Tuesday, April 10, 2007:
I was a teetotaller losing his faith, bitter and angry and self-righteous, and took comfort in my arrogance. Cypress Hill was a fixture in the room that year, even before "Insane in the Brain" hit MTV; I heard their first two CDs constantly and hated them for their stoner vibe and the gangsta theatrics, but still I wondered if it was a deeply ironic word choice or a sly wink and a bit of hiding in plain sight that--among the machismo and claims to murder--they'd drop lines like "I'm a chicken hawk huntin' for a chicken."
Some time back I remembered the group with some fondness, and bought Black Sunday, and found that their sound on the CD was actually fairly interesting. In trying to describe it, I thought it would be like a pitchfork: deep prominent bass, high far-off (far-out) sounding noises, vocals in the middle. And going back a bit further, to high school, to Young MC, I stumbled onto what seemed like a precursor to their sound; a track with all that lethargy and sonic separation yet from someone who, from his lyrics, would clearly not approve of Cypress Hill's lifestyle. I'm not sure if Young MC has changed his attitudes towards drugs since 1989, as mine did, and did again, since 1993; his first CD was the only one I listened to, and I listen to it still: I enjoy the beats and the facility with rhyme (even silly rhyme) ("I'm sloppy like Oscar but neat like Tony Randall"?) and the general party atmosphere of it, which is light and fun as long as it's not taken seriously. In this regard it's like the early Tribe records, which also have some green lyrics, some clumsy seductions and misplaced wallets.
But the more I think of it, the more I notice songs flirting with this Cypress Hill sound, this same sound predated by Young MC's track: decades earlier, in Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine"; and a few years later, in The Coup's "Fat Cats, Bigga Fish," in Louise Attaque's "Du Nord Au Sud"* and, to a lesser extent in Radiohead's The National Anthem (the vocals at the high point, the horns starting in the middle ... but too thick a sound overall, too much overlap and chaos) and in The Cure's remix of "Fascination Street" (the bass needs to be thicker, the middle thinner).
The more I think of it, the more I think I hear it (Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Baaba Maal), leading me to wonder if it's everywhere or if it's anywhere at all. It's possible I'm imagining it: representative samples in a frequency analyzer show some similarity, but not the separation of sound I thought I'd heard:
But quite distinct songs (Tears for Fears' "I Believe," The Beatles' "Helter Skelter") don't show nearly as much difference as I'd expected:
In '93 I'd probably bend over backwards, making any contortions necessary to prevent saying "I don't know" or "I was wrong." I don't know, and I may be wrong. Yet I'm not sure that recognizing that puts me any closer to finding what the similarities are, if they even exist.
Readers, if you care to comment (musicians, music theorists, music historians and/or critics--anyone with a clue really), is there actually any similarity between the Young MC track and the Cypress Hill track? If there is, how would you go about finding more of it?
[Stone Cold Rhymin' @ amazon, @ emusic]
[Genocide & Juice: out of print]
[Black Sunday @ amazon]
[Comme on a Dit]
[Mixed Up]
[Kid A]
* First posted 63 years ago in internet years on my guest post to Said the Gramophone.
stop, hey, what's that sound?
College was a culture shock: going from true poverty to an artificial poverty with secure housing and a clear end, from a small town where I was considered brilliant to a college town where I was surrounded by people who were, from oversight that was vindictive and capricious to authority that were indifferent, all of it coupled with an exhilerating and terrifying freedom. My first roommates were from Boca Raton, the three of us sharing the second-cheapest room on campus, built for four, their friends coming over to drink or smoke, one of them once memorably complaining about being given a car which cost more than my mother's house but wasn't what he wanted.I was a teetotaller losing his faith, bitter and angry and self-righteous, and took comfort in my arrogance. Cypress Hill was a fixture in the room that year, even before "Insane in the Brain" hit MTV; I heard their first two CDs constantly and hated them for their stoner vibe and the gangsta theatrics, but still I wondered if it was a deeply ironic word choice or a sly wink and a bit of hiding in plain sight that--among the machismo and claims to murder--they'd drop lines like "I'm a chicken hawk huntin' for a chicken."
Some time back I remembered the group with some fondness, and bought Black Sunday, and found that their sound on the CD was actually fairly interesting. In trying to describe it, I thought it would be like a pitchfork: deep prominent bass, high far-off (far-out) sounding noises, vocals in the middle. And going back a bit further, to high school, to Young MC, I stumbled onto what seemed like a precursor to their sound; a track with all that lethargy and sonic separation yet from someone who, from his lyrics, would clearly not approve of Cypress Hill's lifestyle. I'm not sure if Young MC has changed his attitudes towards drugs since 1989, as mine did, and did again, since 1993; his first CD was the only one I listened to, and I listen to it still: I enjoy the beats and the facility with rhyme (even silly rhyme) ("I'm sloppy like Oscar but neat like Tony Randall"?) and the general party atmosphere of it, which is light and fun as long as it's not taken seriously. In this regard it's like the early Tribe records, which also have some green lyrics, some clumsy seductions and misplaced wallets.
But the more I think of it, the more I notice songs flirting with this Cypress Hill sound, this same sound predated by Young MC's track: decades earlier, in Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine"; and a few years later, in The Coup's "Fat Cats, Bigga Fish," in Louise Attaque's "Du Nord Au Sud"* and, to a lesser extent in Radiohead's The National Anthem (the vocals at the high point, the horns starting in the middle ... but too thick a sound overall, too much overlap and chaos) and in The Cure's remix of "Fascination Street" (the bass needs to be thicker, the middle thinner).
The more I think of it, the more I think I hear it (Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode, Baaba Maal), leading me to wonder if it's everywhere or if it's anywhere at all. It's possible I'm imagining it: representative samples in a frequency analyzer show some similarity, but not the separation of sound I thought I'd heard:
But quite distinct songs (Tears for Fears' "I Believe," The Beatles' "Helter Skelter") don't show nearly as much difference as I'd expected:
In '93 I'd probably bend over backwards, making any contortions necessary to prevent saying "I don't know" or "I was wrong." I don't know, and I may be wrong. Yet I'm not sure that recognizing that puts me any closer to finding what the similarities are, if they even exist.
Readers, if you care to comment (musicians, music theorists, music historians and/or critics--anyone with a clue really), is there actually any similarity between the Young MC track and the Cypress Hill track? If there is, how would you go about finding more of it?
[Stone Cold Rhymin' @ amazon, @ emusic]
[Genocide & Juice: out of print]
[Black Sunday @ amazon]
[Comme on a Dit]
[Mixed Up]
[Kid A]
* First posted 63 years ago in internet years on my guest post to Said the Gramophone.
Labels: hip-hop, out of print, personal, rock, world pop
posted by Tuwa @
22:26 | permalink |
7 comments
|
Friday, February 09, 2007:
A Sunday drive, holding hands. Maybe you'll stop somewhere for a leisurely brunch, maybe you'll trade friendly in-jokes, wink at each other behind the waitress's back, maybe you'll drive home with a pleasant anticipation.
[Can't Take My Eyes Off You, out of print]
John Fahey -- Summertime
Summertime, yes: early morning before it's hot, sunrise through a screen door, golden light crosshatched over floorboards. An owl in the woods hooting still, the crows not yet awake.
[Red Cross @ amazon.com or @ emusic]
Nancy Wilson and John Fahey
Nancy Wilson -- A Brand New MeA Sunday drive, holding hands. Maybe you'll stop somewhere for a leisurely brunch, maybe you'll trade friendly in-jokes, wink at each other behind the waitress's back, maybe you'll drive home with a pleasant anticipation.
[Can't Take My Eyes Off You, out of print]
John Fahey -- Summertime
Summertime, yes: early morning before it's hot, sunrise through a screen door, golden light crosshatched over floorboards. An owl in the woods hooting still, the crows not yet awake.
[Red Cross @ amazon.com or @ emusic]
Labels: folk, out of print, vocal
posted by Tuwa @
14:02 | permalink |
13 comments
|
Thursday, February 08, 2007:
At the end of a slow sappy LP leading me to think I'd misspent my $1, there was this disco track, which is quite enjoyable provided you don't have a Pavlovian aversion to disco. Apparently there's a 10-minute version of it which is expensive and highly regarded among DJs. Alas, all I have is the LP version, clocking in at just under 6 minutes.
