h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Pius North American rock singers invented the word *inna* and although I cant think of an example right now they often put in a "a" to fill in or finish of a line. This is not as popular as tha "ooh yeah" which can crop up just about anywhere like it does in the song in question.

Thats all I can think of to say on that subject,er...woah yeah..baby.

actually, i could talk to you for an awfully long time about the canterbury tales and not once mention anything to do with the miller. its not all about fart jokes.

The Bryan Adams thing is easily resolved.

Canada doesn't HAVE cars.

Therefore it has to be about the aforementioned "position".

There we go.

"Canada doesn't HAVE cars."

No, but Boston did.

If it's to be Canadian bands that'll save this thread from Shakespearean debate, then I'll thow out Godspeed You Black Emperor as my personal favorite - see A1024129.


- JD

No one I like is Canadian.

Hmm.

Maybe I should declare war on them.

It's not like they have an army either.

Now were back to music I liked to have a little rant.

People who reject sample based music as rubbish or lacking in creativity and skill are sad old ****-pots. I was talking to someone about this thread and the fact that someone had dismissed ABBA as rubbish and how ABBA had admitted to ,lets say drawing inspiration from a Wizard song. That led on to me remembering the story about the time Jimmy Caulty of the KLF and various other incarnations had driven to the the publishing offices of ABBA in Sweden to beg permission to release the tracks he had made using ABBA samples. They said no and aparently Jimmy gave in to his pyromaniac tendencies and burnt the recordings on the front steps of the office.

Obviously I never got to hear those tracks but Id wager my internal organs that they sounded a hell of a lot more interesting than the bland covers that Erasure released a few years later. I think the problem that some people (fans and people in music) have with covers is that the people who made and are fans of the bands who produced music of the past often begrudge the next generations invetiveness. They want to see the music they produced or are fans of as the best and some how sacred. The people who made the music dont want to be seen as the stick in the mud dinosaurs they have become. So squash creativity whiles endorsing bland cover versions and reaping the rewards from run of the mill remixes. The fans are pettier and moan as if the sampler is destroying the music.

It was sickening to hear Jimmy Page talking about having about having Led Zepplins stuff remixed. Apparently the first remixer they got in used his/her own creative thinking and Page was unhappy with the prodcut. He had, he said in an interview I heard on the radio, wanted something like the remix of Tori Amos' "Profesional Widow". He wanted something that was going to break his stuff to new audiences and make him even richer in the process. So instead of something potentially interesting we ended up with the Maestro of lame sampling Puffy Daddy doing a rap over the top of "Kashmir".

By now you would think that artist would have realised that they rake in cash from smples wether they are too their taste or not. You'd think they might have some sympathy or empathy for others who are trying to be creative and allow a new direction for their art. Music fans who decry smpling are petty and harde to understand, they act as if sampling is destroying the music you remember. Like they dont know that if some modern remix is not to their taste that they can just turn the radio of pop in a cd or tape and hey presto, listen to the original.

Finished.

One of the percieved problems with sampling is that in an awful lot of cases the person who is "nicking" the sound or melody hasn't got permission for this.

Although most "respectable" artists do ask for permission there are always those who don't. One of the most sampled bands are Tangerine Dream and they apparently have over 100 court cases going at the moment against various bands who stole their sounds and melodies (all of which are copyrighted). Some musicians tend to seethe a lot when they see someone lift something they spend a lot of hours writing, programming, or whatever - which is understandable.

It may not lack creativity to sample someone elses music and then use it in a new way (it's a form of compliment after all) but it can be seen to come across as lazy - can't be bothered to create my own original sound or tune, I'll use somebody elses instead.

And this is hardly new, composers centuries ago used to take other composers works and rewrite them adding their own stamp on the music - Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, Vivaldi, and so on all did it.

blickybadger - the KLF tune you're thinking of is called 'the queen and i', heavily sampling dancing queen with tongue firmly in cheek. it was on their 1st JAMMs album, '1987: what the f**k's going on'. the album was released regardless and withdrawn from sale after ABBA sued them. it was the unsold copies which were taken to sweeden and burned. photographs of the fire were used for the cover of their 2nd (and last) JAMMs album, 'who killed the JAMMs'.

after reading a very long backlog for just 5 days since my last post

I like sampled music.

Providing that the original musician is credited. Otherwise it's just stealing.

Hmm - I own the Avalanches' eponymous album, which is estimated to contain upwards of 5,000 samples. You don't really want them to credit each one, do you?

B

Well, yes.

Can I ask WHY they are using so much of other people's work? I don't know them too well...not my thing I guess...

The avalanches do a good disco sound with some added weirdness and floaty bits. They credit loads of stuff on the inner page of their CD but I didnt know it was that many samples though.

Although my faith in my pop knowledge is severly shaken at the momemnt.

dj shadow, a genius, uses nothing but samples, scratches and drum beats in his work. it is utterly awesome.

the avalanches apparently released a first album in oz, which is very illegal cos the samples werent cleared. it took a year for their album to be released due to all the samples. they are very good.

A prime example of why sampled (no, officer, I didn't steal this car... I only sampled it) music is evil... Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings" was a beautiful (and I generally hated '80's pop, so trust me when I say that that is *high* praise) and uplifting love song. It was sampled into something that was about shooting people.

I have no problem with remakes, because it usually comes off as an homage to the original artist, with a slightly different interpretation, and the result is a familiar yet original product.

But taking another artists' work and turning it into something they would barely recognize and probably heartily disapprove of is entirely different. Nevermind how lazy it is.

And you Blatherskite, are a prime example of not understanding the creative process. From a few of your posts that I have seen, you seem to be incredibly knowledgable, with perfectly fine taste, but little insight into the depths of a piece of created work.

Someone once said that no piece of art is ever finished. Every era recycles what came before it; be it by simple inspiration, or indeed, direct revulsion; or by the cut up technique (*nods to Burroughs*), or sampling. All are valid forms of expression.

There are always going to be good versions and bad versions. It's the way the world works.

Muse on that for a while.

Don't judge me entirely by what you see of me on this site. My creative side gets very little display here, because I would keep the rights to my creative work. I've written comic poems and songs, as well as some serious poetry that will never see the light of day. And I expect that in another dozen years, my fantasy series *will* see the light of day.

I understand the creative process quite well, which is why I'm disappointed when someone skips it entirely. The "artist" who stole Broken Wings needed a chorus, and he didn't want to make one himself, so he lifted it out of context and transplanted it like a baboon heart into an air compressor.

That was a rather artistic metaphor, wasn't it?

why do you need a chorus?

Were you not the individual that asked the purpose of a solilquy, Blathers? Or am I confusing you with someone?

It just seems to me, that you don't seem to have much depth in insight into the creative process, as well as the *history* of the creative process.

If you did, you might be a little more open to different processes, that's all I am saying. I agree with you, if the sample was taken badly, then the individual who did that, should be lined up against a wall and pummelled with hard rubber balls. But that's nothing to do with bad sampling. That's more to do with lack of individual talent, creativit, and generally just lazy.

You don't suppose you're leaping to conclusions based on a very limited amount of interaction?