Archive for the 'Covers' Category

Love And Happiness
First Choice
Armed and Extremely Dangerous, 1973

Good covers can be the saving grace of a DJ gig where people are expecting to hear music they know and music that I feel that I’ve heard/played too often, not that I really tire of Al Green’s original version of “Love and Happiness.”

This is my second First Choice post and while I love their disco material, it’s clear that I favor their chiller soul stuff. It gives them a little more vocal/emotional range to work with and it reveals that whoever is singing lead probably could have succeeded as a solo act doing soul albums.

You can tell that this one is from vinyl…the organ/vocal intro is a bit crackly.

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Sunny (Funk Master J.B VS Funk Master J.S Hardboiled Remix)
Jun Sasaki
James Brown Ultimate Remixes (Japan), 2002

I never knew there was a James Brown version of (Bobby Hebb’s) “Sunny.” Apparently it’s on Gettin’ Down To It (1969), which was just added to my shopping list. This mix doesn’t sound like it’s too far what the original might sound like (aside from the percussion) but one thing makes me really curious to hear the original is the dueling electric and acoustic guitars in the left and right channels on this mix (you can hear the acoustic most clearly at 3:21). I can’t name many (really any) JB tracks with acoustic guitar and if that’s a Jun Sasaki addition, it’s a really interesting choice because it works perfectly.

I’m probably the least qualified person to write a James Brown eulogy so I’ll just say that musically, his legendary status is well-earned and his influence, which reaches over many genres of music (especially hip hop) is so wide that it’s hard to understand. Respect.

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Don’t Stop The Music
Back In The Doghouse
Bugz In The Attic, 2006

I am a strong believer that if someone covers a song, they should do something completely different with it or noticeably outperform the original artist (if I remember correctly, Chris Robinson said something similar about the Black Crows’ cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard To Handle” although he didn’t manage to follow his own advice). I now have to add a new caveat to my rule - covers that give a song the extra punch that it needs.

The original “Don’t Stop The Music” is by Yarborough & Peoples and while not that many people know the artists by name, the song is definitely a classic (in some circles). The bridge (4:35) was used as the chorus of Common’s “All Night Long” featuring Erykah Badu and Eve’s “Gangsta Lovin’” featuring Alicia Keys. Puffy also found his “can’t stop / won’t stop / we don’t even know how to stop - uh-uh, uh-uh — uh-huh, uh-huh!” (ubiquitous in the 90’s) here.

I love the original but the energy always seems to lag as a I wait for my favorite part to happen (the bridge at 4:35). The Bugz version is like the original on steroids. It emotional range is a little narrower but the low-end and the syncopated drums more than make up for it.

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Everything In Its Right Place
Osunlade feat. Erro
Exit Music: Songs For Radio Heads, 2006

Everything In Its Right Place
Radiohead
Kid A, 2000

When Black Thought of The Roots name-checked OK Computer on “Don’t See Us” in 1999, it confirmed my suspicion that Radiohead was one of those unlikely groups that come along every few years and garner a surprisingly large following among some subset of the hip hop community.

Exit Music, a collection of Radiohead cover songs (presumably all recorded for the album) features a diverse cast of characters (Bilal, RJD2, Sa-Ra, Me’Shell Ndegéocello, Cinematic Orchestra, Matthew Herbert, Sia and many more…) and celebrates Radiohead extremely wide fan base.

On “Everything In Its Right Place” Yoruba Records founder Osunlade (pronounced oh-son-la-day) teams up with Erro (aka Eric Roberson - one of my favorites!) to remake Radiohead’s dark off-metered track (what is that time signature 10/4?) into a percussion-heavy masterpiece while still retaining it’s haunting qualities.

I haven’t really made it through the rest of the Exit Music album because I keep playing this song over and over. Check it out.

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RootrilOG
daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra
The Missing 12 Inch, 2005

It’s a little hazy in my memory but I remember reading the liner notes of The Roots’ Things Fall Apart and under the “Diedre v. Dice” interlude they explained that they had brought in this amazing/credentialed cello(?) player (Diedre someone) to play the string parts on “Act Too (Love of My Life),” only to realize that they were overly simple. “Diedre v. Dice” was the result of an off-the-cuff moment during that session that they included on the album because it showcased her unorthodox improvisational skill. The downside of that transaction is that the Roots were probably a little leery of “wasting” Diedre’s time with recording 20 overdubs on the “Act Too” string part and its left a little thin.

