A quick note to all of my (one or two) readers!

"I want a mixtape... but  wait, I already made one then stalked my ex-girlfriend with it..."

At the end of the month, I'll be compiling ALL of the songs for the month of September onto an easy to downloadable link! Why? So that you too can bask in the insane goodness of the songs I've been waving my arms about stupidly for the least 30 days from this liferaft just chock full of the songs that are worth keeping once you hit your desert island, like I have done tons of times in the past.

Around October 1st, look around here, you'll find it... and I hope you enjoy it!

Isaac Hayes - The Theme From "Shaft"

(There's nothing more to say but - I CAN DIG IT.)

1971. America was easy then. We had Tony Orlando & Dawn singing "Knock Three Times," we had The Bee Gees singing "How Do You Mend A Broken Heart." The only real 'controversal' song in music that year was "Indian Reservation" by The Raiders. A great song, but I was only 7 years old, so the only real song I remember from that time (sad to say) was The Osmonds "One Bad Apple." But then, a film came out in that summer that changed a lot of people's minds about so much. That film?

It was "Shaft," starring Richard Roundtree. And I know you're already remembering the bassline and the wah-wah pedal fury of the lead guitarist - and don't forget those high-hat drums and those tambourines. The horns drift in slowly, and then, a heavy bass voice appears...

Gordon Parks, the black photographer and media icon, had been chosen to direct a new movie dealing with "the black experience." He had helped in developing the 1971 film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," and since it made money (especially in the more 'urban' areas, in which most major studios never counted on), M-G-M wanted another money maker - I mean, film.

Gordon consulted with Melvin Van Peebles, the director of "Sweet Sweetback," for ideas. Melvin had heard thought of doing a white detective in the ghetto story, but then found a script floating around the M-G-M lot titled "Shaft," about a white detective in the ghetto. Gordon and Melvin took the basic premise, flipped the skin tone, and made a few minor changes. John Shaft as we know him now was born, a detective who wasn't gonna take any of The Man's bullshit and did things his way.

Although they had a shooting schedule, they had most of the actors lined up, they needed two things: a lead actor and a soundtrack. Melvin got to work. He looked to someone to compose the music, and it neede to be a tough and gritty score. Since they had used Earth Wind and Fire for "Sweeetback," they needed someone who could wrap their vocals over the title song as well, a theme song that was to establish John Shaft's role in the film as the hero.

Enter Issac Hayes.

Issac had been recording music for almost 20 years at that point. He had written many of the biggest soul songs of the sixties - "Soul Man" and "Hold On I'm Comin'" among them. He was more than eager to help out with the theme music for the film, but he promised to write and record the theme song only on one condition - if "Shaft" producer Joel Freeman promised him an audition for the lead role of John Shaft himself!

Meanwhile though, he got to work, as it was explained to him that the song had to familiarize the audience with him. Hayes recorded the rhythm parts on the theme first, scored the entire rest of the film, then returned to the theme song. (He never actually got to audition, but who knows how that might have turned out!) Eventually they found their lead in Richard Roundtree, they lined up the budget (a whole million dollars!) and in three very short weeks they had it in the can.

"Sweetback" had just began to fade from the urban movie houses when "Shaft" came out in July of 1971. Immediately, they were filled with people young and old who wanted to see The Man get his and John Shaft get his. The film was a runaway box-office success, eventually grossing twelve million dollars, and for 1971, this was huge.

The film begins with John Shaft walking down the ghetto streets as the music swells around him, and then the words in that song just explode off the screen into your ears:

Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks?
SHAFT!
Ya damn right!

Who is the man
That would risk his neck for his brother man?
SHAFT!
Can you dig it?

Who's the cat that won't cop out
When there's danger all about?
SHAFT!
Right on!

They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother
SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft.
THEN WE CAN DIG IT!

He's a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
JOHN SHAFT!

The song itself became unforgettable, and although it wasn't intended to be put out as a single, the success of the film and the popularity of the album's sales (and constant play in many black nightclubs) led to M-G-M quickly putting out a 45 record of the theme, released on Enterprise Records in September. By November it hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there two weeks.

