Musical Connections
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We once roamed the vast forums of Corona Coming Attractions. Some of us had been around from The Before Times, in the Days of Excelsior, while others of us had only recently begun our trek. When our home became filled with much evil, including the villainous Cannot-Post-in-This-Browser and the dreaded Cannot-Log-In, we flounced away most huffily to this new home away from home. We follow the flag of Jubboiter and talk about movies, life, the universe, and everything, often in a most vulgar fashion. All are welcome here, so long as they do not take offense to our particular idiom.
We once roamed the vast forums of Corona Coming Attractions. Some of us had been around from The Before Times, in the Days of Excelsior, while others of us had only recently begun our trek. When our home became filled with much evil, including the villainous Cannot-Post-in-This-Browser and the dreaded Cannot-Log-In, we flounced away most huffily to this new home away from home. We follow the flag of Jubboiter and talk about movies, life, the universe, and everything, often in a most vulgar fashion. All are welcome here, so long as they do not take offense to our particular idiom.
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Mal Shot First
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Musical Connections
In this thread, you can post about noteworthy connections between different songs. These can be sampled segments, stolen riffs, quoted or subverted lyrics, etc. I always thought this kind of stuff was interesting.
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Mal Shot First
- Wall of Text Climber - 2500 Posts
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Re: Musical Connections
I've got two connections that I discovered only recently. The first one is between the song "Remember Me" by Blue Boy and "Woman of the Ghetto" by Marlena Shaw. "Remember Me" was popular in Europe in the mid-90s and got some pretty frequent air time in Germany around 1996 or 1997, which is why I know it. I didn't hear Shaw's song until recently and it was only then that I discovered that the main line which gets repeated throughout "Remember Me" was sampled from a part close to the end of "Woman of the Ghetto" (at about the 7:12 mark in the video below). The other major part that was sampled was the scatting from the beginning of the Shaw song.
I have to say, the revelation kind of ruined "Remember Me" for me. Not that it's a great song to begin with - it's primarily a dance track - but the "remember me" line is used to such great dramatic effect in "Woman of the Ghetto" and it's simply cheapened by the repetitive use in Blue Boy's sampling of it.
I have to say, the revelation kind of ruined "Remember Me" for me. Not that it's a great song to begin with - it's primarily a dance track - but the "remember me" line is used to such great dramatic effect in "Woman of the Ghetto" and it's simply cheapened by the repetitive use in Blue Boy's sampling of it.
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Mal Shot First
- Wall of Text Climber - 2500 Posts
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Re: Musical Connections
The second connection I formed only about a year ago was that "Macarron Chacarron" by El Chombo, which most people wouldn't know unless they are familiar with YTMND, samples a guitar riff from Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks." The sampled riff starts at about 1:29 in the video below. It's almost at the very beginning of the Kurtis Blow song.
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The Swollen Goiter of God
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Re: Musical Connections
I have been collecting songs by theme on a friend's wiki. One of the themes is "suicide." I have set aside a few songs where I acknowledge that I may be seeing suicide/intent to commit suicide where none exists.
I got into this a little bit on Corona, I think, but I'll add some more thoughts here. I'll post the songs at the end.
Since I was a teen, I've connected the Kinks' "Holiday" with Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." In both of cases, I see a guy contemplating suicide. In the Kinks song, a guy's just been fired. In the Redding song, a guy's displaced from his home and really down on his luck. Both guys, as I see it, are contemplating suicide. Both are near water. The one in the KInks song is "standing at the end of the pier," and the one in the Redding song is, you guessed it, sittin' on the dock of the bay. I've always pictured them staring out at the waves and daydreaming about going under. There's more despair, maybe, in the Redding song.
I assumed a lot of songs were about contemplating suicide when I was a teen. Thought the same of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" (nowadays, I lean toward it being a threat of suicide designed to get into the female's pants; there's also the possibility that he's making a vague threat of murder or rape if she continues to refuse him), Marmalade's "Reflections of My Life," Eric Carmen's Rachmaninoff-y "All by Myself," and Cheap Trick's "Oh Candy." All right. "Oh Candy" is clearly about suicide. The Marmalade song is probably about a dude who'd do it if he weren't such a pussy. The lyrics essentially say this.
