What vocalists would you imagine hot in 69...

[Nick Cope]

Okay, here's a discussion for fun's sake...

Listening to Dross FM in the cab home made me wonder what singers today or not so long ago do you reckon would've been great on some funk tunes way back when...?

I'm thinking Paul Young singing on some raw funk like the Groove Merchant's 'There's Got To Be Someone For Me' - that kind of thing... (I'm sure his voice would break up nicely when pushed by the hard sounds)

let's rap!

[Nick Cope]

Ok, let's not!


daft topic anyway...

[Blighty]

No it's a great topic. Once I get rid of this horrendous hangover and my ability to think returns I may actually be able to contribute something.

[Lord Thames]

I have similar thoughts, but the other way round - I try to imagine decent bands doing modern tunes. I'm afraid I work for a couple of tinpot local outposts of Dross FM, and the only way I can put up with the rubbish they put out is imagining Blue Mink covering Emma Bunton's 'Free Me' or Appleton's 'Don't Worry' - think how good they'd sound with Herbie on bass and Madeleine on vocals! Or is it just me.....?

[formigo]

It's hard to imagine because vocal styles have changed so much.

Hmmm, there were plenty of really bad rock singers on otherwise good tunes in the early seventies (e.g. all of Chase's vocal tunes, Eric Burdon and War etc), wouldn't mind replacing them all with Clay Aiken or something.

Okay, not Clay Aiken but you know.

...

If you put Pharrell on a Curtis Mayfield tune, would anyone notice?

[La-Soul-Fiend]

I bloody would!

But he does have a spanking voice for that kind of thing.

[Rich Hero]

I'll reply to the actual question at a later date but...

Is anyone actually impressed by the hardsell of Emma Bunton's new MOTOWN direction?!?

And, with Jamie Cullum releasing a double A single, including 'Frontin'' will CD diggers of the future be after his muzak cover versions of popular tunes (that and Lemar's 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love&#39 of their parent's day in the same way that... (yes, you see the point)?

[Lord Thames]

Quote[/b] (Rich Hero @ Mar. 07 2004,15:12)]Is anyone actually impressed by the hardsell of Emma Bunton's new MOTOWN direction?!?

Motown? Pah, it's not even Fauxtown!

All Emma Bunton's recent efforts sound like failed submissions for 'A Song For Europe' from about 1972.

Having said that, a certain Nick Ingman is responsible for the arrangements......

[wooly]

Quote[/b] (Lord Thames @ Mar. 07 2004,17:28)]Motown? Pah, it's not even Fauxtown!

All Emma Bunton's recent efforts sound like failed submissions for 'A Song For Europe' from about 1972.

apparently she's one hell of a tap-dancer though. surely that's worth something.

[Rich Hero]

Quote[/b] (Lord Thames @ Mar. 07 2004,17:28)]

Quote[/b] (Rich Hero @ Mar. 07 2004,15:12)]Is anyone actually impressed by the hardsell of Emma Bunton's new MOTOWN direction?!?

Motown? Pah, it's not even Fauxtown!

All Emma Bunton's recent efforts sound like failed submissions for 'A Song For Europe' from about 1972.

Having said that, a certain Nick Ingman is responsible for the arrangements......

Tee hee! It bugged me too that she's started using a megaphone (well, all but) to tell all about her newfound lifelong influence in every interview she's done recently. I think I even witnessed her visiting the studios and speaking to Martha Reeves...

 

But, to answer Nick's original question. Elkie Brooks doing some proper sister funk would be a treat. As would Sam Browne. And Terence Trent D'Arby too (not the sister bit). I've been struggling to come up with any contemporary artists I'd like to hear try and get funky though. Maybe Anastacia? But Joss Stone has got a fantastic voice from the little I've heard.

[Rich Hero]

And Pharrell? Well maybe if he sang something with the weight of Curtis' subject matter we could tell if he really has soul...

[Benicio Del Toffo]

Sorry, I completely misread the title of this thread as 'What vocalists would you imagine hot in A 69'!

Been sat here ages imagining Britney and Natalie Imbruglia locked in a gymnastic position, eating each other.

Goatboooooooooooy!!!!


Benicio

PS As a REAL suggestion. How about JayKay trying to do some of Stevie Wonder's back catalogue of the period? What? He already made a career of that? Blimey. Oh well, Joss Stone doing Season of the Witch or something.