I don't know much about Roussos, except that if you rearrange the letters in his name you can spell "Soused Morris" and that I doubt I'll be buying anything more by him.
[out of print]
Demis Roussos -- L.O.V.E. Got a Hold of Me
Demis Roussos -- L.O.V.E. Got a Hold of MeAt the end of a slow sappy LP leading me to think I'd misspent my $1, there was this disco track, which is quite enjoyable provided you don't have a Pavlovian aversion to disco. Apparently there's a 10-minute version of it which is expensive and highly regarded among DJs. Alas, all I have is the LP version, clocking in at just under 6 minutes.
I don't know much about Roussos, except that if you rearrange the letters in his name you can spell "Soused Morris" and that I doubt I'll be buying anything more by him.
[out of print]
Labels: disco, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
13:23 | permalink |
1 comments
|
Wednesday, September 27, 2006:
Paul Phillips and His Band -- In the Still of the Night
An argument:
1. The soundtrack to The Naked City is awesome.
2. There is an LP titled Naked City.
3. Some of the tracks on that LP are awesome.
:. The tracks are from the film The Naked City.
If this were in Introduction to Logic I'd have to question the conclusion. See, there might be other audiovisual entities named Naked City, for instance a TV show that was popular a decade after the film. There's also the premise that some tracks on the LP are not familiar to a viewer of the film. And one could introduce the premise that there are tracks on the LP which stop at "good," but by that point one would be making qualitative judgments and edging away from the purely mathematical/logical. Let's just say that the conclusion is not supported by the premises and try for another, avoiding any hint of linguistic hanky panky.
How about "There are millions of tracks from films, and these might be some of them"? No. Not a good conclusion--where it's not flippant it's vapid, the statement of a politician with few convictions beyond the necessity of his own re-election. And, besides, it doesn't follow necessarily from the premises.
Maybe we could escape the strictures of logic altogether, abandon the argument, present simply four premises, no conclusion?
"4. The full title of the LP is The Sound of Midnight: Naked City, by Paul Phillips and His Band, arranged and conducted by Joe Harnell, Kapp Records release MS-7517."
[LP out of print]
Paul Phillips & His Band -- Naked City
Paul Phillips and His Band -- TenderlyPaul Phillips and His Band -- In the Still of the Night
An argument:
1. The soundtrack to The Naked City is awesome.
2. There is an LP titled Naked City.
3. Some of the tracks on that LP are awesome.
:. The tracks are from the film The Naked City.
If this were in Introduction to Logic I'd have to question the conclusion. See, there might be other audiovisual entities named Naked City, for instance a TV show that was popular a decade after the film. There's also the premise that some tracks on the LP are not familiar to a viewer of the film. And one could introduce the premise that there are tracks on the LP which stop at "good," but by that point one would be making qualitative judgments and edging away from the purely mathematical/logical. Let's just say that the conclusion is not supported by the premises and try for another, avoiding any hint of linguistic hanky panky.
How about "There are millions of tracks from films, and these might be some of them"? No. Not a good conclusion--where it's not flippant it's vapid, the statement of a politician with few convictions beyond the necessity of his own re-election. And, besides, it doesn't follow necessarily from the premises.
Maybe we could escape the strictures of logic altogether, abandon the argument, present simply four premises, no conclusion?
"4. The full title of the LP is The Sound of Midnight: Naked City, by Paul Phillips and His Band, arranged and conducted by Joe Harnell, Kapp Records release MS-7517."
[LP out of print]
Labels: jazz, out of print, soundtrack
posted by Tuwa @
02:11 | permalink |
2 comments
|
Monday, September 04, 2006:
Brook Benton -- Chains of Love
Brook Benton -- Got You on My Mind
Brook Benton was a baritone known for his smooth R&B tracks, his sassy duets with Dinah Washington, and his melancholy song "Rainy Night in Georgia." His work on Singing the Blues is unlikely to impress listeners expecting a "pure" blues record--the guitar tends towards rhythmic accents, not minor keyed progressions and scorching solos; the vocals are more hot chocolate with marshmallows than unsweetened dark chocolate; the tracks as a whole tend towards the affable: easy melodies, easy harmonies, violins, backbeat, lazy piano. Still, in spite of the misleading title, I've been listening to this LP a lot, because sometimes hot chocolate with marshmallows really hits the spot. And Benton is an excellent vocalist.
[out of print]
...
Neurons and the universe.
...
I recently signed up for a Blogger Beta account, at blogger.com's Help Page suggestion, tinkered with it for a day, was logged out, and then could not log back into the Dashboard to continue testing it. Still, the new features--especially comments feeds and labels for posts--look good, and I'm eager for Blogger to work out the bugs so I can start tagging the posts. As Harry Tuttle pointed out, better still would be feeds for labels--if you're interested only in certain genres you wouldn't have to bother with the rest.
Brook Benton -- Singing the Blues
Brook Benton -- Chains of Love
Brook Benton -- Got You on My Mind
Brook Benton was a baritone known for his smooth R&B tracks, his sassy duets with Dinah Washington, and his melancholy song "Rainy Night in Georgia." His work on Singing the Blues is unlikely to impress listeners expecting a "pure" blues record--the guitar tends towards rhythmic accents, not minor keyed progressions and scorching solos; the vocals are more hot chocolate with marshmallows than unsweetened dark chocolate; the tracks as a whole tend towards the affable: easy melodies, easy harmonies, violins, backbeat, lazy piano. Still, in spite of the misleading title, I've been listening to this LP a lot, because sometimes hot chocolate with marshmallows really hits the spot. And Benton is an excellent vocalist.
[out of print]
...
Neurons and the universe.
...
I recently signed up for a Blogger Beta account, at blogger.com's Help Page suggestion, tinkered with it for a day, was logged out, and then could not log back into the Dashboard to continue testing it. Still, the new features--especially comments feeds and labels for posts--look good, and I'm eager for Blogger to work out the bugs so I can start tagging the posts. As Harry Tuttle pointed out, better still would be feeds for labels--if you're interested only in certain genres you wouldn't have to bother with the rest.
Labels: out of print, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
12:55 | permalink |
3 comments
|
Monday, July 10, 2006:
Darcy Feels It posted two Barbara Lynn tracks on Thursday, and then this morning London Lee posted one. And I'm feeling it too so here's another, off her You'll Lose a Good Thing compilation, which unfortunately has the kind of liner notes that look like they were printed on someone's inkjet and more unfortunately seems to have gone out of print. (On further thought, I wonder if those two are unrelated....)
"Ring Telephone Ring" is a strange track: a lurching rhythm guitar, backed by a very subdued organ and "big" cymbal hits, with lyrics about a woman wondering about a failed or failing relationship. None of that gets across the stoned dirge-like mood of the track, though--allmusic.com describes the compilation as "idiosyncratic stuff with a bluesier, swampier feel than most any other soul being made during the time," but as far as I can tell, that's a good description of only this track. "Swamp blues" would describe this track perfectly, but not the rest of the tracks. The rest of the music has much more chipper instrumentation, giving a sunny, cheerful feel to the tracks even when the lyrics are about conniving women or relationships turning sour.
Standouts on the disc include "You'll Lose a Good Thing" (featured in Hairspray), "Don't Be Cruel" (yes, that one), and "Can't Buy My Love" (no, not a typo + the Beatles track).
[You'll Lose a Good Thing]
...
Another MuFi (HiFi? MeFi Music?) find: How To Fight Loneliness, a cover of a Wilco song I've never heard. Wilco fans, does it stack up to the original?
...
I missed posting this on the 4th of July: a sixth-grade essay on What the American Flag Stands For.
...
Mohammed Raffi can expect to have trouble wiring money to someone, as can Ahmed Ahmed.
In general I despise the IMF, not least because it values commerce over the will of democratic nations, but sometimes they get things right. (Which is to say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.) Hey Western Union man, I wonder what Mesud Ahmed thinks about your policy.
