Queen - The BASIC Bootlegs

Okay, here it is! Over the weekend I finally obtained a copy of the BASIC Bootlegs album and have been listening to it pretty regularly since. Before I go any further, if you're a Queen purist you're going to be majorly disappointed, whereas if you have a taste for the experimental you'll find this to be a fascinating excursion. As fascinating as this album is though, that alone couldn't save it from a fate of non-release and it makes a lot more sense after hearing what is assumed to be the near final product.

A track by track description of the album and the bonus tracks I've included follows below, but first I want to chat about the quality of the contents and the source of the tracks. Regarding the source, I purchased a download of two bootleg compilations assembled by a Queen fan that sells his CDs and DVDs via his website. Despite the fact I'm not a fan of bootleggers who charge exorbitant fees for material for which they don't own the rights, this person was very polite and even though I'm posting these tracks I'm leaving the remaining majority of the recordings from his collections out of circulation, at least by my hands. The majority of the tracks featured here were already available to collectors so I don't think I'm doing him any harm. With that said, the sources of these tracks is peculiar as many of the tracks' spectral data falls well below the full frequency range, generally inferring they're transcoded MP3s, but for the tracks that didn't receive official releases the ranges differ considerably and there is a large wall of empty background data behind the music, generally the first thing to disappear when an MP3 is created, so I have to assume these were either sourced from an unmastered copy of the album or transferred from a tape, though tape rips never sound this good so I have to assume it's the former, meaning these are probably ripped from one of the official CD-Rs that were issued as promos in 1999 by Hollywood Records. Of course this is all just a theory and I'm ready to proven wrong by anyone that knows better, and I know there are many that do, so please correct me if I'm wrong, I'll be happy to admit my fault.

yar, there be noise from the chyskillz remix!

Queen - The BASIC Bootlegs

01 We Will Rock You (Ruined by Rick Rubin)
This is the same version that appears on the officially released single. Definitely the better of Rick's two remixes, Chad Smith and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers add drums and bass respectively, while Brendan O'Brien gets a mix engineering credit and DJ Zulu Afrika Islam provides the scratches and cuts. As to who provides the additional guitar, they remain uncredited. Maybe a previously unused performance by Brian May? Regardless, Rick got it right by not removing the stomp-stomp-clap-pause from the original, only changing it a little.

02 Don't Try Suicide (Grandmaster Muggs Remix)
This is less a remix and more an original track with lots of samples from the original Don't Try Suicide. I've never heard Muggs rap so I can't tell you if that's him on vocals, but the whole track is rather peculiar since it sounds like something Cypress Hill would have done and Muggs' flow sounds very much like that of B-Real. I'd love to know if Cypress couldn't be cleared for the vocals so Muggs recorded B-Real's rhymes.

03 Another One Bites The Dust (Chyskillz Remix feat. Ice Cube, Hi-C & Chyskillz)
Like Muggs' remix, this is more an original recording, although this features even less of the original. Apart from the song's title being chanted repeatedly and the bass line running throughout, there is practically nothing in common between this and the original version. As for who is responsible for this mix, Chyskillz of Onyx fame mentions in the intro that they're going to remix this track in his style. Ice Cube, who generally gets the credit for this track when it's mentioned, only provides the first verse for which he doesn't even sound engaged.

04 Under Pressure (Mr. Mixx Remix)
I'll admit I'm not very familiar with the works of Mr. Mixx as I know him only through his association with the 2 Live Crew, but this sounds nothing like 2LC and was rather unexpected. It's more like a club track for a primitive rave party. Pretty damn cool!

05 We Are The Champions (Ruined by Rick Rubin)
Again, the same as the officially released single version. This works a little better after having listened to it several times but Rick definitely ruined this one more than he improved it. Chopping the vocals so they'd run in time with James Brown's Funky Drummer break was a good idea in theory, but it really doesn't pay off in execution. The credits on this one are the same as Rick's We Will Rock You remix.

06 Fat Bottomed Girls (Organized Konfusion Remix)
I have to assume Pharoahe Monch and Prince Po are fully responsible for this remix as they did most of their own production work in the early nineties. This isn't a bad remix or anything but it doesn't beat the original. Interestingly, a previously unreleased alternate take Freddie's vocals are used in this remix. Overall, this is simply an attempt to add a little bit of hip-hop rhythm to the song with OK rhyming about big booty beauties and how they can't say no to their charms.