In 1972 it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song from a movie. At the Oscars show that Feburary, Issac performed the song live wearing his trademark gold metal chain coat. Later that night the song won, and he accepted it in a rented tuxedo.

However... the story just doesn't end there.

In 1972, mainstream America still listened to the pap of pop: Nilsson's "Without You," Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," Sammy Davis Jr.'s "The Candy Man." All in all, life was pretty uneventful in the world, even though this little thing called Watergate had appeared in the occasional newspaper.

One bright spot happened that year in the world of music - the Wattstax concert was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum on August 20, 1972. It was organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots in Los Angeles. The event was seen by some as "the Afro-American answer to Woodstock," and it was a seminal moment in black music, and if you've never heard of it, or seen the concert footage, or LISTENED TO THE MUSIC ON CD, then shame on you. (Go look it up... I'll wait...)

Issac Hayes performed there, and was advertised as the closer. He came in with the arrival befitting the man, now known as "Black Moses" due to the popularity and heavy politics of his funk and soul music. As soon as Rev. Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH (yeah, that one) announced him, the crowd of over 20,000 went wild. "The Theme From Shaft" began, and he strutted onstage like the valiant victor of funk music he was.

He performed for almost an hour, and he was glorious. The album "Wattstax" went on to be bootlegged over the years, remastered, and has been released in a sadly only about half-full repackaged form which is nowhere near complete, and I've said so in my review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/WATTSTAX-3-CD-Deluxe-Various-Artists/dp/B000SNUNY2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1252621342&sr=8-3.

The song has found it's own legs since. In 1978, at the beginning of the disco era, a 12 inch mix titled "Shaft II" appeared. It has been parodied, copied, it's been used on "Sesame Street," in films making fun of the blackspoitation genre like "I'm Gonna Get Ya Sucka" (in which Issac Hayes appeared as one of the backup heroes called Hammer), and every time you hear it you're the hero in the movie, and you wear all black, and with a .45 in one hand, you've got the situation well in hand.

SHAFT!

Right on...

This is one of the greatest songs ever made, not only because it's timeless due to your older brother playing it over and over, but you've heard it in college, on the radio, in ads, and anywhere The Man is holding someone down and you need to swoop in and bust some heads.

Damn right.

Check out our man kickin' it old school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2cHkMwzOiM

Donna Summer - I Feel Love

(I feel looooooooooooove...... and there's nothing more to say.)

The summer (forgive the pun) was hot in 1977. New York had the Son of Sam, the Yankees, the city-wide blackout - they were on fire. In the midst of this was one LaDonna Adrian Gaines, who wanted to create music, and had the voice to do it. As a former backup singer, she really want ed to be in front, because she wasn't hired to show off, she had been hired because she sounded good...

But two years earlier, in the fall of 1975, Donna Summer (as she changed her name after she married an Austrian singer named Helmuth Sommer, from "Sommer" to "Summer") had met one Giorgio Moroder, whose electronic wizardry was yet to be discovered in America. They had talked of collaboration, and together with Giorgio she created the orgasmic "Love to Love You Baby" in 1976.

By mid-year the public was clamoring for more, and with the single becoming an international success came pressure to create the followup hit. At this point many artists fall by the wayside, becoming the "one-hit wonder" and are relegated to the occasional play on the "where are they now" file. Donna went to the Casablanca Records studio and with Giorgio producing created the album "A Love Trilogy," with a few hit singles to boot.

The sound Giorgio was creating, by mixing classical instruments with synthesizers and a heavy dance beat, became a smash in the new dance halls, now called "discos," worldwide. But, unfortunately, there was no real "hits" to speak of in the record companies eyes, although her remake of Barry Mantilow's "Could This Be Magic" charted well.

Another quickly made album from the same year, "Four Seasons Of Love," produced another small hit, and although she was on a roll with a few dance hits, there was still no real universal appeal that could be pushed onto the mainstream public.

Now after three quickly made concept albums and some success, Donna finally decided to go for broke. She wanted to "go back" to the old sound she loved as a child, by combining the 1940's, 50's and 60's era sound with the "sound of tomorrow," the disco sound, of which she was slowly becoming famous for.

