DJJD Volume 14

Created By:  Jonathan Dysart (DJJD)

Original Creation Year:  2005

Year of Re-master:  2010

Song Listing

Side A

1.    Theme from Shaft:  Issac Hayes

2.    Funkytown (Long Version):  Lipps Inc.

3.    Car Wash:  Rose Royce

Side B

4.    Sir Duke: Stevie Wonder

5.    Down in Mexico:  The Coasters

6.    Space Race:  Billy Preston

7.    Tell Me Something Good:  Chaka Khan & Rufus

8.    The Sound of Philadelphia:  MFSB

Side C

9.    Papa was a Rolling Stone:  The Temptations

10. Love Rollercoaster:  Ohio Players

11. Play that Funky Music:  Wild Cherry

12. Outta-Space: Billy Preston

Side D

13. Got to Give It Up:  Marvin Gaye

14. Tired of Being Alone:  Al Green

15. Easy:  The Commodores

16. Living for the City:  Stevie Wonder

Origin of the Album

              During the time when I was working on DJJD Volume 13, one late Friday night, I was bored and started watching some of the half hour TV Ads.  There was nothing else left to watch at that time. 

            While flipping through the channels, I came across a TV Ad for Time Life CD collection.  Usually it would be like “The Best of the 50’s”, “The Best of Soft Rock”, or “The Best Guitar Rock”.  This day, it was “The Best of Soul Music”.  I ran to get a paper and pen, and I started writing all the songs as possible that they were scrolling through and previewing.

            I thought that this was a good idea to make an album.  I had enough songs on the list to fit or start an album, including songs that I remember that I remembered that were not advertised.  I was hitting a creative block at the time, and DJJD Volume 13 was a bit harder to do than usual.  Therefore, I decided to put the list on the back burner until I finished up with my current project.

            It was simple as that.

Concept and Theme of the Album

            This one was simple and clearer than the others.  Similar to the “Country” album DJJD Volume 10 and the “Female” album DJJD Volume 12, I planned to make a “Soul” album.  The album would be almost completely African-American artists, except for one song, and the songs had to be funky with a little bit of disco.

            When I remastered this album, I decided to add a twist to the order of the album.  By adding the song “Car Wash” by Rose Royce and grouping it with “Theme from Shaft” by Issac Hayes and “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc., I decided to fade in and out those three songs together using my Roxio software, thus making it sound like it was performing in a live club.  It added some “kick” and improved the album considerably, especially the addition of “Down in Mexico” by The Coasters.

Concept and the Album Cover

          To me, the most popular symbol of “Soul Music” is the famous animated train on the American musical variety show “Soul Train”.  I just basically found a picture through the internet of the famous train on a vinyl record album.  I took the black groove sections away and kept the center record label.  From there, I basically “plasma”-ized the picture with other color manipulations, added a neon album title, and placed it on a dark blue background. 

            When remastering this album, I wanted the album cover to be more colorful.  Therefore I replaced the album title with a bigger and bolder font – done in a rainbow fashion.  I then enhanced the coloring of the train and placed that center on a brighter and colorful background, which came from another “Soul” compilation album.

            I wanted the back album cover to be as funky as possible.  So, I took a computer generated disco floor and warped it, and added the album title and song listings in two fonts, all using reflective metallic and rainbow texture.