07 Dragon Attack (Jack Benson Remix feat. R.A.K.)
This is the same remix that was released on the 91 reissue of The Game. As I wrote earlier, it's assumed that Jack Benson provided the remix and R.A.K. the rap, although I can't find any information about who R.A.K. might be and Benson's career, at least in the world of studio musicians, seems to have ended in the very early nineties. This isn't much of a description for this remix, but it sounds like the type of thing you might have heard in a Super Nintendo game circa 91, so think about it the next time you're playing Super Metroid or Castlevania IV.

08 Another One Bites The Dust (Phase 5 Dusted B-Boy Version feat. Raw Fusion)
On the promo CD featured at discogs, this mix is credited to Phase and Rave, whereas the reality is that this is merely an edit of the version that appeared on the BASIC beats sampler. Maybe Ogilvie edited this version, but otherwise it's Phase 5's same mix.

09 Stone Cold Crazy (Re-Produced by Trent Reznor)
Reznor's fantasticly overdriven remix still shines! Same as the version released on the promo single.

10 Dragon Attack (Dave "Rave" Ogilvie Instrumental Remix)
This doesn't seem like it should be here, but it kind of fits in at the same time. This is a rather straight remix of Dragon Attack, adding nothing new yet removing Freddie's vocals. The mix is kinda weak and removes a lot of the dynamics from the original version, to which I have to wonder why they didn't just use an instrumental of that version. While this is a bit of a disappointment, Dragon Attack is also one of those Queen tracks that could easily be sampled and turned into a monster hip-hop jam by a skilled producer, so in a twisted way it makes a lot of sense that they would have included an instrumental version of this track, much in the same way that James Brown's Funky Drummer was re-edited into a DJ friendly track for the In The Jungle Groove compilation.

bonus tracks:
Most of these appeared in the previous post of Queen remixes but I wanted to include them since they're from the same era as the above compilation and are thematically similar if not cut from the identical cloth.

11 Flash's Theme (Mista Lawnge Remix)
Mista Lawnge of Black Sheep fame provides this cut and scratch remix of the mostly instrumental Flash's Theme. This would have fit perfectly on the BASIC Bootlegs album so who knows why it wouldn't have been included.

12 Bicycle Race (Junior Vasquez Remix)
Less a club track and more of a polished hip-hop remix, Junior brings a solid remix that sounds great.

13 Another One Bites The Dust (Dave "Rave" Ogilvie Alternative Remix)
This rather odd remix was released on a Hollywood Records promo compilation named Freakshow, which is an oddly appropriate title in conjunction with this track. It sounds more like an exercise in industrial rock dynamics as there is a lot of distortion and not much attention paid to keeping the groove intact. I like it but it seems more like a throwaway.

14 Another One Bites The Dust (Phase 5 Long Dusted B-Boy Version feat. Raw Fusion)
The full version of the all over the place Phase 5 remix, it goes on for over ten minutes and features samples from all over the place. Is that a Captain Kangaroo sample I heard in there? This mix is so scattered it's ridiculous, but that's a lot of the fun of it. It sounds like an excuse to put every cool record you can think of into a crazy remix which is one of the great hallmarks of early hip-hop party remixes. The edit from the main album doesn't do it justice.

15 Seven Seas Of Rhye (Freddy Bastone Remix)
I don't know how involved the band was in approving the remixes intended for the BASIC Bootlegs album or the Hollywood Records reissues. If they were involved, one has to assume that they must have liked this particular track, with it's cheesy, early nineties house flavor, and hated a number of the more hip-hop oriented remixes. On the other hand, maybe they weren't involved at all the Bootlegs album didn't get released due to sample issues and guest clearances. Either theory may hold some water, but this track still somehow saw release. Everything great about early nineties house is turned into bad excuse for someone to use a generic rhythm loop and add twinkling piano. Maybe it had more charm in 91, but it's pretty dated now.

16 Tie Your Mother Down (Re-Produced by Trent Reznor)
This is the same version that has been circulating, although the source on this seems to be a bit clearer and fades out properly instead of cutting off. I figured the spectrals would look better but they look far worse than the version I uploaded previously. Regardless, Trent's minimal and funky remix is as good as ever. Someone should produce a bootleg 12" or 7" of both of his remixes and sell them to indie shops. That's the kind of bootleg that's worth purchasing!