Barbara Lynn -- Ring Telephone Ring
Barbara Lynn -- Ring Telephone RingDarcy Feels It posted two Barbara Lynn tracks on Thursday, and then this morning London Lee posted one. And I'm feeling it too so here's another, off her You'll Lose a Good Thing compilation, which unfortunately has the kind of liner notes that look like they were printed on someone's inkjet and more unfortunately seems to have gone out of print. (On further thought, I wonder if those two are unrelated....)
"Ring Telephone Ring" is a strange track: a lurching rhythm guitar, backed by a very subdued organ and "big" cymbal hits, with lyrics about a woman wondering about a failed or failing relationship. None of that gets across the stoned dirge-like mood of the track, though--allmusic.com describes the compilation as "idiosyncratic stuff with a bluesier, swampier feel than most any other soul being made during the time," but as far as I can tell, that's a good description of only this track. "Swamp blues" would describe this track perfectly, but not the rest of the tracks. The rest of the music has much more chipper instrumentation, giving a sunny, cheerful feel to the tracks even when the lyrics are about conniving women or relationships turning sour.
Standouts on the disc include "You'll Lose a Good Thing" (featured in Hairspray), "Don't Be Cruel" (yes, that one), and "Can't Buy My Love" (no, not a typo + the Beatles track).
[You'll Lose a Good Thing]
...
Another MuFi (HiFi? MeFi Music?) find: How To Fight Loneliness, a cover of a Wilco song I've never heard. Wilco fans, does it stack up to the original?
...
I missed posting this on the 4th of July: a sixth-grade essay on What the American Flag Stands For.
...
Mohammed Raffi can expect to have trouble wiring money to someone, as can Ahmed Ahmed.
In general I despise the IMF, not least because it values commerce over the will of democratic nations, but sometimes they get things right. (Which is to say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.) Hey Western Union man, I wonder what Mesud Ahmed thinks about your policy.
Labels: out of print, politics, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
12:32 | permalink |
5 comments
|
Thursday, June 22, 2006:
Joe Sun w. Shotgun -- (Home Away from Home) I'll Find It Where I Can
David Griggs -- Satan James
Been feeling under the weather lately.
Here are some tracks I posted about a year ago, when I was using Yousendit (why? I don't know. Rev. Frost's site was the only one I ever bothered with yousendit links on.)
Darts writeup.
Joe Sun writeup.
The David Griggs writeup was subpar, even by my standards. I like his voice and also the harmonizing backup vocals; and the guitar work is ace. I'm not sure I understand all the story, but that never stopped me from liking a song before.
These are all out of print--ephemera. (Shane! Come back!)
old shoes and a box of rocks that don't belong together
The Darts -- PeachesJoe Sun w. Shotgun -- (Home Away from Home) I'll Find It Where I Can
David Griggs -- Satan James
Been feeling under the weather lately.
Here are some tracks I posted about a year ago, when I was using Yousendit (why? I don't know. Rev. Frost's site was the only one I ever bothered with yousendit links on.)
Darts writeup.
Joe Sun writeup.
The David Griggs writeup was subpar, even by my standards. I like his voice and also the harmonizing backup vocals; and the guitar work is ace. I'm not sure I understand all the story, but that never stopped me from liking a song before.
These are all out of print--ephemera. (Shane! Come back!)
Labels: country music, ephemera, out of print, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
23:30 | permalink |
4 comments
|
Monday, March 13, 2006:
Last post's Asha/Kronos track was in context of a disapproving film, but I'm not so sure about this one--I haven't seen Zoot Suit, the film it's from. Side one of the soundtrack is mostly Chicano swing (half of it, including this one, composed by Lalo Guerrero), with one then-modern rock song, all of them with vocals; side two is entirely instrumentals, most of them swing standards.
This one is from side one and features Edward James Olmos doing his best Dr. John impression. Or maybe he's imitating Tommy Mooney, whom allmusic.com lists as the only other performer of the song--but I have no idea who that is, and allmusic.com doesn't seem to know much about him either.
(update: rosswords writes in to say that allmusic.com attributed the song wrong on that page--that Tommy Mooney sang "Bingo Boogie" on the CD, but that "Marijuana Boogie" is performed by Lalo Guerrero. Also: "Neither of those two songs are really boogie-woogie, which is a wild eight-to-the-bar piano music. In those days, you just added the word 'boogie' to a song and sales doubled." And, finally, the version here isn't properly boogie woogie either, but more a Tin Pan Alley/Dixieland/showtunes version.)
My Spanish is a bit rusty, but I'm not sure I ever knew what a zizivato or a calco is. I understand the rest, though, and quite like the piano. And I can forgive a song about marijuana for not working itself up to a flashy conclusion.
...
For fans of Cronenberg and "body horror" in general: Ascaris lumbricoides, complete with pictures and video. I've been having nightmares about this three nights running.
...
There are a lot of complaints you could make about the Barnes & Noble website, but this is a neat feature: searching by instrument. These CDs in the catalogue have theremin on them (or, in the case of Portishead, a convincing synthesizer); these have pipa. Gentlemen, start your mixtapes.
...
A record exec answers, in general, "Why isn't $Awesome_Thing_X on CD/DVD?" Which leads, naturally enough, back to the question of whose purposes copyright is serving when the artists can't keep their work in print even though their audience wants it. I wonder if the current system is doing as much as it should for furthering the "progress of the arts and sciences"--it seems that scientific and artistic progress would depend on keeping works in print so those ideas can circulate through society and be challenged or built on. And things aren't valuable only because they can be sold; I'm sure we all have things we could sell (CDs, food, family) that we decline to because we prefer their function to their theoretical market value.
...
box.net has recently changed its prices and instituted a bandwidth cap. It seems they want to compete with Google's upcoming GDrive, probably as part of a larger quest involving disenchanting maidens and tilting at windmills. At any rate, by Friday I'll probably be out of bandwidth for the month, which means that I'll need to decide whether to pony up for more bandwidth, post less, or find some other solution.
Daniel Valdez & Edward James Olmos -- Marijuana Boogie
Daniel Valdez & Edward James Olmos -- Marijuana BoogieLast post's Asha/Kronos track was in context of a disapproving film, but I'm not so sure about this one--I haven't seen Zoot Suit, the film it's from. Side one of the soundtrack is mostly Chicano swing (half of it, including this one, composed by Lalo Guerrero), with one then-modern rock song, all of them with vocals; side two is entirely instrumentals, most of them swing standards.
This one is from side one and features Edward James Olmos doing his best Dr. John impression. Or maybe he's imitating Tommy Mooney, whom allmusic.com lists as the only other performer of the song--but I have no idea who that is, and allmusic.com doesn't seem to know much about him either.
(update: rosswords writes in to say that allmusic.com attributed the song wrong on that page--that Tommy Mooney sang "Bingo Boogie" on the CD, but that "Marijuana Boogie" is performed by Lalo Guerrero. Also: "Neither of those two songs are really boogie-woogie, which is a wild eight-to-the-bar piano music. In those days, you just added the word 'boogie' to a song and sales doubled." And, finally, the version here isn't properly boogie woogie either, but more a Tin Pan Alley/Dixieland/showtunes version.)
My Spanish is a bit rusty, but I'm not sure I ever knew what a zizivato or a calco is. I understand the rest, though, and quite like the piano. And I can forgive a song about marijuana for not working itself up to a flashy conclusion.
...
For fans of Cronenberg and "body horror" in general: Ascaris lumbricoides, complete with pictures and video. I've been having nightmares about this three nights running.
...
There are a lot of complaints you could make about the Barnes & Noble website, but this is a neat feature: searching by instrument. These CDs in the catalogue have theremin on them (or, in the case of Portishead, a convincing synthesizer); these have pipa. Gentlemen, start your mixtapes.
...
A record exec answers, in general, "Why isn't $Awesome_Thing_X on CD/DVD?" Which leads, naturally enough, back to the question of whose purposes copyright is serving when the artists can't keep their work in print even though their audience wants it. I wonder if the current system is doing as much as it should for furthering the "progress of the arts and sciences"--it seems that scientific and artistic progress would depend on keeping works in print so those ideas can circulate through society and be challenged or built on. And things aren't valuable only because they can be sold; I'm sure we all have things we could sell (CDs, food, family) that we decline to because we prefer their function to their theoretical market value.
