Un-Covered Melody

So I did pull off the masterstroke, the (bloodless) coup that I promised last post. And it's pretty grand. Pretty epic, like the better-known version of this song:



-- Please download this fresh-from-vinyl version, of Belafonte's version of "Unchained Melody" --
( I also have, all ripped from vinyl, Charlie Rich, Al Green, Ricky Nelson, and Sonny & Cher covers. I can post those, of you'd please. )

Of course, the better-/best-known version of this song is by the very righteous Righteous Brothers. And I post Harry Belafonte's version, not because their version lacks anything-
No, quite the contrary-
but just to show what changes Belafonte has wrought.

Margeaux and I were talking at her house (that's the coup, FYI), and she posited her general rule about covers:
Don't cover a song that you cannot improve.
I like this rule; it makes sense. If you just want to play the damn song, sure: play it. But to record it and send it out there, why?, unless you have done it one better.

Now, we could, with all good reason, say that nobody can improve on the Righteous Brothers' version.
However, in Belafonte's slowed-down version, there is a delicacy that is not present in the Righteous Brothers' version.

Oh And Also, I failed to mention this little historical tidbit:
Belafonte covered this song in 1956, on the album pictured above.

The Righteous Brothers covered it on this album, in 1965:


So Belafonte did not violate Margeaux's good rule about covers.

The original? It's from a movie about prison!, which is where the 'Unchained'-name comes from.
Oh, and somehow, Belafonte was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Song for this, even though he did not write it, and it had already been covered a few times by then.

Anyhow, his is not the original, but it is less a cover or less un- an original (if that makes sense), than the Righteous Brothers version.

Funkin' Around: The House That Disco Built

Okay, funk a little of this through your speak's and 'phones.


This is one of the deftly selected tracks from the last mix (grab a fistful of music, including the song below, here). Now, these fellows may not appear so very cool, but I think they spent all their money recording all those instruments in the studio. And so they spent very little designing, shooting, and dressing for the record cover.

You know, it's expensive to record this many guys.
A story made super short- the expense of putting full large bands in the studio (for disco, funk, etc) was an annoyance for bands and labels alike. So, when synthesizers made it possible to sub out a few guys, and lay down an additional sound without paying an additional dude- well, synths were understandably popular.
And that is how house music is born (I told you this was the short version). Broke people (so more blacks and Latinos- less ABBA Northern European) could make disco without having to have/pay a full band (no drummer, no strings, no piano player, etc) because one person could use synths instead.

-But!- using different materials (the instruments), even if one were trying to exactly replicate an existing form (disco), will inevitably shift the form too. Disco -->(shifty synthy changey)--> House.
(dropping eggs of knowledge in the discothèque)

Now, this song is not proto-house or anything; that is not what I'm trying to claim. But the "Wedded To The Discothèque" mix I made does eventually shift from disco to more recent house. So I thought I'd throw out a condensed version of how that happened historically. How it happens on the mix is different.
Pretend you are at a wedding reception that you actually really really want to be at- I'm DJing (ahem!). After a while, though our parents have drifted away from the dancefloor, we are really just starting to get wound up.
Gotta let it loose.
So your (inimitable! inestimable! incorrigible!) DJ eases out of the Disco classics, and slips into our classics- Blur, Daft Punk, and a few dance gems that you will crown classics, once you have heard them. Check the Jesper Dahlback RMX of Fox 'n' Wolf, for instance. In fact, check out the whole track listing on the last post.

Sugar Beats: Sugar Hill Gang's much-sampled 'Apache'

Another great song, just ripe for summering. Get ready, btw, for sum summer stooping. Unless I get some emergency transfusions of cash, this will be a very "can't afford to go out drinking" summer. So you'll have to join me at mine (...or yours...) for "free beer". I call beer bought from the distributors, "free beer". It's so cheap, relative to bars, that you practically make money drinking it!. That's right, my economic plan: "Drink yourself to prosperity; Spend yourself sober."
(it's complicated)
But where'd all the money go, oh, where? Well, recently, it went to late heating bills (boring), and mo' wax, aka more vinyl (exciting).
Including this little gem....

Apache, by Sugar Hill Gang



Oh, this song. Oh, man oh me oh my. First, it uses a similar bong/drum break to The Incredible Bongo Band's Apache, which itself is sort of similar to The Shadows' Apache...
Dude, you think my Summer Prosperity Plan is complex? Check out the involved history of this song. Interesting, but impossible to sum up. Really, you should always be going to that blog, Soul Sides, because it is just the jam. Old Soul, great rap, dropping knowledge without being boring or snooty or pedantic, and always giving you links to the cuts.
It is as essential as this blog (well, more, actually, but still).

Right! Well, anyhow, in hip-hop and drum and bass
(my deepest musical love- 'drum and bass' aka 'jungle' aka 'DnB'- which none of my friends ever like that much. No 'junglist crew' for me! Not enough of my friends are rude bwoys, turns out)
many many songs have sampled drum breaks from various versions of Apache. Lots sampled the guitar line too. You'll see why- the bongos that this song opens with are solid all by themselves, let alone the other versions of that beat that are dropped throughout the track.
Now, if you are one of these young pups, you will recognize the song not from (nearly infinite) DnB and H-H songs, but from Switch's track. This song was huge from a summer or two back. We still can hear it, on that rare occasion that we Make Time.