[Si Cheeba]

Quote[/b] (Rich Hero @ Mar. 08 2004,11:46)]

Quote[/b] (Lord Thames @ Mar. 07 2004,17:28)]

Quote[/b] (Rich Hero @ Mar. 07 2004,15:12)]Is anyone actually impressed by the hardsell of Emma Bunton's new MOTOWN direction?!?

Motown? Pah, it's not even Fauxtown!

All Emma Bunton's recent efforts sound like failed submissions for 'A Song For Europe' from about 1972.

Having said that, a certain Nick Ingman is responsible for the arrangements......

Tee hee! It bugged me too that she's started using a megaphone (well, all but) to tell all about her newfound lifelong influence in every interview she's done recently. I think I even witnessed her visiting the studios and speaking to Martha Reeves...

 

But, to answer Nick's original question. Elkie Brooks doing some proper sister funk would be a treat. As would Sam Browne. And Terence Trent D'Arby too (not the sister bit). I've been struggling to come up with any contemporary artists I'd like to hear try and get funky though. Maybe Anastacia? But Joss Stone has got a fantastic voice from the little I've heard.

I heard an interview on Five Live the other day with her and they played a track off her forthcoming LP...and it was an over produced radio-friendly cover of the old brazilian jazz dance classic "Crickets Sing for Anna Maria"

- WTF ??

This was bad enough but the interviewer then asked her about the song and her new "retro" influences which apparently she is reeeeallly into y'know - but she didn't have a clue who had done the original

"Oh I think it must have been Astrud Gilberto..."




Someone actually emailed in and corrected her on air - so at least Marcos Valle got a mention in the end!


...Posh Spice is now recording "Sombre Guitar"....perhaps???

But to turn the original question on it's head a bit, the new Sharon Jones / Greyboy/Quantic/Paul Nice collaboration is effing great. A proper funk singer over hip-hop beats !

Why has this NOT been done more?...not quite the same but a similar idea was that Etta James / Def Jef track from yonks ago. Mo' of it - is what I say !

[Belson]

Quote[/b] (Si Cheeba @ Mar. 08 2004,12:25)]But to turn the original question on it's head a bit, the new Sharon Jones / Greyboy/Quantic/Paul Nice collaboration is effing great.  A proper funk singer over hip-hop beats !

Why has this NOT been done more?...not quite the same but a similar idea was that Etta James / Def Jef track from yonks ago.  Mo' of it - is what I say !

I've got my suspicions - and it usually revolves around the vocalist. When you're making a more hiphop production for the backing track, it asks an awful lot of creativity from the vocalist to deliver the goods. You need someone of Sharons class to pull it off - I've heard a few attempts in my time (and a couple by me which will foreve remain on DAT ie not good enough), and it can full flat on its face without the performance.

I liked the 12", but was disappointed by the resultant production. Hardly sounds as if Quantic got involved with the end sound which comes off very Greyboy ie Acid Jazz. Everything all prim and proper. A record like that should have been overdriven to billy-o. Instead, it's all abit AJ with Greyboys cuts a tad haphazard.

Still it's in the box - just stopped a good record being fucking great - thass' all.

[wayne]

Wow. Good question, and too many to mention. But definitely:

Kate Rusby working with Joe Boyd circa '69 - fantastic folk voice, but stone-dead coffee table production on too much of her recorded output. And I'd like to hear Kristin Hersh with a Joe Boyd/Robert Kirby type set-up, too...

Most current African singers: Oumou Sangare with an early 70s Nigerian band? Salif Keita (imagine the mid-80s 'Soro' as it might've sounded with prime Africa 70 instead of Ibrahim Sylla's synths...). Youssou N'Dour...

Almost all 80s soul/funk (sorry, Ed & ladyboygrimsby). Good voices, good songs sometimes, but bloody awful DX7, tinny drums and crappy fake synthesiser horn sections, unless they're real horns that just sound like shit. Ugh.

And Kylie or Britney with Serge Gainsbourg circa 'Melody Nelson'. If they want to play the Bardot/perve-pop card, they might as well go the full Jane Birkin. And I'm guessing Serge would've been up for it...

Amy Winehouse, too: massive potential if she can get the right producer involved and cut loose a bit more. Like to hear her with a Charles Stepney funky orchestral type set up...

Joss Stone, too: great voice, but am I the only who finds her deployment of it just too studied & mannered? When she taps into some rawer feeling, though, I'd like to hear it. Until then, too much like the early 'white soul' hype over Simply Red for comfort...does anybody else remember when 'Money's Too Tight To Mention' actually sounded like a decent track?

As Father Dougal McGuire might say, 'Careful, now...'