Tuesday, March 8 2011

Breakbeat Tuesday – I’m Losing You

Hey, yeah I know… It’s been a minute.

It’s just that I’ve been busy lately. Real busy. In fact, I’m busier than I’ve been in years, and although that doesn’t go without it’s cost in sleep and sanity, this is what I do, and what my life is right now. I know some people out there know where I’m coming from. But I have no choice but to stay active. We do whatever we have to do to survive, like sharks that must continue to swim forward, always swim forward, or they cease to be able to draw life from the black depths of the sea.

I was recently asked to be a featured speaker at the Maysles Institute as part of the ongoing Ego Trip film series. Now you have to understand how much of an honor it is to have been even been considered to be involved with this, at such a prestigious and esteemed institution. I’m beyond humbled in fact, just to think that people actually want to hear what the kid has to say (other than the masturbatory ramblings that can be found on this site,) not to mention a place of such merit. I actually don’t know too much about cinema, but I do know quite a bit about Philadelphia, hip-hop and the coupling of the two. However I’ll know in a day or so if I will actually be able to partake in this honor, for last minute trips have been handed to me, sending me to of all places, Downtown LA and Portland. So I might just have to go to those places. Or not…

But TONIGHT, tonight I will be here in Money Making Manhattan doing what I do best – playing freaky songs that nobody really cares about except for me! Tonight marks the second installment of my good friends Sammy Bananas and Maggie Horn’s (collectively know as Telephoned) new monthly Switchboard. Billed as a “night of musical transposition” Sammy and Maggie – who are known for their unique covers of modern day pop songs – ask their artists to “telephone” their sounds in a way that completely reinterpret it. So I have some pretty cool things in the works for tonight, things that I believe in and that may be outside my lane a bit, but I’m confident that the translation will be made. Alongside me will be Telephoned and The Suzan, fresh off their tour with Chromeo.

Now, let’s talk about cover versions for a second. It’s been discussed ad-nauseum in books and blogs, the significance of taking compositions and re-imagining them in a different voice. In fact, I speak about it some in an interview on the front page of one of my favorite places in the world’s site, The Ace Hotel. So perhaps I’ll let that be a reflection of my thoughts and cut to the chase and get to talking about a record on this Breakbeat Tuesday.

Rare Earth was one of the biggest splinter acts on Motown. Signed in 1969, this funky white-boy rock band was at the forefront of Berry Gordy’s endeavor to start cultivating white groups to go after a whole new market. Posed with the question of what to name his brand new imprint, the group jokingly suggested to the Motown execs that it be named after them, which they surprisingly went ahead and did. The Rare Earth label went on to release a grip of albums but a whole number of artists, all of which sounded the same pretty much. White-boy blues rock doing their best interpretations of soul music – Rare Earth notwithstanding. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m actually not that much of a fan of theirs, myself kind of subscribing the the Gil Scott-Heron perspective of them.

Along comes the late, great Norman Whitfield, one of the songwriters and producers of the song. Originally penned in 1967 for The Temptations who, courtesy of The Funk Brothers, released it as a swinging soul number, the funky guitar licks and lush horn arrangement cannot mask the fact that this is a DARK DARK record. The song in itself is definitely a monster move towards a foreboding sound that Whitfield would soon be acclaimed for, and 3 years later when Whitfield got his hands on this innocuous white-boy group, he decided to take that sound into motherfucking overdrive.

This 10+ minute epic recording goes hard, and dark, into the soul of the man who is losing his woman. The madness and desperation of knowing that something so special is slipping quickly away. It’s fading, fading away and he’s clawing and scratching his way to try to keep it there. And Whitfield so masterfully illustrates this in his hardbody production encompassing the soul of Motown and the burgeoning psychedelic influence in soul music. This song is impassioned desperation on tape. And funky as fuck. Championed by everyone from David Mancuso to DJ Harvey to Eric B. & Rakim to Diplo, these guys really caught lightning in a bottle with this recording. And I don’t know why I picked this one today for Breakbeat Tuesday. Anyway, this song popped into my head this morning, and it’s a good thing cause I’m all about covers and remakes tonight! From the sound of it, it must really suck to be these poor fuckers, but let’s just hope that there was a happy ending for the composer. Nevertheless, knowing this record is an absolute MUST. I hope you dig…

Rare Earth “(I Know) I’m Losing You” (Rare Earth, 1970)