Vintage Dressing Gown, My room (littered with apparel)
Scene:
My bedroom. A month's worth of clothes is littered around the room. The details of several nights past (opened makeup, empty glasses, and shoes) have become a part of the tapestry of the room, my life even.
Strangely, I am at my best in the middle of this kind of mess. It gives me something to figure out, overcome, not care about. It is at times like these that I hold myself together and say: "Its just me".
The inspiration for the photo that comprises the banner of this blog is from an album that truly captures this place of self-acceptance and self-neglect, Jerry Butler's "Suite for the Single Girl".
I completely stumbled on this album while roaming around in DC one summer. I was in search of whatever cute clothes and shoes I could get downtown while I waited for my mom (Triple OD, more about her later) to join me on the hunt for cheap stuff. Of course I was also going through some kind of drama. Probably some kind of romantic tug of war, the endless musings of a 25 year old woman who is still figuring it out. I ducked into Kemp Mill Music and started digging through the used CD bin. I love going to old school music stores when I am home in DC. It always makes me think of being 15 or 16 and the joy I got out of taking metro, hooking up with my friends, and pretending I knew something about some Incognito or Maxwell. (*sigh*) Anyway, I picked up this CD that day and just gave a quick once over to the title but was totally mesmerized by the cover art.
Here in this image was my life. A girl with a greasy lunch bag and a designer clutch. Simultaneously hood, and yet still refined. It also helped that I'm obsessed with 1970's era Gucci and my dream is to own a collection of vintage clutches like the one in the picture. So, of course I bought it, if only for the art work.
At the time, I was just beginning my job as a full time educator, making a little more money but still nursing a mean love hangover and a lingering cloud of doubt. What if nobody else ever saw me the way I see myself? I threw the album on one day while cleaning and had to stop. When I heard Jerry sing: " This is dedicated to all the single girls, just to speak about some of the problems they have in this world. Brown paper bags and telephone pages, books on life as seen by sages, yet she can't understand, wish she could make a bigger salary or find a Mr. Right to marry, Oh lord if she can..."
The whole album sounds like a wise older man speaking directly to his neice, daughter, or even to a former young paramour (don't get it twisted). Somehow Butler, known as the "Ice Man", melds the blues, disco, and smooth northern soul into an offering that you will definitely not get unless you been there.
Favorite tracks on the album:
"Suite for the Single Girl"
"I Wanna Do It To You" - Classic 1970's quiet storm style soul. Butler's voice just has that "old man flava" though, so be careful when he gets to the bridge. Gets me every time.
"Ms. Fine" - Because the lyrics are so great, perfect for gals who like to blend beauty and brains. "She likes to dabble in, music and art, but secretly she would like to be, a model in Paris, a dancer in Spain, a fashion designer with her own private plane, a corporate lawyer who's a girl on the go..." Yeah, he described you like that. :)
"Chalk It Up" - This one is precisely for when you need a pep talk to get out of the bed and back into the world after a break-up. "Chalk it up, to experience baby, call it education..." My favorite part is the classic soul interlude at the end when Jerry talks to the single girls of the world, listen and get schooled. Oh and the beat is a perfect disco thump, replete with a funky bassline.
"You Gotta Believe Me" - What if, just what if, a man sang a love song to a woman on the verge? "You gotta believe in you, baby..." Love song meets inspirational hymn.
Fin.
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