the past is another country
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
The oral tradition may not be dead, but it's been buried in an academic journal. Nonetheless, as all-around smart guy Ray Davis noted in an email to me, if you squint right, the answer song looks like the latest -- possibly the last -- in a long line of forms taken by the oral tradition ancestors. Certainly Kool Herc, when he brought breakbeats and toasting to New York's black music scene, wasn't thinking about the praise songs of the West African griot. But I'm hardly the first to think that rap battles bear a significant resemblance to signifying or playing the dozens. But it's not surprising; what else is communication for, if not for talking trash about your enemies, bragging about your sexual prowess, and giving shoutouts to your friends? It probably dates back to Neanderthal days.
10:57 pm 
Thursday, May 1, 2003
The answer song is not a parody. Weird Al Yankovic writes those for a living. Some people see parody songs as the best way to spread the Word (that last is via Waxy and Defective Yeti), but mostly they just are or are not amusing the first time you hear them. For a Canadian 7", Billy Childish did a brilliant sendup of the unmistakable Kingsmen recording of "Louie Louie" with the tune he wrote for the Headcoats, "Louis Riel" ("The Metis and the Cree did agree to live on the plains peacefully / At the battle of Batoche, the dream was lost / And with their lives they paid the cost / Louis Riel, oh man, you're gonna hang / Hey-ah, hey-ah"), which would, in a better world, win him some kind of award, but the parody song is, for the most part, fodder for Dr. Demento. (more...)
10:47 pm