Here's the original Switch track... (you gotta wait til 2:02 for the guitar line to drop! It's a dance track after all). Called "A Bit Patchy", as in, APatchy=Apache.



Here is an M.I.A. remix of Switch, introduced by Diplo, who M.I.A. used to date, but doesn't now, and mixed into the end of Kitsune track..... I told you this sampling stuff gets complicated!


(jump to about 1:15 on this one if you want to hear "A Bit Patchy" coming in clearly)

Jose Feliciano- Zorba the Greek Geek

I recently happened upon a few records by Jose Feliciano. He's blind, and plays a mean guitar. Like, for real mean. He plays a number of covers (that's what crack instrumentalists do: think about old jazz heads), like the one above. He also used to live near S'Noble in Connecticut.

CONNEXIONS, right?!?!

Oh shit! It's 2:30, and I still haven't finished my syllabus. Lordy! You guys write the rest of this, will you? Thanks. I owe a blog entry dedication to anyone who adds anything to the comments section. Well, anything except for spam comments about hookahs (see here and here).

I Made it Good to Myself (but Michael Jackson did not, b/c he's dead)

Got back from Portland, where the weather was about as good as it has been lately in Philadelphia. Surprisingly, I only got two (2) (!) CDs while I was there. I meant to go by Everyday Music, still my favorite ever CD shop, but didn't really have time. (Didn't get to Prineville's Neat Repeat either).
That's okay, for two reasons- 1) saved $40-80; 2) I can go in a few weeks if I go back for the Beer Festival: odds are about even on that.

Make It Good To Yourself - James Brown

BREAKING NEWS: James Butler has reported that E! has reported that Michael Jackson is reportedly dead! Reports are reporting that it was cardiac arrest (aka a BROKEN HEART!).
(not to be selfish, but does this mean that I can finally claim the title of King of Pop?!?!? ALL HAIL the NEW King of Pop!!! Three Cheers for meMeME!!! YEA ME!!!)
Related reports report that Farrah Fawcett also finally succumbed to her long bout of cancer... ANAL cancer!
NJK! Look it up!

(related connection: a famous beer expert is also named Michael Jackson, and is also dead. It's a F A C T ! Also, James Brown is dead- sad but true!)


Got them (them: James Brown "Black Caesar" sdtk.; Jesus & Mary Chain hits/best) at some resale shop near Alberta, or near Mississippi (ask Emily which it was).

You know that James Brown is called "the Godfather of Soul", of course. What you DID NOT KNOW is that he gave himself this nickname via the score/soundtrack he did for "Black Caesar". "Whuh?", you say. Cos' "The Godfather" came out around the same time, and since both movies deal with godfathers/Caesars/gangsters, he piggybacked on the other, already successful, movie. So sayeth the liner notes. IT BE FACTUAL!

While I was there, these things happened:
I almost hit a bear with my parents' car. On a mountain, obviously: my parents don't live (quite) that far out.
Talked firearms etc. with Jeffrey et al ("reasonable people", the lot of them).
I mass-texted a rape joke. It met with laughter (text laughter) (in most cases).
I got a flat on another person's bike. (For consistency's sake, yet retaining a certain air of variety via a clever inversion, I got two flats when I returned, on my own bike while going to a house which is not my own.)
I received a subpoena* for James Brown.**


it says: 'my heart tells me that you will not listen to my words and this is the cause of my tears and my cries'. This sums up my blog.

*subpoena, like Caesar, is hard for me to spell. I'll never get to be the new King of Latinists if I can't get them right!
**this DID IN FACT HAPPEN, although when I lived in Portland before. One of the children who mugged Adriel when I was with her was, evidently, named James Brown. "Godfather of Soulful Muggings"? "Hardest Working Boy in tha Game"? Maybe even "New King of Robbery"?

Sidenote: I am listening to some of the mixes posted earlier on this blog, and man, THEY ARE GOOD! Find the list of blogs with full mixes HERE.

Shower Jamz!

This mix was inspired by an arcane practice from my friend Kyle. He and his then-roommate used to sneak the favorite songs of the other guy onto the stereo when one was in the shower. A pleasant, if unexpected, way to start your day.

Download your new favorite series of 'jems': Shower Jamz!.zip.

(Here's a song off of it, to sate your ears whilst you feast your eyes on this oh-so magical blog)

TRACKLISTING:

Wind-Up Doll *** Lee Perry and The Upsetters

I Can See Clearly*** Johnny Nash ("nothing but blue sky"!)

Move On Up *** Mark Eitzel (cover of Curtis Mayfield)

Last night on Earth*** Mekons- ("they can't hurt you now..."!)

The Way We Get By *** Spoon (piano!)

Oh, Pretty Woman *** Al Green (cover of Roy Orbison)

Alright *** Supergrass (keeping their teeth clean: super clean!)