...
box.net has recently changed its prices and instituted a bandwidth cap. It seems they want to compete with Google's upcoming GDrive, probably as part of a larger quest involving disenchanting maidens and tilting at windmills. At any rate, by Friday I'll probably be out of bandwidth for the month, which means that I'll need to decide whether to pony up for more bandwidth, post less, or find some other solution.
Labels: out of print, soundtrack
posted by Tuwa @
00:02 | permalink |
1 comments
|
Friday, January 06, 2006:
Manhattans -- Let's Start It All Over Again
Manhattans -- Mind Your Business
These two tracks are off Manhattans' 1977 LP It Feels So Good. The first track, "Let's Start It All Over Again," is typical of their work on this LP (and, from what I understand off allmusic.com, typical of their work in general: soft R&B with high, mellow crooning and a deep deep voice stepping in occasionally.
"Mind Your Business" is different from the rest of the tracks: a funk tune starting with handclaps and tight harmonizing, adding horns and a snappy thumping bassline, the vocals a page ripped from Chapter 1 of Stevie Wonder's book, the lyrics telling someone what's what. It seems a direction the group could have explored more, but it's not what they're known for. This is the first of their LPs I've heard; it's solid but for the most part not outstanding; luckily from poking around a bit it seems it's not considered their best record. The LP's out of print and it seems "Mind Your Business" is unavailable on CD, though there's a (poorly reviewed) compilation with "Let's Start It All Over Again" on it.
Maybe Oliver Wang or London Lee know something about this group--where to go from here, which LPs have great songs otherwise unavailable, etc. From what I've seen so far, they know something about every nook and cranny of soul music, which is both impressive and intimidating.
Manhattans -- It Feels So Good
Manhattans -- Let's Start It All Over Again
Manhattans -- Mind Your Business
These two tracks are off Manhattans' 1977 LP It Feels So Good. The first track, "Let's Start It All Over Again," is typical of their work on this LP (and, from what I understand off allmusic.com, typical of their work in general: soft R&B with high, mellow crooning and a deep deep voice stepping in occasionally.
"Mind Your Business" is different from the rest of the tracks: a funk tune starting with handclaps and tight harmonizing, adding horns and a snappy thumping bassline, the vocals a page ripped from Chapter 1 of Stevie Wonder's book, the lyrics telling someone what's what. It seems a direction the group could have explored more, but it's not what they're known for. This is the first of their LPs I've heard; it's solid but for the most part not outstanding; luckily from poking around a bit it seems it's not considered their best record. The LP's out of print and it seems "Mind Your Business" is unavailable on CD, though there's a (poorly reviewed) compilation with "Let's Start It All Over Again" on it.
Maybe Oliver Wang or London Lee know something about this group--where to go from here, which LPs have great songs otherwise unavailable, etc. From what I've seen so far, they know something about every nook and cranny of soul music, which is both impressive and intimidating.
Labels: out of print, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
16:13 | permalink |
10 comments
|
Tuesday, December 06, 2005:
Jonah Jones -- Blues Don't Care (Who's Got 'Em)
Ah. Had some bad news, and more bad news, and then some more, about family. Not worth getting into, as a) my family wouldn't like it and b) it sounds like something made up anyway. Got me a bit on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Here's the Jonah Jones Quartet giving a happy-go-lucky spin on it: commiserating, patting you on the back, taking you out to some bawdy hilarious comedy and then a few rounds of beer. It's not some Monk/Coltrane/Davis session that leaves you puzzling it over for days, putting it on endless repeat to try to tease out the intricacies--it's simple, swinging Dixieland jazz, but that tone: so clear! And when he blows so hard it rattles--yes. Perfect.
The tune has lyrics, but not here. Has anyone heard any of the other versions? Any good? ... It's new to me, off another $1 find--rescued from a bin consisting mostly of prog rock, Christmas tunes, deservedly obscure soundtracks, and the requisite Whipped Cream and Other Delights and José Feliciano LPs (either it's international law that every used record bin have one of each, or both musicians sold one to every person on the planet).
The LP was re-released on CD, with a slight reordering and a couple bonus tracks. Then it went out of print again.
Jonah Jones Quartet -- Blues Don't Care (Who's Got 'Em)
Jonah Jones -- Blues Don't Care (Who's Got 'Em)
Ah. Had some bad news, and more bad news, and then some more, about family. Not worth getting into, as a) my family wouldn't like it and b) it sounds like something made up anyway. Got me a bit on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Here's the Jonah Jones Quartet giving a happy-go-lucky spin on it: commiserating, patting you on the back, taking you out to some bawdy hilarious comedy and then a few rounds of beer. It's not some Monk/Coltrane/Davis session that leaves you puzzling it over for days, putting it on endless repeat to try to tease out the intricacies--it's simple, swinging Dixieland jazz, but that tone: so clear! And when he blows so hard it rattles--yes. Perfect.
The tune has lyrics, but not here. Has anyone heard any of the other versions? Any good? ... It's new to me, off another $1 find--rescued from a bin consisting mostly of prog rock, Christmas tunes, deservedly obscure soundtracks, and the requisite Whipped Cream and Other Delights and José Feliciano LPs (either it's international law that every used record bin have one of each, or both musicians sold one to every person on the planet).
The LP was re-released on CD, with a slight reordering and a couple bonus tracks. Then it went out of print again.
Labels: jazz, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
11:50 | permalink |
1 comments
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005:
Billy Preston -- How Long Has the Train Been Gone
Billy Preston -- Sunday Morning
Billy Preston, on Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music, tries on quite a few genres--jazz, blues, rock, classical--and, in my opinion, succeeds at them all.
"How Long Has the Train Been Gone" is a gospel tune, this one with horns, pianos, organs, and lyrics about a narrator who's been left behind by a train and wonders why and about another man who didn't believe but wanted to. The lyrics are a bit anguished but delivered as if exuberant; it's an approach that usually works and this time is no exception. It's hard to take issue with it when you want to sing along.
"Sunday Morning" has a lazy, affable banjo line with a summery vocal about a failing love: "Won't you stay a little longer? Must you leave me right away? Don't you like me any more; what do you want to hear me say?" The song sounds reminds me of bluegrass in its banjo and its lyrical themes, though it's much calmer than a lot of the bluegrass I've heard, more relaxed and welcoming. It's like a gentleman salesman who makes his case quietly and goes on his way with a tip of his hat, and you stand at the screen door feeling a bit guilty you couldn't afford what he was selling--such a nice man.
I'm endlessly puzzled why Preston doesn't have more in print; he's got a lot of gems in his catalogue.
I seem to remember this LP from childhood; a lot of the songs sound familiar. My mother disagrees; she says she doesn't know who Billy Preston is. Fer shame--with all the Beatles LPs she had (yes, even the one with "Don't Let Me Down," with the four of them on the front outside the door to somebody's mansion, a bust nearby wearing a hat).
Billy Preston
Billy Preston -- How Long Has the Train Been Gone
Billy Preston -- Sunday Morning
Billy Preston, on Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music, tries on quite a few genres--jazz, blues, rock, classical--and, in my opinion, succeeds at them all.
"How Long Has the Train Been Gone" is a gospel tune, this one with horns, pianos, organs, and lyrics about a narrator who's been left behind by a train and wonders why and about another man who didn't believe but wanted to. The lyrics are a bit anguished but delivered as if exuberant; it's an approach that usually works and this time is no exception. It's hard to take issue with it when you want to sing along.
"Sunday Morning" has a lazy, affable banjo line with a summery vocal about a failing love: "Won't you stay a little longer? Must you leave me right away? Don't you like me any more; what do you want to hear me say?" The song sounds reminds me of bluegrass in its banjo and its lyrical themes, though it's much calmer than a lot of the bluegrass I've heard, more relaxed and welcoming. It's like a gentleman salesman who makes his case quietly and goes on his way with a tip of his hat, and you stand at the screen door feeling a bit guilty you couldn't afford what he was selling--such a nice man.
I'm endlessly puzzled why Preston doesn't have more in print; he's got a lot of gems in his catalogue.