By the way, here is a link to a pseudo-bootleg remix EP that Z-Trip and Murs made a few years ago. There are remixes of Prince's Kiss and Queen's We Will Rock You, both of which suck miserably, but the remix of Fat Bottomed Girls completely makes up for how bad they are. Get this and listen to the Fat Bottom Remix and prepare to be blown away by how stupid good it is!

George Clinton - Hey Man... Smell My Finger

What the hell was wrong in Prince's camp? If you read my earlier post with the outtakes and roughs from this album, you know it was being recorded over the course of several years, primarily during the early nineties. I heard the roughs a long time before the album was released and commented openly at that time that they sounded mostly finished, what else could they do with them? Well, the finished album was worth the wait with the wonderful Hollywood, Maximumisness and Martial Law added and most of the previously leaked tracks reworked effectively. I had to get my father to drive me to a Camelot Music and pay an obscene fee for the CD but I was definitely satisfied. I never imagined George could improve upon those roughs so much with them being rather exceptional already.

Smell My Finger received good reviews and George went on tour with the family shortly thereafter, but upon Paisley Park shutting down the album disappeared and, apart from a brief appearance of Hollywood on the 1-800-NEW-FUNK CD, a comp that is also long out-of-print, the album was never reissued and is sitting in Prince's vault. Why Prince's vault? Despite Paisley Park being a primarily Warner Bros. funded operation, Prince retains ALL rights to any albums released upon that label barring his own works, which explains why some releases by The Time and Sheila E. are still available for purchase while others are not. Still doesn't explain why the Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 albums aren't available but that should explain why artists like GC can't even get a digital release for Smell My Finger or The Cinderella Theory. Add to that Prince's assertion that "the internet is over" and you've almost got an open invitation to plunder the Paisley Park catalog.

Regarding Smell My Finger, George definitely had the whole P-Funk family on board as well as many others including Ice Cube, Yo-Yo, MC Breed, Kam, Digital Underground, Public Enemy and Dr. Dre. Dre only contributed a funny skit-like phone call that appears twice during Paint The White House Black and while Chuck D. and Flavor Flav are both audible during the track, interestingly enough their appearance is sampled from Tweakin' on The Cinderella Theory, a sample that is actually credited in the liner notes. Prince also receives a credit on the album, but not in the way you might have assumed. Initially there were rumors abounding that Prince would be a major contributor to the album. When the roughs leaked a lot of people thought they could hear the Princely influence and assumed it was fact, but when the finished album appeared Prince's name only appeared on one song, The Big Pump, an assumed leftover of sorts from Graffiti Bridge and easily the weakest song on the album. It sounds like Prince's idea of a cheap house track and is entirely rapped by George and another rapper whose voice, I'm embarrassed to say, I can't recognize. Hell, trying to figure out who does what on the album is near impossible as the liner notes aren't organized by tracks, they merely list everyone in an enormous pile. You can check the wikipedia reference for the full list but it doesn't help much. The only thing clear is who is credited for writing the songs and producing them. Flea and Anthony Kedis are listed as vocal contributors but picking them out of the mix is impossible, as is telling where Amp Fiddler's contributions are or much of anything else. Prince fans will recognize Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss on horns and Bootsy's bass pops up throughout but have fun guessing with the rest of it. Prince's name doesn't appear as an instrumental or vocal contributor to the album either, although George has openly stated that Prince is "all over that album", whatever that means.

It's rather surprising in retrospect that Warners didn't try to pick up George's contract with Paisley Park after that label folded, what with the positive press and a legitimately good album by an artist who was receiving a popular rebirth through modern production techniques, but they didn't and George would reappear in 96 on Sony with The Awesome Power Of A Fully Operational Mothership, a sleepy affair credited to himself and the P-Funk All-Stars. All in all the situation was a disappointment, but now just about anything with the Paisley Park logo on it is a collectors item and this is legitimately one of the best things released on the label alongside The Family and Jill Jones' self-titled debuts.

For your listening pleasure, I am proud to share links for you to download Hey Man... Smell My Finger as both V0 MP3s and FLAC files. You'll also find the videos for Martial Law and Paint The White House Black embedded below though I don't think I'll ever need to see them again. The video for Martial Law is particularly bizarre, what with George in the middle of an all-ages house party that isn't in sync with the music, followed by Sir Nose and some riot police (LA cops?) storming the house looking for the funk. Despite the cops stomping like nazis they can't stay with the beat either, although I suppose you could say that might make sense. The most peculiar part of the video is a parody of the Rodney King beatings with the cops beating a boom box to bits, all caught on film by a robotic looking Flea. And you wonder why you didn't see it on MTV?