Giorgio had an idea to produce one track at the end of the album (titled "I Remember Yesterday") that had to show what the future of disco would be, and with this (and with Donna's signature vocals) he helped create "I Feel Love," a track comprised of nothing but synthesized instruments and beats layered (and some would say smokily twisting) around Donna's vocals, as if she were making love to the machine herself. The lyrics speak for themselves:

Ooh, it's so good, it's so good
It's so good, it's so good, it's so good

Ooh, heaven knows, heaven knows
Heaven knows, heaven knows, heaven knows...

Ooh, I feel love........
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................

Ooh, fallin free, fallin free
Fallin free, fallin free, fallin free...
Ooh, you and me, you and me
You and me, you and me, you and me...
Ooh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love...

I feel love..............
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
I feel love.........................................

Ooh, Ill get you, Ill get you
Ill get you, Ill get you, Ill get you...
Ooh, what you do, what you do
What you do, what you do, what you do...
Ooh, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love, I feel love...

I feel love..............
I feel love.......................
I feel love................................
I feel love.........................................

The album fell into the laps of DJs all over the world in May of 1977. The single "I Feel Love" exploded onto the public right before the 4th of July. The original single on the album clocked in at 5:56, and immediately upon it's release the song became a smash in every club and disco worldwide, but the song only charted as high as number five on the American pop charts.

(I lifted the following information from David Bowie's liner notes from his 1994 compilation album "Sound + Vision.") Moroder's futuristic production was so innovative on this track, that while David was recording with Brian Eno in West Berlin, West Germany for his album "Berlin Trilogy," David is quoted as remembering, "Eno came running in and said, 'I have heard the sound of the future' and he puts on 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer… He said, 'This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.' Which was more or less right."

Personally speaking, since then there have only been a handful of disco songs that can even climb near the mountaintop next to this song. It has been remixed twice (and charted again in 1995 after being re-released), it has been covered by artists as diverse as Blondie, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and even The Blue Man Group. It is a disco staple everywhere, it's probably being requested right now to be played in a club somewhere in the world, and is number 411 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs of All Time.

The song is unique because a quantum leap forward in music production - one person preloads the beats and sound into the computerized synth, and the singer merely follows it's lead. That's it. There have been many others who came before of note who helped bring this process forward (Wendy Carlos' wonderful, sadly-overlooked albums, the glorious Deodato, the German grandfathers of Krautrock named Kraftwerk, and who can forget Vangelis and Tangerine Dream?), but Donna's sensuality and feminine yet sexy siren's voice made the cold hardness of the pounding beats and music feel even more real and organic, and made the song accessible to anyone who wanted to let go on the dance floor, in their bedrooms, in the car, anywhere.

Watch THIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TBmeK9Abg

Her next album, "Once Upon A Time", released only six months later, saw no real hits. In 1978 she finally hit it big again with the album "Bad Girls," and three top ten hits - "Bad Girls," "Dim All the Lights," and "Hot Stuff," for which she won a Grammy the following year.

However, the pressures of being labeled the 'first lady of disco' and the label-created 'the first lady of love' took it's toll. She was depressed, she had collapsed onstage from exhaustion, had tried to commit suicide several times, was taking drugs to try and stay up, and the record company still was relentless in getting Summer to constantly produce hit after hit.

They went so far as to release a "greatest hits" album, titled "On The Radio," featuring "I Feel Love" and other songs from her earlier albums, but two songs off the album, "On The Radio" and a duet with Barbara Streisand "No More Tears (I've Had Enough)" brought her even more fame.

As this was her final album with Casablanca, she immediately jumped ship and signed with Geffen Records and, just like the song, felt free for the first time, embracing Christianity and taking time to produce albums on her own time.

She did well, and her career still is alive (as she never really went away), although disco died, rested, and was reborn a few times, her music still was played everywhere, even on the radio, she still tours even today, and puts out wonderfully made albums (most recently in 2008 with "Crayons," and I LIKED IT).

