For the second half of September, I’m putting my Mental Jukebox into a time machine, featuring the best songs on the best albums from the very best years of music. #70sThrough90sBestAlbum

With my The Raw & the Cooked CD in my boombox, I was in for a very good night. I could hear sounds never made before. I could be mesmerized. That rare mix of rock, soul and funk. And that one-of-a-kind voice in Roland Gift. Listening to it over 30 years after it was released I’m amazed that this unusual album was instantly embraced by mainstream and alt rock audiences alike. They were an overnight success, but they did it their way. And my favorite track of them all is “I’m Not the Man I Used to Be”.

This song threw together disparate genres in a blender and gave us something we never tasted before. An incredibly infectious throwback soul sound a la James Brown, sprawled out lavishly on a bed of trip-hop. While “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing” were right up my alley, “I’m Not the Man I Used to Be” was a little less obvious and jammed to a different groove.

“Wonder what I'm thinking. Wonder why I'm drinking. But it's plain to see. I'm not the man I used to be.”