The "mash-up" may have lost some steam these days, but for a good stretch of time, it seemed like you couldn't escape hearing the novelty hybrid of two unrelated pieces of music, digitally manipulated to make one sometimes amazing, and sometimes annoying piece of music.
The first one I remember hearing was "A Stroke Of Genius," featuring the oversinging genius Christina Aguilera happily married to NYC punks, The Strokes. I loved it.
There are thousands of others. I have even featured a few of them here to mostly lukewarm reactions. But, yesterday, I whipped out the 1972 Travis Wammack album recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a great southern rock and soul record that all of you need to explore further. One song in particular, his cover of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On," happens to be a fave.
Check it out-
Travis and his good ol' boys were mashing things up long before those clever whippersnappers ever got their hands on a data converter. Wammack meets Arthur meets Marvin's "Inner City Blues."
A stroke of genius, indeed.
11 comments:
Yeah!
I agree most mash-ups are by no talent wanna bes but a few are truely artists. I wish I could add a file here of my personal favorite, how can I send you files Sal?
Short of that, look up: DJ_Schmolli_vs_Johnny_Cash_Allstar_Band-Gods_Gonna_Cut_You_Down.mp3
It will send shivers down your spine!
Hey! Welcome back! I'm so happy to see you've found more wood for the burning!
I blow hot and cold on mash-ups myself. On one hand, there are just too many out there that don't work to really appreciate it as a genre (although I really liked that Aguilera/Strokes track). OTOH every now and then something comes along that does strike me as near genius, such as that CCC creation combining Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity" and The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." The Wammack track was nice, too, though I didn't hear any mashing up going on.
Steves,
He's basically singing and playing "You Better Move On" over Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues."
Play it again...Sam?
Ha! I knew it sounded somewhat familiar. But he essentially recut the backing track (Inner City Blues), didn't he? (Guess he had to in those days.)
Pretty cool, nonetheless.
Hmmmm....okay, maybe my post title is what's throwing it off. I wouldn't say he recut it. It's performed. It's the arangement. Two songs at once. Maybe instead of "original mash-up," I should have just said "before the mash-up."
Original mash-up is appropriate, maybe just clarificahat the track was recut was all you needed.
My favorite mash up has always been "Stairway to Gulligan's Island".
ROTP(lumber)
And welcome back!!!!!!!
I assume you got this from the brand new Kent mix of "The Best Of Fame Records," right? Yeah, this song jumped out at me too.
And what's cool is that I went to the Birmingham Record Show (Alabama) with some buddies of mine for the 3rd time recently -- road-tripped over, b/c it's worth it -- and met Travis himself, got him to sign a CD there that I bought right from him. Met his family and everything. Cool stuff!
Sandra Bernhard's "Manic Superstar" is a good one too.
I'm the world's worst typist.
I meant 'clarification' in my last comment. Sorry.
I don't like these so called mash-ups. It's like listening to two songs at once. Very unoriginal and boring. Oh well.
Nice to see you easing yourself back Sally Boy!
in the words of tony the tiger and I quote "GRRRRRRRRRREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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