What kind of world

I spent most of the day ripping vinyl and looking at news and quasi-news, including some video of teabagger protests and Harry Allen's exposé of post-VMA twitter lunacy. I was feeling really dismayed at how shrill, irrational and intolerant a lot of the public discourse is when I got to recording this:



21st Century Ltd.: "What Kind of World Would This Be (If Ev'rybody in It Were Just Like Me)" (Beegee, 1972)

The 21st Century Ltd. had a pretty limited discography; after this single got picked up by Atco they appeared on the Blacula soundtrack and I think dropped the "Ltd." and recorded an album for RCA. This track's melody and vocal sound a lot like Sly Stone's "Somebody's Watching You". Speaking of which, I'd forgotten how good this cover is, especially the intro:



Wayne Davis: "Somebody's Watching You" (Atlantic, 1973)

Davis was a DC-area pianist and singer with a great voice-- he sounds uncannily like Ray Charles on some of his slower numbers. He later cut an LP on Black Fire.