Getting weirdly obsessed with this song (c. 1946), which I saw someone describe as "the first rap song". I don't quite buy* that, but the guy who starts at 0:36 does have kind of a mesmerizing voice. *More specifically, I think it's impossible to cleanly distinguish rap from earlier spoken-word performance traditions which it probably grew out of, and if you want to look you could find antecedents going back to before the age of recorded sound, and therefore I don't think there is such a thing as a "first" rap song. But I'm probably overthinking things.
I can see where you’re coming from. That’s the first time I’ve seen it and I was utterly mesmerised. The sound coming from the guys doing the “Mmmm mmm” harmonies to the ‘rapping’ parts is like velvet!
I'm fairly certain this song was referenced in Hip Hop Evolution on Netflix (which is excellent btw). Not sure who it was, maybe Marly Marl or Grandmaster Cass, but one of the OGs talked a bit about gospel influences on hip hop. You can see the connection, but "first rap song" is tough to quantify. Props for the mat painting of Noah's Ark in the background. You can almost feel the raindrops!
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes riding shotgun in the sky, turning into butterflies above our nation... Joni Mitchell's version: She wrote it, though she wasn't at Woodstock, and let her friends do it as well. I can't decide which version I like better.
Dammit, now that song is stuck in my head, and I saw your post yesterday! Once that one gets in it takes a miracle to get it out, or just a lot of time. Good thing it's such a beautiful song. Dusty Springfield has one of the best voices ever in popular music (alongside Karen Carpenter). And yeah, the music is pretty damn good too.
Over the last month or so I’ve listened to quite a bit of Dusty, as well as other talented singers from her era. Great mood music. Great date music. I’m sure I’ll post some of those songs here.
Yep. Graeme Edge without the MBs was not something I ever wanted to listen to. I have a special place in my heart for MB. My second date with my husband was a Moody Blues concert in Denver; it was also only the second concert I'd ever been to, the other one being Neil Diamond years before. Thirty years later, my husband twice played in the orchestra backing up the band, once on our wedding anniversary.
Wonder how many times I've posted this one in here? It's my favorite by them, and extremely different from their usual music.
Just ran across this excellent version with Justin Johnson playing it: I like the way you can see both hands clearly all the time—if anybody wants to figure out how to play it, there it is. He's playing the guitar chords and the vocal melody at the same time! Had to go back and watch the previous video to make sure, but no, Clapton doesn't play along with Winwood's singing. That would have sounded strange.
