Monday, June 11, 2012

WHAT HATH PRO TOOLS WROUGHT?


"Bomba atomica! Emergencia grande!" That's what an old co-worker of mine would say, anytime something was urgent. It's what went through my head tonight when, out of curiosity, I clicked on a remix of the Ronettes' "Be My Baby." It was one of the most ill advised pieces of knob tweaking that my ears have ever been subjected to. Now, I don't want to bag on the remixer, or the hosting blog. In fact, the blog that posted it is a good one that I've linked to in the past, and I'm sure I will again. But not tonight. Because this was one of those "forgive them for they know not what the fuck they do" moments (to paraphrase a line I learned in church). I consider myself as open minded as the next guy, but I'm thinking this remixing stuff is going a little too far when people start fucking with the Wall of Sound. And that's not the purist part of me. That's the "don't fuck with it if you can't do more then put a bangin' bass beat to it" side of me. I went looking for a chaser. I'll gush about the Ronettes at length at a later date, but let me just say that "Be My Baby" is a masterpiece. It does what is nearly impossible. It makes it seem as if all in the world is as close to right as it's going to get, at least from just listening to a song. At the very least, it makes your day better. Today, it did much more than that for me. It made me forget that godawful remix. (I'm not posting a link to the remix, because it wouldn't serve any purpose. And I like the blog that it's on, so I don't want to be a jerk, which I kinda am already.)



Here's a couple songs, and videos (and don't fuck with these, unless you're the Beach Boys). Check the '83 footage from Letterman (link below), Ronnie Spector singing "Be My Baby." This later version makes it apparent how much of the feel of the song was her lead vocal. One part that really, really, gets me, is at 1:46, but don't start there. Get into the song and wait for it. Donna Summer can't do on an album side, what that five seconds does. Then, in the video from 2007, at 2:13, there she goes again! She's killin' me!


~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
The Ronettes - Be My Baby mp3 at Aziz is Bored
The Ronettes - Baby, I Love You .mp3 at The Merry Swankster
The Ronettes - I Can Hear Music .mp3 at M.Brown
The Beach Boys - I Can Hear Music .mp3 at Cold Splinters
The Ronettes - Here I Sit (1976) mp3 at Probe Is Turning -On the People
The Ronettes - Silhouettes mp3 at The Doo Wop Jukebox
Video:
Ronnie Spector,- Be My Baby (Letterman, 1983) at YouTube
Ronnie Spector - Be My Baby (Live, 2007) at YouTube
Visit:
Be My Baby at Wikipedia

No comments: