Herbie Flowers

Herbie Flowers, session musician and bassist, died at the weekend aged 86. In 1972 he played the bass on the sessions that would become Lou Reed's Transformer, an album produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson. On Lou's most famous Herbie came up with an instantly recognisable bass part, the song's main hook in many ways, for which he was paid a session fee of £17. 

Walk On The Wild Side

In the song Lou celebrated all kinds of New York outsiders and misfits, the late 60s and early 70s demi- world around Reed, Warhol and all the rest brought to life in a few beautifully crafted lines- transgender actresses Holly from Miami FLA and Candy Darling, Little Joe, the Sugar Plum Fairy (Joe Campbell, a dealer) and Jackie (Curtis). Throw in some references to drugs and oral sex and you have the perfect slice of transgressive pop music. It's the sort of song that you can remember the first time you heard it, the door to another world opening slightly. 

Herbie played loads of other sessions, over 20, 000 apparently, and created loads of other basslines including Space Oddity and Diamond Dogs for Bowie. But Walk On The Wild Side remains the one. 

In 1990 New York hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest sampled the bassline for what became their best known song, the call and response sample- fest/ piece of genius that is Can I Kick It? As well as Lou/ Herbie it samples Lonnie Smith, Ian Dury and The  Blockheads and Prokofiev. Lou Reed took pretty much all the profits from the sales apparently. Such is the music business. 

Can I Kick It?

Herbie Flowers RIP.

Can I Get A Hit?

A Tribe Called Quest's second album, The Low End Theory, just celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its release. I don't know where the time goes etc. Back in 1989- 90 the new wave of hip hop groups and rappers that came through were a burst of fresh air and closely aligned to the times. The Jungle Brothers married hip hop and house (hip house), De La Soul's day- glo imagery, sense of humour and lightness of touch appealed across the tribes and A Tribe Called Quest's sampling of Lou Reed, laid back sound and mellow rapping saw them cross over to both indie kids and ravers. Long sleeved t- shirts, purple Wallabies, Reni hats, baggy jeans and love beads, house music, indie dance and socially conscious Native Tongues rap records were all part of the same thing. 

In 1991 for their second album A Tribe Called Quest pared things back, stripped their sound down and brought in a cellar full of jazz samples. The rappers, Q Tip and Phife Dawg kept their lyrical humour and interplay but the production and samples pushed the album on from the busier, unconventional, multi- layered debut People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm. The Low End Theory is denser and live sounding, samples chosen for the live bass or live drum sound, be- bop samples to link the music of the past with the music of the present. It's exciting and pioneering stuff and still sounds fresh today. 

Scenario, a single and featuring members of Leaders Of The New School including a then unknown Busta Rhymes with samples courtesy of Jimi Hendrix and Brother Jack McDuff is a blast, streets ahead and a defining song from the golden age of hip hop. Jazzy organ, looped bass and then, boom! all hands on deck as the rhyming gets dizzying- 'Can I get a hit? Hit! Boom bit with a brother named Tip and we're ready to flip/ East coast stompin'/ Rippin' and rompin'/ New York North Cakalacky and Compton/ The loops for the troops more bounce to the ounce/ And wow now now wow how now brown cow...'

Scenario

A Nice Little Pub In The Middle Of Nowhere

More golden age hip hop for you today but seriously less angry than Public Enemy's 1989 single Fight The Power that raised the temperature here yesterday. I've been meaning to write about De La Soul and their thirty year old debut album. I was listening to Eye Know recently and it sounded ace, really fresh and inventive. But instead today we have De La Soul's Native Tongue's compatriots A Tribe Called Quest. The group's debut single I Left My Wallet In El Segundo came out in 1990. A year later it was remixed by the then fairly unknown Norman Cook and this version was put out as a promo. Norman samples/borrows liberally from/rebuilds the song entirely around Donna Summer's State Of Independence. El Segundo's rap is led by Q- Tip, whose lighthearted drawl sounds wonderful. He narrates the story of coming into some cash, heading south to Mexico and the dangers that lie within- buying gas, eating enchiladas and at the moment of payment being so distracted by the beauty of the waitress that you forget your wallet. Easily done.

I Left My Wallet In El Segundo (The State Of Independence Mix)

As a bonus track here's Donna's sublime early 80s single. State Of Independence was written and originally recorded by Jon and Vangelis. Donna recorded and released her take on it in 1982, a lolloping reggae based groove with sunshine drizzled all over it and Quincy Jones at the controls.

State Of Independence

Bonus, bonus track. In 1992 State Of Independence was covered by Moodswings, laid back, downtempo house groove with Chrissie Hynde and Martin Luther King on vocals. Moodswings were James FT Hood and Grant Showbiz. Grant spent his 80s being road crew and guitar tech for Billy Bragg and The Smiths.I'd imagine being a roadie for The Smiths involved moodswings on a daily basis. The version here is nine minutes of bliss.

Spiritual High (Moodfood Megamix)

Apple

Food for Friday again today. Following on from honey, sugar, wine and lemons today I give you apples, a rich source of song titles.

