Eddie Johns – “More Spell On You”

Daft Punk- “One More Time”

How it was done!:

Certain clips from Eddie Johns’, “More Spell On You” were cut out and reconstructed to make whole new clips for Daft Punk’s, “One More Time”. Certain beats are repeated over and over again to stretch out the length of a clip. Other beats overlap each other while other portions of the song are put in between loops, to create breaks for the smaller clips. In sections of the song, small clips are inserted into the breaks and repeated several times. It is just the matter of cutting up portions on the song, reconstructing them to create a new song.

I do not know why Daft Punk sampled “More Spell On You”, according to the Brian Sredd’s video, they denied ever sampling this song, probably for various reasons. If this is true, Daft Punk could have sampled this song because it has excellent disco-esque dance beats and instrumentations. I tend to hear a lot of funk and disco beats in many of their songs and this adds to the “sound” they are known for.

The music video I choose is Sean Lennon’s Dead Meat. It starts of with him trying to write a song but gets distracted by a movie on T.V. Sean imagines himself as the main character of the movie that takes place in early 19th century. He is riding his horse down a hill and crosses path with an ex girlfriend and another guy and follows them into a out gathering. Sean sees his ex and “new guy seated at a table where there is a poker game going on. He walks to ward the table and his ex notices him so he decides to joins in the game of poker. During the game another guy, who is a part of the opposite team comes out of nowhere and attacks Sean. A sword fight breaks out between “new guy” Sean. They start fight though out the salon and eventually head up to a large area where a crowd gathers alone with the ex girlfriend. The fight comes to climax and Sean wears down, the man stabs him in the chest then he falls to the floor. Another girl runs up to Sean him as he drops to the floor injured. The girlfriend comforts him and holds him as he nods of into death.

The important of the video deals with the tragedy that comes along with love. Some people are willing to go as far as fight for their love. In the passion of it all, they become irrational and do what it takes to win their love back. In this video, the outcome is not a good one, and the character winds up losing both the one he loves and his life. This video does a good job with turning this situation than many can relate to, and turn it into a visual story of tragedy.

Lyrics are the component of a song, which stirs up emotion in the music as a whole. Not all lyrics to music have to have significance, but in this instance, the sonic elements play a larger part of the music. I prefer music to evoke emotions that people feel when they hear the voice, lyrics and all sonic elements of a song. This emotion could be positive or negative, but for a particular purpose. I do not get this, when I listen to Britney Spears’ “Piece of Me.”
I am not afraid to say that this song is what I consider as “bad” music, not because she’s the queen of tabloids or for the fact that I don’t particularly listen to this genre of music. She shows no expression when she sings this song, even when it is dealing with her own sensitive issues. When Michael Jackson recorded “Leave Me Alone” he had put so much feeling when he performed that song that you could feel his frustration and the story hind it.
Taking the fact that she could have taken this opportunity to write about her personal experience could have gave her some resignation from me. For a group of professional writers to take Spears’ personal crisis and turn it into mechanism for selling a single, is pretty ridiculous and almost embarrassing.

Life During Wartime
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons, packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway, a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance, I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstore, lived in the ghetto, I’ve lived all over this town
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain’t got time for that now
Transmit the message, to the receiver, hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas, you don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading, everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime, I might not ever get home
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no mudd club, or C. B. G. B.,
I ain’t got time for that now
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit? Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peant butter, to last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no heaphones,
ain’t got no records to play
Why stay in college? Why go to night school? Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard, I can’t write nothing at all
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
this ain’t no fooling around
I’d like to kiss you, I’d love you hold you
I ain’t got no time for that now
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock, we blended with the crowd
We got computer, we’re tapping phone lines, I know that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives, or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now, I don’t know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender, we make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving, you ought to get some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions, then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day, whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks? They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace, the burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness, don’t want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don’t take no chances, you better watch what you say
-Talking Heads

The message that I convey from this song is war and getting use to living in the war zone: the gunfire and death everywhere as in the lyrics: “Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons, packed up and ready to go, heard of some gravesites, out by the highway, a place where nobody knows, the sound of gunfire, off in the distance, I’m getting used to it know”.  The idea of living through it for so long it becomes a part of your everyday life. He states “ this ain’t no party, this aint no disco, this ain’t not fooling around” could be referencing to how is one to feel free and party and not take things seriously then war is going on.  Hiding out so no one will get you, and protecting yourself from the war zone around you. War puts you on edge and can but you in the state of paranoia, as if someone coming after you and controlling you. Hearing about what is going on about the war being on edge and putting you in a mood to think that thinking about the future is almost pointless as mentioned in the lyrics: “Why stay in college? Why go to night school? Gonna be different this time”. All this things that mattered before seem so insignificant because bigger things are happening in the world that it makes you uneasy. Having to blend in to society so that you won’t stand out: your ideas, thought, beliefs can because they can get you in trouble or possibly killed “We dress like students, we dress like housewives, or in a suit and a tie”.

