Ain't No Cure For The Summertime Blues?

Yellowman: Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt
from Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt (Shanachie 1984)

Marcia Griffiths: Play Me
from Sweet Bitter Love (Trojan Records 1974) also on Put a Little Love in Your Heart: The Best of Marcia Griffiths 1969-1974 (Trojan Reocrds 2001)


I don't think I'll ever get used to summer. Everything from the hot, humid and restless nights to the way the sweat makes the clothes stick to your body irritates me and makes me cranky and lazy. It's one of the reasons the updates to Filthy Choice have been sporadic lately, that and the fact that in order to beat the heat, I avoid staying inside the house for too long which keeps me away from accessing the computer and my music. During one of my crankier moments I was spinning Yellowman's Nobody Move and I gained an appreciation for it that I didn't have when listening to it in a mellower mood.

Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt is the kind of song that can even make a cantankerous person smile. Toasting about a big middle finger to the military authority of Jamaica over a True True riddim, Yellowman rocks the song with it's thick Roots Radics bassline and heavy reverb intro courtesy of dub wizard Scientist. The life of Yellowman as a whole is like a loud "Fuck You" to the forces that would hold a person down. Living with the stigma of albinism in Jamaica (where it's looked at superstitiously as a curse) he shamelessly turned his albino features into a self-assured gimmick and won accolades and derision for his slack toasting. Later he would battle both throat and skin cancer and still go on to record songs. Of course for Hip-Hop fans the song is easily (no pun intended) recognizable from the Eazy-E song Nobody Move or from the derivative Nobody Move by Poor Righteous Teachers. If you're like me and get testy whenever the heat begins to weigh down on you and there's no relief in site, bust out this song and know that you're not alone.

Of course summer isn't all about repressive heat. Sometimes the ills of the dog days can be offset by the right, fleetingly serendipitous moment like those times when a breeze blows by and cools the beads of sweat that form on the back of your neck or when a song silently creeps out of nowhere to bring a smile to your face. Play Me by Marcia Griffiths is one of those songs. A remake of the Neil Diamond classic, this song works in a way that the original only hinted at. Neil's version is weighed down by the heavy handedness of it's melancholy rhythm and the reputation that comes with the image of an hirsute, open-shirted, mutton sideburned 70's pop star, everything that Marcia isn't. Gone is the steady, unwavering voice, and studio slick acoustics that lent itself well to the poetry-aspiring lyrics. They've now been replaced with the unsure warbling of Marcia's rendition. Her version lacks the confidence of Neil's which is actually an asset as it adds gravitas and honesty to the first verse and conveys a true sense of surprise that the lyric requires. This version is the equivalent of that cool breeze on a hot summer day, it's always welcome and it makes the intolerable that much more bearable.

The sad thing about all my griping is that I live in San Diego where the temperature is constantly in the mid 70's and anytime it gets over 85 degrees, the heat becomes intolerable for me. Compared to more uncomfortable locations where overbearing heat and humidity are a constant, I sound like a whining pussy, but hey if there wasn't anywhere to whine or anything to complain about the Blog community would never have come into existence.

Harm Me With Harmony

Naughty By Nature: O.P.P. Sunny Days Remix
from O.P.P. Single (Tommy Boy 1991)

Naughty By Nature: O.P.P. Live
from Everything's Gonna Be Alright Single (Tommy Boy 1991)


As the dog days of summer kick into high gear I thought it would be appropriate to throw up the ubiquitous summer blog post that extols the virtue of the season of love and conception and what better song to set it off than Naughty By Nature's ode to infidelity.

The O.P.P. Sunny Days Remix takes a more laid back approach by using the beautiful Delegation sample from Oh Honey while still keeping the Melvin Bliss drum break and flipping the pre-Neverland Michael vocal sample and mixing all of this to perfection. This version works extremely well with the lyrics and is perfect for those lazy Sunday afternoons when you're getting you're whistle wet with other peoples property.

The second cut is a live version of O.P.P. that's memorable for two reasons. One is when Vinny, who plays the hype man throughout the song, inexplicably starts declaring his love for Treach, and does it rather loudly. Of course it's part of the song but still hearing it is a little humorous. The second highlight of this version is when Treach drops an extra verse and calls himself the "human pussy puncher". Lyrically, Treach was at the top of his game back then and could stand up to practically anyone so an extra verse is always a plus.

The most beautiful aspect of Naughty By Nature (around the time their first album dropped) is how they married street credibility, easily accessible commercial beats and dope lyrical content and delivery and made it work so that it pleased everyone, although it began to get passe and irritating by the time Hip Hop Hooray dropped.

On a side note, if you're viewing this blog using IE I would suggest using any other browser as I viewed it using Internet Explorer and it was not a pretty site.

I Don't Want No Minute Man

7 G.O.A.T.'s swinging on a branch...

LL Cool J: 6 Minutes Of Pleasure (Hey Girl Remix)
from 6 Minutes of Pleasure 12" (Columbia 1991)


A simple case of an unintentional lyrical faux pas or an ameliorating self-confession from the Greatest of All Time? Either way the title of this cut has always bugged me. The title suggests that it would seem to be an ode to the quickie, but lyrically the song and title are so disconnected that one is obviously not referring to the other. Rather it seems to be in reference to the Kangoled one's sexual prowess, which if true, is not something you want to exactly be bragging about. Regardless of the titles meaning this song is a definite summer banger.

"Remixed by the one and only marley marl[sic]" (and that's a direct quote from the back cover) the song lasts a little under five minutes, which eliminates another possible meaning, but the songs length is filled up with a more subtle bass line than the original and removes the cheesy horn sample in favor of the famous Funky President guitar sample and drums. This is from the classic Todd James rapper/dancer era when he would bust a move like a poor man's Big Daddy Kane, and this song lends itself well to that type of stuff so feel free to cut up the rug while bumping this, trust me no one will be looking.

Score 100 G's Every Time I Play Atari (The Second Part)

Mooki: I Just Smile [Burning Rangers]
from SONICTEAM UNPLUGGED LIVE 2004

Mooki: Chant This Charm [Giant Egg]
from SONICTEAM UNPLUGGED LIVE 2004


Continuing what I started several posts ago is two songs from that prior post this time sung in a more loungy mood by Japanese chanteuse Minato "Mooki" Obata. As a singer, Mooki is a very capable artist with a strong, breathy voice and she mixes well with the live instrumentation and the lounge sound but the songs themselves add an unintentional hilarity, particularly her version of Chant This Charm.

I Just Smile opens with the soft, pattering high-hats of the original and breaks down after 8 bars into the song and while the high notes sometimes eludes her, the singer still does a good job of emoting and capturing a mood, particularly when the second verse drops. While this song can be listened to and appreciated with a straight face, Mooki's grasp of the grammatically awkward english lyrics are pounded out by the strength of her delivery, the second song is bound to evoke the kind of laughter you would hear in a Junior High sex-ed class.

Chant This Charm was passable as a J-pop song but as it's played here, with the reserved sound of a lounge atmosphere, this song seems more in line with the type of satires that Bill Murray used to excel at. It's to her credit that Obata manages to sing the chorus without laughing and more amazingly sing it with feeling. The slow tempo only adds to the humor, but in the end the song works because it is such a 180 degree turn from the original version. By stripping it of all of it's saccharine intentions, the song attains a humor that is easily lost when listening to the original version.

RIP Luther Vandross 1951-2005

Luther Vandross: Dance With My Father
from Dance With My Father (2003 J-Records)


Dead at the age of 54.

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