THAT SHIT IS OLD

I was driving today and had just dropped a few people off. I'm pulling away, I turn up the radio and press a random preset. The song that was playing was "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" by the Pioneers, I was elated, it's a great song from a great reggae trio, I never thought I'd hear it on the radio, not in my neck of the woods anyways. For a split second all seemed right in the world. Then I pulled up to the stoplight

When I was stopped at the light, I looked to see what station it was, and then saw the time. It was 4:20. My buoyant mood flew right out the window. Surely it couldn't be intentional, no DJ would be that unimaginative or clueless, that cliché. I've had it with the overly used weed references. Guess what? Oh yeah, it was about to get worse. When the DJ came back on, and did indeed reference 420, he then rambled something about rastas, before going into a Weezer song. Look at the Pioneers. Do they look rasta to you? Do they look like stoners? Hey DJ, that was lame.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Pioneers - Let Your Yeah Be Yeah mp3 at Renan Maitre (?)
The Pioneers - Long Shot Kick De Bucket mp3 at Soundbites
The Pioneers with Greyhound - Mother and Child Reunion mp3 at ATumblr
Visit:
The Pioneers at Wikipedia

PAYBACK'S A MIX

It's party time: another brainstorming session at HQ

I know, I know, there's been more mixes posted as of late, but there's a reason for posting this sucker. The mix below, posted at Versions Galore, is based on selections by your humble hack host here. To make a long story short, it's payback of sorts, because I've linked to his stuff regularly after coming across his all-covers blog a year or so ago. His blog just passed the four year mark and he asked me, along with a handful of other people, to put together an hour of covers each. I couldn't say no, and to be honest, I was kind of jazzed to be asked. The bonus, that might temper things for you who don't necessarily like full length mixes, is that some of the songs are pretty hard to find. So, here's the song list, the mix, and links to his other mixes. Party on.

NOTE: THE HOSTING BLOG HAS REMOVED THIS MIX (9/26/2012)

Lee Perry – Jungle Lion (Al Green’s Love & Happiness) While not a straight forward cover, this is about as close as the Upsetter gets.

Lulu – Feelin’ Alright (Traffic) Surprisingly funky, she definitely had her eye on Dusty in Memphis.

Ricky Nelson – Summertime (George Gershwin for Porgy and Bess) Interesting in that it predates the Yardbirds by several years. Chicken or egg?

Tommy McCook – Goldfinger (Shirley Bassey) No shortage of early reggae/ska covers of Bond themes. McCook was a sax player for the Skatalites, and the go-to guy for Duke Reid anong others.

Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents – Shake Some Action (Flamin’ Groovies) Nice try to duplicate the Motown sound. What’s it missing? The Funk Brothers. What the hell, an “A” for effort.

The Pioneers – Papa Was A Rolling Stone (Temptations) As long as we’re on a Motown tangent, what if Norman Whitfield was Jamaican?

The Supremes - Come Together (The Beatles) Proof that Isaac Hayes wasn’t the only one who stretched out on covers.

Horace Andy – Where Do the Children Play (Cat Stevens) Classic Studio One. From Horace Andy’s first, a stone cold classic of the golden age.

Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves – Ace of Spades (Motorhead) If someone would have told me about this one, I wouldn’t have believed it. Believe it. Instant cred for the kid.

Ricardo Ray – Sookie Sookie (Don Covay) A song that’s been covered 14 million times. This one won out over Steppenwolf’s surprisingly good rock meets soul take.

Solomon Burke – Maggie’s Farm (Bob Dylan) Seriously, he could sing “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and you’d think he wrote it.

Marcia Griffiths – Band of Gold (Freda Payne) Before singing back up for Marley as one of the I-Threes. Sweet.

Celia Cruz - Yo Vivire (I Will Survive) (Gloria Gaynor) You can’t hear this one without seeing Celia Cruz’s big ass smile. Azúcar!

Sharon Jones & the DapKings - Just Dropped In to See What Condition Your Condition Was In (Kenny Rogers & the First Edition) An unlikely cover for anyone, but it works. Jerry Lee Lewis once said that he, Al Jolson, Hank Williams and Jimmy Rodgers were the only true song stylists. Someone needs to clue him into the Daptone mob.

Richie Knight & the Mid-Knights – Homework (Otis Rush) Famously covered by the J.Geils Band, this sucker just sounds so creepy.

Jack O’ Fire – Branded (Link Wray) The first time I heard this I had to pull over to find out who it was. From the amazing stable of Sympathy For The Record Industry.

Black Randy & the Metro Squad – Give It Up Or Turn It Loose (James Brown) One thing that usually gets ignored when talking about the early L.A. punk scene is how varied and musically educated the bands were. Often seen as something of a court jester, Black Randy’s baddass back up band turned more than a few Krazy Kolored spike heads onto JB via this happening jam.

Kashmere Stage Band – Take Five (Dave Brubeck) High School kids. Yes. And they beat out the Skatalites version.

