Remakes - (wuz - RE: [thechat] Flashthread! - what are you listening to RIGHT NOW!)

Martin martin at members.evolt.org
Fri Oct 26 16:54:05 CDT 2001


Luther, Ron wrote on 26/10/01 10:40 pm

>However ... (I just had a 'DOH!' style forehead slapping moment here)
>... we kinda missed genre remakes.  e.g. Just about every Blues great
>ever has remade one or more of the "classics" ... Dust My Broom,
>CrossCut Saw, etc. ... and a whole bunch of those are pretty dang good,
>IMO!
>
>[I presume, (although my personal knowledge is limited), that the same
>occurs in Gospel, Bluegrass, 'Folk', and some other areas.]

Pretty much all of those traditions (and 'tradition' is a key word)
have an orally transmitted repartoire, which the aspiring young
artiste will learn and master before they really start on their
own stuff. That way, they learn the vocabulary of their genre before
they try to speak it.

And it's the same in rock'n'roll - everyone starts playing
stuff like Hound Dog, House of the Rising Sun and Stairway.
Ask anyone who's worked in a music shop.

Can't remember where I read this: "Every true genius is a child
of tradition and a rebel against it"

>Then again - is it really "fair" to say a vocalist has done a 'remake'
>when they make no pretense at composing?   [I'd kinda hate to call Kiri
>te Kanawa, Beverly Sills, or Ella Fitzgerald a 'remake artist'.]

No different from anyone singing other people's songs - you
always interpret, even if it's to reproduce the performing practise
of a bygone age (re: The Academy of Ancient Music).

Note that even some 'original artists' like Tina Turner
sung songs which were written (Private Dancer was written
by Mark Knopfler) or profoundly influenced (River Deep Mountain
High is the Quincy Jones (I think - can't remember rn) Wall of
Sound through and through) by others.

Even the Beatles (who probably were the most powerful influence
in the 'it has to be originally written by the artiste' fetish) would
have been very, very much impoverished without George Martin.

Cheers
Martin
(the former semi-pro folk singer)

_______________________________________________
email: martin at easyweb.co.uk             PGP ID: 0xA835CCCB
       martin at members.evolt.org      snailmail: 30 Shandon Place
  tel: +44 (0)774 063 9985                      Edinburgh,
  url: http://www.easyweb.co.uk                 Scotland





More information about the thechat mailing list