apologies for missing my last post. we're in the midst of an apartment renovation, and truth be told, i ought be patching plaster. however, there is no electricity in the apartment right now, and the lack of the light would make mixing ratios a gamble. i can't even continue research for components, as i'm really tired of looking at ceiling fans--the final frontier for modern design...
i've been cursing my music library of late, with everything feeling tired and me being shy the time to find new stuff (this blog has been a nice gift, with clinic entering the mix). i also noted that i initiated my contributions with the white stripes and the misfits, which while thoroughly enjoyable, don't exactly provide a wide glimpse at what i'm listening to. so, having cursed at my ipod's selections, i was hit with some bill withers, and he suggested a paired offering that will provide us with many opportunities to say "pips" in an earnest fashion. breath 'bated, we carry on.
on to bill withers. i love bill withers. this guy repeated the words "i know" 26 times in a row, and we ate it up. you ask people "how many times does bill withers say "i know" in "ain't no sunshine"?" people often offer in the low teens. twelve, thirteen times, maybe fifteen...that's what we assume to be the longest repetition endurable before terming it "droning" or "grating." bill withers can double you up on that. (footnote: thom yorke and his 46 "the raindrops" are sitting smugly, stage right.) bill withers was making toilet seats for 747's when he consumed a jack lemon movie and crapped a grammy. and he refused to resign his job at the toilet factory. that's
bill withers. al green and d'angelo covered his song and it's still his.
so we got bill withers.
and we got gladys knight and the pips. a girl, her brother, and two of their cousins. an institution in cleveland assures us that they could craft a pop song. "midnight train to georgia" is in the grammy hall of fame. the wu-tang catalog would be thinner minus the pips. if you ask gladys knight, she'll tell you that diana ross herself removed the pips as the supremes opening act on tour in '68 because they were too good.
so we got gladys knight and the pips.
this may not have the headlines of otis vs. aretha, but we're in for good times with gender roles.
bill gets right to it. the driving bass sets him off like a shark. a guy on the street gives bill the stinkeye, and he checks his girl. he looks at her and the strings come in to send a shiver up MY spine. she's sunk. it's bad enough that his woman is sneakin around on him, but damn, life at the toilet seat factory is tough enough without having dudes in the neighborhood flexin on him due to no fault of his own. this is gonna stop right now. bill withers will not be played.
the assured sing song in his "(i don't know who he is) but i think that YOU DOOOO" makes me laugh, but not her. no, she is gonna share her information. now. do not play the coincidence card. the throat thing? that was cute. do you think bill doesn't know that game? still, dadgummit, he's a respectful man. you will have an opportunity to explain.
break for the bass. he is cirlcing tighter, nosing closer.
he comes in with a mathematic puzzler to show how calculating he can be. he stretches out the "i get confuuuused" because her math is so much more advanced than his and to rhyme it off the aforementioned playground "you DOOOOO". bill's subtle. he gets crafty with homonyms, using exasperation to set up his own punchline--she's "too much...for one man but not enough for two." he throws her snides back at her. he may be a dumb ol' baloo of a man, but he's got enough intuition to know what she's up to. this girl knows he isn't dumb, and convincing herself otherwise hasn't worked to convince him of it. so it's in the room now, or on the street as it were, which leads to a big finish: "Before you leave your old home / be certain of the new." dadgummit, bill will maintain his dignity. do you have any? who was he, and what is he to you?
given the origins of the song, gladys will henceforth face comparison with bill. such is the nature of the cover song. where bill withers is smooth, gladys and the pips are sassy. bill's in the song at 8 seconds. there are 36 pips before gladys makes an appearsnce. here, the drum and high hat set it off like a pair of heels on sidewalk and the bass throws some hips on it. they build something funky while gladys tries to compose herself. the organ whines an "aw HELL no" just before she starts hyperventilating words. there is potential for hunt-like explosion here, but she is in control. (at least until vocal pips at 55 seconds make me giggle.) the something in her heart seems a little bigger than bill's, a little closer to the clutch in her neck, so she clears her throat at his cue.
she plays it pitch perfect around 1:50, letting go of a yell that releases into a sob and an exhalation.
gladys can figure sums, too. there's a bit more separation between her "i think you do" and her arithmetic confusion, so rather than bill's elongated smugness, she is going to play her 1+1=3 with a grinned "hm". this woman is acutely pissed. her "dadgummit," gets an "mmhmm" as a comma, indicating it is not an exclamation so much as an interjection, a breath before an eruption. then she lets loose with the question at hand, a "who the fuck is THAT bitch?!" that would make
ice cube smile. there are times when i wish the pips had stopped squeaking in here and punctuated gladys with some horns.
she regroups. gets control. she reminds him of his cracks on her intuitive skills, and she slaps him with a brisk "ISTHATREALLYWHATYOUTHINK?" "HMM!?" to remind the dumb motherfucker that she is no exception to the commonly held regard for women's intuitive abilities. and when it comes to the send off, she lets loose with a dismissive "boy" to remind him to respect his home and his mama. coming from an atlanta-based group in the 70s...ouch. she will chase him away before she is walked over.
bill withers carries his song with a quiet strength, but gladys is full of head-shakin, wrist-wavin punch. i ended up listening to these songs all night, and i'm up beyond bedtime, so, to bring this back around to home renovation, i provide this pairing as eye candy.
a: the pips
b: a fan from the modern fan company's "ball hugger collection"
