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Bossing your band around (James/Fela-rel)

MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
edited August 2010 in Strut Central
I'm working right now listening to Felas "Lady", and how bad is it when the band stops playing the horn part, and Fela stops singing the lyrics, instead repeating "I never tell you finish, I never tell you finish" until the horn section catches the drift and starts playing? Pretty damn bad.

I also love "The Boss", when James goes "Heading for the turnaround, heading for the turnaround" and when the band makes the change, he screams "TOLD YOU SO!".

Add on if you've got a favourite boss-your-band-around moment, on record or live...

  Comments

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    How about bossing the crowd around?

    "On tempo jack!"
  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    Jonny_Paycheck said:
    How about bossing the crowd around?

    "On tempo jack!"

    Also allowed.

    I've actually wondered if that was directed at a band member or the crowd. Obviously the crowd's clapping waffles from Dilla-esque sloppiness to straight up shitty timing, but who calls a crowd of people "Jack"?
  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    70s American slang, compare today to "on tempo dude."
  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    Jonny_Paycheck said:
    70s American slang, compare today to "on tempo dude."

    Still sounds like your singling out one person though. On the other hand, there's no plural form I guess, dude/dudes is an improvement in that respect.

    Bossing your band around, 70s fusion/musicnerdery style:

  • jdeezjdeez 638 Posts
  • pointmanpointman 1,042 Posts
    I've often wondered if the public display of musical bossiness/band directing of JB was an influential factor that made something like the kashmere stage band possible.

    I think it likely was.
  • JazzsuckaJazzsucka 720 Posts
    Mingus was the king of this. In many of his records, you can hear him screaming at the band. Never really understand, what he's saying but I'm sure the band got it.
  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    jdeez said:

    Ah yes, the Buddy Rich tirades. So many great ways to berate/threaten people. "You shut your mouth, or I'll show you what it's like!" From Rich or Costanza, that's classic.
  • BeatnicholasBeatnicholas 1,005 Posts
    Sun Ra was another tough boss to have in a different way. Rarely let people have a creative hiatus from the band. John Gilmore was the only exception. Any smoking weed or drinking, and he left a possessed african statue in front of your bedroom that haunted your dreams, according to accounts.
  • TabaskoTabasko 1,357 Posts
    this came to mind:

  • snicka_gsnicka_g Hong Kong 276 Posts
    Ulysses31nicholas said:
    Sun Ra was another tough boss to have in a different way. Rarely let people have a creative hiatus from the band. John Gilmore was the only exception. Any smoking weed or drinking, and he left a possessed african statue in front of your bedroom that haunted your dreams, according to accounts.

    Woah! Would love to hear more about this!!!
  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    snicka_g said:
    Ulysses31nicholas said:
    Sun Ra was another tough boss to have in a different way. Rarely let people have a creative hiatus from the band. John Gilmore was the only exception. Any smoking weed or drinking, and he left a possessed african statue in front of your bedroom that haunted your dreams, according to accounts.

    Woah! Would love to hear more about this!!!

    The Nightmare on Elm street remake should have portrayed a jazzmusician, sleeping after a weed session, being haunted by an african dreamgod. Or someone just make that movie now, please.
  • fishmongerfunkfishmongerfunk 4,154 Posts
    snicka_g said:
    Ulysses31nicholas said:
    Sun Ra was another tough boss to have in a different way. Rarely let people have a creative hiatus from the band. John Gilmore was the only exception. Any smoking weed or drinking, and he left a possessed african statue in front of your bedroom that haunted your dreams, according to accounts.

    Woah! Would love to hear more about this!!!

    there is some documentary on him that delves into this (the manager of the mc5 relates the stories). apparently sonny got really pissy when his band-mates had girlfriends. rumour is sonny was in the closet.

    chuck berry is known to abuse his band.
  • maldorurrmaldorurr 120 Posts
    Mjukis said:

    Ah yes, the Buddy Rich tirades. So many great ways to berate/threaten people. "You shut your mouth, or I'll show you what it's like!" From Rich or Costanza, that's classic.