With sixty players (total), the strings at 2:45 on daKAH’s cover version are extremely satisfying in that regard. They deliver the fullness that the already-brilliant original hints at. The Roots’ version is downright expansive considering it’s the work of 6-9 people (the English Horn section intro on the daKAH version is actually replicating Rahzel’s multi-track vocal instrumental-mimicry) but hearing the song with this level of instrumentation really makes me think about other ways the album version could have been (although recording with an orchestra is always dangerous - “aged-rock star” style). It’s just to bad they didn’t or couldn’t get the MCs to come and do their verses. The B Side covers Gang Starr material and Guru actually rhymes on an updated version of “Jazz Thing.”

This 12″ was sponsored by Scion so I was a little reluctant to post it when I first got it last year; I was afraid there was going to be some wildly popular commercial that juxtaposed footage of the orchestra performing on a mountain with footage of a car (professional driver - closed course) whipping around turns. I don’t watch tv much (that’s an understatement) but I’m pretty sure that that didn’t happen, and I didn’t hear as much about this group as I thought I might, so I thought now would be a good time to post this.

I actually started a band (not an orchestra - mind you) in college with intention of doing really detail-oriented covers of hip hop beats, sort of a pre- “Breakestra — The Live Mix Part 2” but for beats not the breaks they’re built on. It was a tough sell for my fellow band members. I can’t blame them, the details would probably be lost on most of our Pioneer Valley audience. Still, there was something intensely satisfying about the idea of it. I felt that same satisfaction the first time I heard this track and air-drummed the snare hits at 4:56 that were exactly where they are in the original.

What’s up to Jeff Azano, Jeff (i can’t remember your last name now - i still owe you $40 though - with 8 years of interest!), Forest, Michael Pisapia, and Garrick. Thanks for putting up with me and for the good times.

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Do What You Gotta Do
Roberta Flack
Chapter Two, 1970

I don’t know what the other 9 songs are in my top ten favorite songs, but this is the one I do know. It’s so subtle that I missed it the first few times around the turntable. It follows a rousing rendition of Eugene McDaniel’s “Reverend Lee,” a song about a “tall… black… strong… sexy… black… southern……… baptist minister” who is tempted by “satan’s daughter.” It includes the good Rev. saying “Lord don’t test me…not down where she touched me. My mind’s so hazy, my body is hungry.” The song builds to an orgasmic end and you wouldn’t be surprised why the subtle straight-forwardness of this song might be lost following the showmanship of that song.

“Do What You Gotta Do” has been performed by all manner of artists that I am loathe to mention here but Nina Simone did an earlier version that seems to be the version that brought the song to prominence; although, she didn’t write it. It was written by Jimmy Webb (more on that later).

Not to be morbid but I want this song played at my funeral. It’s a love song but its really about staying true to what you want no matter how it looks to everyone else, unselfishly wanting other people to be happy and being able to say goodbye because you loved fully and I hope my life has something to do with those things.

The funny thing about this song is that after being pleasantly surprised at how much more empowering this female perspective on a breakup was than the usual “you did me wrong” songs that I am used to, I realized it was written by a man. But after being initially disappointed, I realized that a lot of the disempowering “you did me wrong but what I’ma do without you?” songs are written by men too…so, I still count this one as a victory.

::: ::: ::: :::

Man I can understand
How it might be
Kinda hard
For you to love a girl like me
I don’t blame you much for wanting to be free
I just wanted you to know
That I loved you better that your own kin did
From the very start
It’s my own fault
What happens to my heart
I’ve always known you’d go and do
Do what you gotta do

My wild sweet love
Though it may mean
That I’ll never kiss those sweet lips again
Pay that no mind
Find that dappled dream of yours
Come on back and see me when you can

Now I know
I know if makes you feel sad
I know it makes you feel so bad
They say you don’t treat me me like you should
They got ways to make you feel no good
They got no way to know
I had my eyes wide open
From the very start
You never lied to me
The part of you that they’ll never see
Is the part you’ve shown to me

Go on and do
Do what you what you gotta do
My wild sweet love
Though it may mean
That I’ll never kiss those sweet lips again
Pay that no mind
Find that dappled dream of yours
Come on back and see me when you can

::: ::: ::: :::

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Rock Your Baby
The Sunshine Band
The Sound of Sunshine, 1975

This isn’t the deepest song i’ve ever posted but i think it delivers on the album’s promise: “the sound of sunshine” and that’s perfect weather we’ve been having here in NYC. Yes, this is the same band Sunshine Band as KC and the Sunshine Band and this album actually came out the same year as the biggest KC album. I’ve yet to track down the story on the two names; if someone knows it, please leave a comment.

KC and Sunshine Band get a bad rap, but don’t sleep on them. My friend Ben calls them the “white Kool & The Gang,” as in they got known while doing some really funky, good stuff but ended up being remembered for their cheesiest songs. In Kool & The Gang’s case, the commercial stuff came much later. In the case of KC and the Sunshine Band, it all seems to be mixed together.

