Louis Farrakhan, charmer

September 7, 2006 4:10 PM

Sure, Louis Farrakhan talks about UFOs. And, yes, some people think he had a hand in the death of Malcolm X. And maybe a case can be made that he isn't the most tolerant of men. Be that as it may, he was a suburb calypso singer.
posted by Astro Zombie (22 comments total)

Did you just find this out or something?
posted by 2sheets at 4:12 PM on September 7, 2006

He was, I guess, literally "rocking the suburbs" with his "suburb" singing.
posted by davejay at 4:17 PM on September 7, 2006

Cool. But he's no Robert Mitchum.

I have the Mitchum record and it's actually damn good.
posted by dersins at 4:22 PM on September 7, 2006

Maya Angelou's is pretty good too.

Did you just find this out or something?

Didn't realize this site was dedicated to the newest of the Web. All right, nothing but newsfilter from here on out.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:30 PM on September 7, 2006

God damn it. Supurb.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:30 PM on September 7, 2006

Maybe he sings better than that other stellar religious leader Fred Phelps, but he is just as big a scumbag.
posted by John Smallberries at 4:30 PM on September 7, 2006

God damn it. Supurb.

superb
posted by NoMich at 4:32 PM on September 7, 2006

He's no Morton Downey Jr.


posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:37 PM on September 7, 2006

Spubuuuuuurrrrrb
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:39 PM on September 7, 2006

OK, OK, a pretty insignificant FPP on an important subject. (For example, even though white people have been offically allowed to join for twenty years or so, an important part of their doctrine is that the white race was created by a mad scientist many many years ago...I'm starting to think that Scientology and NOI have some things in common....).

But I hope this post will inspire you to research the NOI, a hugely significant movement in history, and still strong. Spend a buck buying their newspaper from one of their bow-tied hucksters and you will learn a lot.

Black self-suffiency, of course, going back to, especially W.E.B. Dubois is much of the core of their doctrine, although their history and some of their beliefs are prettty out there.
posted by kozad at 4:44 PM on September 7, 2006

Spend a buck buying their newspaper from one of their bow-tied hucksters and you will learn a lot

Nah, I already read Why People Believe Weird Things.

(and hey, I mean that towards all you xtians, islams, jews, hindus, and whatevers as well. Weirdos.)
posted by lumpenprole at 5:31 PM on September 7, 2006

And HJitler not a bad painter. Ezra Pound a great poet and a crazy thinker who ended up as propaganda spokesman for Nazis.

thus on e can be good at one or more things and suck at other things...
posted by Postroad at 5:33 PM on September 7, 2006

Farrakhan on e...that would be weird.
posted by owhydididoit at 5:35 PM on September 7, 2006

Everyone here is a False Jew.
posted by Falconetti at 5:44 PM on September 7, 2006

He's no Morton Downey Jr.

Who was no Morton Downey himself as his father was a famous tenor known as the Irish Nightingale.
posted by y2karl at 6:44 PM on September 7, 2006

even though im a born again Christian, i gotta give it up to the Minister, he can rock the pulpit pretty well. public speaking isnt something to sneeze at and most people hold it as more frightening than death itself.

*totally ignoring his music*
posted by tsarfan at 7:11 PM on September 7, 2006

AZ, you've transcended death and the speed of light - we forgive the occasional repeated spelling error.
posted by mwhybark at 7:34 PM on September 7, 2006

Reverend Farrakhan:

Don't quit your day job. Even though I hate all that your day job stands for, you're better at that than you are at calypso, that's for damn sure.

Fun link, AZ! Thanks for the shout-out!
posted by jason's_planet at 8:49 PM on September 7, 2006

Cool. But he's no Robert Mitchum.

I have the Mitchum record and it's actually damn good.
posted by dersins at 4:22 PM PST on September 7

Robert Mitchum's Calypso Is Like So... [not my upload] is not bad, but it's not all that great.
posted by Guy Smiley at 9:29 PM on September 7, 2006

He's far better known (and more respected) for his violin. He was classically trained and is quite talented.

I once ran into him here in Chicago when he was purchasing a new amplifier for an electric violin. He'd come all the way up to the North side to try amplifiers at the Guitar Center. He wasn't unwelcome, of course, but I couldn't help but think that it'd have been more convenient to pick up an amp somewhere nearer to his Mosque or his home in Hyde Park (which, incidentally, is gorgeous).

His well dressed bodyguards were in tow - all of them very polite and friendly.
posted by aladfar at 10:32 PM on September 7, 2006

Those crazy anti-Semites and their musical stylings!
posted by haqspan at 4:00 AM on September 8, 2006

Y'know, Astro, your misspelling was maybe not that far off the mark. A look at the track listings on those LPs show the Charmer covering the tiredest, most-often-heard calypso numbers of all time: Hold 'im Joe, Back To Back Belly To Belly, Brown Skin Gal... In other words, the calypso tunes that just about every good old born-in-the Yew Ess Ay suburbanite of the era would've actually known. Farrakhan: Suburb Calypso King!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:50 AM on September 8, 2006