Young Folks *** Peter Bjorn And John (Yeah!: Bein' Young!)

Lady Don't Tek No *** Latyrx (Booty Bassline! Sassy rappin'!)

Beng Beng Beng *** Femi Kuti (...heh heh...)

Oooh (Feat. Redman)*** De La Soul

Oh Yoko *** John Lennon (oh YO!)

Too Young *** Phoenix (Young again!)

To Be Young (is to be sad, is to be high) *** Ryan Adams (again: Young Again!)

Settin' the Woods on Fire *** Hank Williams ("you be daffy, and I'll be dilly; we'll order up two bowls of chili"!)

Bimbo *** Jimmy Dean

If we can land a man on the moon, surely I can win your heart *** Beulah


I made an iTunes playlist, driven by the same desire: to get the day off to a really nifty start. It works! If you don't believe me, listen to this mix every morning for about 3-6 days, and then leave comments and a 'before' and an 'after' picture, okay?
Bet they look like this:
before:


after:


I've had this playlist, growing and growing, for years: I pared it down to some essentials. Some of these are songs I know that Kyle would like or does actually like; some are my own favorites. That some of the songs are simply selfish makes me feel better, because I don't like making mixes for other people: other people are gross!

Shower Jamz.zip

Lemme tell you though: just because I put some of mine own besties on here, does not preclude them from being thine own besties, too. For instance, if you do not know the Spoon song, you will love it (FACT). If Beulah songs don't make you happy and smile, you are dead inside (FACT). Phoenix is hit or miss, but this song?: hit (FACT). (They're mostly hit, by the by.)
I mean, you've heard of these people: Ryan Adams Hank Williams Al Green Spoon De La Soul Yoko (haha JK it's John Lennon, ya dope). See, I don't even need to put spaces in there, because you know when the name starts/stops.
There is nothing scary here, only 110% bestness and favoricity and gollytude.
Download: Shower Jamz!.zip

HYPERTEXT MGA-BLG

Here's a quote from poet Dylan Thomas:

"Look look, I got books;
See! See! I got CDs!
Fer sure, fer sure, I got pictures;
Stacks and stacks of hot hot wax."

Wax is vinyl; you should know that.

Listen to this:



I'm letting you download it here, too

[[[ Today I also got Jerry Butler and a soul compilation (all Philly Soul Power), with that above song on it. I figured you all might LOVE THE SHIT OUT OF IT because, mostly true, the song "Dirty Old Man" basically was when my blog broke into the mainstream consciousness, and this song sort of sounds like it.
More funk, but a little less sass. But really, isn't funk sassy, and isn't sass a bit funky? So it's robbing Peter to pay Paul, see? ]]]

Here's what I got recently:
CDs from Portland
Surrender to Jonathan! by Jonathan Richman ( on Vapor Records)

...This is really the picture on the CD...
-----------(dude's pretty funny)----------

The Animals: Retrospective (I have a lot of these songs on 'wax' already, but the songs I didn't have are impressively out there... you'll see someday, when I focus my blog's LAZERVIZION on how batshit crazy ALL British rockers are. For instance, The Who?: CRAZY)

Gary Numan: Archive (just totally random stuff of his, compiled by some random British- hence, crzy- label that he never recorded on. Also, Numan, British himself, though not a 'rocker', is also crazy: check the Wiki factsheet)

Suicide: reissued second album, and first rehearsal tapes (weird early American synthesized-not-techno jams: It blurbles, and how.

Guy sings like Elvis, no honest!: remember that song "Juxebox Babe" on the Annie 'DJ Kicks!' mix? That's the same guy/singer/dude.)

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels: Devil with a Blue Dress and Other Hits (on, ahem, Flashback records)
Notice how much old, old old stuff I've been buying lately? I could practically DJ 'Bouffant Bangout' all by my lonesome!
I'm pleased as punch by more expanding 'oldhead' CD section, but really, don't the titles of these sound totally uninspiring?: 'Other Hits': y a w n -but really, it's good

Jonathan Richman: Soundtrack to 'Revolution Summer' (this is really great, because it sounds JUST LIKE him, but it is totally different. More different than his "Jonathan Goes Country!" album. Really, he has an album called that.)
(( I think that maybe 'different' cannot be made superlative, like how 'unique' cannot be: 'more unique', see, just is not right ))
C'mon, I'm serious: Are any of these albums I bought regular albums? 'Reissued Retrospective Archive of Other Soundtrack Hits'...

THE STOOGES: S/T (well, maybe 'N/T' is more accurate)

A proper album, please note....
(same picture, please note)


Hot, Funky, and Sweaty: 10 Super Rare Original Funk Killers From The Late 60's to the Early 70's (THE UNDISPUTED BLACK MIND POWER)
That is the real full (and really full, and fully real) title, and yes, there is a crocodile water-skiing on the cover??!?!?!?!? Because it's a comp from a French label, figure that out. The CD is printed so that it looks like a 45 rpm record: pretty sweet, though not a brand new idea.

But really, if "brand new" were my criteria, first I'd be stupid, and second, none of this would have got bought, right?