The Marmalade lyric in question--"The world is / a bad place / a bad place / a terrible place to live // Oh, but I don't wanna die!"--makes it spiritual cousins with "Ol' Man River" and "A Change Is Gonna Come." In "Ol' Man River," you have: "I gets weary / and sick of tryin' // I'm tired of livin' / and scared of dyin!" In "A Change Is Gonna Come," you have: "It's been too hard living / but I'm afraid to die // 'Cause I don't know what's up there / beyond the sky." For some reason, I never felt like the voices behind "Ol' Man River" or "A Change Is Gonna Come" were pussies. Maybe it's because I got the impression from the rest of the lyrics that these guys had really been put through the wringer, and that death for them would very nearly be a mercy killing. With the Marmalade song, I just get the impression the dude is looking back wistfully on his youth and saying, "Wah! Stuff sucks now because it's different!" Sounds like some middle-class whining. Sounds like some bullshit. That said, I fucking love the song.
Back to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," though. Now that I'm older, I've decided to let the persona live. I've also decided that "Midnight Train to Georgia" is an unofficial sequel. He's left the bay and he's heading back to Georgia. (He mentions in "[Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay" that he arrived at the bay after having left his home in Georgia.) He is a lonely and spiritually crushed man. Going back home after pursuing the dream so hard? It's the worst of all possible outcomes. Way cheerier than a quick, relatively painless suicide.
I got into this a little bit on Corona, I think, but I'll add some more thoughts here. I'll post the songs at the end.
Since I was a teen, I've connected the Kinks' "Holiday" with Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." In both of cases, I see a guy contemplating suicide. In the Kinks song, a guy's just been fired. In the Redding song, a guy's displaced from his home and really down on his luck. Both guys, as I see it, are contemplating suicide. Both are near water. The one in the KInks song is "standing at the end of the pier," and the one in the Redding song is, you guessed it, sittin' on the dock of the bay. I've always pictured them staring out at the waves and daydreaming about going under. There's more despair, maybe, in the Redding song.
I assumed a lot of songs were about contemplating suicide when I was a teen. Thought the same of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" (nowadays, I lean toward it being a threat of suicide designed to get into the female's pants; there's also the possibility that he's making a vague threat of murder or rape if she continues to refuse him), Marmalade's "Reflections of My Life," Eric Carmen's Rachmaninoff-y "All by Myself," and Cheap Trick's "Oh Candy." All right. "Oh Candy" is clearly about suicide. The Marmalade song is probably about a dude who'd do it if he weren't such a pussy. The lyrics essentially say this.
The Marmalade lyric in question--"The world is / a bad place / a bad place / a terrible place to live // Oh, but I don't wanna die!"--makes it spiritual cousins with "Ol' Man River" and "A Change Is Gonna Come." In "Ol' Man River," you have: "I gets weary / and sick of tryin' // I'm tired of livin' / and scared of dyin!" In "A Change Is Gonna Come," you have: "It's been too hard living / but I'm afraid to die // 'Cause I don't know what's up there / beyond the sky." For some reason, I never felt like the voices behind "Ol' Man River" or "A Change Is Gonna Come" were pussies. Maybe it's because I got the impression from the rest of the lyrics that these guys had really been put through the wringer, and that death for them would very nearly be a mercy killing. With the Marmalade song, I just get the impression the dude is looking back wistfully on his youth and saying, "Wah! Stuff sucks now because it's different!" Sounds like some middle-class whining. Sounds like some bullshit. That said, I fucking love the song.
Back to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay," though. Now that I'm older, I've decided to let the persona live. I've also decided that "Midnight Train to Georgia" is an unofficial sequel. He's left the bay and he's heading back to Georgia. (He mentions in "[Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay" that he arrived at the bay after having left his home in Georgia.) He is a lonely and spiritually crushed man. Going back home after pursuing the dream so hard? It's the worst of all possible outcomes. Way cheerier than a quick, relatively painless suicide.