Graham Central Station
Today’s Artist
The inventor of slap bass, gained funk fame with Sly Stone
Larry Graham invented slap bass. He played with Sly Stone before forming his own band. The bass became a lead instrument. His band was pure energy. ... he showed that the bass could be the star. More →
Back of the Catalog Selection
30 sec
funk soul
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gospel
Who Did It Better
Knocks Me Off My Feet
Stevie Wonder 1976
Stevie Wonder
Luther Vandross 1999
Luther Vandross
Stevie wrote about love arriving without any warning, unexpected, unannounced. Luther Vandross sang the same experience like a conversation between people who had both lived through enough things to finally recognize the real thing when it knocked and just walked right in completely without asking.
Today’s Record
My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)
My lovin' is never gonna get it.
Album art

A guitar riff. A warning. Four women who'd spent their career proving they could out-sing anyone, and a song that made the case definitively. 30 sec is En Vogue telling you no with a groove so funky you can't even be mad about it. No, you're never gonna get it. Number two on the Hot 100. A dismissal. A masterclass. A dare.

Today’s Theme
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You’re Kidding, Right
The Meters' 'Cissy Strut' was entirely improvised in the studio on the first take. No rehearsal, no chart, no plan -- they just hit record and invented New Orleans funk on the spot. That one take became the blueprint for an entire genre. No second thoughts, no revisions. Just pure, spontaneous groove.
Soul in the Movies
Love Jones 1997
Love Jones Love Jones is the Black romantic drama that understood the assignment. Larenz Tate and Nia Long, Chicago in the nineties, and a soundtrack built on neo-soul and spoken word. The film is about artists, about the spaces between words, about what happens when two people too smart for their own good fall for each other. Maxwell's 'Sumthin' Sumthin'' plays during the conversation that changes everything. Love Jones. The music is the third lead.
The Sunday Drop
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Image Credits

1,414 artist portraits across 5 genres (Rock, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Folk). 1,363 sourced from Wikipedia (Creative Commons / Public Domain), 50 from Deezer (promotional artwork).

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