Saturday, January 07, 2012

RUNNING 1000 MILES - AWAY!

Back in September 2007, I came to a rather abrupt conclusion on how sampling killed the *classics (just like how video killed the radio star) after listening to a song that sampled Africa by Toto. A few years later, I still have the exact same sentiments.

The other day (edit: which is not at least somewhere about two weeks ago!), I was just browsing through some websites and came upon one which had a list of the top songs in 2011 that were remakes or samples. I thought it was interesting for various reasons, the first one being the length of the list, as there were about 30 songs on it, and these **30 were considered the creme de la creme of the remake/sampling world which means there were definitely much more remakes and sampling that didn't quite make the cut. First question: Have they seriously run out of original ideas?

My ***curiosity got the better of me, and I checked out some of the songs in the list. I have to admit I really did want to know how Wonderwall by Oasis was sampled, or even The Proclaimer's (I'm gonna be) 500 Miles because I happen to like both these songs quite a lot. At the risk of sounding like a snob, I have no choice but to admit that I cringed a bit at most of the songs I listened to from the list. (3 out of 4) Surprisingly, the one that didn't make me cringe too much was a remake and not a mere sampling. Perhaps I'm a bit more open to remakes than I am to sampling.
In all the cringe-worthiness of that late evening in front of the computer, the sampling of The Proclaimer's (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles was by far the most shocking and my initial reaction upon hearing it was to actually want run 1000 miles, in the opposite direction!

Here it is, attached in it's full glory - I included the video which (not so) kindly included the lyrics. Second question: Ok, so they've run out of original ideas for riffs and such, but good lyrics can't be that difficult, right?




*I used the word classics then, but I think I should rephrase that with something more appropriate like 'songs we once liked'

** It was the website owner's personal opinion

*** I stopped listening to contemporary music, and I'm therefore extremely backdated in my knowledge of what's hot and what's not right now.

6 comments:

  1. sorry, I never did like The Proclaimers. How about posting the Wonderwall sample as well? I'd like to listen to that one

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  2. Both those tunes are positively grating...painful to listen to.

    I used to think sampling was just lazy and when done badly it's absolutely toe-curling. I've rather changed my tune. I blogged about it a while ago.

    http://kingofscurf.blogspot.com/2011/07/faster-harder-louder-stronger.html

    An example of good sampling (in my opinion) is Angie Stone's use of an old O'Jays song from the seventies.

    http://youtu.be/9PWz-NubVpM - Angie Stone

    http://youtu.be/Ckxb6Mn-as4 - The O'Jays

    How about this version of Wonderwall? - http://youtu.be/Vy1ueZf1WMQ


    Sorry about the excessive number of links in this comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, I remember that particular blogpost. I'll admit there are good samplings out there, it's probably just my luck that the ones I saw in that website's list irritated me as much as they did.

    As for Wonderwall by Mike Flowers, I just had to laugh. It was different, that much I'd say. A bit like how Duffy's version of Wonderwall is different as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the Wonderwall sample Terra.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ok, at least you're much more open to different types of music than I am :)

    ReplyDelete

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