4,992Shows
249,891Spins
Monday, Jul 31 2023, 7AM
Good morning and WELCOME to the Morning Show edition of 6 DEGREES WEEK!!! John's back! Troy's co-hosting! Larry is NOT here regardless of what the ID just said!
We're kicking things off with New Order, who came up with this rhythm when they were experimenting with a new Oberheim DMX drum machine they had purchased. In the Guardian newspaper of February 24, 2006, Peter Hook explained: "Bernard [Sumner] and Stephen [Morris] were the instigators. It was their enthusiasm for new technology. The drum pattern was ripped off from a Donna Summer B-side. We'd finished the drum pattern and we were really happy, then Steve accidentally kicked out the drum machine lead so we had to start from scratch and it was never as good. The technology was forever breaking down and the studio was really archaic. Kraftwerk booked it after us because they wanted to emulate 'Blue Monday.'
6 degrees week: Please don't make me tell you how Joy Division and New Order are related. They share a member or two. (OKAY IT'S 3)
Bassist Peter Hook:
“Transmission” started with the bass line, turned into our first hit record, and it’s a very very simple chord sequence, very effective. You can hear that youth, that you’re a punk and you mean it in the bass riff, which is obviously the most important thing in the world."
The official music video begins with video of Hook playing that extraordinary bass line: www.youtube.com
Six degrees week: Electronic was a collaboration of several different talents who came together through inadvertent circumstances. Bernard Sumner, the front man for New Order, was planning to do a solo project. Instead, he teamed up with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who had also been planning a solo career after the breakup of his acclaimed band. They were joined by Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant for some of their early songs, including this one. The group performed off and on for about a decade, but was never the sole focus of anyone in the band. This song was their biggest hit, and the only one to make a major impact in the United States. The lyrics were written mostly by Marr to ridicule the image of his former band mate Morrissey, with whom Marr had a bitter falling out.
Six degrees week: Electronic member Johnny Marr is *checks notes* apparently also in the Smiths. That doesn't sound right.
The song was written shortly before the band went into Ridge Farm Studios in Surrey in January 1985 to record it. It was mixed later in the month at Utopia Studios in Primrose Hill. The Smiths (mostly Johnny Marr) acted as producers, with Stephen Street as recording engineer.
Six degrees week: This song has Johnny Marr AND Sinead O'Connor *head asplode*
Matt Johnson and Sinead O'Connor in this duet---"While the song is ostensibly about a decaying relationship, the protagonists of the song are still full of life, undercutting the bleakness of some of the lyrics with live-wire deliveries. ": www.djdmac.com
Six degrees week: This song featuring a very young Sinead O'Connor
In 1986 finding himself with some extra time between U2 projects, The Edge went looking for a soundtrack to work on. The result of that search was the movie “Captive”, to which he scored the movie with assistance from Canadian, Michael Brook. It is the first, and to date, the only time a member of U2 has produced a full solo album. While the bulk of the album was instrumental, a young Sinéad O’Connor was brought in to sing on vocals on one track, “Heroine”, and that song was released as a single to promote the soundtrack album.
Six degrees week: The Edge's OTHER band
The Edge was born David Howell Evans. I'm just writing that because I didn't know his birth certificate didn't say "The Edge"
Watch the music video for U2's industrial-influenced track Numb, which was released as the debut single of their eighth studio album Zooropa: www.youtube.com
Six degrees week: Brian Eno is on *everything*
Here Come the Warm Jets is the debut solo album by Brian Eno, released in the US on Island Records in January 1974. It was recorded and produced by Eno following his departure from Roxy Music. The album features numerous guests, including several of Eno's former Roxy Music bandmates
Six degrees week: MOAR BRIAN ENO
"My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" was David Byrne's first album without the Talking Heads. Here's an in-depth look at the cultural and moral issues surrounding the album: www.getintothis.co.uk
Six degrees week: Heroes was recorded in collaboration with Brian Eno!
Released in 1977, ‘Heroes’ was Bowie’s twelfth album. The album wasn’t as commercially successful as one might think when first released, managing 3rd in the UK charts and Dutch charts. Heroes, the title track only managed 24th in the UK charts and failed to make America’s billboard 100 at all.
See the final time that David Bowie performed "Heroes" live on stage: faroutmagazine.co.uk
Six degrees week: David Bowie > David Bowie
Bowie said at the time "Offstage I'm a robot. Onstage I achieve emotion. It's probably why I prefer dressing up as Ziggy to being David."