I seem to remember this LP from childhood; a lot of the songs sound familiar. My mother disagrees; she says she doesn't know who Billy Preston is. Fer shame--with all the Beatles LPs she had (yes, even the one with "Don't Let Me Down," with the four of them on the front outside the door to somebody's mansion, a bust nearby wearing a hat).
Labels: bluegrass, gospel, out of print, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
12:12 | permalink |
0 comments
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Friday, September 02, 2005:
The Screaming Blue Messiahs -- Jesus Chrysler Drives a Dodge
The Screaming Blue Messiahs were an 80s rock trio, probably best known for "I Wanna Be a Flinstone," off Bikini Red; their style ranged from hard rock to blues rock to pop-punk. Gun Shy (1986) was an interesting start, good enough but more promising than fully accomplished; they followed that with Bikini Red (1987), which was more consistently great; and then came Totally Religious, which struk me as almost as good, and then they disbanded. Odd, that.
"Lie Detector" is a fun poppy track about a man challenging his S.O. to hook him up to a lie detector and figure out what's true and what's not. The delays and echo effects are all fine, but what sells me on it is the tempo and the melody; it's exuberant and catchy, inviting you to sing along.
"Jesus Chrysler Drives a Dodge" is another track putting rest to the age-old question "What Would Jesus Drive?" (Ministry hinted that he might drive a hot rod, though alternate answers include a Plymouth, Pontiac, or Geo, and a hybrid). Personally, I think he'd live in Europe and use a bike.
More manic goodness on this one: a rhythm section barrelling past, and some great wailing distorted guitar coming in periodically.
These two are digitized from a new copy of the Bikini Red LP I picked up on eBay; the album's out of print. It's solid work, work that's stood the last twenty years well, and I'm puzzled why it's out of print but also willing to give up trying to understand the reasonings of music execs. Other standouts on Bikini Red are "I Wanna Be a Flintstone," "I Can Speak American," and the title track. Actually, I like them all, even the closing "Waltz" (though the guitar sounds a bit out of tune).
I might post a couple more by The Screaming Blue Messiahs, from their other albums, if there's any interest in it.
update: Jon informs me that Good and Gone was the Messiahs' debut, and that there is also a Peel Sessions on vinyl and an official live CD release.
The Screaming Blue Messiahs
The Screaming Blue Messiahs -- Lie DetectorThe Screaming Blue Messiahs -- Jesus Chrysler Drives a Dodge
The Screaming Blue Messiahs were an 80s rock trio, probably best known for "I Wanna Be a Flinstone," off Bikini Red; their style ranged from hard rock to blues rock to pop-punk. Gun Shy (1986) was an interesting start, good enough but more promising than fully accomplished; they followed that with Bikini Red (1987), which was more consistently great; and then came Totally Religious, which struk me as almost as good, and then they disbanded. Odd, that.
"Lie Detector" is a fun poppy track about a man challenging his S.O. to hook him up to a lie detector and figure out what's true and what's not. The delays and echo effects are all fine, but what sells me on it is the tempo and the melody; it's exuberant and catchy, inviting you to sing along.
"Jesus Chrysler Drives a Dodge" is another track putting rest to the age-old question "What Would Jesus Drive?" (Ministry hinted that he might drive a hot rod, though alternate answers include a Plymouth, Pontiac, or Geo, and a hybrid). Personally, I think he'd live in Europe and use a bike.
More manic goodness on this one: a rhythm section barrelling past, and some great wailing distorted guitar coming in periodically.
These two are digitized from a new copy of the Bikini Red LP I picked up on eBay; the album's out of print. It's solid work, work that's stood the last twenty years well, and I'm puzzled why it's out of print but also willing to give up trying to understand the reasonings of music execs. Other standouts on Bikini Red are "I Wanna Be a Flintstone," "I Can Speak American," and the title track. Actually, I like them all, even the closing "Waltz" (though the guitar sounds a bit out of tune).
I might post a couple more by The Screaming Blue Messiahs, from their other albums, if there's any interest in it.
update: Jon informs me that Good and Gone was the Messiahs' debut, and that there is also a Peel Sessions on vinyl and an official live CD release.
Labels: out of print, rock
posted by Tuwa @
17:55 | permalink |
0 comments
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Friday, August 26, 2005:
Betty Wright -- It's Hard to Stop (Doing Something When It's Good to You)
I had intended to post Betty Wright's "Clean Up Woman" with Afrika Bambaataa's "Zulu War Chant," but then I found that Wright's song was plenty popular without my help (twelve weeks on the chart, peaked at #6) and on listening to "Zulu War Chant" I realized that, for the most part, I didn't like the song anymore. I still like the parts with "this is something special for you" and the bridge with the sample chopped up a bit, and the sample itself is fine; I just wish Bambaataa had done more with it.
Luckily, Wright's got a solid enough catalogue that there's still material for a post.
"I'll Love You Forever" is out of print, digitized from the flipside to the 45" of "Clean Up Woman"; it's a sincere and romantic R&B number, uncomplicated, in much the way that a new love is. Betty knows the man might have been hurt before; she has too, but she's all about putting that behind and moving on, optimistic, the two of them treating each other right.
"It's Hard to Stop (Doing Something When It's Good to You)" is a funkier number, with a syncopated guitar line on the left, some great horns coming in on the right. Solid groove on this one; set the dancemeter to 8. And the vocals over it, man, that's tight. Lyrics have Betty with a cheating man, staying with him anyway because "he's a good lovin' man."
"It's Hard to Stop" is from Rhino's 20 track best-of collection of Wright's work, and there are any number of tracks on it I would have been happy posting. Good pickings there. "He's Bad Bad Bad," "Let Me Be Your Lovemaker," "Slip and Do It," and "Shoorah! Shoorah!" are all particularly good--fun work, great for a summer morning.
...
On some of these mp3blogs, people tend to put up a photo of the 45", I guess to prove they have it. I find it visually dull, and, besides, I've not got a digital camera; I have a Nikon FM2 and a flatbed scanner, so I won't be doing that. I'm not putting my vinyl on the flatbed and I'm not about to start paying $8 a pop for two dozen photos of nothing more than LPs and 45s. The covers, on the other hand--I'll continue to scan those in, giving the odd crop (Phil Judd, Mandrill, here's looking at you) or piecing them together in Photoshop (Cannonball, Brides of Funkenstein).
Elsewhere: boingboing.net mentioned some time back that someone had put the "pink elephants" scene of Dumbo with Sun Ra's cover of the original music; they were all agog about the results. I'm a bit underwhelmed: it starts out in synch and goes increasingly out of synch, as if Sun Ra had lost the plot or just didn't care. I saw the film a few days ago and I think Sun Ra's music is better, but the original music works better with the visuals. For starters, the horns and cymbal crashes correspond to events on screen.
That said, I wonder why the hell all the black men working in the rain putting up the tent have no face. Everyone else in the film does. And never mind about the crows at the end. Meh. Not as blatantly vile as their earlier stuff, I guess, with Mickey and Minnie and the rest giving a play in blackface. Oh, the height of comedy. I wonder when that one will come out on DVD.
[Amazon.com]: The Best of Betty Wright
Betty Wright
Betty Wright -- I'll Love You ForeverBetty Wright -- It's Hard to Stop (Doing Something When It's Good to You)
I had intended to post Betty Wright's "Clean Up Woman" with Afrika Bambaataa's "Zulu War Chant," but then I found that Wright's song was plenty popular without my help (twelve weeks on the chart, peaked at #6) and on listening to "Zulu War Chant" I realized that, for the most part, I didn't like the song anymore. I still like the parts with "this is something special for you" and the bridge with the sample chopped up a bit, and the sample itself is fine; I just wish Bambaataa had done more with it.
Luckily, Wright's got a solid enough catalogue that there's still material for a post.
"I'll Love You Forever" is out of print, digitized from the flipside to the 45" of "Clean Up Woman"; it's a sincere and romantic R&B number, uncomplicated, in much the way that a new love is. Betty knows the man might have been hurt before; she has too, but she's all about putting that behind and moving on, optimistic, the two of them treating each other right.
"It's Hard to Stop (Doing Something When It's Good to You)" is a funkier number, with a syncopated guitar line on the left, some great horns coming in on the right. Solid groove on this one; set the dancemeter to 8. And the vocals over it, man, that's tight. Lyrics have Betty with a cheating man, staying with him anyway because "he's a good lovin' man."
