Any Way You Want Me
The Friends of Distinction
Real Friends, 1970
The Friends of Distinction were best known for “Going In Circles”. A lot people only know that song and it’s a shame because it doesn’t really give you an idea of how funky the group can be (as you will see shortly).
There is sooo much going on in this song yet it all comes off with ease.
Some things to listen for:
in the intro:
*the way strings and the lower set of horns (trombones?) play almost
symmetrical melodies – the strings going up and the horns coming down.
*the way the higher set of horns (trumpets?) answers both of those
lines almost conversationally.
*the way the hand claps (that start in the 5th bar, at 0:11) are off
the beat and propel the vocals (the “do do” part) perfectly.
in the first verse:
*0:22 – the saxophone that seems to be playing a commentary on the melody through the whole thing (it’s in the left speaker/earphone only)
*1:56-2:26 – the swirling trumpets, strings and competing calls of “please” that always gives me the same feeling i used to get on amusement park rides when i thought that, even though it wasn’t supposed to, the whole really was going to topple over.
>> songs are available for two weeks
April 15th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
[...] for tracks from The New Birth, The Friends of Distinction, Bill Withers, Brenda And The Tabulations (i’m going to be playing that track for a while!), [...]
December 11th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Oddisee used a cut from this album on his song “Camera.” You gotta hook me up with the MP3s to the rest of this one. I only have two albums by them and this ain’t one!