In 1977 the Isley Brothers released the album Go For Your Guns. Track 2 on that album is the very laid back song Footsteps in the Dark. Three songs were released as singles from that album, but Footsteps in the Dark was not one of them. Nevertheless, the song has gained popularity among hiphop and R&B artists as a source for samples.

The main reason for this is that Ice Cube sampled the laid back riff in his 1993 track It Was a Good Day and the song became a big hit. It describes a good day in South Central without a single incident, sort of hinting that those days are rare, from a gangsta rapper’s point of view. Since then the track has been sampled countless times, too many to mention here (WhoSampled has a good overview).

But what’s interesting however is that Ice Cube wasn’t actually the first to use it. Fellow West-Coast gangsta rappers Compton’s Most Wanted released their second album Straight Checkn’ Em in 1991. On it is the track Can I Kill It. Even though it starts out leaning on a sample of Teddy Pendergrass track Love T.K.O. from 1980, halfway it switches samples to the now famous sample of the Isley Brothers. So it’s not completely unlikely that the inspiration to use the sample in It was a Good Day actually came from another West-Coast track.

Van Halen released Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love in 1978. It has since been covered often, for instance by Minutemen in 1984, by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in 1991 and more recently by Die Hunns in 2006. Surely the oddest one out cover is the version by Jazzkantine from 2008.

Apart from that the song has been sampled usually for the opening guitar lick by Eddie van Halen. The 2 Live Crew used it in their unimaginatively titled Fuck Shop from 1989. Scatterbrain jammed it somewhere in 1990 Down with the Ship song (which features tons of famous guitar songs). The most famous sample usage however is by English dance formation  Apollo 440 in their 1997 track Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Dub. Apollo 440 uses another iconic sample in the song. The opening “Let’s go back to the rock and see it in 440” is from the 1971 film (The Andromeda Strain (IMDb) and fits quite well in the clash of a rock song redone by Apollo 440.

And since I love the Apollo 440 much more, here’s Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Dub:

Wow. Just wow. Never seen so many classic synths in one video:

No Casios though or did I blink?
I blinked. I saw a Casio. :D

Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy

The year 2006 seems to be the absolute peak for the song Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. Not so much the original song, which was released in 1984, but as far as covers and sampling of the song goes.

One of the first instances for the song to pop up is by the Real McCoy’s song Automatic Lover in 1995. It only briefly uses the replayed riff of the original. In 1997 Legato makes a rather simple dance cover.  In 1999 Brice does a cover called Small Town Boy (Runaway).  O.R.N. does a cover in 2004.

Around 2006 samples and (half-)covers of the song start piling up. Thomas Cajal releases Runaway in 2005 that borrows the tune and Jimmy sommerville’s vocals. A German rap-group K.I.Z. uses a sample in their 2005 rather rude track Hurensohn (whore’s son).  By 2006 the hits start rolling in. Supermode releases a hit song titled Tell Me Why in 2006 that leans heavily on the original. Swedish singer September releases the song Cry For You in 2005 that becomes a hit in 2006 and it too borrows from the Bronski Beat song. Scream Club releases Life of a Heartbreaker in 2006 which features the same riff but played with old school game computer sounds. By 2007 even Daft Punk catches up an incorporates the riff in their live set. Greek Cypriot singer Mixalis Xatzigiannis subtly uses  the riff in his 2007 song Etsi Se Thelo. In 2007 José González did a cover for the B-side of Down the Line. Sharon Corr (of The Corrs) did a cover.

For some strange reason, there’s also lots of metal covers for the song. In 1999 metal band Depressive Age does a metal cover. Another metal cover is recorded by Paradise Lost in 2002. Atrocity did a cover version in 2008. Female-fronted metal band Delain did a cover in 2009.

I’ve mentioned Radiohead a few times before. In fact, I’ve mentioned that their biggest hit ‘Creep‘ is loosely based on another song. I’ve also mentioned a clone song taken from Karma Police. Guess what? Karma Police itself might not be so uniquely original itself either.

I’m certainly not the first to mention this and I certainly won’t be the last, but you can compare The Beatles song Sexy Sadie from 1968 to Karma Police and hear a some familiar hints. Try it yourself:

Hiya! I got an odd request 8 days ago and interestingly it made has led to a surge of creativity. Yay! At my work, my ‘day job’, I’m following a management course. Apart from the usual home work assignments, my mentor came up with an odd request: write a piece of music based on the causes of my self-undermining mechanisms. You know, the things you know you should do, but somehow you don’t.