"It's Hard to Stop" is from Rhino's 20 track best-of collection of Wright's work, and there are any number of tracks on it I would have been happy posting. Good pickings there. "He's Bad Bad Bad," "Let Me Be Your Lovemaker," "Slip and Do It," and "Shoorah! Shoorah!" are all particularly good--fun work, great for a summer morning.
...
On some of these mp3blogs, people tend to put up a photo of the 45", I guess to prove they have it. I find it visually dull, and, besides, I've not got a digital camera; I have a Nikon FM2 and a flatbed scanner, so I won't be doing that. I'm not putting my vinyl on the flatbed and I'm not about to start paying $8 a pop for two dozen photos of nothing more than LPs and 45s. The covers, on the other hand--I'll continue to scan those in, giving the odd crop (Phil Judd, Mandrill, here's looking at you) or piecing them together in Photoshop (Cannonball, Brides of Funkenstein).
Elsewhere: boingboing.net mentioned some time back that someone had put the "pink elephants" scene of Dumbo with Sun Ra's cover of the original music; they were all agog about the results. I'm a bit underwhelmed: it starts out in synch and goes increasingly out of synch, as if Sun Ra had lost the plot or just didn't care. I saw the film a few days ago and I think Sun Ra's music is better, but the original music works better with the visuals. For starters, the horns and cymbal crashes correspond to events on screen.
That said, I wonder why the hell all the black men working in the rain putting up the tent have no face. Everyone else in the film does. And never mind about the crows at the end. Meh. Not as blatantly vile as their earlier stuff, I guess, with Mickey and Minnie and the rest giving a play in blackface. Oh, the height of comedy. I wonder when that one will come out on DVD.
[Amazon.com]: The Best of Betty Wright
Labels: movies, out of print, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
15:37 | permalink |
0 comments
|
Friday, August 19, 2005:
Mikis Theodorakis -- La Course De Manuel (Chase)
Mikis Theodorakis -- To Palikari Echi Kaimo (vocals: Maria Farandouli)
Mikis Theodorakis -- To Palikari Echi Kaimo (vocals: Mikis Theodorakis)
Walking home with a few sacks of groceries, you hear a snatch of music that grabs your attention. You turn to look, and find that the music is coming from a third-story loft, the window up halfway, propped with a board. After awhile you take a seat on the curb and set your groceries down beside you.
You sit fascinated, staring up at the window across the street, and then you notice that a group of wiry muscular heavily tattooed men have formed a half-circle behind you. They're closing in on the sides and they want to know what you're doing there. You point up at the window. The leader turns to look, and then the others follow suit. No one says anything for awhile.
Then, from your right: "I like the girl." You nod.
"I like the man more." This from your left. "It's like he has to try harder, but that makes it better." You nod to this too.
They sit down, one by one. A few songs later, you realize your ice cream sandwiches are probably melting. You open the box and pass them around. It's not enough. You look to see what else you have.
The next week you pass that same spot. The men are all there, hanging out on a stoop chit-chatting. The window across the street is closed. The men watch you approach. You tip your hat. They nod in response. From the back, someone asks if you have any ice cream sandwiches.
...
A bit of background: the last track offered here was one of two bonuses to the LP, which weren't included in the film. The film is a tightly-constructed political thriller about the assassination of a political figure and a government conspiracy to hide it (it sounds like it might be dull, ponderous, belabored--it's not; it's fascinating, fantastic, and should IMHO be well up on the IMDb top 250). At the beginning it's stated that any similarities between the characters and real people are deliberate. It's bold and brilliant work, on both the film and the music. Following the 1967 coup in Greece Theodorakis was jailed and then exiled for his political activities, but Costa-Gavras seems to have escaped that fate. Theodorakis is still alive and apparently going great guns, and no, thank you, I'd rather not debate his political views. :-)
wikipedia writeup on Mikis Theodorakis
Mikis Theodorakis' site
Z page at IMDb.com
[Amazon.com]: An out-of-print double-CD set of four soundtracks, if you have $100 USD you don't know what to spend on.
Mikis Theodorakis
Mikis Theodorakis -- La Course De Manuel (Chase)
Mikis Theodorakis -- To Palikari Echi Kaimo (vocals: Maria Farandouli)
Mikis Theodorakis -- To Palikari Echi Kaimo (vocals: Mikis Theodorakis)
Walking home with a few sacks of groceries, you hear a snatch of music that grabs your attention. You turn to look, and find that the music is coming from a third-story loft, the window up halfway, propped with a board. After awhile you take a seat on the curb and set your groceries down beside you.
You sit fascinated, staring up at the window across the street, and then you notice that a group of wiry muscular heavily tattooed men have formed a half-circle behind you. They're closing in on the sides and they want to know what you're doing there. You point up at the window. The leader turns to look, and then the others follow suit. No one says anything for awhile.
Then, from your right: "I like the girl." You nod.
"I like the man more." This from your left. "It's like he has to try harder, but that makes it better." You nod to this too.
They sit down, one by one. A few songs later, you realize your ice cream sandwiches are probably melting. You open the box and pass them around. It's not enough. You look to see what else you have.
The next week you pass that same spot. The men are all there, hanging out on a stoop chit-chatting. The window across the street is closed. The men watch you approach. You tip your hat. They nod in response. From the back, someone asks if you have any ice cream sandwiches.
...
A bit of background: the last track offered here was one of two bonuses to the LP, which weren't included in the film. The film is a tightly-constructed political thriller about the assassination of a political figure and a government conspiracy to hide it (it sounds like it might be dull, ponderous, belabored--it's not; it's fascinating, fantastic, and should IMHO be well up on the IMDb top 250). At the beginning it's stated that any similarities between the characters and real people are deliberate. It's bold and brilliant work, on both the film and the music. Following the 1967 coup in Greece Theodorakis was jailed and then exiled for his political activities, but Costa-Gavras seems to have escaped that fate. Theodorakis is still alive and apparently going great guns, and no, thank you, I'd rather not debate his political views. :-)
wikipedia writeup on Mikis Theodorakis
Mikis Theodorakis' site
Z page at IMDb.com
[Amazon.com]: An out-of-print double-CD set of four soundtracks, if you have $100 USD you don't know what to spend on.
Labels: is fiction, movies, out of print, soundtrack
posted by Tuwa @
02:10 | permalink |
0 comments
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005:
I debated awhile whether to post this side, or an excerpt of the best part, or neither. The track is twenty minutes long, and in my opinion it goes from good to okay to downright brilliant to downright horrible and then back to merely good. I didn't want to post a twenty minute file and hose my hosting, or test anyone's patience (yours, or the RIAA's--even if the track is somewhat crackly, obscure, and long out of print). I also didn't know if I should post an excerpt--it seemed a bit like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the bread. But then Sean at Said the Gramophone said sometimes he ate peanut butter and jelly by the spoonful, so here's a spoonful.
Or, more properly, what we have is an army of caterpillars: methodically and implacably swarming the countryside, eating every leaf in sight, devastating the nation's crops. At some point they begin to pupate; they emerge; they show a severe and deadly beauty, like something out of a darkly humorous apocalyptic sci-fi film--one by Terry Gilliam, perhaps: butterflies flitting about, aimless, shooting laser beams and death rays. Behind it all is the evil genius Cannonball Adderley, who has become mad with power and the prospect of revenge. It turns out he's changed his mind and changed the goal: his enemy is now music itself; he will corner it; he will maul it so badly he can recognize it from a distance. You can hear him make this decision three minutes into the excerpt (eight minutes into the side). Harmony, melody, and rhythm fall under attack for nearly thirteen minutes, then muster the few remaining forces to sign a peace treaty. The terms are harsh, even criminal. Cannonball is pleased.
The LP cover shows a brown paper bag with bits of colored paper ripped off and taped in place crediting various people. It seems appropriate enough to the explorations on the LP. Whatever else it is, it is definitely an experience--uneven, patched together, yet something that I remembered for years and sought out (and wrote about before, with considerably less forgiveness).