There have been compilations, greatest hits packages, inclusions into other various artists albums, and for many of those the first song you see on the track list is always "I Feel Love."

She, like many of her contemporaries from the 1970's, has a massive gay following, and she loves them back just as much as they love her. She is a fighter, she has gone through the drama of the highs and lows of fame, and still on any given night, she can still sing her ass off.

This song is going nowhere because it can't - the music still sounds fresh, fun, sexy as hell and for me? It's one of the greatest songs ever made.

She will always be forever summer, and I for one am grateful.

AC/DC - Back in Black

(...and the lyrics are printed so neatly -
for someone who was possessed by SATAN!...)

Bon Scott died on February 19th, 1980. He was only 33. He was the leader and lead singer of a band named AC/DC, and they had just began to become big, with the release of 1979's "Highway To Hell" and the title song finally cracking the American markets.

The rest of the band decided to keep going, but needed a new lead singer, and found one in the grainy-voice of Brian Johnson, a well established singer, also an Aussie. He sat down in early 1980 during the creative process and pencilled the song that was to become one of the top-ten selling hard rock songs from one of the top-ten selling rock albums of all time - "Back In Black," a tribute song to Bon from the band with love.

With the rest of the album in the can, the cover was decided. According to lead guitarist Angus Young, the album's all-black cover was a "sign of mourning" for Scott, as black is the traditional Western color of mourning the loss of a loved one.

But, when you listen to the album as a whole, it's not sad album - it's full of youthful energy, a tribute to what might have been, and as listen to the album from beginning to end, you're witnessing a timeline, as the funeral bells toll on the opening song "Hells Bells" to the many flashbacks at what the rock and roll lifestyle was (and still is) to the kids (including me) in 1980 - loud, angry, explosive, full of drinking and getting laid, and most of all, listening to rock-n-roll as the way out.

"Back in Black" is THE perfect rock song, it covers all the bases - sex, drugs, and rock and roll:

Back in black, I hit the sack
I've been too long I'm glad to be back
Yes I'm, let loose, from the noose
That's kept me hanging abound
I keep looking at the sky cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse 'cause I'll never die
I got nine lives, cat's eyes
Abusin' every one of them and running wild

'Cause I'm back
Yes, I'm back
Well, I'm back
Yes, I'm back
Well, I'm back, back
Well I'm back in black
Yes, I'm back in black

Back in the back, of a Cadillac
Number one with a bullet, I'm a power pack
Yes, I'm in a bang with a gang
They've got to catch me if they want me to hang
Cause I'm back on the track, and I'm leadin' the pack
Nobody's gonna get me on another rap
So look at me now I'm just makin' my play
Don't try to push your luck, just get out of my way

Well, I'm back, yes I'm back
Well, I'm back, yes I'm back
Well, I'm baaaaack, baaaaack
Well I'm back in black
Yes I'm back in black...

Outta sight!

The album was released July 25th 1980, not even five months after Bon died. It exploded, making the number one charts worldwide, taking down every album who stood in it's way. The band became famous virtually overnight, everyone including me had a copy - $7.98 for the album - expensive!, they toured and partied and Angus Chuck-Berried his guitar into the stratosphere.

The title song was released and went top forty, but the song's appeal has grown. As I grew older I remember this song being everywhere and around me when I was in the Army in West Germany in 1986.

It has become a legendary song from a now-certified 7 times platinum selling album. The song has been covered by artists even as diverse as Shakira, and has been sampled to death by many more artists.

It's used in sports arenas, at the beginning of the 2008 film "Iron Man," has been used in a few commercials and most notably was called the number 2 hard rock song of all time by VH-1, right behind "Welcome To The Jungle." (personally, VH-1 constantly gets their lists wrong - this could have gone higher for me.)

As of 2009, they have yet to repeat the "lightning in a bottle" success this album brought them. A drummer subsequently was fired, personnel changes abounded, but they are still out there, rocking away every night, putting out decent albums, and the music is still there, but the album - and especially the song - will forever be their pinnacle, an Everest I don't think they'll ever attain ever again.

The question is still out there, though - what if Bon had lived? Would "Back in Black" even exist without this man's untimely death?