As luck has it, I ran into this (link = private livejournal entry, you’ll have to be on my flist to read it :P) a day after his request. And I was just installing Cubase 5 and toying around with the new VST instruments. I creatively puzzled the assignment and the blog post together and figured: I’m going to write a love song that’s some 10 to 15 years overdue. Better late then never, right?

The song title is ‘Perfect‘ and it focusses on not wanting to disappoint people, but also the desire to compensate for the shortcomings of others. And contrary to the song title, the song is far from perfect. Both in the sense that it’s not done yet (still need to write some extra lyrics), but also that musically that the song erodes into noise towards the end of the song, leaving just the bare theme. It’s like all symbolic ‘n shit y’all. ;p

The way things are now, the song should be completely done in just under 2 weeks from when I got the assignment. That should be a new record.  I should work by request more often, hehe. If anyone wants to request me to make a song, let me know. I should probably post a teaser or something, but um nervous, perfectionist artist and all.  o.O I’m such a tease, myeah.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’99, wear sunscreen.” You may recognise this line from film director Baz Luhrman’s hit Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen) from 1999. That hit song however is composed of a number of ‘samples’.

First off, the ‘speech’ sampled in the song is actually an essay written by Mary Schmich in 1997. That essay in turn is somewhat inspired by the poem Desiderata from 1927. The essay by Schmich was recorded by Baz Luhrmann using a voice actor who reads the essay word for word.

Half way through the song, some vocals kick in which are borrowed from the song Everybody’s Free (to feel good) sung by Quindon Tarver on the soundtrack of the 1996 film Romeo + Julliet. The film was directed by … Baz Luhrmann. Hence the title of Baz Luhrmann’s song is Everybody’s Free (to wear sunscreen).

The acapella version sung by Quidon Tarver however is a cover of the 1991 dance hit Everybody’s Free (to feel good) by Rozalla. Baz Luhrmann/Quindon Tarver haven’t been the only ones to ever sample/cover it. The lyrics of Rozalla popped up in Bob Sinclar’s 2007 song Sound of Freedom. According to whosampled.com, Moby also sampled the song, but since the video they link to is down, I can’t verify this. It’s not on the single I own in any case.

One more important thing about the Rozalla version; it also uses a sample. It uses the classic drum break from the 1972 track Think (About It) by Lyn Collins. But since I could list tons of tracks that sample Think , here’s Rozalla – Everybody’s Free.

In 2004 the Shapeshifters (or Shape:UK if you live in the US)  scored a modest hit with Lola’s Theme. Before that in 2003 however, it was already circulating as an instrumental only. The version with vocals had its entire instrumentation re-played from the instrumental version that contained a sample. That sample is Johnny Taylor’s 1982 hit What About My Love. So technically speaking the 2004 doesn’t contain a direct sample.

There’s a second sample in the song and that’s also not direct. The vocals sung by a singer named Cookie were mostly original. The chorus however was directly borrowed and resung from Love Me Tonight by Anthony White from 1994.

I attended the EHPO Jongerendag, by Dutch blogger/music professional Niels Aalberts. The event was both intended as lecture on how to promote your band and also a launch event for his book Doorbraak. I got quite few good ideas from it and if anything it was entertaining at least to hear all the people struggling with similar problem. One central question: how do you get your band to make a breakthrough? The biggest obvious, but also best answer: hard work. Do it. Be there, point people to the right place: YOUR place.

I must confess I kept my my interaction to a minimum, where other people were quite vocal, for a good reason: I have nothing to sell just yet. That’s why I asked him to sign my copy of the book with “Who?“. No one or at least very little people know me, what I do or my music. And that’s okay for now. So long as I put some serious work into doing something about it. And if any thing, the afternoon did inspire me to do just that. That’s why I love these lectures. They help me get focus on what I was trying to do in the first place.

– to be continued –

Gary Moore died yesterday so I decided to switch the post I had in mind for today around to make room for this one.

Gary Moore was undeniably a very creative musician who had good control over his instrument of choice the guitar. And though he wrote quite a bulk of original work, his most famous song of all, Still Got the Blues, seems to borrow very slightly from an older song. Check out the song Nordrach by Jud’s Gallery at around 6:18 and 9:16 (source: whosampled.com). It sounds very identical.

The leader of the band thought so too and sued Gary Moore in 2008 (why so late?) and won. Gary Moore denied having heard the songs and while the court acknowledged he probably didn’t steal it on purpose he may have heard it on the radio or live back when it was played in 1974, even though the music had never been put on a record. Honestly, even if Gary Moore did hear it, forgot it, but remembered it sub-consciencely when he recorded his song, I think the claim is a bit too far. But such are copyright laws.

Gary Moore (1952-2011) – Still Got the Blues