Friday, September 12, 2008

Johnny Cash Remixed

I read an academic paper once that argued that hip-hop sampling was just a natural technological continuation of the practice of quotation in jazz and the blues.* The implicit corollary was that jazz, the blues, and other primarily African American musical forms were natural and inherently appropriate sources for quotation by sampling. Johnny Cash Remixed seeks to see how well country music, a music usually considered outside the African American vernacular music tradition, fares when quoted and reinterpreted in the hip hop vernacular.

There’s a fair amount of general skepticism in country and roots music circles about the potential of this sort of remixing and of this records in particular.

It would be hard to call this record a success, in spite of a few stand out tracks, but I think its failures can show us some of the dangers that must be dealt with when remixing music history.

The most mediocre tracks on the album, such as Count De Money’s “Big River,” suffer from a lack of imagination; they merely add a beefed up, somewhat-electrified rhythmic base or filter the original vocal or instrumental track through echo or distortion digital effects. These tracks fail by being too faithful to the original, refusing to add anything interesting out of fear of overshadowing it.

At the other end of the spectrum, “I Walk the Line,” remixed by QDT Musik featuring Snoop Dogg, has a jarring disjoint between the tenor of the source material and the added sounds. I actually kind of like QDT’s beats here, but Johnny’s vocals, old analogue monaural recordings that they are, sound thin next to the dynamically richer synthesizer and new vocal recordings, and the original is never adequately integrated into the mix or into the song. I’m torn as to whether this is a failure of intention, not respecting the source material, or a failure of execution; it’s probably partially both. Overall, I’d say this collection suffers from a general disjointedness between the largely acoustic and analog source material and the very electronic-sounding new material.

Interestingly, the two tracks that undeniably succeed succeed for different reasons. The Midnight Juggernauts’ “Port of Lonely Hearts” is largely just a reworking of the music behind Johnny's vocals, but unlike “Big River,” in which the added rhythm tracks imitate and fight with the original instrumentation, here the sparse original accompaniment is largely jettisoned in favor of an equally sparse, ethereal and electronic sound into which Johnny’s vocals and a remnant of the original guitar are deftly integrated.

Alabama 3 has perhaps the best track on the album, unsurprising, as this sort of postmodern mixture has been their thing for quite some time. It is obvious that they respect their source material, yet they are unafraid of totally dismantling it to create something new. While the central author of all of the other tracks remains Johnny Cash, Alabama 3 essentially creates their own new song, which just happens to share a chorus with and include samples from Johnny Cash’s “Leave that Junk Alone.”

Listen:
Johnny Cash - Leave that Junk Alone [Alabama 3 Remix]

Buy:
From Amazon

* Andrew Bartlett, “Airshafts, Loudspeakers, and the Hip Hop Sample: Contexts and African American Musical Aesthetics,” African American Review 28 (1994):639–652.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got to hear this a couple of months ago; it was then and still is now the worst album of the year. John Carter Cash should be ashamed of himself for allowing his father's music to be put to such poor use.
I generally like mash-ups and remixes it is just this collection is awful.

Anonymous said...

Don't fool yourself. That song, like the rest of the album, is bloody awful.

Anonymous said...

The same thing has been done with Bob Marley and the like and it rarely works. One problem is that they are sampling for the sake of sampling an artist. On "Grown Man Business" and "No Idea's Original," Mos Def and Nas didn't sample Barry White so that they could update Barry White. White's guitar riff was used because it worked with the song they were trying to make.

Johnny Cash's subject matter jives well with hip-hop, as both focus on the brutality of the world. Cash sang about people being shot as much as any rapper. And while he never glorified it, that just puts him into league with rappers that portrayed violence without glorifying it.

While the subject matter is similar, the sound couldn't be more alien. That's ultimately what counts. A hillbilly with a guitar just doesn't translate well to hip-hop.

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I don't get it, what about Majewski has changed since he left here?
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The June 13 issued of Education Week published an article on student attrition at KIPP schools, particularly the two in San
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Jay said...

I have listen to all your songs and this alabama remix is really good.

preetha said...

Alabama remix is a rocking album...You have a great Voice..Your music is worth listening...

Anonymous said...

It's just so romantic. This is a good article for the men out there that are too lazy to think. I hope they can read this and give us a great time for the first and next dates to come!


.........................

Anonymous said...

It's just so romantic. This is a good article for the men out there that are too lazy to think. I hope they can read this and give us a great time for the first and next dates to come!


.........................

learn and master guitar said...

excellent article. Great post.

Learn and Master Guitar said...

After Bob Marley's hip-hop sampling, how could anyone commit the same mistake again? I mean if you want to change the beat of a music and introduce something new, it should be better and must jive or blend into the second beat or rhythm of the music.

take for example the guitar sounds.I love guitars, however in this album and whoever made this album, had made guitar tunes offbeat.

I heard Johnny Cash Remixed album and sadly what you all said is true.

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Megan said...

24 is mid-twenties, my friend...

ColleaguesStress said...

Very nice review on Johnny Cash's album.

Johnny Cash isn't my cup of tea and now I definitively know that album isn't for every ears.
Nice Blog too. Keep on posting!

Sandrahess said...

Postmodern music is both a musical style and a musical condition. And then postmodern music does not have any one particular style or characteristic, and is not necessarily postmodern in style. It's really nice to hear it.

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Great article! Thanks @Sandra for sharing concerti.tv

Anonymous said...

Love Johnny Cash. My grandpa use to play his music all the time.
Love songs that bring real meaning to life. He did just that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcsZRPuEA28

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