Big Motown/R&B Friday V, Special Edition One of the side effects of having such a close-knit yoga family is that every so often somebody’s gotta go on walkabout or pursue their graduate studies or visit their actual genetic not-yoga family, and so we have to say goodbye to our friends.  This Friday is Sylvia and Yuri’s last Big Friday before they leave the city and they have requested a couple songs and styles, so this is what I’ve cooked up.  They are both so precious to me that I’m pretty close to rending my garments but I’ll settle for putting my back into it tonight at 4. decades and make it a bit less abrupt.

This was a challenging one since it spans several decades and although there is a fairly straight evolutionary channel from the older Motown to, say, Usher, the recording technologies and sound palette has changed so much, it’s pretty astonishing.  In this case I used Boyz II Men, Janet Jackson and Lionel Richie as my “missing links”, to brick in the intervening

So much of this genre showcases voices together [esp. the Boyz II Men stuff] and what better way to connect our yoga family together than with our voices…let’s all party this afternoon and send the ladies off right.

Marvin Gaye, “Let’s Get It On”

Diana Ross, “I’m Coming Out”

Mary J. Blige, “Family Affair”

Justin Timberlake, “Señorita”

Usher, “Yeah!” [This is one of those songs that M and I pointlessly resisted on the grounds that it was everywhere for about a year, until we finally both admitted to each other that we loved it]

Lionel Richie, “All Night Long [All Night]” [title redundancy sic]

New Edition, “Something About You”

The Isley Brothers, “Footsteps In The Dark [Part 1 & 2]”

Boyz II Men, “Just My Imagination [Running Away With Me]”

Raphael Saadig and Joss Stone, “Just One Kiss”

Diana Ross, “Reach Out And Touch”

D’Angelo, “Untitled [How Does It Feel]”

Diana Ross w/Lionel Richie, “Endless Love” [what can I say, Happy Gilmore was on MovieTime the other night]

Boyz II Men, “Ribbon in the Sky”

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