OK, so everyone has heard the break from the Incredible Bongo Band's version of "Apache." Well, I decided to do a little of the google version of research.

Some local research turned up a used copy of said reissue CD, that I rescued over my lunch hour.

The Mighty (mighty?) NYTimes ran an article a couple of years back when a legit reissue came out of the album, that seemed to be right on the money. (I also borrowed the graphics above from the article.)

I have read that the music was developed for use in the Thing With Two Heads movie, which of course starred Rosie Grier and Ray Milland. I haven't seen the film for many years, but I remember it being quite psychotronic. The 2 tracks that appeared in the film were Bongo Rock and Bongolia

Michael Viner was the man behind the music here and assembled a cast of studio musicians that would make music history and form the basis for many sample based songs in the future.

According to the NY Times article, DJ Kool Herc became aware of the Incredible Bongo Band and their version of Apache in 1972(!)

“I used that record to start what I called the Merry-Go-Round,” he explained in a telephone interview, retelling an oft-told story. “It was the segment where I played all the records I had with beats in them, one by one. I’d use it at the hypest part of the night, between 2:30 and 3 a.m. Everybody loved that part of my format.”

Once Herc collected multiple copies of records, it allowed him to extend the breaks ad infinitum, Apache contained the killer break for this exercise. He started a movement and invented an art form.

The Digging and The Damage Done

Above: The Charles Wright & Watts 103rd St Rythym Band, borrowed from Soul-Sides.

It is an unbelievably nice day here in the Windy City, so I had a earth shattering idea to head out for lunch and I happened upon a relatively new record store. They had the usual hipster nonsense on offer—autographed (by Thurston!) copy of Bad Moon Rising, etc.

I did notice that they had a Cheap Section, which of course drew me in.

After about 20 minutes, I came up with the following:

The Digging…

Bar-Kays Cold Blooded Volt
James Brown Make it Funky Pts 2&3 King
James Brown Super Bad Pts 1,2&3 King
Dennis Coffey Taurus Sussex
Major Lance I’m So Lost Okeh
Lalo Schiffrin Theme From Medical Center/Spill The Wine MGM
Charles Wright Your Love (Means Everything To Me)Warners

And the Damage done…

$2.72 including tax (Chicago tax highest in USA!!!)

Needless to say, maybe there is a copy of Apache in there somewhere, I will be back. I did notice a couple of Buddy Miles LPs, too.

Wrongness involving both Sepultura and The Incredible Bongo Band

Back in the desert days, I used to actually hang out with Sepultura from time to time, or rather they would end up at the house where I used to live.

This video of The Incredible Bongo Band has been "remixed" to Convicted in Life by Sepultura. Spending a few minutes on You Tube brings up all sort of nonsense related to Apache...

Amen Brother

Amen Brother by the Winstons from 1969 is the most sampled 6 seconds in music history according to stuff that I found posted on the internets. A little trolling of the youtube came up with the stuff.



The breakbeat comes in at 1:27 on the file above. It should be familiar to anyone with ears even if you can't place where you last heard it.

A friend from the Bay Area (JZ-the rollercoaster was awesome on Saturday night!) shared this clip with me that tells the story behind Amen Brother.



The presentation above is delivered in a Speak and Spell type mode. So there is entertainment value in that alone.

First the break was used in a straight forward manner like in Straight Out of Compton. Then it was used in the Jungle and Rythm and Bass musical genres used as the complete basis of their sound. They even share a clip of Perry Farrell (yes, him) doing a cover of Whole Lotta Love in a Jungle mode using Amen as the basis of the song.

The example of commercials using the break are pretty funny, especially as they are potentially sourced via bootleg cds. Eventually the presentation makes the point that more stringent copyrights are a bad thing.

How were the Winstons compensated? It appears that they were never paid. Mainly because they never persued a legal battle.

This is one of the reasons to blog...

I wrote a little bit about a Tidal Waves 45 that I found at a record show about 26 months ago (!), and somebody (Anonymous) just commented to fix my wrong info.

Here is my original post:

The Tidal Waves "She Left Me All Alone" HBR 482Here is a moody downbeat number that I have heard on various comp cdrs. I came across it at The Loyola Record Swap. I believe that they later became The Unrelated Segments.The flip is actually a pretty rockin' take on "Farmer John," not one of my favorite compositions.To counter a recent conversation on garagepunk.com, the Garage Punk Forum CDs did nothing for me other than make me want the original vinyl discs even more than I did before. Reissues generally suck sound wise, esp. if they are on CD. The forum CDs have better sound as they are "mastered" from original discs.But to hear a garage punker in its glory requires the original disc in either good or scratchy shape-- hence more digging for discs!

And the new comment:

Nope! The Tidalwaves actually didnt turn into the Unrelated Segments although they were friends.They were made up of brothers Tom and Jon Wearing,Robert Slap,Mark Karpinski,and Vic Witkowski all went to school together in a Detroit suburb.Most stayed in the business and had reasonable success.

The internet does rule for information exchange. Thanks for the correction, Anonymous!

Grandmaster Flash on Fox via THAT REAL SCHITT

Street Hoops with the DJ in NYC

After spending the past couple of days in Gotham, I found myself reading the hard copy of the NY Times a bit more, actually I only read the hard copy when I am physically there.

This article is pretty cool. DJ JU works Best Buy during the day and in the evenings he spends hip hop cds at the street basketball games.

“On a dance floor, if you’re losing the crowd, you have time to change things up,” he said. “But with players on a court, I have to make split-second decisions. You can definitely change the outcome of a game depending on what you decide to play, because the players feed off the music and the crowd. If the music’s not hitting, everyone loses interest and the game might as well be over.”

cool.

Bullitt Chase Scene with GPS

A friend hipped me to this. Totally cool. The chase scene with a side by side GPS map of where the chase ocurred. Great SF period piece, and of course there is the cars...

http://www.seero.com/video/Steve_McQueen_3