Experience in E: the revenge of Cannonball
Cannonball Adderley -- Exerience in E (excerpt)I debated awhile whether to post this side, or an excerpt of the best part, or neither. The track is twenty minutes long, and in my opinion it goes from good to okay to downright brilliant to downright horrible and then back to merely good. I didn't want to post a twenty minute file and hose my hosting, or test anyone's patience (yours, or the RIAA's--even if the track is somewhat crackly, obscure, and long out of print). I also didn't know if I should post an excerpt--it seemed a bit like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the bread. But then Sean at Said the Gramophone said sometimes he ate peanut butter and jelly by the spoonful, so here's a spoonful.
Or, more properly, what we have is an army of caterpillars: methodically and implacably swarming the countryside, eating every leaf in sight, devastating the nation's crops. At some point they begin to pupate; they emerge; they show a severe and deadly beauty, like something out of a darkly humorous apocalyptic sci-fi film--one by Terry Gilliam, perhaps: butterflies flitting about, aimless, shooting laser beams and death rays. Behind it all is the evil genius Cannonball Adderley, who has become mad with power and the prospect of revenge. It turns out he's changed his mind and changed the goal: his enemy is now music itself; he will corner it; he will maul it so badly he can recognize it from a distance. You can hear him make this decision three minutes into the excerpt (eight minutes into the side). Harmony, melody, and rhythm fall under attack for nearly thirteen minutes, then muster the few remaining forces to sign a peace treaty. The terms are harsh, even criminal. Cannonball is pleased.
The LP cover shows a brown paper bag with bits of colored paper ripped off and taped in place crediting various people. It seems appropriate enough to the explorations on the LP. Whatever else it is, it is definitely an experience--uneven, patched together, yet something that I remembered for years and sought out (and wrote about before, with considerably less forgiveness).
Labels: jazz, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
17:05 | permalink |
0 comments
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Thursday, August 11, 2005:
Cannonball Adderley -- Hamba Nami
Cannonball Adderley -- Gumba Gumba
"Hamba Nami" and "Gumba Gumba" are both from Accent on Africa, an LP produced by David Axelord and released on Capitol in 1968. There's no information on the LP about the crew, aside from Nat Adderley (courtesy Contemporary Records), though it credits Dick Brown as photographer and Axelrod as producer.
There is a bit of an explanation from Cannonball, though, stating that the compositions are Western, not traditional African music, and that they're "designed to show the influence rather than the pure form of African sources." There's also a brief explantion of each song, and a list of what kind of saxophone Cannonball used:
"Hamba Nami" -- means "walk with me" in Zulu. The composition feels similarly to a gospel walking song.
"Gumba Gumba" -- is a Pan-African expression meaning "Party Time" or "All-Night Session," and can be understood by any West African.
It's some exuberant, fiery work here: tight phrasing, driving percussion; the organ gives a solid backdrop; Cannonball's on point in his solos. In "Hamba Nami" he wanders a bit, but briskly, coming back to lock it down into an irresistible groove; in "Gumba Gumba" he's more of a tour guide, pointing out sights and interrelationships that most people might miss.
Cannonball used the Selmer Varitone on both of these tracks. Add that one to the Stitt and Harris recordings, I guess, and Coltrane's practice sessions at home.
There's a longer version of "Hamba Nami" on the Cannonball retrospective Phenix, which I don't have and haven't heard. From the sample at amazon.com it sounds like the longer version has a rather different feel to it, and one that I'm not sure is an improvement.
This LP has some great music but is out of print; you can find it on ebay sometimes for fairly cheap.
more Cannonball: Accent on Africa
Cannonball Adderley -- Hamba Nami
Cannonball Adderley -- Gumba Gumba
"Hamba Nami" and "Gumba Gumba" are both from Accent on Africa, an LP produced by David Axelord and released on Capitol in 1968. There's no information on the LP about the crew, aside from Nat Adderley (courtesy Contemporary Records), though it credits Dick Brown as photographer and Axelrod as producer.
There is a bit of an explanation from Cannonball, though, stating that the compositions are Western, not traditional African music, and that they're "designed to show the influence rather than the pure form of African sources." There's also a brief explantion of each song, and a list of what kind of saxophone Cannonball used:
"Hamba Nami" -- means "walk with me" in Zulu. The composition feels similarly to a gospel walking song.
"Gumba Gumba" -- is a Pan-African expression meaning "Party Time" or "All-Night Session," and can be understood by any West African.
It's some exuberant, fiery work here: tight phrasing, driving percussion; the organ gives a solid backdrop; Cannonball's on point in his solos. In "Hamba Nami" he wanders a bit, but briskly, coming back to lock it down into an irresistible groove; in "Gumba Gumba" he's more of a tour guide, pointing out sights and interrelationships that most people might miss.
Cannonball used the Selmer Varitone on both of these tracks. Add that one to the Stitt and Harris recordings, I guess, and Coltrane's practice sessions at home.
There's a longer version of "Hamba Nami" on the Cannonball retrospective Phenix, which I don't have and haven't heard. From the sample at amazon.com it sounds like the longer version has a rather different feel to it, and one that I'm not sure is an improvement.
This LP has some great music but is out of print; you can find it on ebay sometimes for fairly cheap.
Labels: jazz, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
13:40 | permalink |
0 comments
|
Friday, August 05, 2005:
Charlie Rich -- There's Another Place I Can't Go
Charlie Rich: country/rock/pop/soul/R&B singer/crooner/wailer, and a mite more soulful than most country singers. But Rich probably doesn't need an introduction. I'm impressed with the way he mixes genres so seamlessly; plus he can sing, without aid from a computer program, which is always a plus.
"Half As Much" tells a story of a man who's convinced that his woman takes him for granted. It's aHank* Curly Williams cover taken from Rich's Sings the Songs of Hank Williams and Others LP. The LP is pleasant, which isn't exactly a sterling recommendation--I think that on some tracks it's a real mismatch with Hank Williams' lyrics, which generally call for a gritter vocal approach. And then, on other tracks, the smooth approach has some surprsing rewards. The syncopated funkiness of "Hey Good Looking" was a nice surprise, and "Cold Cold Heart" took a surprisingly suave and melodic turn (two decades before another pianist came along and decided the song really belonged in every coffeehouse in the country), but for me the star of the show is this "Half As Much."
The LP was re-released as half of a double-disc set; the other disc was all R&B. I didn't manage to pick up that disc; it's gone out of print now, and at $50 for the set I think I'll stick with the slightly muddy sound.
"There's Another Place I Can Go" is off Feel Like Going Home: The Essential Charlie Rich, which is still in print and has some fantastic tracks on it. It's about a relationship that's already over, the man left behind hurt by memories and feeling constrained by everything he has to avoid. It has a nicely understated bass line, some muted guitars, some wonderful organ and backup vocals; it would be easy to make it mournful and dirgelike, but the approach here is light and deft.
[Feels Like Going Home: The Essential Charlie Rich @ Amazon.com]
*Actually, it was written by Curly Williams and, yes, performed by Hank Williams and on a number of his recordings, but it was also covered by Patsy Cline, Rosemary Clooney, Ray Charles, and a number of others.
Half as much
Charlie Rich -- Half As MuchCharlie Rich -- There's Another Place I Can't Go
Charlie Rich: country/rock/pop/soul/R&B singer/crooner/wailer, and a mite more soulful than most country singers. But Rich probably doesn't need an introduction. I'm impressed with the way he mixes genres so seamlessly; plus he can sing, without aid from a computer program, which is always a plus.
"Half As Much" tells a story of a man who's convinced that his woman takes him for granted. It's a
The LP was re-released as half of a double-disc set; the other disc was all R&B. I didn't manage to pick up that disc; it's gone out of print now, and at $50 for the set I think I'll stick with the slightly muddy sound.
"There's Another Place I Can Go" is off Feel Like Going Home: The Essential Charlie Rich, which is still in print and has some fantastic tracks on it. It's about a relationship that's already over, the man left behind hurt by memories and feeling constrained by everything he has to avoid. It has a nicely understated bass line, some muted guitars, some wonderful organ and backup vocals; it would be easy to make it mournful and dirgelike, but the approach here is light and deft.
