Rediscovering the oldies

[kenw]

A gift (an IPod shuffle and $25 iTunes card) got me to roaming the web in search of obscure and as-yet unacquired old favs, and in my search I ran across an old favorite. We recently spotted the Vince Guaraldi score of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' in the store, and in reading the liner notes, I realized that Vince was the genius behind "Cast you fate to the wind", a marvelous jazz piece from the early 60s.

I had always loved that song, but never got around to researching it enough to find it.

So last night, for 99 cents, I got it......life is good.

The further digging brought Lonnie Mack (yes, my tastes run a bit wide...) to the surface of my memory, the particular song of note being "Memphis" a quite rockin' version of Chuck Berry's classic (and in fact, caused Chuck to revise and re-release his version).

In Lonnie's case I picked up the entire CD (Wham! of that Memphis man), little of which I had ever heard before. In many cases, if you only get one song, you miss the opportunity to discover so many more golden nuggets. Definitely the case here.

Side note: Lonnie's song "Wham!" is the root of the common name for the whammy bar on most modern guitars. Most modern guitarists list Lonnie Mack as a strong influence.

[MarcoFromHouston]

one of my favorite things about music (Hip-Hop especially) is researching samples and finding the amazing original recordings. So far I've (re)discovered these awesome bands & musicians:

Willie Hutch
Lonnie Liston Smith
The Whole Darn Family
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Tom Brock
Bobby Byrd
Bobby Glenn
The Persuaders
The Spinners
Rasputin's Stash
Mtume
DeBarge
The Chi-Lites
Crystal Waters

...............and the list gones on & on.................

[rott]

Originally Posted by MarcoFromHouston

one of my favorite things about music (Hip-Hop especially) is researching samples and finding the amazing original recordings. So far I've (re)discovered these awesome bands & musicians

Speaking of sampled, you might be interested in what appears to be the most commonly sample track in hip-hop. I remember hearing it from The Roots in concert at ACL fest, then I heard it again in a Beastie Boys track. I had to do some research... and that's the page that gave me my answer.

Then I found this video, and YouTube was confirmed in my mind to be the greatest thing ever to be thrust upon this tiny little blue and green ball in the vast universe. Ahhh, YouTube and internets, how we love thee.