"My place or yours… gotta be raw… don’t really matter once we get through the door."
This is a slightly different type of "Two Fer Tuesday", as these two tunes were released as a double A-side in the UK, allowing both songs to enjoy radio attention at the same time, and thus, their combined airplay and sales of the single propelled both songs to UK #1… the Top of the Pops, you might say.
Typically viewed in their native UK as an edgier answer to The Spice Girls… Shaznay Lewis, Melanie Blatt, and sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton specialized in a blend of r&b and electro pop that earned them nine top 10 singles across the pond.
They weren’t completely absent from the charts in America, however, as they charted two top 40 singles, the US #36 Steely Dan sampling party tune "I Know Where It's At", and its follow up, the jazz-styled US #4 Motown-channeling ballad "Never Ever".
Now back to that double A-side. Featured on the girls’ 1998 self-titled debut LP, the songs are "near" covers of LaBelle’s 1975 disco smash, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers 1992 rock classic. So, what do I mean by "near" covers?
"Now come on and share all your deep fantasies… I’m asking not telling you, please.
Well, a valid argument could be made in that these songs are not true and complete remakes of the originals, and instead exist more as interpretations or reimaginings. For instance, "Marmalade" uses the same overall melody as the original (though slightly updated for the late ‘90s), but contains different verses, which change the focus of the song from a business man’s tryst with a call girl in New Orleans (as in LaBelle’s version), to that of a confident modern woman asserting her sexuality to her intended lover for the night. The only lyrics retained from the original 1975 composition are the famous French chorus, the playful chants in the bridge sections, and the often quoted "Hey sister, soul sister, go sister, soul sister" refrain.
Now, by comparison, Under the Bridge retains most of the original tune’s lyrics, but has been musically recast with a neo-soul skin, turning the Chili Peppers’ remorseful and cautionary anti-drug tale into a lament of overall loneliness and emotional isolation in a heavily populated city.
Interestingly enough, in both cases, the lyrics that quote each song’s title was replaced or dropped. For the LaBelle tune, the line "Creole lady marmalade" was updated to "Where you think you're sleeping tonight?", and RHCP’s verse of "Under the bridge downtown, is where I drew some blood", has been omitted altogether, out of respect to Chili Peppers’ songwriter Anthony Kiedes, and his personal struggles with drugs on which the original composition was based.
"Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner… sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in…"
I find it odd that London Records did not issue Marmalade/Bridge as the third single in the U.S., especially given that the group would have been coming straight off of the hot #4 hit "Never Ever", thus, the act was at their highest marketability in the U.S. right then. Even if the label was skittish about how us closed-minded Americans might react to the RHCP cover, then why the hell didn't they release the LaBelle remake as a stand-alone single?
And before you go assuming that it was because of that other revival of Lady Marmalade by Christina Aguliera, Missy Elliott, Pink, Mýa and Lil' Kim from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack… that chart topper didn’t come along until 2001, three years after the All Saints’ take on the same tune. So I imagine that in 1998, American airwaves would have been quite receptive to a new version of Marmalade (as we proved to be three years later), had the record label and radio station program directors simply gave it a chance. Perhaps it could have even been the ladies’ second US top 10. In the words of Led Zeppelin… "It makes me wonder."
"I drive on the streets, ‘cus he’s my companion… I walk through his fields, ‘cos he knows who I am."
Also of note here are the insanely creative music videos for both songs, which see the floors and ceiling of a populated skyscraper realistically crumbling apart while a dance party is occurring (in Lady Marmalade), and then the aftermath, in which the ladies are walking around what’s left of their apartment with huge jagged gaping holes in the building (in Under the Bridge). The special effects are excellent here, and I really got a sense of dread in watching the floors and ceilings tear away from their supports, revealing tremendous holes multiple stories above the city streets far below… for God’s sake, how is this building still standing with such little structural integrity left?
I’ve always enjoyed discovering remakes that are radical re imaginings of their source material. Songs like Tori Amos’ haunting piano ballad rendition of Nirvana’s "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Duran Duran’s alternative rock take on Public Enemy’s "911 is a Joke", or Dweezil Zappa and Donny Osmond’s heavy metal version of the Bee Gees’ "Stayin’ Alive". It takes quite a bit of risk and creative cojones to change up an iconic tune, and the All Saints have done that here, turning both songs on their ears and morphing them into their own, while still honoring the spirit of the original tunes.
So give them a spin below, and be sure to watch the videos in the order they are posted below. And check back on the Dial in about two weeks for our annual wintertime selection, a top 10 hit from 1988 that wasn’t originally intended as a holiday recording, but due to its inclusion on a holiday movie soundtrack, it wound up that way. Stay tuned to Kyle’s Radio Dial… the more you listen… the MORE you remember!
"I don’t ever want to feel like I did that day… take me to the place I love… take me all the way."
No comments:
Post a Comment