Duh, Persephone

I have been meditating on musical reinterpretations, which isn't as pompous as it sounds - I've been avoiding doing things I should be doing again, and this works as well as anything.

Anyway, last week this video went viral: 

Now, most people are focussing on the fact that it's older people in the video, but what struck me was this wasn't just a karaoke version of the original by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars - it's an honest-to-goodness re-recording of the audio and sounds, and it's edgier.  Nuthin' wrong with the slick original, y'understand.

While I was comparing the two (fabulous way to procrastinate and avoid - trust me), I had a feeling of déjà-vu, and tried googling Purple Rain, a film I've never seen.  I did see plenty of music videos from it, years ago, including this one:

That's when it occurred to me that the "Wait! What time is it?" break in "Uptown Funk" is a direct reference to "Jungle Love". This became even more obvious when I checked the comments for all the videos.

Duh, Persephone.

I also discovered discovered several mash-ups of "Uptown Funk" with "Jungle Love", and this recent performance of the latter song by Morris Day himself -- who is now probably roughly the same age as Alex Boye, if not the dancing grannies.

Rather a neat circle, isn't it? Day is backed by Haim:

Morris Day and the Haim. I just got that.

Duh, Persephone.

Listening to the deadlines whooshing by

Oh Gawd.  I've got plenty of posts to write; it's just a matter of knuckling down and writing them.  I look up and the day has disappeared.

I stumbled across this when I was supposed to be writing.  Marie Phillips, who has just published her second nifty book, was discussing how The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy influenced her life and work this morning.  I've been nattering on about Doctor Who, even though I've only really liked one of the new episodes so far, but it seemed a happy coincidence to discover a clever meshing of the two.  This is about five years old.  I don't care.  I have to go to bed.

I hate the music where the paperback believers find somebody to praise in the super jumper...

Some years ago, I stumbled across the idea of the mash-up.  At the time, it was a relatively new idea and there weren't many of them.  For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it's a very clever way of mixing two songs and coming up with something that's almost a brand-new song, or at least, a whole new way of hearing one or the other, or both old songs.

Say, for example, you picked two Sixties classics, and as a result, realized they were a lot more similar than you thought:
Cool, huh?

Now, suppose you took a song you didn't care for, say, "Super Trouper" by ABBA, and mixed it up with a catchy ditty from Van Halen.  Would you actually be able to bear either?  You tell me:

Okay, let's try blending two songs that have about three decades between them: "Somebody to Praise". Tee-hee. I understand Fatboy Slim likes this. No word from Jefferson Airplane yet.

Finally, the first music mash-up I ever recall hearing. That's hearing, not seeing, because I don't think mash-ups started out as videos. I recommend closing your eyes for this one. To me, it sounds like Madonna is getting elbowed off the stage by the Hives (possibly into the mosh pit) at regular intervals. Damn right, too: Really illustrates why a mashup is one group "vs" the other, huh? There are thousands of these out there, varying mightily in quality, of course, but if you have the inclination to explore, you may end up hearing an old favourite, or some song you never could stand, in a whole different way.

They did the Christmas Mash...

Followers of this blog (a small and discerning group) may have noticed that I have a bit of an irritation going, on the topic of songs about winter being called "Christmas Carols" -- when they're neither. Vancouver's musica intima (they go for the lower case) may have found a way around this:



Mind you, we'd always shout: "Like a flashlight!" then "Like a lightbulb"; and we said "Monopoly" instead of "Basketball"....



Ya gotta love the YouTube commenters who have never heard of "Once in Royal David's City". Bless. It's not quite such a tradition on this side of the Atlantic ocean unless you have British parents, or are Anglican.