Apparently, the east coast is once again about get shit on my the weather gods in the forms of lots of snow. But, you know what? I’m not playing that shit. Instead of sitting about stewing about something I can’t control, I’m gonna just put this song on and Imagine I’m riding a fucking banana boat up some river in wherever Harry Belafonte is always singing about.
Truth be told, Belafonte is the man and often over looked when discussing musical power houses of yesteryear. There’s more to him than Day’O. So, this song if my gift to all those people trudging through the snow/sleet/rain today wishing they could be anywhere but where they are. While you’re going through that, just imagine Harry Belafonte’s crazy ass juggling fresh guavas while getting head from some indigenous women of unknown race. Feels better, right?
It was a very good year By Richie Havens http://www.divshare.com/download/22788902-23a
Here’s an alternate link on the off chance the above one gets taken down… http://www.sendspace.com/file/s9ngub
I gotta admit something. I’ve pretty much ignored the work of Richie Havens my entire life entirely due to mistaking him for someone else. Up until last week, I’m ashamed to say that I always got him and Richie Valens (of La bamba fame) mixed up and just kinda assume he was on some early rock and roll, Big Bopper type bullshit that I had no interest in. Well…fuck me. I was wrong.
I saw “Django Unchained” last week and , in it, there was an amazing cover of “Motherless child”. I had no clue who made it but , lo and behold, it was Richie Havens. Ever since finding that out, I’ve been on a search to find that song. That search has come up empty (anyone out there with an mp3 would be my best friend if they threw a download link in the comments section) but the bright side of it all is that it’s made me delve a little into Mr. Havens Catalogue. Basically, I’ve been sitting and listening to snippets of him on the I-Tunes store all day cause, you know, that’s how you listen to music nowadays when you’re too lazy to deal with spotify.
This particular song jumped out at me as a nice way to start the year in “songs of the day” as , like everyone else, I hope this to be a very good year.
But more than anything, I feel like a dick for sleeping on Richie Havens this long…For shame.
I’m pretty sure this was probably one of the first “song of the day” songs I ever posted and with good reason. It’s probably one of my all time favorite songs. I’m also pretty sure that link has been dead for years as Zshare tends to work like that. i figured it would be cool to repost this cause , for one, it’s an amazing song and , secondly, there’s more of a story to it since the last time I posted it.
Around the time I was making “The Music Scene” album, I was deeply obsessed with this song. I didn’t want to sample it cause that tends to ruin songs for me (it’s overkill from a listening perspective) but I wanted to somehow incorporate it. I had the idea of doing a cover of it. Thing is, while I know some singers, I didn’t want to simply try and have some person sing it all normally over a beat. It needed to be different in order for it to not only make it work within the context of the album, but also not ruin the original song for me as a fan.
So, after some consideration, I hollered at my boy Wilder Zoby , of the group Chin Chin. I knew he was nice with the vocoder and a vocoder version of “four walls” would be exactly the right move. Not only would it sound cool but it also would fit perfectly into the theme of “The music scene”. At the time, Autotune was huge in pop music. You couldn’t turn on the tv or radio without hearing some non-singer singing via a computer program. Seeing as my album was somewhat to an ode to how shitty the music scene had gotten, it was a perfect plan to throw on a song using a vocoder (something EXTREMELY different than Autotune but, to the average ear, fairly similar). I knew, once that song was up , some people (shitty music critics and youtube commenters)would jump all over it on some “I can’t believe blockhead is doing a song with autotune!”. That idea was funny to me so that fueled the fire of wanting to get the song done.
So, it happened. Wilder Came in a knocked it out the park. The result was this:
A song that didn’t ruin the original in my eyes , but still works on it’s own. Is it better? Fuck no. But at least its different. Oh and I also got great satisfaction from the times people did diss the song for me trend hopping auto-tune. SUCCESS.
It’s been a while since I posted a nice , depressing type soul/blues song on here. To be honest, i’ve been somewhat lazy in my seeking out good old soul lately so it’s been mostly a rap kinda year for me. If anyone has a good blog to recommend where they post stuff like this (or rare soul from the 60′s and 70′s) up regularly, lemme know. I need some good shit to sink my teeth into.
Anyway, B.B. King is a legend. You know that. Nothing much else to add to that.
Looking at the name, you might assume “Ballin’ Jack” is the new ill-named swag rapper. Well, you’re wrong , bro. This is some random rock/soul joint I came across while mining for samples recently. To say me finding songs I actually like during sample mining is rare, would be an understatement. In my life, I’ve probably found like 5. This is cause I tend to not really dig through soul records. Mostly cause, if I like the music, I don’t really wanna sample it.
