It's absurd to say that things inspire a person. Either the individual has it inside of them or not. I suppose there are certain things that illicit emotional responses, but those emotions are still part and parcel of the individual. Not the outside forces - unless you subscribe to the belief that humanity and earth itself is just a mass of swirling jell that functions as one...meh...

I can say, though, that listening to a Bill Cosby record today brought about an emotional response - for a variety of reasons.

I've maintained that two things are the cause of diminished racism during the last twenty or so years in the youth of the United States. I did say diminished, by the way, not the annihilation of it. But, YO! MTV Raps being broadcast into millions of homes during the '90s, a huge portion of the population was exposed to a culture that, most likely, would have remained distant at best to them. That's important for hip hop, but for the general culture as well. The other contributing factor, in my estimation, is and or was Dr. Cliff Huxtable.

Again, the fact that the Huxtable family was jacked into everyone's television for the better part of a decade drastically changed the way in which white suburbanites (me) perceived black folks. I mean, both Cliff and Clair raked in way more cash than my parents. And their house made my bungalow seem kinda cramped. Obviously, since then, Cosby has made some remarks that have upset portions of the black community. But while he might now come off as kinda haughty, he hasn't ever turned in some absolute nonsensical proclamations. Give it time, though, he's getting old.

Prior to being the greatest TV dad in the world, Cosby was a comedian and even released three albums that contained music on which he played keyboard. As odd as that may seem, the best known of these comes in the form of Badfoot Brown and The Bunions Bradford Funeral and Marching Band due to A Tribe Called Quest sampling the lead off track, "Martin's Funeral."

The entirety of the album - which is made up of two tracks - stays in spacey soul jazz territory for the duration of its thirty five minutes. It's difficult to take all of this in considering the tracks aren't broken up and consist of a multitude of sections. Both tracks - the other being titled "Hybish Shybish" - sport that soul jazz style that was en vogue during the latter portion of the '60s and the beginning of the '70s. But at times the band touches the edge of freedom. It's not too surprising, though, given the political nature of Cosby at the time ("Martin's Funeral" is in reference to MLK). Free jazz, while looked upon derisively by portions of the jazz cognoscenti, did serve to grant players an ultimate unshackling.

Apart from those brief noisome passages, the tunes here are pretty overtly joyous. And while neither of the tracks here may inspire you, you can dance to it pretty damned easily.