Six degrees week: Bauhaus covering Bowie!
Bauhaus does Bowie: Looking back at their 1982 tribute to 'Ziggy Stardust': faroutmagazine.co.uk
Six degrees week: Love and Rockets are an English rock band formed in 1985 by former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins after that group split in 1983.
Ball of Confusion was a song was originally performed by the classic soul group The Temptations and written by Rev. Barrett Strong. The song's lyrics refer to the major political issues (corrupt politicians, higher taxes, race riots, broken promises, war, poverty, etc.) that were going on at that time (and some feel still exist today).
Six degrees week: Ok hear me out; The last song by Bauhaus? It was a cover of the Temptations.
"I Can't Get Next to You" is a 1969 No. 1 single recorded by the Temptations and written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for the Gordy (Motown) label.
Six degrees week: Listen close for the sample of the Temptations song "I Can't Get Next To You"
"Night of the Living Baseheads" also sampled David Bowie's "Fame", among others.
Six degrees week: Evolution Control Committee are one of the pioneers of the mash-up or bootleg, where two or more songs are mixed together into a new track. According to Neil Strauss in The New York Times, "...many musical observers trace the official beginnings of the British bootleg scene to The Evolution Control Committee, which in 1993 mixed a Public Enemy a cappella with music by Herb Alpert." These are the now-classic "Public Enemy/Whipped Cream Mixes" containing Public Enemy's inflammatory raps, "By the Time I Get To Arizona" and "Rebel Without a Pause", overdubbed onto instrumentals by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
Six degrees week: Sample of Herb Alpert's "Rise" back there!
1997's 'Life After Death' is the second and final studio album by The Notorious B.I.G., released in March, sixteen days after his murder. It features collaborations with guest artists such as 112, Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Mase, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Too $hort, Angela Winbush, D.M.C. of Run-D.M.C., The Lox, and Puff Daddy.
You're hearing a sample of "La Di Da Di" by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick. (Other samples include Herb Alpert's "Rise" and "Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)" by The Crystals.
Six degrees week: In 1985 Doug E. Fresh released the single "The Show." The b-side "La Di Da Di" has been sampled over 1000 times including Hypnotize by The Notorious B.I.G.
Six degrees day: Sampling La de da Di
From the East Orange, NJ hip hop trio's 1991 self-titled sophomore release, this jubilant track is based on the 1970 Jackson 5 song "ABC."
Check out this episode of Sound & Vision where Eva Walker speaks with Vin Rock of Naughty By Nature! bit.ly
Six degrees week: As sampled in O.P.P.!
After Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown, label founder Berry Gordy assembled a team of writers and producers, because he did not want any more “backroom superstars”. Gordy, along with Alphonso Mizell, Freddie Perren, and Deke Richards, became known as The Corporation, and their first project was to create material for Motown’s newest signees, Jackson 5. The Corporation (whose members were never individually billed) came out of the box smoking in 1969 with the No.1 hit “I Want You Back,” and followed it up with “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There,” in 1970. A short-lived ensemble, The Corporation disbanded in 1972, when Hal Davis took over producing duties for Jackson 5.
Six degrees week: JACKSON 5 covering Stevie Wonder
Six degrees week: The last song was a Stevie cover!
And this is a cover of the 1965 Beatles song, originally released as a "double A-sided" single along with "Day Tripper"
"The Greatest Beatles Cover Is Stevie Wonder’s “We Can Work It Out.” He may be the only musician to play a Beatles song better than the Beatles." Bold statement from Slate. Read the full article here: bit.ly
Six degrees week: From a Stevie cover of the Beatles
‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ was made up of four distinct song fragments, and took its title from a gun magazine, The American Rifleman, which Lennon saw in the studio at Abbey Road.
---
On 23 September 1968 The Beatles began recording the song, with the working title ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand’. They taped the first 45 takes of the song, with John Lennon on lead guitar and guide vocals, Paul McCartney on bass guitar, George Harrison on fuzz lead guitar, and Ringo Starr playing drums.
The following day the group recorded takes 46-70. At the end of these it was decided that the first half of take 53 and the second half of take 65 were the best, and the two were edited together on the evening of 25 September.
THAT'S TOO MANY TAKES
Six degrees week: WE DID IT WE MADE IT TO THE LOST BOYS ANNIVERSARY
Covering the 1967 song by The Doors!
