Songs
A Peace of Light, The Day, and Right On by The Roots
Back story
The Roots are a Philadelphia-based hip-hop group known as one of the best live bands performing today. They are currently the house band for the Jimmy Fallon Show, and somehow managed to find time to record and release a new album, How I Got Over. It is filled with live instrumentation and varied guests, anchored by ?uestlove’s drumming and Black Thought’s spot-on MC work. It’s an album whose message and vibe is perfect for these tough economic times. A New York Times review described it as “a serious deliberation on perseverance: a message for an era of recession.” Anyone thinking that hip-hop is dead and gone should give this a listen.
Why these songs
I was intrigued that the Roots employed several indie-rock acts on their newest release, so I decided to highlight three songs instead of just one, all featuring female singers. These songs aren’t necessarily representative of the album, but are wonderful nonetheless, especially enjoyed back to back.
A Peace of Light is a gentle introduction, featuring the beautifully eery, tight vocals of the Dirty Projectors. ?uestlove’s arrangement is top-notch.
The Day takes us into a familiar behind-the-beat Roots groove, featuring the Icelandic singer Patty Crash. Guest MCs Blu and Phonte add weight to a song about simply making it through, well…the day.
Right On features an irresistible hook sampled from from the alt-indie singer-songwriter/harpist Joanna Newsom. Not to mention the best groove on the album. Guest MC STS trades verses with Black Thought in 3 and a half minutes of soul, hip-hop, and pop perfection.
Check it out
Buy it
Amazon
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010
Song
Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega
Back story
Suzanne Vega is a New York-based singer-songwriter whose plaintive vocals and folksy arrangements have made her a staple of the liberal arts college crowd for much of the 80’s and 90’s, her most prolific period. She is often compared to Leonard Cohen, as both use poetic metaphor and spoken-word phrasing to explore themes of love and loss.
Why this song
The recent funky live performance with the Roots (see below) re-sparked my interest in Tom’s Diner. When Suzanne Vega wrote the song in the early 80’s, she envisioned it for piano and voice, but since she didn’t play piano, she decided to sing unaccompanied. She opened concerts with the song to channel her energy and to encourage the audience to settle down, and claims it has never failed her. An interesting side note is that the original a cappella recording was used a reference track for those developing the MP3 file format. Apparently the warmth of her unprocessed voice was very difficult to preserve during MP3 compression, so the algorithm was fine-tuned until this song sounded acceptable. Thus Suzanne Vega is sometimes called “The Mother of the MP3.”
More info
Suzanne talks about the song
Wikipedia
Check it out
This is the web-only video recently recorded with the Roots for the Jimmy Fallon Show. That’s right, Suzanne Vega and the Roots! She was on the show to play an acoustic version of a song from her new record, and graciously agreed to perform this song with the Roots during a sound-check.
This is the original a cappella version. Also available on her Solitude Standing album.
Finally, this is the remixed version by DNA that made the song famous. Suzanne liked this remix (done without her permission) so much that she allowed it to be officially released by her label.
Buy it
Amazon
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010
Follow me on Twitter 
Recent Comments