Whatever the case, this song is dope. I could do the not-lazy thing and wikipedia Ballin’ Jack but , alas, I’m too lazy. It’s pretty shameful on my part but if you rally wanna know more, I’m sure you can figure it out.
Sorry…I’m grumpy today cause I got up at 7 am to catch a flight to San Fran. don’t fuck with a mans sleep.
About two years ago, when I started this blog, one of the first song’s of the day I did was “Poor wayfaring stranger” by The Anita Kerr Quartet. This song was extremely out of the ordinary for me to choose for many reasons. FOr one, it wasn’t a rap song or an old soul song. Secondly, It was a religious song I found on a record while digging for samples. As a very non-religious person, I’ve sometimes had issues even really getting past that when listening to music where it’s the focus. I mean, i can zone out lyrics pretty well but sometimes all that jeebus talk will seep in and annoy the shit out of me. But that song was undeniably beautiful. Amazing harmonies for an just an overall great song. A little later down the line I discovered the Cliff Gober version on some compilation of Christian soul music. Gober’s version was completely different but equally awesome. I figure, since the link for the original post is dead, I’d do a good old 2 for 1 here and give you both.
On a side note, I ripped the Anita Kerr version right of vinyl and there was a little skip in the record. Nothing I can do about that but, hey, it adds a little authenticity, right? RIGHT?!?!?!?!
I haven’t put a soul/funk song up here in a long ass time. Mainly cause I haven’t been hearing much new (but old) stuff lately. Is the internet out of jewels? I hope not. If you got a good blog/website with dope rare old soul/funk/reggae lemme know. I need some new (old) music to listen to.
Jagger the Dagger By Eugene McDaniels http://limelinx.com/files/f326c54f8e65d2f7a255a72102e23d73
Let’s be totally honest here. Most of the time, when you hear a song that has been sampled, the song is kinda crappy. It makes sense. Sampling is built around finding that one part of the song you like.The part you want to hear over and over again. More often than not, some of the best loops from some of the greatest hip hop songs were lifted from pretty mediocre music. Jazz fusion crap that becomes a boring show of some guy masturbating with a rhodes for 8 minutes.
On the other side of that, we have songs that get sampled that are just straight up awesome. A song like “Synthetic substitution” or “Blind Alley” have been sampled a billion times each but both original songs are classics in their own right.
This song, falls into a different category. it’s just fucking weird. This sample has been flipped many of times (the gravediggaz, Organized Konfusion, A tribe called quest, ect). The funny thing about it is that it’s a pretty smooth loop. But the actual song has a creepy tone to it. Perhaps cause of the off kilter singing it hits at moments. A chorus of male and female voices that go in and out of tune and sing a song that’s apparently a diss to Mick Jagger. Beef! Any way. I love shit like this and you should too.
Sunny By A lot of different motherfuckers http://www.mediafire.com/?kj93e6za1110itb
The song “Sunny” is one of the most covered songs in pop music history. Originally by Bobby Hebb , it’s gotten the treatment by all sorts of people.
I was gonna just post a particular version I’ve been lsitening to lately (Les McCann) but I figured, fuck it, let’s gather as many good versions of this song as I can find. So here’s a file with 14 different covers of this one awesome song. Ranging from the original, to disco, to jazz standard style , to james brown to folk singers.
Just a warning, if you download this, this song will remain in your head for at least 2 days. It’s kinda how it works.
Here’s the line up of the artists featured on this covers compilation:
Boney M.
Les McCann
Bobby Hebb
Chris Montez
Dusty Springfield
Georgie Fame
James Brown
John Walker
Jose Feliciano
The four Tops
Marvin Gaye
Nancy Wilson
Stevie Wonder
Marion
Good luck picking a favorite.
For me, it’s between Stevie, Georgie fame and Les McCann (and the original).
Sunshower By Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band http://limelinx.com/files/bb60de3440cdf337eda78f536f38f7ce
I’m not gonna lie. The last three days have been brutal for me. I came down with a bad stomach bug and have been laying in bed trying not to move , except when I’d need to run to the toilet. Not only did I vomit for the first time in over 10 years but ,on some TMI shit, I even did the Crap/barf combo in unison once. I’m not proud of that but, hey, such is the realities of life, bro. Anyway, today is the first day I can feel myself getting back to normal. I’m still a bit sensitive in the gut but I think I’ll be able to eat more than a dry bagel. In honor of that, I give you this song.It’s like an awakening of sorts. Whenever I hear this song, it reminds me of the first day of spring…or the first day out of a flu when I’m not pissing out of my anus. Either way, it’s a song of rebirth. Enjoy.