One tidbit that I love to share about them: on Biggie’s Ready To Die album, the sample for “Respect” is incorrectly listed as George McCrae’s version of “I Get Lifted.” It’s actually KC…’s version. (compare for yourself: 1st: Respect, 2nd: George McCrae, 3rd: KC and the Sunshine band - keep in mind, Poke slowed it down a lot when he sampled it).

George McCrae also did the most well-known version of “Rock Your Baby.” It guess T.K. Records (which they were both on) like to keep it all in the family.

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Melting Pot (Vinyl-Only Bonus Track)
The Roots
The Tipping Point, 2004

The first song I heard from The Tipping Point was a snippet of “Stay Cool”. I got excited. I was also a little surprised that they used such a well-known sample for the majority of a musical bed for a song. I was even more surprised when I picked up the CD and found that they had done a 8:13 version of George Kranz’s “Din Da Da” that was extremely faithful to the original (check the George Kranz original here and The Roots version here). I was then, even more surprised, when I picked up the vinyl, to find yet another lengthy (10:38) faithful cover.

They, of course, picked the perfect song, so I couldn’t hate, even if it is a lil’ self-indulgent at that length. I actually haven’t found a copy of the Booker T. and the M.G.’s original but the track is plenty familiar from Big Daddy Kane’s Another Victory if nothing else.

If someone’s got a double of the OG and wants to trade, holler at me!

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To Be Young, Gifted And Black
Nina Simone
???

To Be Young, Gifted And Black
Donny Hathaway
Everything Is Everything, 1970

Young, Gifted And Black
Big Daddy Kane
It’s a Big Daddy Thing, 1989

“Being Black” theme songs Part II:

I, of course, heard Big Daddy Kane’s take on “Young Gifted and Black” before I heard any others. I remember thinking it was such a bold declaration but as I listen to it now, the whole song seems a little funny and more than a little unfocused. He rhymes for 2:10 straight with no chorus, dissing “the competition” (they’re “petty, confetti and not ready to rock steady” in case you were wondering) and the artists that he (and marley marl, in this case) sample for beats, a bold move I might add:

we sample beats you sue and try to fight us?
man, you’d still be home with arthritis
if we didn’t revive and bring back old beats
that we appreciated, you wouldn’t survive
you’d be another memory to us
ashes to ashes and dust to dust

he then passes quickly over diet, for one of my favorite food lines ever:
i got gold teeth and the don’t chew beef
no pork on my fork, strictly fish on my dish

and returns to dissing MCs to round out the song:

rappers are raggin’ and taggin’ and snaggin’ and braggin’ to be on the bandwagon, but i’m the last dragon, with the knack to attract the pack so just GET BACK, I’m young gifted and black!!

right…so aren’t you talking to black MCs in that sentence? it’s just a question…

The Nina Simone version of “To Be Young Gifted and Black” is the original. She wrote the song with the late Weldon Irvine as a tribute to her friend Lorraine Hansberry who had recently died of cancer at the age of 34. The version that I posted below isn’t actually from the album cover above. The Black Gold album has a really cool 10 minute live version of the song but my copy is really crackly (and it has a 2+ minute spoken intro, so I decided to just post the version that I got off the Black Power: Music of a Revolution compilation that came out last year.

I actually greatly prefer Donny Hathaway’s version to Nina’s, his is straight church (church as an adjective), but I wanted to include both as her’s is the jump-off (if you will).

Some witty banter from Nina’s live version:

now, [this song] is not addressed, primarily to white people, though it does not put you down in any way, it simply ignores you (laughter). for my people need all the inspiration and love that they can get, so…(cheers)

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I Don’t Know Why I Love You
Jackson 5
ABC, 1970

This seems to be a very slept-on song from the Jackson 5 catalogue. As always seemed to be the case, Lil’ Mike had an ability to emote that was FAR beyond his years. As of this recording he was 12 years old and I would still swear he’d been through it.

I Don’t Know Why I Love You was actually co-written by Stevie Wonder. Stevie did a version of the song that came out on the B-Side of his My Cherie Amour 45 two years earlier (it’s not on the My Cherie Amour album for some reason). Stevie was, although a 6-year industry vet at that point, only the tender age of 18 himself. If you listen for it, you can pick up the Stevie influence immediately. When I first heard Michael drop his voice down the octave on the second “why i love you” (0:19) my eyebrow went up immediately (with S. Wonder recognition).

It’s very rare that anyone outperforms Stevie…especially on a song he wrote but Mike and crew take the prize on this one, hands down.

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