THE CHAIN

Leo

Well-known member
I think "fever" would have a good shot at winning a longest-chain, tons of versions out there. unless you searched for standards like "amazing grace" or something.
 

Leo

Well-known member
originals of "Emma" and "super stupid" are also better than the covers.

maybe we can also post covers that are much better than the original.
 

droid

Well-known member
This is one of my favourite riddims, the Tenor saw is magnificently poignant, and there's some other great reggae & dancehall versions as well, but the Techniques cut is eternal - eclipses the original.

1967, elevated to the divine by the Techniques to became the 'Queen Majesty' riddim (not to be confused with the 'Queen and the minstrel' riddim, which is totally different).

 

droid

Well-known member
I think "fever" would have a good shot at winning a longest-chain, tons of versions out there. unless you searched for standards like "amazing grace" or something.

Nah, I can beat that without reaching for the songbooks.
 

Leo

Well-known member
wikipedia lists 29 versions of "fever" (and missing some posted here), won't be that easy to beat.
 

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
all of these songs are just perfect, from it's original 80's synth pop version to annette brissett's reggae cover to jason derulo's maximal rework.



 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Baby Please don't go.

Starts off with the blues

Big Joe Williams
(the fiddle? on this absolutely shreds)


Bit of a guitar lesson from Fred McDowell (his guitar tone gives me flashbacks to Performance)


Then white kids do a pretty good job of impersonating poor black folks - basically the history of 20th century popular music


Was thinking the stropped down repetition on the Fred McDowell version could be tied into Suicide which is a perfect link to....


Produced by drippy popsike mastereo Curt Boteccher turns this into a bad trip nightmare

Hard rock outrage.


And back to the R&B again for an amazing version by Rose Mitchell which I think was unreleased and unknown until Jukebox Jam reissued it a few years ago. I find it incredible that this str8 fire was sat on for so long but that seems to be the case. Perhaps the best version?

 
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droid

Well-known member
wikipedia lists 29 versions of "fever" (and missing some posted here), won't be that easy to beat.

I was unclear there, when I said 'the longest; I meant in terms of timescale. if it was number of versions we could just do 240 cuts of Sleng teng and derivatives, which would be quite boring.
 

Leo

Well-known member
I was unclear there, when I said 'the longest; I meant in terms of timescale. if it was number of versions we could just do 240 cuts of Sleng teng and derivatives, which would be quite boring.

ah, ok. then it's gotta be this, no contest (can't find the "original" on YouTube, though). ;)

 

droid

Well-known member
We start this chain at least as early as the 1830's, when the first known version of this song appears in print as 'My father kept a horse', immortalised with its own Roud Folk Song Index number (850), sometime between 1855-1861 with the first lines 'My father kept a horse and my mother kept a mare'...

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This song is apparently of Gypsy origin, appearing in various folklore collections, one such, from 1904 claiming it as from Britain(England(Lond,South)) but despite being commonly called the 'Irish Familie' it was 'never sung in Ireland', we also get some new lyrics:

"Me father had a horse/And me mother she'd a mare... So we'd a ride from father's horse/And a gallop from mother's mare."... "So the more we have to drink/And the merrier we shall be/For we all do belong/To an Irish family"

Something close to earliest extant melody here, under the name 'Father had a knife', where we hear the lyrics: father had a knife, mother had a fork, sister had the bottle, and brother had the cork


But there are also Scottish (My Faither's Gied's a Horse) and Cornish versions where it became popular as a children's song.


So far, nothing that unusual considering the twisted lineages of most folk music, but it gets interesting with the appearance of a 1920's New York Street Rhyme featuring the lyrics "A Knife and a Fork and a Bottle and a Cork..." which then appears on a 1968 Disney album (6m:59) - this was not an obscure record, it's been copiously sampled.


If you know your reggae, you've probably guessed where this is going. We end up in 1976, with this Dillinger classic:


Digression: The bassline on the above comes from this 1974 tune (H/T to Section 5 for that info)


But anyway, that's how a South of England gypsy song from the early 19th century gradually shifted its lyrics through various interpretations, became a New York street rhyme, was popularised by a Disney album and finally appropriated by a Jamaican deejay in a funk reggae urban drug lament.

To end, 2014: The tune that threw me down the rabbit hole.

 
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droid

Well-known member
A short chain this, but funny.

1976, no need to elaborate.


1981, a couple of post punk covers, the first a sped up cabaret version by the NY no wave band the comatones.


And a second, synth punk version from the same year, from a band that only had one release. Slightly more charming bontempi business here.

 
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