VB’s A DJ, Life and MORE!

I’m going through a lot of serious yet incredibly stupid shit right now. (Divorce, life!) One of the few things that can snap me out of it, at least temporarily, is music. For years, I’ve kept monthly playlists of whatever’s in rotation, along with songs and artists I want to dive deeper into. So many of these songs have an aesthetic that triggers my heart and/or brain to a more positive state.

I’m sharing with you my January and February YouTube/YT Music playlists, along with my current March ‘25 mix that I will keep adding to until April, when I start a new one. I’m always amazed at how much music I still haven’t heard, but also at how often I go back to the same songs. Repeated listens of familiar tracks must tap into some weird and/or safe comfort mechanism. The playlists also act as a journal because I can almost always remember where I was when I added a song or why I was listening to the track.

January ‘25 playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV95EIdLbL9jRui-CYKpKcQ7Wt70aA7o&si=uPV1yJKk2-RLWWk1 

February ‘25 playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV95EIdLbL_Gru8s-tz8Bd4KaEr22EKK&si=b8zlMNj8Il-ozImy

March ‘25 playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwV95EIdLbL8hQrrdzIAvvECPAOZNL0H7&si=kPlnhdpggC2se-8A 

Go ahead and dig through those playlists. Maybe you’ll find something new or rediscover a band you had forgotten about. You can even subscribe to the current one and see what I add to them in real time! Wow!

I’ve also completed a mix for your ears that I think you’ll dig. It started out with an eclectic variety but then went deeper into 70s soul, which I’ve been quite into over the past year. Loaded it up with some Marvin. Marvin Gaye is extremely fascinating to me. The more I read about him, the more I love that he was this eccentric artist who was massively successful, yet an oddball in life in many ways. I like that he’d write more openly about his demons as his career progressed, or regressed, depending how you look at it. Millions in debt to the IRS, a horrible drug dependency, a crippling divorce or two and a tragic ending inside his parent’s home where he had taken up residence in his final year even as Sexual Healing was a massive chart hit.

Marvin was married to Gordy Berry’s older sister, Anna. Berry Gordy, as you may know, was the founder of Motown. After their marriage became irreparable and Marvin was spending way too much money causing him to not make support payments to his ex-wife, the judge ordered royalties for his next record to be given exclusively to her. One would speculate that the record titled Here, My Dear would be half-assed and phoned in like the Van Morrison contract-obligated album or Todd Rundgren’s Tortured Artist Effect, but Marvin puts his all into it. It’s all personal subject matter and he sings his heart out. You can feel the emotion and pain, and at times, him coming to terms with it. It’s also an oddball album showcasing him to be a chaotic human like the rest of us. Highly recommend this album if you’re divorced or not. Here’s a cool track from it.

When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You https://youtu.be/IX-Kl7eUdf0?si=Bl1yY_JcS_qpn-9M 

I put 1981’s album track Funk Me Funk Me Funk Me by Marvin on this mix. I love the groove and the parts where he claps twice and shouts HEY HEY, but I’m obsessed with the bassline. I read somewhere it may have been Rick James playing it, considering his connection to Marvin and Motown, but I think it’s too complex for it to be Ricky Boy. The nutso bassline along with Mr. Gaye’s backing vocals really bring it together and take it to another level. I only recently gave his final albums a chance and I’m glad I did. There are some gems on them and 1981’s In Our Lifetime is a pleasant, funky listen all the way through even though Marvin was going through hell at this time.

There’s also an Isley Brothers tune I heard while I was out the other day. At first I thought it was Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin because it has the same chord at the start with a similar piano riff (an A chord with a B in the bass aka A/B). So naturally I tied those two tracks together in this mix. Also included a song by The Moments called Sexy Baby. They’re a fun group to put on shuffle. They’re somewhat bizarre at times, recording an album at a women’s state prison and at the Miss Black America Contest, an album of standards from 1972 that nobody asked for. I like the track they did with the Whatnauts called Girls where they sing about all the types of girls they like, even the “fatty girls.” The mild hit by the Moments that I added on here is from The Best Of The Moments LP that was misleadingly NOT a greatest hits record. They also released two albums the same year on two different record labels with both albums featuring unique tracks. I’m not a good business person but I would imagine the confusion hurt sales.

This soul-heavy mix has some Mizel Brothers-produced tracks like Places and Spaces by Donald Byrd and another Marvin Gaye track that was essentially a sequel to What’s Going On called Where Are We Going. Had they finished it, the album would have come out in between What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On, but record company and general life chaos contributed to it falling apart. I highly recommend any music with the Mizell Brothers attached to it. Love this Barry White track that builds and builds, Hard To Believe That I Found You and Rance Allen singing I Belong To You kills me every time. His voice was like none other. I guess it’s technically a gospel track, so GOD BLESS and AMEN. Makes me wanna testify! 

Enjoy the mix and let me know your favorites in the comments and suggest some music if you have anything cool you’ve been listening to!