Still, this is one of the greatest songs ever made because of it's impact on the youth of the world - the song says stay young, party, and to Hell with tomorrow - Bon lived it, and we have him to thank for it.

Check out this official video from the boys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXaZmY52gHM

Brownstone - If You Love Me

(three women in much happier times on the cover of their only album together)

1994 - from one album came one song, and three members of a group are forever locked together in harmony. When these three women - Monica Doby, Charmayne Maxwell and Nichole Gilbert as Brownstone - released the album "From The Bottom Up," they released one of the best albums of the year, and on that album was one song worth noting - "If You Love Me."

Their voices are strong, clean and explode off the album. Gilbert herself should be proud of the accomplishment, as she co-wrote eleven of the twelve songs and helped co-produce four of them, including the album's strongest song, "If You Love Me." The song was released on the urban charts but quickly became a crossover hit, reaching top 10's worldwide and garnering them much overdue success, as they had been backup singers in the Los Angeles area for some time.

In early 1995, they received a Grammy nomination, the received six Billboard nominations, but only won one for "Top Hot R&B Singles Airplay." Sadly, by mid-1995, the cracks began and Monica left, citing "bronchitis", but it was the internal pressures that broke them apart. The remaining two tried to keep a brave face, but what can you do now that the circle was broken and replaced with a secondary singer?

The magic was lost, and their subsequent albums only briefly appeared, then died a sad death on the charts.

Whatever happened to Brownstone and why hasn't time been kinder to them?

But one thing has to be understood - the vocals on the album, and particularly "If You Love Me," are flawless and uplifting. The music, sexy as hell and in an uptempo style, gives the song a feeling as if it might be a love ballad of sorts, but it's mellow and smoothed out, and it can't be anything else but New Jack Swing, the genre that was popular at the time, with R&B style and old-school harmonies.

It has been featured on subsequent CD compilations, used in a few films, but most notably the best placement of the song is in the 1998 film "Living Out Loud" in the fantasy dance sequence with Holly Hunter.

For me this is the ultimate usage of this song - it celebrates the lyrics all too well:

I don't wanna rain on this parade
But I'm starting to question the love that was made
I'm not looking for just an affair
I want a love that is based on truth, not just dare

You will not hurt my pride, if right now you decide
That you are not ready to settle down
But if you want my heart, then it's time that you start
To act like you're mine in the light and the dark

If you love me, say it
If you trust me, do it
If you want me, show it
If you need me, prove it
If you love me, say it
If you trust me, do it
If you want me, show it
If you need me, prove it

You see now actions speak louder than words
So don't just say things that I've already heard
Don't want your body without your soul
I don't want a love who will come here and go

You will not hurt my pride, if right now you decide
That you are not ready to settle down
But if you want my heart, then it's time that you start
To act like you're mine in the light and the dark

If you love me, say it
If you trust me, do it
If you want me, show it
If you need me, prove it
If you love me, say it
If you trust me, do it
If you want me, show it
If you need me, prove it

Oh I, oh I, I wanna touch you, baby
And spread my love all around you, honey
And if you come, you gotta show it, baby
True love to share...

Show it
Prove it
Say it
Do it

Ooh yeah, my sweet baby...

This isn't a woman's plea for love, this is a declaration, a demand and and an ultimatum for love. This woman wants the whole package, love, lust, and someone she can love back just as hard and just as good, because when a woman falls in love, it means just that - she falls.

All the women in this song want (if their lover will only listen - in perfect three-part harmony), is some honesty when they aren't in the sheets, when the entire world is looking at us, just be with me, and give me some trust I can believe and promises, not borrowed old lines and BS.

This is a love song, and a line drawn in the sand.

This is one of the greatest songs ever created, and you're missing out a pure labor of love here if you've never heard it.

The scene in question from "Living Out Loud," with Holly Hunter and a room filled with women:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwTdsuEJpV0

Simon & Garfunkel - My Little Town

( a nice song by a couple of nice Jewish boys)

In 1975, Paul Simon had a decent solo career and several hits and albums under his belt since the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel in 1970.

