What are you listening to? The world really needs to know. #5

mjp

mjp

Founding member
There might have been "accidental" sounds on the Silvertones records they made with Scratch Perry, but I don't think this is one of those. Since they were a harmony group I suspect the whistling was an intentional thing by one of them.

It is very typical and unremarkable, but I know what you mean about some songs or singers or groups who come at you that way yet somehow sneak in on a whole other level. Burning Spear is a great example of that. I swear I used to have a Burning Spear LP that I don't think used more than two chords on the whole damn record.

Yet those Winston Rodney vocals, and the trancelike effect of the repeating chords - I don't know man. It's either pure shit or it's pure genius. I tend to believe the latter. Making simple music is as difficult as writing simple poetry, and it takes a lot of skill and talent to do either one well.

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Erik

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
mjp said:
There might have been "accidental" sounds on the Silvertones records they made with Scratch Perry, but I don't think this is one of those. Since they were a harmony group I suspect the whistling was an intentional thing by one of them.
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Hmmm, after a couple more listens I'm beginning to think its not whistling at all but some sort of dub-effect. Thats Scratch Perry for ya.
I liked it better when I thought it was good old whistling though.
Damn. I listened it to death.
;-)
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I don't think it's Scratch since it's on a Studio One label. I'm thinking any Scratch records with the Silvertones would have been on Upsetter (or one of Perry's other 20 or 30 labels).

Of course Scratch did work for Studio One at the beginning of his career as a producer, so there are Studio One Perry records...just to add to the general confusion where Jamaican singles are concerned.

What I was saying is that Silvertones track didn't sound like a Scratch production to me. And I can't really listen to it loud enough here on my tiny work computer speakers to get a handle on the whistling sound...
 
PhillyDave

PhillyDave

“The essential doesn't change.” Beckett
The above song is really good but I got the Isaacs song Scratch & Keith are doing wrong. Apparently it's this one, "Love Is Overdue":

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Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

Nice tune and strong vocal. A re-harm/adaptation of Autumn Leaves; y'know, in case it sounds familiar.

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Excuse the "synched" video. It's way off base. Nevertheless, the music can speak for itself.
 
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Purple Stickpin

Purple Stickpin

I have to add a comment on Eva Cassidy, to whom I linked a viddy in my last post. She wasn't groundbreaking and she didn't create anything new for the musical tradition. She was a very shy young woman who did a few gigs in her short lifetime and she was apparently reluctant to be in the spotlight. What she did do was to take a few songs that had been played countless times and nail them to the point that she made them her own. No small feat. She passed away at the age of 33 in 1996. I rarely get sappy on this forum, but she needs to be remembered for her ability to sing crystalline notes to a fluid guitar line. We need more musicians like Eva Cassidy. Her vocal control was astonishing.

Here's a cheezy song, done more times than it ever should have been, that Eva nails. I cry whenever I hear it:

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Black Swan

Black Swan

Abord the Yorikke!
Purple Stickpin said:
Nice tune and strong vocal. A re-harm/adaptation of Autumn Leaves; y'know, in case it sounds familiar.
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Funny, I only discovered Eva Cassidy a few days ago, when I was listening to every version of "Autumn Leaves" I could find.
Very pure voice.

My favorite is still this one.

 
Erik

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
Interesting how easily reggae blends with jazz.
Reggae never had an internationally acclaimed singeress...yet.

 
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mjp

mjp

Founding member
Erik said:
Reggae never had an intenationally acclaimed singeress...yet.
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:abge:
Don't tell that to Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, Patra, Rita Marley, Lady Saw (triple platinum record - though it is dancehall, not roots), Etana...

There's a video for the song below by Queen Ifrica that has 1,778,438 views on YouTube (I can't post it here, it's tres cheesy and I think it ruins the song) - I'd call that acclaim. The restrained emotion in her voice and the flow - what boy! Yuh nuh ready fi dis!


If you're talking about "international acclaim" like Bob Marley had, few musicians of any kind have ever had that, so it's not really a fair standard to hold regular musicians to...
 
Erik

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
Cool title, but don't get the meaning. Something to do with herbal pipes perchance? :cool:

 
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mjp

mjp

Founding member
I never heard anyone say "steamers," so I can't help you there. The song says "chalice" right after "steamers," so I'm not sure steamer means pipe, but the video would certainly suggest it does.

You can see guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith in that video. His band wrote and recorded that song in 80, 81 - around there.
 
roni

roni

Ha!
mjp said:
[...] v=IMHPfeoRFGw [...]
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since your video prominently showed the flag of the country of which one-sixth is my favorite spot in the world, (the little isle of Tobago, where they have 28°C All day&night and through All seasons), I'll now share with you pics of me in my DIY[!]-Trinidad/Tobago-T-shirt made for the soccer-world-cup in 2006 where they participated.

TNT-vs-UK_2006.jpg


when I walked through the streets with the shirt that day, a guy screamed from the far:
"TRINIDAD / TOBAGO !!!" - and I yelled back: "YES! You GOT It!" - then he screamed: "I was able to tell it by the color of your skin!"


But now for something nearly different:
Talking of Reggae - I know that mjp doesn't care for Serge GAINSBOURG at all (to say the least).

But I'd like to point to the fact today, that he (Gainsbourg) has realized the significance of Reggae back in the mid-70s, when - (in Europe that is) - barely anyone did. He even travelled to Jamaica and recorded an album with the musicians of Bob Marley. (It was the birth of "Freggae", which is Reggae with French lyrics - and thus the very first attempt to include this sort of music into European culture.)

Even more:
His first single from the album was a Reggae-version of the French National Anthem, the 'Marsaillaise'.
Most Nationalists in France took offence (of course).

There even have been public threats for bombs/explosives at some of his concerts then!
At these occations, he didn't let his Jamaican musicians go on stage. But he himself performed. And then he announced to the audience, that it was HIM to give back the revolutionary meaning to this anthem, and sung it a-capella:


Now, This guy got some guts.
 
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