David and Elson,
Well, I see both your points. I understand that 'Les Fleurs' doesn´t go as far as 4 Hero's version of 'I am the black gold of the sun'. And I can see where one is different from the other. I agree with Elson when he says that he liked «the 4Hero cover *because* they gave you the flavor of the original, then took it to drum n bass mode...» That´s what happened when I heard it for the first time, the surprise of the transition from the 'original' to the 'drum & bass' version, as if the song had always meant to be this way when Rotary Connection first did it.
In comes 'Les Fleurs'. Why did they bother if they aren´t adding to the original version, you ask? That's a valid opinion. I, on the other hand, think of it, as Aaron Shinn so well put it, as a homage to the voice of Minnie Riperton and the genius of Charles Stepney. Maybe they are just letting their listeners search for the roots, creating patterns, «connecting the dots» for those who never heard of Minnie Riperton, Charles Stepney, Roy Ayers, Terry Callier (how I wish every album had these names on the credits :) ). And maybe let everybody know that the tracks that these artists did where far ahead of their time. That there is no gap between the tracks they did in the 60s and 70s and the tracks we hear today from artists such as 4 Hero. Maybe that´s why Minnie Riperton's 'Les Fleurs' and 4Hero's 'Les Fleurs' sound basically the same. Maybe that´s what it's all about. But I'm not Dego to tell you that's the way it is. :) So, this is MHO.
Cheers,
DubTurn
----- Original Message -----
From: David Bassin
To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 10:37 PM
Subject: Re: 4Hero's 'Les Fleur'
At 08:51 PM 12/12/01 +0000, you wrote:
Let´s put this into perspective. If, because of 4 Hero´s version of 'Le Fleurs', someone discovered the wonderful world of Minnie Riperton and goes out and searches for 'Come to my garden' and in the way finds Charles Stepney and, why not, the Rotary Connection, 4 Hero have done their job at connecting the dots.
agreed....anything that leads to discovery is worthwhile....especially Rotary Connection!
As for the track, I think that 4 Hero intentionally didn´t try and go further with the remix (because that´s what it is, a remix, not a whole new song). And, although some of you may feel a bit disappointed for not hearing something new done with 'Les Fleurs', the way 4 Hero treated Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney´s song is, IMHO, the way any musician should treat a classic. They didn´t disrespect it.
you're right, they didn't dis it...however, IMHO, my general philosophy regarding remakes is, if you can't do something that either improves on the original or do a radical interpretation that takes it in another direction, then why bother? A similar example would be Gus Van Zant's remake of Hitchcock's "Psycho." It was a novel idea to mimic the original shot for shot, but in the end, it just made you appreciate Hitchcock's vision all that much more.
DB
----- Original Message -----
From: Elson Trinidad
To: DubTurn ; Acid Jazz Mailing List
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 9:57 PM
Subject: Re: 4Hero's 'Les Fleur'
At 08:51 PM 12/12/01 +0000, DubTurn wrote:
the way 4 Hero treated Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney´s song is, IMHO, the way any musician should treat a classic. They didn´t disrespect it.
Then why touch it in the first place?
- 30 -
: . elson trinidad, los angeles, california, usa
: . elson@westworld.com : www.westworld.com/~elson
: . groove to the futurethnic beats of e:trinity at www.e-trinity.org and www.mp3.com/etrinity
UNIVERSAL TRUTH #107317: If a band has the word "soul" in their name, chances are they do NOT play soul music.
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