets with another well-known star of the times, Roberta Flack) probably because his career was cut short by a mysterious suicide - he jumped off the 15th floor of the Essex Hotel in New York at a point when his career was just getting moving. He was 34 years old.

But don't think about that while you're listening to the song. Put it on your headphones, go walking around town. I guarantee you, you'll be smiling to yourself throughout the whole thing. You'll walk with a little extra bounce in your steps or swing in your hips. You'll wonder why the hell you were stressing so much about whatever it was you had been stressing about. This song does that to me every time. Somehow "The Ghetto" makes the whole world move to its beat.

Download it here: - Donny Hathaway - The Ghetto - download no longer available, contact me to find out how to get it.