BS&T

On my year-end post, I raved about War Photographer which I gave kudos for sampling Blood, Sweat & Tears' Spinning Wheel near the end. "But what of the rest of this awesome song," said I, "from whence come those killer samples?"

REPOST: Jason Forrest - War Photographer
Watch the Music Video.

Well, as it turns out it's made up of THREE Blood, Sweat & Tears tunes-- so read the liner notes. So I dutifully borrowed a Best of BS&T album from work and scoured for said samples.

Go Down Gamblin'
The bulk of War Photographer is derived from this raucous (or rock-ous, if you'd like) number with some sweet horn arrangements. Give it up for the horns!

Lucretia Mac Evil
Besides Spinning Wheel and Go Down Gamblin', I'm not sure what the third song was, but I was surprised when perusing the album to also recognize this BS&T song as the source of another sample used by the Mint Royale(!), the British electronica duo: Mint Royale - Kenny's Last Dance

Jack Jones - Spinning Wheel
I found this BS&T cover on the compilation album Live From Las Vegas, which also features some pretty awesome performances of Sammy Davis Jr. on The Lady is a Tramp and Tom Jones on Hard to Handle.

Bond addendum

How apropos... was at work and saw the Music from Frasier album with this:

track #14: Frasier - "Goldfinger"

Cute. Though I have to admit I've never seen even 30 seconds of the show.

Shaken 'n Stirred

Ah, the new face of Bond. I'm not sure what to think yet... I'll give Daniel Craig the benefit of the doubt until I at least see a trailer. I think it's good that the producers seem to be taking a back-to-basics Batman Begins-type approach to Casino Royale, although I think hiring Quentin Tarantino (who claims adapting Casino Royale was his bright idea) would have given a much needed shot in the arm to the franchise. I've been less than impressed with the last few Bond films and in my humble opinion, Pierce Brosnan has the odd distinction of being the best Bond since Connery in some of the least memorable Bond films (excluding Goldeneye, which is the only Brosnan one I truly liked).

I like the idea with the Mission: Impossible series of handing over the reins to a different high-profile director each time... just to see what happens. Brian De Palma with the first one, John Woo with MI:2, and now J.J. Abrams for (as one clever bloke put it) M:I:III. At one point, David Fincher was even set to direct (that would've been killer!), which would have been way more enticing than the ol' crazy Tom Cruise show. After seeing the trailer, that one's questionable as well -- bonus points for evil Philip Seymour Hoffman though.

So anyway, the overly simple answer to last week's Cover Riddle #3 was indeed Bond... James Bond. All of the covering artists performed Bond theme songs:
-Duran Duran [A View to a Kill]
-Nancy Sinatra [You Only Live Twice]
-Garbage [The World is Not Enough]
-Shirley Bassey [Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker]
-the one-two combo of Tom Jones [Thunderball] & Tina Turner [Goldeneye]
-Sheryl Crow [Tomorrow Never Dies].

'Twas all a not-so clever ruse to post some Bond song covers, so here we go:

Parodi & Fair - James Bond Theme [originally by The Monty Norman Orchestra]
When Bond made his post-80s comeback with the newly licensed Brosnan as 007, this is the version of the theme song that accompanied the Goldeneye trailer.

Moby - James Bond Theme

Kingpins - Thunderball

Björk - You Only Live Twice

Nobody Does it Better [originally by Carly Simon]
from The Spy Who Loved Me
8mm
Aimee Mann

We Have All the Time in the World [originally by Louis Armstrong]
from On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Iggy Pop
The Fun Lovin' Criminals

A pretty good lounge cover of Diamonds Are Forever performed by Project: Pimento can be found at their website here.

Cover Riddle #3

Hi ya. Long time, no post.


I've been meaning to do more of these "cover riddle" things, although #2 in the series was back in early November (see #1 here). Oh well, upwards and onwards, as they say... to Number 3. Riddle me this: what is the common thread running through these tunes? I'm looking for something very specific here.

Duran Duran - Thank You [originally by Led Zeppelin]
Nancy Sinatra - Day Tripper [originally by the Beatles]
Garbage - Wild Horses [originally by the Rolling Stones]
Shirley Bassey - Light My Fire [originally by the Doors]
Tom Jones & Tina Turner - Hot Legs [originally by Rod Stewart]
Sheryl Crow - Mother Nature's Son [originally by the Beatles]

Answer in the form of covers next week. Good luck.