This post was inspired by my cyber-buddy @katharsisdrill 's Wayback Music Challenge post about Hip Hop & the track “Rebel Without a Pause” from 1988.
Back in the day there were occasionally hip hop songs that would capture my attention. It was understandable that the beat, rawness, and brutal honesty of early hip hop connected with the intended audience. Back then I felt like I would have been a poser or pretender if I had immersed myself in it. I would have been forced, because by nature I'm strongly attached to melody and great playing.
Straining to follow shouted words I often didn't relate to, just didn't do it for me -- but I did love the beat. Acid Jazz was more approachable to me, because it tapped into the beat and feel and fused that jazz chops -- and HOW could you NOT like something like RUN-DMC with Aerosmith? That is another powerful fusing of styles.
In terms of message, because I often didn't relate to it, I wasn't motivated to decipher what was being said. With a tip-of-the-hat to the #musicwaybackchallenge I was thinking about some of what I was listening to around this time. So, for example, in 1986, a couple of years before “Rebel Without a Pause” I was listening to an album called Gravity by the Godfather of Soul, Funk, Rap & Hip Hop – maybe the most sampled artist of all time – James Brown.
This was an interesting experiment for James Brown. He recorded this album with Dan Hartman at his studio in New England. Dan Hartman was a producer, board engineer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Fellow music geeks will remember him from the Edgar Winter Group, for whom he wrote and sang the song "Free Ride":
Look close you'll notice his double neck guitar is a bass guitar and a standard guitar
As you can imagine it seemed like an unlikely combination. Dan Hartman co-wrote every song on James Brown's Gravity including this international hit.
WHAT YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW, DAN HARTMAN GOT STEVIE RAY VAUGHN TO PLAY GUITAR ON THIS SONG!
For this post I wanted to focus on a little known song off the Gravity album called “Repeat the Beat” and also called “Faith.”
Repeat the Beat – Faith
This one checked several of the boxes for me: great playing, beat, and uplifting positive lyrics. I couldn't find the lyrics online, so I transcribed them for you – not perfect, but close to the original:
"Repeat the Beat – Faith"
by Dan Hartman & Charlie Midnight
Tighten up now
Repeat the beat, repeat the word
In a hundred years, where will it be? (humanity)
Who's got the answer, who holds the key? (humanity)
?
If you don't have faith, the future is cold
Across the land, across the sea, across the borders
Repeat the beat, repeat the word
Get up on your feet!
Have you heard?
It's one world, one people, one message
Faith
Repeat the beat, repeat the word
Get up on your feet!
Have you heard?
One world, one people, one message
Faith
This ain't no Cadillac romance
No modern dance
We're all here together
Looking for a sign
Could it be in the sky?
Under your feet?
Hold on to yourself while I repeat
Repeat with me
Repeat the beat, repeat the word
Faith
repeat
One world, one people, one message
Seven wonders of the world
This is the eight
With all the set backs along the way
You and I can still have faith
It's the power of the hour
It's a matter of what is right
It is trust, in what is just
It's the real in what you feel
Repeat the beat, repeat the word
Get up on your feet!
Have you heard?
One world, one people, one message
Faith
Believe it
Repeat the beat, repeat the word
Get up on your feet!
Have you heard?
One world, one people, one message
Faith
A short aside:
I interviewed Eliot Lewis link, who played on some of these sessions, although he didn't appear in the credits. At the time he was a young man learning the ropes and doing session work with the highly successful producer Dan Hartman -- so it was a real treat to be able to talk to him about that and much more.
Eliot Lewis is a great guy and a fantastic multi instrumentalist, perhaps best known as the longest-serving member of the highly respected house band on the immensely popular web-series Live from Daryl’s House, which is also broadcast on television on the Palladia Network (owned by MTV.) On the show he generally handles the keyboard and backup vocal duties, but as a solo artist you are likely to find him on lead guitar.
For thirteen years prior to joining the Hall & Oates band he was a member of the legendary Average White Band, playing bass, guitar, keyboards, and singing. Before joining the AWB he was a contract songwriter with Sony and later Warner Brothers. As a young man he learned the ropes and did session work with the highly successful producer
Photo Credit Pixaby.com no attribution required, effects by @roused
The beats underneath a lot of the late eighties hiphop was James Brown recordings, not least the funky drummer break.
There is a rather straight continuity in the beats underneath the music for this reason.
It is a good idea to post about a song actually. You can sketch up some of the context, the influences and trivia concerning the song without having to make a scientific essay. When it comes from people who knows things, such short posts are a really nice read.
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I read that about Funky Drummer. I'll never forget the first time I heard James Brown, I visited relatives who were living on the island of Bermuda, and one afternoon I took a moped and went to the movies in Hamilton. There was a rock & roll concert movie playing, and that was the first time I actually saw James Brown perform.
I was one of the few whites in the theater that afternoon, and the crowd went absolutely crazy. They were screaming just like the audience on the clip! I'm not sure if this was the clip used in the film, but if not, it was very much like this.
I've been a fan every since ;-)
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