    "This guy ... this is not my kind of guy."

    b/w

    The '74 live version of Zappa's "Montana" in which Chester Thompson and Ruth Underwood mangle the intro drum roll so he forces the whole band to do the song about 30 BPM slower
  • vintageinfantsvintageinfants 4,537 Posts
    when dylan 'plugged in' for the first time, under the boos and yells, you can hear him shouting 'play fucking loud!' to the band.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    There is an Arlo Guthrie lp where you can here James Burton and Ry Cooder fighting over who played the part wrong.

    In the Let It Be movie you can watch Paul trying to get George to play a guitar part a certain way, and George saying, "if you don't like my playing I'll just take my guitar and go home". Thank goodness they broke up shortly after that.

    "If you want to end the war you'll have to sing a lot better (louder?) than that." Country Joe McDonald

    Bob Wills
  • incompletejigsawincompletejigsaw 756 Posts
    crabmongerfunk said:
    snicka_g said:
    Ulysses31nicholas said:
    Sun Ra was another tough boss to have in a different way. Rarely let people have a creative hiatus from the band. John Gilmore was the only exception. Any smoking weed or drinking, and he left a possessed african statue in front of your bedroom that haunted your dreams, according to accounts.

    Woah! Would love to hear more about this!!!

    there is some documentary on him that delves into this (the manager of the mc5 relates the stories). apparently sonny got really pissy when his band-mates had girlfriends. rumour is sonny was in the closet.

    chuck berry is known to abuse his band.

    There was a documentary on Sun Ra that I remembered watching some time ago where the band basically lived in the same house and practices would go on for hours upon hours on end. As for the closet rumor, I remember one band member talking about asking Sun Ra what he felt about June Tyson. He went on to say something like, "What would I want to do with her?! I am an angel."
  • MjukisMjukis 1,675 Posts
    There's a great Captain Beefheart documentary on youtube (the John Peel one) where some of the band members recount the recording of Trout Mask Replica. Once a week one band member was allowed to leave the house where they all stayed and rehearsed - to buy groceries. The other band members also had to act very enthusiastic about Beefhearts avant garde poetry, even if they'd heard the exact same thing fifteen times they had to pretend like it was amazing and a revelation to hear it.
  • maldorurrmaldorurr 120 Posts
    Mjukis said:
    There's a great Captain Beefheart documentary on youtube (the John Peel one) where some of the band members recount the recording of Trout Mask Replica. Once a week one band member was allowed to leave the house where they all stayed and rehearsed - to buy groceries. The other band members also had to act very enthusiastic about Beefhearts avant garde poetry, even if they'd heard the exact same thing fifteen times they had to pretend like it was amazing and a revelation to hear it.

    I think it was Merrell Fankhauser who said that when the Captain cherry-picked Jeff Cotton for the Magic Band, he decided that Jeff "didn't really understand the blues" and forced him to listen to some Mississippi John Hurt single for six straight hours by blasting it through the door of the bathroom in which he'd locked Jeff.
  • snicka_gsnicka_g Hong Kong 276 Posts


    Crazy ass Buddy Rich goes off on his band......
  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    Jonny_Paycheck said:
    How about bossing the crowd around?

    "On tempo jack!"
    Yes!

    Along those same lines, some of my favorite shit is Nina Simone doing "See Line Woman" live (in Paris, maybe?). She tries to get the crowd to sing along, but they keep fucking up the tempo, so she says "You know what? Let's skip it."

    Some of my least favorite shit is The Roots hectoring a crowd in late-90s semi-rural South Carolina for not knowing all the words to "Top Billin'." "Yo, this night can't go any further until y'all get this just right." And dude was serious, too! He was really mad! Ran through it like eight times! Stopped the music and everything! Folks were heading to the bar! I am sympathetic as anyone to the hardships of the touring musician, but shit, son. The whole vibe was kinda flatline after that--Characters Nightclub was not with the heavy schoolmarm moves from up East.

    George Clinton during "Mothership Connection" in Houston in seventy-whatever: "Sing the song, y'all! Shit!"

    I forget: In "The Symphony," all Marley Marl's beefing at the end about the rappers' being done before the music stops, is that for real, or is it a re-enactment of a previous incident? I know it has some grounds in reality, but I'm blanking on the specifics.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    More than once I've heard Andre Williams ad-lib, on record: "don't give that drummer none, give ME some!"

    Although that was probably more a gimmick or a goof on James Brown than it was a genuine request.
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