[Feels Like Going Home: The Essential Charlie Rich @ Amazon.com]
*Actually, it was written by Curly Williams and, yes, performed by Hank Williams and on a number of his recordings, but it was also covered by Patsy Cline, Rosemary Clooney, Ray Charles, and a number of others.
Labels: country music, out of print
posted by Tuwa @
01:10 | permalink |
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005:
Gwen McCrae -- Keep the Fire Burning
These tracks today are off Gwen McCrae's 1982 LP On My Way, released some time after she and George had called it quits. I'm tempted to read into some of the lyrics more than I probably should, but let's just say Gwen sounds confident and happy enough throughout the LP. "Hang In" is a great track, an Ann Peebles cover, and "Doin' It" is great also. But "I Didn't Take Your Man" strikes me as more intriguing, more real somehow, and "Keep the Fire Burning" strikes me as more fun than any of those three, as great as they are.
"I Didn't Take Your Man" is (like "Hang In") an Ann Peebles cover; this one explains that it was the other woman's bad choices that led to her man running off: "If you had taken the time to treat him with a little respect / he wouldn't be out here looking for love somewhere else." Oh man. And then, the gloating at the end? The lyrics are from the "stab, then twist" school; still, the song is forty shades of awesome.
"Keep the Fire Burning" is (like "Doin' It") a saucy dance number that should get you all loose-limbed and joyful. Go on, give it a shot.
"Keep the Fire Burning" seems to be on CD on Natural High: 2-Step Soul, Boogie Fusion & Rare Groove (Amazon.com page) and on Club Connection (also availabler at amazon.com), but as a "UK Club remix," which may or may not be what you're after. So caveat emptor and all that.
I'm starting to love finding all these great LPs (or, sometimes, just a few great tracks on them) that are out of print. To me, at least, posting them stands as sort of a means of keeping the music alive, giving it more social currency. They're great songs in the first place, but there's also just something fascinating about them as cultural artefacts. Yet there's any number of different sets of circumstances that can lead to something with obvious merit being cast off and forgotten.
An interview with Gwen McCrae
A writeup of her work
Gwen McCrae
Gwen McCrae -- I Didn't Take Your ManGwen McCrae -- Keep the Fire Burning
These tracks today are off Gwen McCrae's 1982 LP On My Way, released some time after she and George had called it quits. I'm tempted to read into some of the lyrics more than I probably should, but let's just say Gwen sounds confident and happy enough throughout the LP. "Hang In" is a great track, an Ann Peebles cover, and "Doin' It" is great also. But "I Didn't Take Your Man" strikes me as more intriguing, more real somehow, and "Keep the Fire Burning" strikes me as more fun than any of those three, as great as they are.
"I Didn't Take Your Man" is (like "Hang In") an Ann Peebles cover; this one explains that it was the other woman's bad choices that led to her man running off: "If you had taken the time to treat him with a little respect / he wouldn't be out here looking for love somewhere else." Oh man. And then, the gloating at the end? The lyrics are from the "stab, then twist" school; still, the song is forty shades of awesome.
"Keep the Fire Burning" is (like "Doin' It") a saucy dance number that should get you all loose-limbed and joyful. Go on, give it a shot.
"Keep the Fire Burning" seems to be on CD on Natural High: 2-Step Soul, Boogie Fusion & Rare Groove (Amazon.com page) and on Club Connection (also availabler at amazon.com), but as a "UK Club remix," which may or may not be what you're after. So caveat emptor and all that.
I'm starting to love finding all these great LPs (or, sometimes, just a few great tracks on them) that are out of print. To me, at least, posting them stands as sort of a means of keeping the music alive, giving it more social currency. They're great songs in the first place, but there's also just something fascinating about them as cultural artefacts. Yet there's any number of different sets of circumstances that can lead to something with obvious merit being cast off and forgotten.
An interview with Gwen McCrae
A writeup of her work
Labels: disco, out of print, RnB
posted by Tuwa @
00:22 | permalink |
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Friday, July 29, 2005:
Phil Judd -- Dream 'N' Away
Q: What do you know about this song?
A: Not much, really. It's fun, it's friendly, it's neat--uncluttered--and it has a sort of striking clarity to it. It sounds familiar but I'm fairly certain I've never heard it before. I think it's probably just familiar in that way that inherently good things are, where it's almost as if you know them before you meet them and it causes a sense deja vu when you finally do. And, you know, after awhile it's hard to imagine never having known them--like the taste of cherries, or the sight of a breeze passing through grain, or a melody like "Yesterday." Just one of those fundamental goodnesses that probably existed in whole cloth before the universe exploded out of a pinpoint of matter, and when the universe finally got around to creating them, it was with a sigh of relief at finding something so comfortable. Like slipping into a pair of old jeans.
Q: You don't say.
A: But I did.
Q: So you like this song.
A: Well, yes.
Q: What do you know about Phil Judd?
A: Antipodean punk/New Wave/soundtrack musician.
Q: Would you like to add anything to that?
A: Hey, hey, hey, hey. Ho, ho, ho, ho.
This post was brought to you by channeling Dan at Said the Gramophone. (Dan is not a ghost, and he said it made him all woozy when it happened. I promised not to do it again.)
This LP is out of print, which is a shame.
Brief Judd bio here.
Phil Judd
Phil Judd -- Dream 'N' Away
Q: What do you know about this song?
A: Not much, really. It's fun, it's friendly, it's neat--uncluttered--and it has a sort of striking clarity to it. It sounds familiar but I'm fairly certain I've never heard it before. I think it's probably just familiar in that way that inherently good things are, where it's almost as if you know them before you meet them and it causes a sense deja vu when you finally do. And, you know, after awhile it's hard to imagine never having known them--like the taste of cherries, or the sight of a breeze passing through grain, or a melody like "Yesterday." Just one of those fundamental goodnesses that probably existed in whole cloth before the universe exploded out of a pinpoint of matter, and when the universe finally got around to creating them, it was with a sigh of relief at finding something so comfortable. Like slipping into a pair of old jeans.
Q: You don't say.
A: But I did.
Q: So you like this song.
A: Well, yes.
Q: What do you know about Phil Judd?
A: Antipodean punk/New Wave/soundtrack musician.
Q: Would you like to add anything to that?
A: Hey, hey, hey, hey. Ho, ho, ho, ho.
This post was brought to you by channeling Dan at Said the Gramophone. (Dan is not a ghost, and he said it made him all woozy when it happened. I promised not to do it again.)
This LP is out of print, which is a shame.
Brief Judd bio here.
Labels: out of print, rock
posted by Tuwa @
01:00 | permalink |
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Friday, July 22, 2005:
A track today from Betty Roche, who played with Ellington in the 1940s and 50s. Roche is known for her phrasing, but on this track I'm especially fond of the trumpet, sax, and guitar. It's a smoking jazz tune about a man who's no end of trouble for Roche but she's staying with him anyway. It's a destructive relationship, a love that won't work out but won't be denied--he keeps leaving; she blames herself for speaking her mind; he calls from jail; she goes to bail him out. It's so bad she can't afford to pay the iceman or the landlord but she just won't dump him.
The track has some hiss and crackle on it--it was ripped from a 78--but the theme is timeless.
As far as I know, this track hasn't been released on CD. I found it on archive.org, which is not a bad source for old jazz and blues tracks that have lapsed into the public domain.
... I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I'll have another post Monday.
told him I ain't got five, so he will have to take two
Betty Roche -- Trouble TroubleA track today from Betty Roche, who played with Ellington in the 1940s and 50s. Roche is known for her phrasing, but on this track I'm especially fond of the trumpet, sax, and guitar. It's a smoking jazz tune about a man who's no end of trouble for Roche but she's staying with him anyway. It's a destructive relationship, a love that won't work out but won't be denied--he keeps leaving; she blames herself for speaking her mind; he calls from jail; she goes to bail him out. It's so bad she can't afford to pay the iceman or the landlord but she just won't dump him.
The track has some hiss and crackle on it--it was ripped from a 78--but the theme is timeless.
As far as I know, this track hasn't been released on CD. I found it on archive.org, which is not a bad source for old jazz and blues tracks that have lapsed into the public domain.
... I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I'll have another post Monday.
Labels: jazz, out of print, vocal
posted by Tuwa @
18:46 | permalink |
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