Intertextualité #5

When James Brown produced Think (About It) for Lyn Collins, he had no idea what he was doing. OK, he made a fairly flawless job of it. But he had no idea that shouting 'Yeah!' and 'Woo!' during the break section would give birth to one of the most ubiquitous samples in modern music. I could have picked out any number of songs that feature the reversed 'Woo! Yeah!' break, but few of them are as engaging as Dizzee Rascal's Pussyole. I can't be certain that this was intended, but I love how both songs basically tell people to have a stern word with themselves. Guess which song makes me feel aggressive and which makes me fancy a dance:

Lyn Collins - Think (About It) (mp3)
Dizzee Rascal - Pussyole (mp3)

PS: Compare Pussyole to Wiley's response and you'll see why Dizzee is bigger and better. Dizzee was blatantly having a pop at Wiley, but having a friend make up excuses about not fighting your corner, for example, is far from exclusive. It's personal to him, but it involves you by drawing on your own experiences. That's artistry. Erm, Dizzee for PM?

Intertextualité #4

I'll be honest, Southern hip hop doesn't usually do much for me. But I'm a whole lot more interested if you throw in a well-chosen sample and/or enlist the services of Outkast. There are certain aspects of André 3000's wordplay that only he can get away with, like making 'glad it's night' sound like 'Gladys Knight'. Thanks to 3000's intro and a sample from Willie Hutch's soundtrack to The Mack, UGK's Int'l Players Anthem is a brilliant track. Big Boi from Outkast also features, by the way. He tends to get overlooked when his more flamboyant partner is present, but the chopped/screwed line 'ask Paul McCartney' is definitely a highlight.

The video is good fun too.

Willie Hutch - I Choose You (mp3)
UGK feat. Outkast - Int'l Players Anthem (mp3)

Intertextualité #3

Reading Festival 2008 should go down as one of Bloc Party's most triumphant performances so far. I took this photo when they'd just come on stage, I think - it was just before my friend and I made an effort to get right down the front. We did have a much better position, but we made a strategic pre-set trip to the toilet. We could have both held it, but there was little entertainment to be had from The Raconteurs' encore. Anyway, enough about our bladders. We'd seen Bloc Party play the same stage in 2007, but this time it was dark and they'd only just released their third album, Intimacy. The timing of that drop was a masterstroke. They opened the set with Mercury - cue lots of audience participation on the 'eh eh eeh' bits - then later they silenced us all with the brand new track One Month Off. You're always hearing new music at festivals, but it's something special when it's coming from a band who you've been listening to for years.

A couple of days later, once I'd scrubbed off five days' worth of festival dirt, I heard Ion Square for the first time. It's a beautiful album-closer and I loved it straight away. If you haven't already heard the song, I'd advise you to get hold of the album first. Once I'd given the whole thing a couple of listens I read Kitty Empire's Guardian review. (Why do we do that?) It was going alright until she claimed that Ion Square 'is basically I Still Remember all over again, but with machines'. Well I still remember how annoyed I felt when I read that comment. Both songs are about desire and retrospection - of course they are - but Kele is clearly telling a new story that details a much more grown-up relationship. For a notoriously shy frontman, he gets surprisingly frank about it. But there's still some coyness left; although he sings the f-word, he also quotes a poem by e.e. cummings:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Bloc Party - Ion Square (mp3)

Intertextualité #2

It's the most tragic superband of all time! Not really - I'm lying through the medium of collage. But did you ever notice that Mark Ronson interpolated a large chunk of this Motown hit into Winehouse's Tears Dry On Their Own?

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Ain't No Mountain High Enough (mp3)
Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own (mp3)

Intertextualité #1

Intertextualité is the wanky title that I’m giving to a series of posts about songs that reference other stuff. To start things off I’d like to point out that Richard Ashcroft loves a bit of William Blake. And it didn’t start with Love Is Noise; he was also doing it way back in 1995 on a track called History.

The Verve - History (mp3)

London

I wander through each chartered street
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every black’ning church appalls,
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new born Infant’s tear;
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

The Verve - Love Is Noise (mp3)

from Milton

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear - o clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.