I know I give the somewhat misleading impression through my musical mentions that I only listen to Gil Scott Heron and Nina Simone. Anyway, lately my newest can't-stop-it-musical-addiction is "The Bottle" (from "Winter in America" 1973, a record I have elluded to elsewhere here). So good on so many levels. 1973 was a very good year all around (also the year of my birth!)

Coincidently I recently caught this track used in a commerical on Canada's VH1, Much More Music, for Black History Month. It's really sad that there needs to be a special month (the shortest month of the year no less) to promote education about a massive part of American History. Mind you I don't live in America and I can tell you that the most I was formally taught in public school about any sort of Black History, Canadian or otherwise was when my grade six teacher read "The Underground Railroad" to the class. But do kids in America get any sort of learning in this regard or is it all "There was slavery and then Martin Luther King Jr. The End."?