The Only Way I Can Listen to Adele
Bring me out the elevator and smack me with some soul
This won’t win me any friends.
And I’m okay with that.
Recently, I lambasted the Stones & the Beatles for being influenced by and shaping their careers around Black blues and R&B artists. Now, I’m about to hit you with what some might consider a double standard.
And I’m okay with that.
Anything You Can Do…
Black folk, talk to me.
How many of you grew up listening to the Isley Brothers? By show of ‘Recommends’ (that lil heart down there). How long was it before you knew that “Summer Breeze” (72) was a Seals & Crofts song? What about “Hello, It’s Me?” Did you even care that those were someone else’s songs?
I certainly didn’t. Scroll through the Isley’s catalog and you will see that they are, by far, the greatest cover band ever — with dozens of remakes under their belts.
I remember watching the NAACP awards some eons ago and Luther Vandross was murdering “A House is Not a Home.” The director kept cutting to Ms. Solid Gold, Dionne Warwick…and I’m gonna tell you, I had no idea why until…ten minutes ago. As you musically astute people know, she sang the original version, surely closer to how Burt Bacharach had intended. But once Luther came and put his Mumbo sauce on it, the song was forever hijacked into the Black canon.
The cover song is as old and common as recorded music, hell, even before that but, as I’ve stated, I grew up in a Black world. So while the Bee Gee’s version of “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” may have been popular, played a lot, whatever, all I know is the Al Green version. Black folk get a hold of a song and put that Soul…that Stank…that Funk on it, forever altering, stretching it out, so it can never go back to it’s original form.
What We Do in Chocolate City
If you know Hip-Hop, and you know Breaks, that “Jack The Ripper,” “Run’s House,” “Paid in Full” Break is familiar to you. If you know Go-Go, you know that 1974 song was recorded by the man who would become known as the Godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown.
I started you at that point for one reason — the common criticism hurled at Go-Go is that it’s not original. Surely stoked by the Washington Post reporter, Chris Richards, even Go-Go artists would aim that same critique at the scene and use it as a reason for why the sound never “gets out” of the Nation’s capital.
But Chuck Brown — like the musicians that followed in his model — was an accomplished musician. That 1974 song, eluded to above, fits right into the maxim of mid-70s Soul/Fusion; the mine that Hip-Hop has dug from for over 40 plus years. Here’s the difference between Hip-Hop and Go-Go…(and we’ll have an entire series on Go-Go, that I can promise you) — Go-Go was and continues to be a music best EXPERIENCED live. Rarely has it translated over into recorded hits. “Bustin’ Loose,” later on “Da Butt”….the end.
There was a dark period where the industry swooped down on Washington D.C. combing Black Washington looking for any band they could find. Luckily, that never took hold or what happened to (the music dubbed as) Grunge could have happened to Go-Go. The execs failed and moved on, leaving white media believing Go-Go was dead.
Go-Go, however, is to Black D.C. what Second line, Jazz, and the Band culture is to New Orleans, it’s intrinsic. What people often overlook is in order to play Go-Go, you have to know how to play an instrument. The DMV is one of the last places where growing up and playing an instrument is cool. Most Go-Go bands, like bands all over the world, be it Rock, Country, you name it, play covers. I grew up knowing Eddie Jefferson songs like, “Moody’s Mood For Love,” as Chuck Brown songs. Even P-Funk songs, as I mentioned in “Beatles…Stones — Eat Crow” were more familiar to me as Go-Go tunes. That’s what the scene does.
Anyone visiting the DMV will tell you, if you turn on the radio, you’re bound to hear a DJ Flexx spin on a familiar song. We turn all things Go-Go. Hell, even a song, like Jill Scott’s “It’s Love,” which already sounds like it came out of Southeast, gets a Go-Go accent.
I had heard the BYB version of “Hello,” a while back, nodded to it. That was it. Again, if you’re familiar with the scene, this is normal. Then, I looked online and saw…oh…this is a thing.
That Adele song was inescapable. People were playing it everywhere; crying and shit. It was amazing. But I had that same George Clinton feel, “it was cool.” I just never been a fan of elevator music. I’ll take Boyz to Men, “Uhh Ahh” over “End of The Road” any day. “Banging The Headboard” over “I Believe I Can Fly.” So it’s not even a Black/White thing as you trolls are want to say — it’s a I-Need-My-Shit-Funky thing. And that’s what the BYB version provides.
Tiffany “Sweet Thang” Monroe turns that Adele saccharine into pure brown sugar with her rendition of “Hello.” The song clocks in at 7:47, again, something common to the music. One may be able to think, “oh ok,” while the first verse is being sung, but once the hook comes…yeah, that’s when you realize…oh ok, this is funky (something Adele will never be accused of). Look out for that pocket three minutes in.
I’ve heard every Adele song, listened to every album, but if I could have every song she has created delivered through the voice of Sweet Thang with BYB, I would never listen to Adele again.
And I would be okay with that.
I’m not going to sit here and describe what you can listen to. So with no further adieu.