I tuned in to 88.7WLUW on Saturday, May 3 around 6:45 P.M. The three set of songs and artists I recall: Hot Rod, from Prodigy, Army of Me by Bjork, Paper Planes by M.I.A, and Super Sonic by Basement Jaxx. The D.J. played the set straight through without any interruption. Another thing that I have noticed is that they don’t play the same song every 15 minutes throughout the day like most corporate radio stations. The D.J. also seems to have more freedom to choose what they play without being contracted to play selected songs. The blend of music through sets reminds me of someone’s personal playlist. On independent radio there seems to be a focus on music more that personalities on the radio or marketing of products or services. During the time I was tuned into 88.7 the only time the DJ spoke was after the set of four songs and the only thing that he said was the name of the artist and the songs that he played. The selection of songs seemed to be random with no theme in mind. I sometimes listen to independent radio because you get to hear more independent artists and I enjoyed discovering new artist. You get an overall calm and peace and not all this loud mesh of commercials. You get a raw and natural feel of the music and the DJ. When listening to independent radio its less about the money because corporate radio is primarily based on marketing music for record sales for popularity. This is something I did not think about until I took marketing classes and learned about the tricks of the trade. The pervious day Friday May 2, around 10:00 A.M. they people at worked tuned into 103.5 Kiss FM like they always do every morning to hear radio personality, Drex in the morning. At 10:00 they were playing an Hour of Madonna to promote her new album Hard Candy. The songs that were played were a lot of her 80’s songs such as Like a Virgin and every so often they would throw in one song on from her new album, 4 minutes. That song was played al least three times in one hour and by the end of the day that song was stuck in my head (I guess their job was done here). The whole reason for this promotion was to get people to remember Madonna and know that she is releasing her new album so you can go out and buy it or download it. Commercials on this corporate station mostly consist of selling augmentation of some sort or promotion of a concert event or nightclub. On corporate radio station everything is premeditated and set up in a certain way to target a certain audience, play certain songs so that certain people can like them.

The Stooges

Emilie Simon

The original song was created by The Stooges. “I Wanna Be Your Dog” starts off with guitar solo and builds up verse of the song. The original is developed with the guitar, bass and drums. There is lots of raw guitar distortion and the song is sung in a more aggressive tone.

Emilie Simon’s version is more melodic and starts off softer then its gets harder which is contradictory to The Stooges version. The sound is more electronic, there is still the guitar, drum and bass the overall tone is softer and choir like sounds in the background. Occasionally she adds distortion on her voice along with background sounds which add additional layers to the sound.

The Original version is more authentic to what the lyrics of the song were trying to describe. Iggy pop projected what he felt in the sound of the music to back up the true emotion of the song. I am not entirely sure what the song is about but I am only taking guess that it is referring his longing for someone and surrendering to them. This version is authentic when it comes to the true emotion of the song. I enjoy both versions very much but would listen to them on different occasions.

I Also posted live versions of the songs performed by The Stooges as well as Emilie Simon!

Image taken from bebo.com

I choose to research RCA Records which is a unit of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. According to hoovers.com RCA produces CDs for its artists and and distributes other media formats such as streaming videos and digital downloads. Clive Davis operates the leadership of RCA and and help launch the careers of Janis Joplin and Whitney Huston. RCA began in 1929 when The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) acquired Victor Talking Machine Company to from record playing and manufacturer RCA Victor. RCA Victor gained popularity from sining jazz artists such as Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller and later introduces 45-rpm. In 1955 RCA Victor signed on Elvis Presley at the peak of rock and roll. RCA formed a joint venture with German music distributer Ariola, a Bertelmann subsidiary. In 1986 General Electric acquired RCA and sold its music venture to Bertelsmann, which operates its the BMG Entertainment banner. In 2004 BMG merged with Sony Music Entertainment. (Hoovers.com)

Sony Corporation holdings include Film, Television, Music, Electronics.

Film includes:Sony Picture Entertainment, Columbia Tristar, Sony Picture Classics and Screen Gems. (sonypictures.net)

Television includes: Sony Picture Television AXN, Animax Japan. Soap City, Game Show Network( with 50% Liberty Media) and Movelink.

Electronics: Sony Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment America, PlayStation, 989 Sport, Sony Content Inc., and Metreon. (sony.net)

Chrstypr

Establishment

Émilie Simon, the daughter of a sound engineer, grew up in Montpellier, France. She studied lyric singing at a Conservatoire for seven years before studying ancient music at the Sorbonne and later electronic music at the IRCAM; she tried her hand at jazz and rock until finally turning herself towards electronic music. She concluded her advanced studies, obtaining her DEA in contemporary music.

Émilie Simon is a multidisciplinary artist; writing, composing and singing in all of her albums. She is also familiar with recording equipment, often adding her personal touch into arrangements and production. She programs and edits the sound effects in most of her songs. The now soon to be married artist kept her engagement to John Santiago a secret as recently unveiled this August 2007. Emilie Simon continues to expand her fame throughout the nation. (Wikipedia.com)