The April 2019 Spotify Playlist: The Bus Stop

Occasionally, I’ll inject a theme into the monthly playlist. This month is one of those months.

As any of my readers surely know by now, I don’t own a car, which means I frequently and proudly use public transit. In Cleveland, that means the bus. And when you take the bus, that means you spend some time at the bus stop.

The April playlist features recurring riffs on the classic R&B track “(Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop” by the Fatback Band. There’s the original 1976 disco single, the 2018 remix/edit by Joey Negro, a 2016 version from Baz Luhrmann’s Netflix series The Get Down featuring Sarah Ruba, and a 2018 sampling of the Fatback/Ruba version called “Like Sugar” from Chaka Khan’s new release. All fabulous.

Tucked in there is a completely different “bus stop” track called “The Chicago Bus Stop” by the legendary Salsoul Orchestra. Astute listeners and fans of the Salsoul sound will recognize that it’s basically a reworking of the Salsoul classic “Ooh, I Love It,” which has been sampled by everyone under the sun over the decades, perhaps most famously by Madonna for “Vogue.”

Other than that, the list continues my usual pattern with random picks of new and old from several genres and vibes. Fans of Deee-Lite will recognize the baseline from “Groove Is In the Heart,” which was sampled from Herbie Hancock’s score for Michelangelo Antonioni’s seminal 1966 film Blow-Up. The original track is an outtake called “Bring Down the Birds.”

That’s it. Listen, subscribe, take what you want, and leave the rest. And do the Bus Stop.

Happy Spring!

George

April 2019 Playlist

Further listening…

Feel free to dive into the complete playlist archive on Spotify and The Men’s Shop Playlist, a growing eclectic mix of classics that I would play in my fantasy men’s store or barbershop.