George Clinton - Hey Man... Smell My Finger

NOTE: Make sure you download all three FLAC parts and extract each individually before deleting them. They are NOT connected so extracting the first part will not cause the second and third to also extract, you must do each part on it's own.

FLAC, Part 1
FLAC, Part 2
FLAC, Part 3
V0 MP3

01 Martial Law
produced by George Clinton, Kerry Gordy & William Bryant III
02 Paint The White House Black
produced by George Clinton, Kerry Gordy & William Bryant III
03 Way Up
produced by George Clinton & Foley
04 Dis Beat Disrupts
produced by George Clinton & DeWayne "Blackbird" McKnight
05 Get Satisfied
produced by George Clinton & Foley
06 Hollywood
produced by George Clinton & Dallas Austin
07 Rhythm and Rhyme
produced by George Clinton
08 The Big Pump
produced by Prince & George Clinton
09 If True Love
produced by George Clinton
10 High In My Hello
produced by George Clinton
11 Maximumisness
produced by George Clinton & Bill Laswell
12 Kickback
produced by George Clinton, Garry Shider & Foley
13 The Flag Was Still There
produced by George Clinton & Garry Shider
14 Martial Law (Hey Man... Smell My Finger) (Single Version)
produced by George Clinton, Kerry Gordy & William Bryant III


BONUS TRACK: Booty (this link contains both the FLAC and V0 MP3 versions)
produced by George Clinton, Dewayne "Blackbird" McKnight & Gary Shider








By the way, if you need a fix of Prince's side-projects in a visual medium, a fellow named The Paisley Parker has got your prescription! Just don't tell Prince!

January 2010 Mixtape: No Rights Given Or Implied (Side One)

As I stated in a prior post, this month's mixtape is essentially my private soundtrack to a project I hope to begin sometime this year. I don't mean to be a tease, but I will share information about it only when things begin moving forward. This mixtape is a little different from previous ones I've posted though, as it serves a dual purpose, the second being my want to assemble an introductory compilation to different styles of sampling and the forms of music that use it in great detail rather than the occasional soundbyte or lifting of a melody. Not to say that those uses of sampling aren't legitimate or should be considered wrong, but I'm more concerned with the creative recontextualization of previously recorded material, which means pre-existing content can be altered in such a way that it won't necessarily represent the original source recordings and in it's new form cannot be said to be overly representative of the original sources, or in layman's terms, it doesn't rip-off anything. There will probably be a second volume of this compilation, and if there is enough interest I will definitely pursue this further.

Unlike a lot of my prior mixtapes, almost everything here is sourced from a lossless recording. Because of that, I've made a point of posting this mixtape as two separate downloads in the highest quality MP3s possible. Please make sure to download both sides so you get all seventeen tracks. Side Two should be live at some point Tuesday, Wednesday morning at the latest.


The Unheard Music January 2010 Mixtape: No Rights Given Or Implied (Side One)

01 Dickie Goodman - Mr. Jaws
Dickie Goodman, along with Bill Buchanan, can safely be labeled the first artists to use sampling in popular music, although their releases are usually considered novelty recordings. Their singles featured stories where a reporter would interview an important figure (Batman, aliens, Jaws the shark, etc.) and that figure's answers would be provided via soundbytes from then popular records. Goodman and Buchanan did incur the wrath of the artists they sampled and were brought to court, but a judge decided in their favor stating it was clear the records were parodies and not taking income from the artists being sampled.

Sadly, Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman took his own life on November 6, 1989. He was fifty-five years old. R.I.P.


02 Negativland - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (1991 A Cappella Mix)
If only the world had been as kind to Negativland as they were to Goodman and Buchanan. To put it simply, U2's label, Island Records, sued Negativland for copyright infringement over their U2 EP, claiming it was an attempt to confuse customers and that it illegally sampled U2's original recording of the song in question. This is an incredible story, one that books have been written about and has been discussed in film and other outlets, so rather than rehash something in great detail that will take far longer to write then you'd probably like to read here, I'm going to direct you to the wikipedia reference for this event, as it will give you the low-down quickly and point you in the right direction if you'd like to learn more. Oh yeah, Casey Kasem sounds like a dick.