The Viscounts – Harlem Nocturne (Earl Bostic) I had to end with this one. Back in the day, a older friend told me that bands at his high school dances would always play this as their last song, enabling couples to get chummy without any worries about getting kicked out of the dance. So it was that I, along with other DJ friends at a popular watering hole, took it upon ourselves to end our last sets of the night with it. Prelude to grab ass.

NOTE: THE HOSTING BLOG HAS REMOVED THIS MIX (9/26/2012)

REGGAE VOCAL GROUP #136

The Pioneers early stuff has never let me down. These are from 68-73, when they were in their prime. The vocals are just unpolished enough, and the backing is your basic formulaic studio groove; thick but clear enough to single out individual instruments (and once you do, you're locked in). "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" is a pretty funky deviation (the wah-wah and horns do wonders). These guys could really, really handle covers.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

The Pioneers - Long Shot Kick de Bucket mp3 at SoundBites
The Pioneers - Papa Was a Rolling Stone mp3 at Funky 16 Corners
The Pioneers - Mother and Child Reunion mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
The Pioneers Official Site

NORMAN WHITFIELD 1942 - 2008

Norman Whitfield died last week. He wrote (or co-wrote) many of the definitive late 60's/early 70's songs for Motown, so his name should be recognizable to anyone record-geek enough to actually peruse songwriting credits. Among them, "War" (which has to be the most powerful anti-war song to ever chart; #1 in 1971), "Ain't to Proud to Beg", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Ball of Confusion", "Cloud Nine", "I know I'm Losing You" and roughly 300+ other songs (see the massive listing at the Songwriters Hall of Fame).

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As with any good song, the proof is in the pudding: how do the cover versions stack up? For "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" I'm including a link to the Slits decidely sparse version, and for "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" I had to include a link to the Pioneers version, my favorite, over even the Temps original. I tried to find D.O.A.'s cover of War (the only version that comes close to updating the intensity of the Edwin Starr original) to no avail (but turn up Starr's version and see if it doesn't still hit you in the gut). "Paint the White House Black" is a 1993 post-Motown song, co-written by Whitfield, George Clinton and about a half dozen others.

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This is just a sampling. For more Whitfield songs, check out the sites hosting these MP3s. And you should really read his bio/obit at the Guardian, to throw everything into context. (Thanks to Ted for the suggestion. I owe you again Snail!)

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War -Edwin Starr MP3 + Cloud Nine - Temptations + 3 other Whitfield/Strong songs at Bag of Songs
I Heard it Through the Grapevine - the Slits MP3 + 3 other Whitfield/Strong songs at Moistworks
Papa Was a Rolling Stone - the Pioneers MP3 + Temptations original version at Funky 16 Corners

Paint the White House Black - George Clinton MP3 @ Snuhthing/Anything (w/Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Public Enemy & Shabba Ranks)
Norman Whitfield: Death of a Soul Icon obituary/bio at Guardian.co.uk
Norman Whitfield at the Songwriters Hall of Fame

Stop Listening To Bob Marley

In the years preceeding Marleymania, more than a few reggae recommendations came stateside from UK punk rockers (via the music press), and additional exploration quickly spread through their US counterparts. But before all that, the soundtrack to The Harder They Come had already introduced reggae neophytes to the Maytals, the Slickers, the Heptones, Scotty, Jimmy Cliff and others. And, in hindsight, by featuring multiple artists it was a far better set of training wheels than any single artist, Bob Marley or otherwise, could provide.

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Chris Blackwell fucked that right up. The first release on his Island Records had been Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop. It became an unlikely hit, charting even the US. Convinced that Bob Marley could be the big international breakthrough artist he'd been waiting for, he took Marley's bare-bones Jamaican masters to England and laid overdubs of British session musicians over them. He then put the bank on Marley.

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It was a move taken right out of UK's Trojan Records' playbook. Trojan had already made their mark a few years earlier, disinfecting scores of reggae songs to make them more palatable to English ears. But Trojan's approach wasn't nearly as narrow in scope, distributing promotion evenly among dozens of reggae artists.

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If you grew up in the Marley era. or are otherwise on the fence about reggae, download these cuts and let them simmer. If the only reggae that you've really heard is Bob Marley, stop listening to Bob Marley. There's far more adventurous stuff out there.

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Start From Scratch Reggae Starter Kit:

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From The Harder They Come Soundtrack:
The Maytals - Pressure Drop MP3 [1]

The Slickers - Johnny Too Bad MP3 [2]

Scotty - Draw Your Brakes MP3 at [2]

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Originals of songs covered famously by other bands:
Daddy Livingstone -A Message to You Rudie MP3 (covered by the Specials) [2]

Willie Williams - Armagideon Time MP3 (covered by the Clash) [2]

The Paragons - The Tide is High MP3 (covered bt Blondie) [2]

Junior Murvin - Police and Thieves MP3 (covered by the Clash)[2].

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BONUS: An excellent Trojan cut:

The Pioneers - Papa Was a Rolling Stone MP3 [3]

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MP3 Hosts:

1. The Late Greats

2. Snuhthing/Anything

3. Feed Me Good Tunes