Posts tagged sample

Blackrock - Yeah, Yeah

You’d better buckle the fucking chinstrap on your novelty afro, because your wig is about to get blown back. BLACKROCK (emphasis mine) were part of a movement that looked to capitalize on the commercial success of Jimi Hendrix with some pseudo-psychedelic (read: reverb and noodly, meandering guitar solos)  singles that still managed to remain firmly rooted in beat-based, soulful music. The end result is what you hear here - a barn burner of thundering piano and drums that makes me want to run and buy a bible so I can jump out my chair waving it and yell “Oooh lawd”. 

So, smack the play button, because as Ley often says to the ladies, you’re about to experience the best 4 seconds of your life - specifically, the break in this jam at 0:54 to 0:58, which you may recognize as the main hook in Black Milk’s ‘Deadly Medley’ (recommended listening as well). Goddamn, that break makes me want to punch a hole in the wall of the Apollo Theatre’s green room, MC Serch style.

Today’s gem, originally from a 45 that was b/w the equally fearsome ‘Bad Cloud Overhead’ was also featured on the compilation “Chains & Black Exhaust” which traffics solely in this type of pseudo-soul meets garage shit, so if this has you adjusting your dockers, you know where you can find more.

Ogyatanaa Show Band - Disco Africa

What can I tell you about these guys? Sampled by Madlib, remixed by Quantic, the original was a pretty rare print that first appeared this side of the pond of the “Ghana Soundz 2” compilation. The leads me to believe that they’re from Ghana. There’s often a shameful lack of information out of the ‘tubes about African music, which frankly, is racist, and if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Attica!

As the title suggests, you’re getting a hodgepodge, a gumbo even, a West African peanut soup if you will, of Afrobeat and Disco served up here. That bassline is so fucking primal it makes me want to slaughter mammoths and eat placentas, yet the congas make me want to have a hoity-toity dinner party and swap wives. I’m conflicted, but either way I’d like this song played during the consummation of my next marriage. WHO ELSE IS HUNGRY?

Placebo - Humpty Dumpty

Fronted by Belgian jazzercisist Marc Moulin, 70’s jazz/rock outfit Placebo are not to be confused with 90’s cross-dressing alternative lifestyle/rock outfit Placebo. There’s a certain humour in a band of white dudes so unabashedly blaxploitatin’ naming themselves Placebo, but I guess ‘The Offwhites’ was a bit too traditional and ‘The Safer, Gentler Soul Option’ too descriptive, though it would have been a great name for a 60’s UK Garage act.

‘Humpty Dumpty’ comes from Placebo’s 1971 debut, ‘Ball of Eyes’. The track features some really tricky ‘on the one’ beat and basswork and some pretty sweet Rhodes’n. Samplesmiths amongst us will recognize the hook in this song as one that’s been lifted dozens of times by the likes of AiM, Dilla, Pete Rock, and wordsmiths amongst us will giggle as they notice that with very little effort, the word ‘Belgian’ can be recalibrated into ‘Belgina’, a delightful term I’d like to put forth as a way of describing one’s exploits while backpacking in Europe. Correct usage: ‘I got off the train and was neck deep in Belgina instantly’. You’re welcome.

Pretty sweet nah-fro, Marc.

Ohio Players - Funky Worm

I assumed Funky Worm was some sort of post-coital condition but as it turns out, the Ohio Players were referring to a literal worm that plays guitar ‘without any hands (pretty good I might add!)’. That’s not a misprint. ‘Funky Worm’ is a song about a worm that lives underground, is a musician, and is managed by an old woman only identified as ‘Granny’ who provides backing vocals on the song to boot. Finally, this story has been told! I can only imagine how much fucking blow was going around the studio while this idea was being cooked up. This song is notable for its use of the squiggly synthesizer lead that has resurfaced in both the many, many songs that have sampled it directly (N.W.A.’s ‘Dopeman’, Xzibit’s ‘Pussy Pop’ (!), Dr. Dre’s intro to ‘The Chronic’, to name a few)  but also the many that have emulated its sound - it’s hard not to picture a caddy bouncing on hydraulics when that first synth lead kicks in, and I just poured out a sip of coffee for my dead homies.