Also in 1975, Art Garfunkel was still struggling, only hitting the charts a few times.

Paul wrote a song for "Artie," as he called him, and decided that since Art sang such syrupy songs, he needed to sing about anger, desperation and dark ideas.

According to Paul, it's not autobiographical, but to listen to the way it was written about old-fashioned American values:

In my little town, I grew up believing
God keeps his eye on us all
And he used to lean upon me
As I pledged allegiance to the wall
Lord I recall my little town
Coming home after school
Riding my bike past the gates of the factories
My mom doing the laundry
Hanging out shirts in the dirty breeze
And after it rains there's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
It's not that the colors aren't there
It's just imagination they lack
Every thing's the same back
In my little town

In my little town, I never meant nothing
I was just my father's son
Saving my money
Dreamin' of glory
Twitching like a finger on a trigger of a gun...

Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town
Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town...

Talk about your youth-filled angst! This is a great song because it ramps you up and leaves you wanting to hear more about the loneliness and isolation of living inowhere with nothing to look forward to, and of the narrator's honesty, as the music begins slowly and builds up with the tone of the lyrics and the singers with a sweet harmony that only comes along only very rarely. You've also got to remember, these were two life-long pals from New York who wrote, sang and (as of 2009) have been performing together off and on for over 40 years.

After they recorded the song, although they were still technically broken up, they both featured the song on their solo albums and the song is listed as performed by "Simon and Garfunkel."

It was performed live for the first time on Saturday Night Live in 1975 with Art being the "surprise guest" with Paul, and the crowd predictably went wild. It became a number one hit for them worldwide of course, and of course they also realized one thing - they could NEVER not be without each other, it would be like the Oreo cookie without the creamy center.

(Here is a Garfunkel-less version from around that same time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyzDekZAN0
Sorry if I don't know how to post videos from YouTube etc. - yet)

This is one of my very favorite songs, from one of my favorite years for popular music. If you look at the Billboard charts top 100 for 1975, you'd understand: Elton John was still hitting the number one charts almost quarterly; The Carpenters and Tony Orlando and Dawn were coming along, an upstart alt-country-rock band called The Eagles were just starting their rise, Earth Wind and Fire, Wings, The Bee Gees and so many other groups and solo artists that came along with one hit wonders that you still hear even now played the music that fills the oldies sections and still can be played with a freshness you can't say about the year 2000 in music.

I hope you agree with me that this song is one of the greatest tunes ever written, because it became a kind of a sort of a bridge between the old and the new for Paul and Art, and it also showed that their special kind of songwriting and singing talent is timeless.

Where to begin???

I'm going to make this very simple for you.

There are just only so many songs you can listen to out there in the world and then you yourself have got to think, "oh, boy, this is AWFUL!"

Well, this blog is about the creme-de-la-creme, the top of the heap of all time, and I'm going to tell you why they are, and you just might agree with me.

Some of my earliest memories are music related, and I've gone way way WAY out of my way to let others know which songs are the best, hands down, so I hope you can understand why I'm now screaming out from the corner of the crowded auditorium called the Internet to the rest of you.

I'm going to go from the earliest known music ever created to MP3 stuff that is floating around in your iPods right now... oh, and speaking of New Music...

New Music sucks.

It needs vocalizers for the tone-deaf singers to barely make it through the song, it needs to endlessly layer and steal older established material to JUST sound familiar enough for you to foolishly buy/download it and then go, "huh, that did sound familiar...", it requires endless promotions right in the middle of TV shows and crowded on the sides of your favorite websites.

Now I can give you a list of about MAYBE 20 musicians & groups that are putting out relevant fresh inventive material, but I won't - that's another blog altogether.

So here goes, I'm going to constantly be adding new posts, so keep coming back.

Why do I think I'm a know-it-all? I listen to everything that comes my way, and personally in my collection of music I have over 2500 CD's, 25,000 MP3s and endless possibilities to find & listen to more.

God yes! I love music, of every shade, of every genre, of every tempo and language and beat.

And these ARE the greatest songs ever created for the human race to enjoy.