Without a Dope Beat to step to. I heard that on the radio the other day and I thought what a great title for a post. It’s a line from the song “Try Again: by Aaliyah. It’s been over a month since I wrote a post. As a matter of fact, I’ve been putting a little extra time into getting one of my father’s songs sampled or re-recorded by a more current artist. The song was “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” written by my father in 1917. In 1919 A White lady named Marion Harris, one of the first White women to sing the “Blues”, recorded the song and it sold over a million copies. They probably thought the song was a dope beat, or groovy, or, no, they thought it was Jake, Jack. Though the beat was too mellow to step to, unless you knew how to do the foxtrot. Or maybe the ukulele version lent itself to dancing. Bessie Smith version is definitely “Bluesy”. Anywho, I and my friends are working at trying to come up with a version that would be more modern. The closest I’ve found is Salt N Pepa’s Whatta Man – “‘cuz good men are hard to find”.

Now this version is a good toe-tapper: Fats Waller

Most of the other versions are a lot slower. I’m thinking of possibly having someone do a hip-hop version ft. Lil somebody: “You gotta Hug him in the mornin’, kiss him at night, give him plenty lovin, shawty, treat your man right, ’cause “a good man is hard to find” girl, I said a good man is hard to find, so work your stuff, girl, dadadadaBOOM. ” It needs a dope beat.

We need a dope beat. Something to lift us out of the low spot we’ve been in this year due to the Pandemic. Not to mention Life’s other slings and arrows. Writing about and focusing on the things my father accomplished in his life puts a smile on my face. Some of the other songs he wrote have really funny titles, like: You Can Read my Letters, but You Sure Can’t Read My Mind”, Or this one he wrote with Clarence Williams, You’ve Got the Right Key, But the Wrong Keyhole. Can you imagine someone recording The Right Key today? Comedians would have a field day. Find something that makes you smile and share it with someone.

Stay safe, find a dope beat and step to it.

And thanks, for stopping by. 😉