Bad news for soul music fans — and especially for Ronald Isley: yesterday, an appellate court upheld the 66 year-old Isley Brothers frontman's 37-month prison sentence for tax evasion.
It's fairly well-known in the music industry that Ronald (also known in recent years as "Mr. Biggs," after the character he played in a series of pre-Trapped In The Closet videos with R. Kelly) isn't, shall we say, the savviest of businessmen — C.K. Lendt's semi-readable Kiss and Sell contains a memorable story about the Isleys wearing fur coats in their New Jersey mansion, rather than pay overdue gas and electric bills — and his tax fuck-ups over the last decade appear to be pretty massive. That said, after my own experiences with that vile government agency, I have profound empathy for just about anyone who runs afoul of the IRS; and as a music lover, I'm saddened to know that one of the last great soul singers is going to be out of action for the next coupla years.
In honor of Ronald being hassled by The Man, I thought I'd try to dig up a clip of the Isleys doing "Fight The Power". Unfortunately, I couldn't find one, so I thought I'd go with this Soul Train clip of "Lay-Away," instead. It's just a lip-syncher, but the visuals are great, and the lyrics are oddly appropriate — especially that "I've got to hold on/hold on to my receipt" part. Take it from me, people: YES, YOU MOST CERTAINLY DO.
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