Otp:Foley Mystery Disc review
Whatdaumm
works with.
What category could we put FOLEY?
One category is a revisionist of past pop/rock standards and timeless
soul/r&B. On the other hand he reinterpets jazzfusion/be bop standards
Today in the mail I got a curious disc scrawled on the CDR was the title "IN My
life"
Immediately I knew what song was going to be on it
You see FOLEY had been asked to reinterpet the Beatles classic a while back.
Now alot of people are saying "WTF" right now.
And some of the Foley fans hear I would guess are surprised by hearing this
particular song to cover.
If you have "Life without Dat" you would get a feel of what "In my life
"sounds like when you listen to "Eazy Thangs" Thats a exploration of that type
of sound merging with Lennon/Mccartneyism's and the "Smart Alec" concepts
But Foley is a interesting musical character.
Foley reworks In my life melody by flippin the time signature and funkin up the
track with some slappin/stuttering rhythm electric clean guitar/live drums and
funky vocals
This is one of Foley's concept to redo a melody and make it his own.
But who could make the Beatles into something new with just rhythm guitar bass
and drums?
Foley for one...
The demo is raw and funky with these honest soulful vocals penetrating the
track.
Theres a stuttering rhythmic figure repeated in the song that is so funky but
what makes this original is FOLEY decides to combine the Beatles cover and
merge it with a jazz melody fragment of "Sonny Stitt:Eternal Triangle" using a
string arrangement for the middle section. SO he turns the Beatles into a be
bop interlude while mergin the two almost seamlessly.
The other version of "In My life" is acoustic and in a bar captured live and
its reworked differently and very funky and appropriate. Its done on a 12
string. Just 12 string acoustic and vocals by Foley with some funky raw live
stripped down drums.
The other song on this CDR is
FOLEY's version of Mavis Staples/Staple Singers "This world"
which is a funky soulful gospel rendition of her song.
This was performed for Mavis at a tribute in Chicago.
And to show that Mavis knows who Foley is she is heard sayin in the audience
"ALRIGHT FOLEY" after he thanks her for takin care of him one night when he was
in town.
The rest of the tracks are the lp originals "Beatles:In My Life/Sonny
Stitt/Staple Singers to show in contrast how much they differ but how they
capture the essence of the spirit of the song.
Rating: I have to give this a 7.5 The originality and the spirit of these
covers TAKE me there to someplace I have never been before.
And once again Foley proves theres only one FOLEY and there will only be one
FOLEY.
Smart Alec Music class was in session and once again dismissed.
Jeremy Fox
"Whatdaumm" <what...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020627151606...@mb-cb.aol.com...
> Foley is one of those artists you can never tell who IS a admirer and who
he
> works with.
>
> What category could we put FOLEY?
Foley artist?
-Jeremy
Whatdaumm
That would work...