Welcome to the "Original" Dynasty Rankings Fantasy Football Blog

This blog was born out of a Dynasty Rankings thread originally begun in October, 2006 at the Footballguys.com message boards. The rankings in that thread and the ensuing wall-to-wall discussion of player values and dynasty league strategy took on a life of its own at over 275 pages and 700,000 page views. The result is what you see in the sidebar under "Updated Positional Rankings": a comprehensive ranking of dynasty league fantasy football players by position on a tiered, weighted scale. In the tradition of the original footballguys.com Dynasty Rankings thread, intelligent debate is welcome and encouraged.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Song of the Week: Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise - California [Blackwater Surprise] 1996


Anybody who has ever been into music at one time or another has had a favorite obscure band or artist. All you can say about this artist is that their music makes you happy, and you want to force other people to listen to them, and it annoys the piss out of you when those people don't see the inherent genius.

For just over ten years now, my obscure band of choice has been Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise. One of my roommates at the time, Todd Ruprecht, turned me on to them, and I was immediately hooked by the eclectic mixture of not quite soul, not quite blues, not quite R&B, and not quite rock.

The soul, blues, and R&B are provided by the blind street-performer-turned-lead-singer, Robert Bradley, while the younger and much whiter Blackwater Surprise provide the alternative rock background sound.

The story goes like this: the boys from Blackwater Surprise went to record in their Detroit studio when outside they heard Robert Bradley's deep, raspy voice singing for pocket change. Born the blind son of an Alabama farmer, and one of 14 children, Bradley had spent his early life steeped in southern gospel before gravitating to Southern California churches and later the sidewalks of Detroit. The Blackwater Surprise were so struck by Bradley's voice that they scooped him off the sidewalks and immediately installed him as the band's lead singer while completely overhauling their own sound.

This song, "California," is from their breakthrough 1996 debut album, "Blackwater Surprise." If you enjoy this one, do yourself a favor and check out the equally impressive "Once Upon a Time," an ode to Bradley’s heroes Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, and Otis Redding.

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