My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.

Posts Written By L Parker Brown

An Open Letter to President Obama

by on ·Lifestyle and Culture, Politics

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Dear Mr. President,

I, like many of my friends, was disappointed to hear you publicly announce your support for gay marriage. This is not an anti-gay commentary and it may sound hackneyed when I say that I have gay friends, but I do. Perhaps it is because of those friendships that I better understand how homosexuals feel about entitlement, civil liberties and why gay partners want to marry to have the same rights afforded heterosexual married couples, but just as they have their opinion I have mine and I cannot in good conscience support same sex marriage. As much as I resist agreeing with Mitt Romney on anything, I share his belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.

The current issue of Newsweek magazine features you on the front cover with a rainbow halo above your head. Unlike many people I know, I do not believe that your “coming out” on the matter of gay marriage was sincere. I think it was

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Remembering the Multi-generational Chuck Brown

by on ·Baby Boomers

Chuck Brown died yesterday. Brown, also called the “Godfather of Go Go,” was a Washington, DC legend and a 2010 Grammy Award nominee whose unique mix of funk, soul, jazz and Latin music transcended generations. Sometime during the 1970s, Brown’s style of music, as well as that of a few other local bands in the nation’s capital, came to be called go-go, and a popular line in some circles was — if you don’t know about Go-Go, then you don’t know DC.

Brown, as recognizable by his gold front tooth as for his style of music, was born in 1936. Although he was a Great Depression era baby, originally from Gaston, North Carolina, when he became a master of go-go in the DMV (District, Maryland and Virginia), he captured the hearts of many of the local teenaged offspring of Baby Boomer parents, and some of his tunes won the admiration of Boomer parents as well; even before the rest of the country knew who he was.

From the time my son was about 16, he was a fan of Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers, but because go-go music sometimes attracted a troublesome crowd, I tried to discourage his attendance at local go-go events.

My concern about the violence associated with go-go was expressed

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Thank A Mother — Revisited

by on ·General, Lifestyle and Culture

If you are in a relationship with — or married to — a man who you love because he respects you, provides for you, and treats you like his queen – thank his mother. While no rule of behavior is set in stone, there is much truth to the adage that the way a man treats his mother reflects on how he will treat you.

We’ve all overheard conversations among women where the subject is mother-bashing — not their own mother, but his. Some women feel that they have exclusive rights to the man in their life, whether he is their husband or longtime boyfriend, and they view his mother as the “other woman.”  Perhaps it never occurs to those anxious women that

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A Tribute to American Bandstand and Soul Train: Rock and Soul

by on ·Baby Boomers, Entertainment, Music, Nostalgia

Many Boomers bemoaned the loss of  Dick Clark, the 82 years young, 30-year host of “American Bandstand” who died of a heart attack on April 18. Two months earlier on February 1, Don Cornelius, the original “soul man” and long-time host of the nationally syndicated “Soul Train” was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 75.  In spite of the fact that Clark was white and Cornelius black, their “rock and soul” music and dance programs attracted fans of all ages across racial lines and there is hardly a Boomer alive who does not remember them.

“American Bandstand“ became regular viewing at our home sometime in the late 1950s, when my dad – who loved to dance – discovered the show while switching channels in search of a Randolph Scott or John Wayne western. In a few weeks, I too had become a loyal “Bandstand” fan. And years afterward, I looked forward annually to watching “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve.” As I was to learn, so too did many of my friends.

One New Year’s Eve, in the late 1970s, I was hosting a party in my apartment. My guests were dancing all over the place to a funky tune by Earth, Wind and Fire. At around 11:45 p.m. someone lowered the volume on the stereo (to the delight of my neighbors, I’m sure), and then switched on the television set. Everyone stopped dancing long enough to gather around the TV for the balldrop and countdown, and we all joined Dick Clark and the Times Squares revelers in a rousing “Happy New Year!”

In 1971, when “Soul Train” rolled onto the airways, I climbed on board. Cornelius, the train’s metaphoric conductor and literal host had viewers nationwide trying to imitate the fancy dance moves of Damita Jo Freeman, Joe Chisum, Patricia Davis and other members of the “Soul Train Gang.” In its early days, as the kids today might say it – “Soul Train” rocked!

Cornelius fans can only wonder what demons led him to take his own life, but when yours truly thinks of the soul man’s last moments on this earth, I imagine him signing off with his signature catchphrase, “In parting, I wish you love, peace and soooul!”

It seems ironic that both Cornelius and Clark, two men who brought so much musical entertainment and joy to the Boomer generation would die within months of each other. They were a dynamic duo of rock and roll — and rock and soul — and they made us get up and dance.

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