Speaking of death, there was a popular rumour floating around about the Ohio Players that their song ‘Love Rollercoaster’, which uses rollercoasters as a metaphor for love - love has a long lineup, seats 20, makes you barf - contained the scream of a woman as she was being murdered. The band themselves willfully did not deny the rumour as it helped them sell records. It says a lot about the confusion of 1975 America that the idea of a song about how exciting love is that possibly contained a hidden recording of a woman’s murder was appealing to the masses. Again, blow. Lots of it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment with Dr. Dre to get some sort of ointment for my chronic case of funky worm.

The Incredible Bongo Band - Apache

The odds are good that you’ve heard ‘Apache’, and the odds are certain that you’ve heard the break in the song sampled in one of the hundreds of songs that have lifted it over the years - it’s among one of the most sampled passages in music, ever - perhaps only eclipsed by The Winstons’ ‘Amen, Brother’. What is less advertised is the story of the man who drummed on said break, one Jim Gordon, who is rumoured to be the wealthiest man behind bars in the US for a non-drug related offense. I have no idea how that could be independently verified, but while we’re making unsubstantiated and outlandish claims, you might be interested to know that I’ve also been voted the 8th most influential figure in online music journalism and have been the recipient of the prestigious Latin Hipthrusters Quarterly ‘El Humpo Magnifico’ bronze groin award no less than four times.

Gordon was a session musician, primarily a drummer, through the 1960’s and 1970’s, and this guy had his hands in everything. The list of seminal recordings he contributed to is immense - George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’, a little album by the name of Pet Sounds, Mason Williams’ ‘Classical Gas’, and that’s just a light sampling of his work. He even wrote the (seemingly endless) piano outro to ‘Layla’, which to many evokes images of Ray Liotta in a 70’s suit, and to others is like being hit in the head with a hammer. More on that later.

Besides being insanely talented, Jim had really curly hair and was an undiagnosed schizophrenic whose condition worsened to the point that he was convinced he was hearing his mother’s voice in his head, which I can only imagine would be maddening and not nearly as pleasant as hearing your mother’s voice whispering in my ear which I often wake up to when I crash at your place. Doctors did not properly diagnose his condition, and the delusions continued unabated while he worked feverishly as a highly sought-after drummer, and unfortunately culminated in his murdering of his mother with a hammer in 1983, a crime for which he remains imprisoned, despite his now diagnosed schizophrenia.

You will have likely noticed in our writing up of musicians it seems that a lot of them are on-the-brink socio/psychopaths either getting high or trying to murder each other and as much as I hate to further this stereotype, based on my personal experience it’s for the most part true. So, in summary, the word on musicians - drummers in particular - is that you don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps. Vacant, wide-eyed grin!

Michael Jackson - I Wanna Be Where You Are

Yep, that Michael Jackson. Listen, I’m not going to take the easy way out here. There’s a lot that could be said about Michael Jackson, but that territory has been thoroughly strip-mined. How about you just insert your favorite Michael Jackson joke here, and then we can get on to the song. Ok, go!

“I Wanna Be Where You Are” was MJ’s second single as a solo artist, written by Diana Ross’ brother T-Boy Ross and Leon Ware, released in 1972 on a little label by the name of Motown. Though it’s far from his most recognizable song (in fact, maybe you’ve never heard it?) it is in fact his most covered - and has been reappropriated in inummerable hiphop songs.  In the last year alone, everyone’s favorite master of ceremonies DOOM lifted the opening verse in his track ‘That’s That’, MURS and 9th Wonder sampled it heavily on his track ‘Can It Be’, and that’s just what I have on my C:\ drive y’all. Ah fuck it. Suffice it to say that this beat has been lifted more times than Michael Jackson’s face. It’s been dropped more often that MJizzle’s pants in a children’s hospital. It’s been covered more often than Macaulay Culkin’s face with a pillow. OH YES I FUCKING DID!