Massive Attack Release Album Of Tunes They've Sampled From - Al Green, John Holt, James Brown
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I love learning about music history and one of my favorite things (despite it being a major weakness of mine) is following sampled music back to its roots. It's SO cool to hear the original tunes that contain a guitar riff, drum loop or horn section that we immediately identify from a newer tune.
(Did you know that Lil Wayne's "A Milli" is based on a reggae sample from a particular remix of A Tribe Called Quest tune? There's a trivia question for ya!)
Well, imagine my glee when I found out that Massive Attack is releasing an album of sample material! I discovered this gem in MMN today:
And now, after over twenty years of making music with various line-ups, they're set to put out two new releases: an album of new material titled Weather Underground and Protected: Massive Samples . Protected brings together a collection of twelve assorted tracks that have been sampled or covered by Massive Attack over the course of their career. The list of sampled artists will shock you, running the gamut from the usual suspects: Al Green, James Brown, and Isaac Hayes , to the more obscure: Wally Badarou, The Blackbyrds, and Lowrell (whose song Mellow Mellow was drawn from for the Massive Attack track Lately - listen to both below).
You can't really listen to it here, but you can if you jump over to:
Massive Attack Post by Mainstream Isn't So Bad (in MMN)
Here's the tracklist for
Mambo - Wally Badarou
Mellow Mellow - Lowrell
Be Thankful For What You've Got - William DeVaughn
I'm Glad You're Mine - Al Green
Never Can Say Goodbye - James Brown
Ike's Mood - Isaac Hayes
Stratus - Billy Cobham
Five Man Army Dub - Lewin 'Bones' Lock
Man Next Door - John Holt
Rock Creek Park - Blackbyrds
It's Time For Love - Pieces Of A Dream
Any Love - Rufus & Chaka Khan
I bet this is going to be an amazing album that will appeal to Massive Attack fans as much as funk fans who want a unique compilation of tunes. I can't wait to hear more! Who's with me - Troy (for the samplage)? Augusts (for the trip hop)? Cody B (for the funk)?
John Holt & The Paragons - "Man Next Door":
Massive Attack - "Man Next Door" (from Mezzanine):
Comments (9)
Very nice. This should be a killer comp. I really don't try to figure out where samples come from but sometimes I'll check out liner notes if a sample sounds familiar or interesting to me. Thanks for the headsup on me. Can't believe MA is still making music. I love their song 'Teardrop' on Mezzanine featuring Elizabeth Fraser on vocals, among others.
Cool. They've been busy lately. I usually check out The Breaks when I'm stuck on a sample. Massive Attack has enough for another compilation.
http://www.the-breaks.com/search.php?term=massive+attack&type=6
That should have read 'Thanks for the headsup on this.', on my last comment.
don't worry A1 - i read ya loud and clear! whenever i write posts about a particular band, i'm usually thinking of which mogger friends are particularly into the music. when i think of trip hop, i think of you, i can't help it...
glad y'all dig. thanks for the link Fistula Spumoni! what a great resource!
The vocalist on here is Horace Andy rather than John Holt, no? He of course cut his own version of "Man Next Door" in Jamaica in 1975, most famously versioned by Dr Alimantado as "Poison Flour" b/w "I Shall Fear No Evil", voiced at King Tubby's under the watchful eye of Philip Smart, and by I. Roy as "A Noisy Place".
While I can tip my hat to Massive Attack for their role in ensuring that Horace enjoys a long and prosperous retirement, I have to say that, to my ears, spreading a two minute ten second single out over six minutes just ends up making it sound floppy and self-indulgent - likewise I thought that their "Spying Glass" remake with Horace, built on a sample of Joe Gibbs and Errol T's "Chapter Three" steppers cut to "Cassava Piece", went on a minute two long and degenerated into a mass of pointles whooshing and burbling noises, over a bass line that wasn't a patch on the original.
Still, they're very popular, so what do I know?
Here, though, are the two Dr Alimantado cuts.
you know B, you're probably right. i saw Paragons in the title and just assumed it was Holt. when posting news, i tend to post too fast to catch things like that... for shame, i know!
i'm not too surprised that you don't have much love for Massive Attack's versions, Baudolino. as a reggae fan on the cusp of 2 generations of music fans, i find it totally fascinating how reggae has influenced electronica and how electronica has re-interpreted reggae. from digidub to dubstep and trip hop to ragga jungle. the crooners are the ones who prosper most, as they can bring their old school hits to a new generation of rudies.
Great idea! We also had a slew of bands a couple of years ago releasing mixed albums of bands that influenced them. The Back To Mine Series is very good;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/series/90602/ref=pd_serl_music?ie=UTF8&edition=audioCD
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Tricky, Orbital, Underworld, New Order and Death In Vegas being just a few of the bands that did their own mixes....
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See also; Late Night Tales
ooh, Neil, that sounds like a sweet series! i'll def check it out, i'm a huge Orbital fan too...
You can find a lot of hip-hop sample sets online, but this is one of the few times I've seen a group actually release such a set themselves. That's pretty cool.