British group Echo & the Bunnymen covere this for the soundtrack to the 1987 sleeper hit "The Lost Boys"; it was produced by the Doors' Ray Manzarek
Six degrees week: 36th Anniversary of the Lost Boys!
Despite appearing on the soundtrack to The Lost Boys, this song's lyrics do not specifically reference vampires, as it was composed before McMahon had seen any footage from the film. After hearing the track, director Joel Schumacher commented: "You nailed my theme song to The Lost Boys! I can't believe you wrote this without seeing a frame of film!". McMahon additionally explained: "I always say that if I'd have seen the film first, I would probably not have written 'Cry Little Sister'. I didn't want the song to be specific to the vampire. I wanted it to be about the longing for family from a rejected youth's perspective, which I went through myself and that many of us have felt."
Six degrees week: Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES covering Gerard McMann's “Cry Little Sister,” also known as 'The Lost Boys' theme.
Here's CHVRCHES live on KEXP back in 2013: www.youtube.com
Six degrees day: The Cure covering Depeche Mode!
"World in My Eyes" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released on 17 September 1990 as the fourth and final single from their seventh studio album, Violator (1990).
Six degrees week: Another Depeche Mode cover, this one featured in HBO's the Last of Us.
Six degrees week: We have arrived at Depeche Mode, this is not a drill.
Martin Gore recalled to Mojo magazine in September 2012: "The original demo of Enjoy the Silence was very slow and minimal, just me and a harmonium, and Alan (Wilder) had this idea of putting a beat to it. We added the choir chords and (producer) Flood and Alan said, 'Why don't you play some guitar over the top?' That's when I came up with the riff. I think that's the only time in our history when we all looked at each other and said, 'I think this might be a hit.'"
Six degrees week: Johnny Cash covering Depeche Mode!
When Johnny Cash was asked why he did a cover of this song, he has this to say:
“I heard that as a gospel song. And if you think of it as a gospel song, it works really well. We didn’t have any major disagreement over that song, I just heard that a couple of people had recorded it, the writer wanted me to try it, and I did, and I loved it. And I went for it.”
Six degrees week: Johnny Cash covering Nine Inch Nails!
Trent Reznor, the writer of the song, was unsure of Johnny’s version to begin with, telling Alternative Press in 2004: “I was flattered, but frankly, the idea sounded a bit gimmicky to me." Having said that, his mind soon changed after he saw the music video, after which he said in the same interview: “Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps... Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn't mine anymore. “It really made me think about how powerful music is. “I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in. “Somehow that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era and still retains sincerity and meaning - different, but every bit as pure.” Read more here: bit.ly
---
Perhaps the saddest and most moving video ever made: www.youtube.com
Six degrees week: From a Nine Inch Nails cover into a Queen Cover
"Get Down, Make Love" is a cover of a Queen song. According to an interview Trent Reznor did with Melody Maker magazine, "Get Down, Make Love" was supposed to be a "tongue-in-cheek" cover.
--
Here's a live version from Sydney in 2000: www.youtube.com
Six degrees week: Get down make love features Al Jourgensen from Ministry
Minstry’s Al drugged Trent and shaved his eyebrows off while recording a Queen cover. Trent roped him in to produce a B-side for PHM: a version of Get Down, Make Love. While recording, Al set a rule. A simple rule. Power through the night, and if you fall asleep, you get your head shaven. High on coke and not exactly a betting man, Al laced Trent’s drink with Rohypnol and made deft work of Mr. Reznor, shaving his head, eyebrow and, well, not quite another full eyebrow before he woke up screaming.
Six degrees week: From a Bob Dylan cover to Bob Dylan himself!
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" is an amalgam of Jack Kerouac, the Woody Guthrie–Pete Seeger song "Taking It Easy" ("Mom was in the kitchen preparing to eat / Sis was in the pantry looking for some yeast") and the rock and roll poetry of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business".
Six degrees week: Into another Dylan cover!
Angel Olsen covering Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings” from his 1964 album The Times They Are A-Changin’.
Six degrees week: THEY'VE DONE IT. THEY MADE IT TO SHARON VAN ETTEN.
Watch the official video for this great collaboration from last year: www.youtube.com
Six degrees week: Even got Jose Gonzalez in there for his birthday!
José Gabriel González, born July 31, 1978 and celebrating his 45th birthday today, is a Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Gothenburg. González is also a member of the band Junip, along with Tobias Winterkorn. This version of "Line of Fire" features Sharon Van Etten.