03 Girls On Top - We Don't Give A Damn About Our Friends
Richard Philips is best known as Richard X, producer and remixer for artists such as Kelis, Sugababes and Nine Inch Nails, but before becoming an in-demand producer, he released limited edition singles as Girls On Top. All the Girls On Top releases are considered mash-ups or bootlegs, tracks that combine two or more songs to create a track all it's own. While tracks that combined several songs had been around for quite a while in one form or another, Girls On Top, along with Kurtis Rush (aka Erol Alkan), The Freelance Hellraiser and others helped legitimize the trend in the early 2000s. We Don't Give A Damn About Our Friends, which combines the vocal from Adina Howard's Freak Like Me and the music from Tubeway Army's Are "Friends" Electric?, was arguably the most successful of the bootleg releases, becoming popular enough that it was re-recorded by the Sugababes using the Tubeway Army beat with Mr. X getting a production credit and a paycheck.


04 Ice Cube - Jackin' For Beats
Ice Cube isn't generally known for deep production, but this Bomb Squad produced track, recorded during the era of Cube's collaborations with Public Enemy and their production crew, is a true exception. Cube flows beautifully over a track made up of other people's beats, all the while explaining that he'll take your beat if he likes it, no matter who you are. The funny part is, despite the braggadocio, all samples were cleared on this track and the amazingly long list of credits made sure everyone involved, directly or not, got paid.

Jackin' For Beats is often looked at as the start of a trend with rappers where they take someone else's track and rap over it, most often without asking permission. Because of this, most of the tracks rarely receive official releases and are relegated to mixtape status.


05 Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (Seven Minutes Of Madness)
Coldcut are the responsible parties for this classic remix, having been contacted by Eric B. & Rakim's then label, 4th & Broadway, to provide this remix. Eric and Rakim were not initially thrilled by the remix, but it's success helped to eventually change their opinions.

Coldcut started off as a hip-hop and dance-oriented production crew, creating their own cut-ups similar in style to Double Dee & Steinski's Lessons as well as club-centric records like Lisa Stansfield's People Hold On. Back in the cut-up vein here, Coldcut's 1988 remix of the Eric B. & Rakim classic introduced much of the world to the heavenly vocals of Ofra Haza and stretched the simple original well over twice it's length, all the while featuring scratches, cuts, samples from speeches and instructional records and all kinds of madness. Truly a classic in hip-hop as well as creative sampling.


06 Steinski - The Motorcade Sped On
Steve Stein, better known as Steinski of Double Dee & Steinski, gained his initial fame for the duo's groundbreaking Lessons, but afterwards went solo with the intent to release a cut-up record all about the assassination of JFK. Not the most commercially sound idea, but certainly a fascinating one, with just as fascinating a story behind it. Steinski attempted to clear the samples from CBS but was met with a cold stare, leading his label, Tommy Boy Records, to issue it as a promotional-only release. All of this led to the record gaining a reputation just as powerful as the Lessons, while being just the opposite of those three classics. Both records made you think, but rather than dance, The Motorcade Sped On made you learn and remember.


07 De La Soul - Eye Know
Not the most complex record here or the one featuring the most samples, but a great example of Prince Paul's ability to combine disparate parts and turn them into a catchy tune. From De La Soul's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, that album is often considered the East Coast equivalent of the Beastie Boys' West Coast classic, Paul's Boutique. Unfortunately for Paul and De La though, they were sued by classic surf-rock group, The Turtles, for a minuscule sample in a brief instrumental on the album. A hefty fee was paid, and while it's their fault for not clearing the sample, one has to wonder how opportunistic The Turtles and their lawyers were over this exceedingly small bit of music that doesn't borrow any vocals or melody from the source. Sadly, copyright law hasn't been updated to appreciate the difference between blatantly ripping something off and using it in a new context.


08 Beastie Boys - Hey Ladies
The Beasties, The Dust Brothers and Matt Dike changed the game forever with the release of Paul's Boutique. They sampled so much and in such depth that you could argue the art of sampling had met it's ultimate act of creativity. In reality it hadn't, but it was certainly a major evolutionary step. I've said far more about Paul's Boutique in previous posts so if you need more from me, please examine my earlier posts, but what you should really do is get Dan LeRoy's book all about the album's creation and, if you haven't heard it yet, go buy the album immediately! Don't hesitate, it's totally worth it!



Come back Tuesday (or early Wednesday) for Side Two!