Milltown Brothers were/are a five piece from Colne, Lancashire (not Burnley as was often said of them although apparently they were regulars at Turf Moor). They had bowl haircuts and an organ led sound that got them drawn into the fringes of the late 80s Manchester scene. They had some coverage from the NME including a single of the week (a much coveted award at that time), a near hit with Which Way Should I Jump? and then a major label deal with A&M in 1990. But what we're here for today are apples, specifically Milltown Brothers' 1990 song Apple Green which at this distance sounds pretty fresh, infectious 60s inspired pop, the work of a band who maybe got missed, chewed up and spat out back in the early 90s. They re-united in 2004 and have released an album as recently as 2015.

Apple Green

A Man Called Adam came through at the same time but from a different part of the country (Middlesborough, Teeside) and from a different background (dance music, 60s soundtracks, acid jazz and a Balearic epiphany). Their 1991 album The Apple is a Bagging Area favourite with several songs that are often palyed round here, Barefoot In the Head, The Chrono Psionic Interface and Righteous Life for starters. And the album's opener...

The Apple

Also from 1990 (but here in a re-edited version from 2016 by Rhythm Scholar) A Tribe Called Quest  were part of hip hop's second wave, part of the Native Tongues collective and had a real way with both tunes and words. Bonita Applebum was about a girl from high school who clearly stuck in the memory...

Bonita Applebum (Rhythm Scholar All Nite Excursion)

Manic Street Preachers burst out of South Wales in the early 90s, in a riot of mascara, feather boas and heavy rock. In 2009 they released an album called Journal For Plague Lovers which contained a song called Peeled Apples (a song I don't think I've ever heard in its original form). They commissioned some remixes and Andrew Weatherall peeled the Manic's apples further, a heavily percussive stomper with some guitar parts echoing through.

Peel Apples (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Lastly, a Joe Strummer's song from his Mescalero years, a top ten Strummer solo song for sure. Johnny Appleseed is a joy, with a rollicking rhythm on acoustic guitars, a full throttle vocal and lyrics about bees, Martin Luther King, a Buick 49 and Johnny Appleseed (a character from the early years of the USA, a pioneer who scattered apple seeds wherever he went). This song makes me really miss Joe Strummer.



Rene Magritte's 1964 painting says 'This is not an apple'. It isn't- it's a picture of an apple. That, I suppose, is the joke.

We The People...

Just trying to catch up with some stuff people have recommended in various places and I come across the new one from A Tribe Called Quest. Back, back, back, backer than backer. This is how you do it...

If You Need 'Em I Got Crazy Prophylactics

Experts have recently calculated that the number of re-edits in the world will outnumber the planet's population by the middle of 2017. But if there's one thing that 2016 has taught us it's that, as Michael Gove told us during the referendum campaign, 'the British people have had enough of experts'. Given the way he ran education during his time in office and how he then handled his own campaign for the Tory leadership he's clearly no expert at anything. Nigel Farage joined in with the general rubbishing of experts and I think we can agree that he's no expert either- the change in leadership at UKIP is a marvellous farrago. I'm sure that if any of us needed something serious and technical doing- fixing an engine say or heart surgery- the last person we'd want is an expert. What do experts know?

But back to  re-edits. This new edit/remix of A Tribe Called Quest's Bonita Applebum dropped into my inbox yesterday. Rhythm Scholar is the expert in question, a scholar too, and has done a fine job, making Bonita all smooth and slinky with the little riff reappearing now and then. As a bonus you can download it for free with two extra versions, The All Nite Excursion and Dubb. I am down with this.

Phife

Sad news yesterday with the news that Phife Dawg has died aged just 45. Phife (Malik Taylor) was a founder member of A Tribe Called Quest along with Q-Tip. The freshness of their debut album, along with De La Soul and The Jungle Brothers at the same time, cannot be overstated. So many great tunes contained within. I always loved I Left My Wallet In El Segudo especially the 'I ordered enchiladas and I ate 'em' line for some reason.



The group's second album The Low End Theory was less Daisy Age, a more stripped back hip hop record. They always knew where they stood politically and socially and the wordplay, rhymes, vocal interplay and rhythms on this track are stunning.

Scenario

Roar Roar Like A Dungeon Dragon

One of the best things about doing this blog for me has been how it's led me back to some stuff I haven't listened to for years, decades even. The recent Pharcyde and Public Enemy posts being two examples- it's years and years since I deliberately put on any hip-hop, and I haven't gone mad and started wearing my jeans really low or nodding my head slowly while driving the car or anything, but the door has re-opened slightly. This is another great piece of early 90s hip-hop from A Tribe Called Quest's second album The Low End Theory. I'm sure a lot of work went into recording, sampling (Hendrix, Kool And The Gang, The Ohio Players, Jack McDuff, and The Emotions), arranging and writing this track, but over a great bassline it just sounds like seven men standing around a microphone and making rhymes about whatever comes to mind- effortlessly cool.

14 - A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario featuring L.O.N.S..mp3