Tribute records
DrWu
4,021 Posts
This shit is 
. Anyone know of any others that are good. I have the Louisville Lip one and it's 
.
. Anyone know of any others that are good. I have the Louisville Lip one and it's .
Comments
I just picked up a nice Modern Soul 45. A side is a tribute to Sugar Ray Robinson, supposedly a radio hit in DC + MD. the B is a tribute to Minnie Ripperton. It has the great line; You're Still The King To Us In Almost Every Way.
Dan
Great record, one I sweated for years.
Dan
Cool, what record is that?
I guess I was thinking non-music related tributes but am interested in it all.
Ok, this is the second DC record I have posted up in a week that DC heads knew nothing about. There is DC music beyond go-go and Andrew White. I want you guys to go find the rest of the Mizell bros DC productions, and those Howard U Carla Thomas - Roberta Flack jam session tapes.
I found no mention of this record on google, ebay or gemm, accept for at Rayy Slyy Latney's web site where he says it was a big hit.
Listen Flip
Dan
Johnny Wakelin - Black Superman a tribute to Muhammad Ali.
Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday a tribute to MLK
Dan
John Wagner Coalition - Shades Of Brown
Rubber Band - Hendrix Songbook
Good Call - Purple Fox (Leo Muller) Tribute To Hendrix.
Commadores - Nightshift
Is Take Me To The River a Jr Parker tribute?
You like organ and percussion?
K in Canada.
Eddie Cochran's choked-up tribute to Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & the Big Bopper:
A few of the hundreds of Otis Redding tributes, from labelmates & friends Eddie Floyd and William Bell, and an entire album from Baltimore's Upsetters:
One artist who received countless tribute albums was Billie Holiday, tributed here by Sam Cooke in a medley,
he also had a full album tribute to her:
And Cooke himself of course recieved many many tribute records...
...these from the two acts probably most qualified to pay tribute: members of the legendary Gospel group he made his name with, and his own younger brother.
And of course, there is always the blatantly exploitative ish:
Hank Herb - Ali funky thing
Pace-Setters - Push on (Jesse Jackson)
Diggin this
Pele had an album. I didn't think much of it last time I heard it 15 years ago. I've had some Frazier 45s, good. And a Willie Mays on Duke. Shaq, Rasheed Wallace, et al.
The best are the long string of soul singers who were once Golden Gloves; Jackie Wilson, Barry Gordy (?), Wilson Pickett, James Brown. I might be wrong about some of those, but being a Golden Gloves fighter is as basic to a 60s soul singer bio as singing in church.
Dan
Once again Laser drops science. How's that Wilie Mays?
I remember liking it. With the Al Braggs Duke house band sound.
Dan
Keeping it Strictly Pugilistic[/b]
Bob Dylan - "Hurricane"[/b]
The picture sleeve 45 is where it's at for this one. I bought Desire in high school, and I remember wondering (having never heard of Rubin Carter) whether this song was fiction. It's amazing how he can take full names, events, dates, court transcripts, and weave them all into a narrative that is easy to follow -- AND rhymes. Fucking genius. And when he gets to the line, "And so Patty calls the cops," you get this sick-to-your-stomach feeling. I don't know how he implies the lie that's foreshadowed in this stanza with his voice, but he does. That line always makes the neck hair stand on end. Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down.
Four months later the ghettos are in flame
Rubin's in South America fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him lookin' for somebody to blame
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law"
"Think it might've been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night"
"Don't forget that you are white"
That Denzel Washington movie ruined this song for me. I prefer the context I drew in my imagination when listening to Dylan. The movie should have been a still photo of Carter with the Dylan song playing at full volume. There's no need for the rest of it. I have a soft spot for the entire Desire album, though. Emmylou Harris, the wandering "Isis", and Scarlet Rivera's creepy fucking violin on "One More Cup of Coffee." Pure beauty.
Morrissey - "Boxers"[/b]
Perhaps it's more fascination than tribute, but Morrissey's got love for the sweaty shirtless dudes punching one another. From using an image of John "Cornelius" Carr on the "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" single, to his tribute to "Papa Jack" Johnson, his "Boxers" single (Your weary wife - walking away/ Your nephew, it's true/ He still thinks the world of you/ And I have to dry my eyes/ Oh ...), his use of boxing slang in songs, spending months searching for an anonymous boxer (Kenny Lane) who appeared on the 1960s cover of Ring magazine to use his image for the cover of Southpaw Grammar, the Morrissey sightings at boxing matches.
His explanation?
For me it's the sense of glamour that's attractive, the romance - which of course is enormous, as anyone who's attended bouts would know - but mainly it's the aggression that interest me. It has me instantly leaving my seat and heading for the ropes to join in... And it does give me a heightened sense of satisfaction, because in my life obviously there is absolutely no aggression at all. There is very little physical expression at all apart from standing on a stage and singing. Otherwise the body is firmly under control. It's a vessel, but it's docked with a very heavy anchor...
Something should be said about Miles' Tribute to Jack Johnson.
Really REALLY curious about this
SG
I sure aint a head. I want to know about this one. I know there are more Minnie tributes, but I can't remember them.
Bam, I agree with you on that Dylan single and lp. The inclusion of Emmy Lou's voice was production genius. She does not sing harmony, she doubles what Dylan is doing, but actually hits the notes. In effect fixing his (sometimes unbareable) voice. The Ruben Carter story was unknown to most people when Dylan released that.
Dan
Not exactly. As I understand it, Eddie Floyd was on his way to Otis' funeral when the plane he was waiting for was delayed. Thus, he put pen to paper: "get on up, big bird..." But there are no overt references to Otis in the song.
cool tribute record to Oakland A's pitcher, from 72... pretty funky, in a laid back way, and features a country version of the same song on the flip... now, THAT'S marketing!
i wish i could think of more... i also have a funny 78 by West Coast jazz "personality" Harry "the hipster" gibson, in which he big up's himself on both sides, i.e:
"he's handsome harry the hipster, he'd never marry his sister"
Roosevelt (Rosey) Grier recorded some incredible soul singles over the years (plus two albums - one from the sixties, and a contemporary gospel LP from the eighties). The two R.G. 45's I have are on the Amy label, and he's getting the full Memphis treatment on both of them. Rosey didn't make "golden throats"/singing celebrity records...the man held his own with all the other Southern-styled soul singers on the Amy/Mala/Bell family of labels back then (James Carr, Oscar Toney Jr., James & Bobby Purify, etc.).
I also have a really good single by Ernie Terrell (boxer) & the Heavyweights on Argo. Athletes' musical talent doesn't suck as bad as actors do (unless it's some aberration like the Chicago Bears Shuffling Crew).
I have a Meadowlark Lemon (Globetrotters) 45 that's a kind of rip of Junior Walker's 'Shotgun'. I think it's called 'Shoot A Basket'...
I've heard differently - that it was a direct tribute to Otis, with the plane imagery having a dual meaning of the plane crash that caused his death, and the idea of being lifted up to heaven. The lyric that always sold me on that theory is this one:
Sure sounds like a direct reference to Otis being gone, although I suppose it could be about a plane being late...that would be kinda lame though...
record is dope. for the real scoop, ask ap, he's got one on the bay right now for a steal.
another favorite tribute album: Alice coltrane - Cosmic Music (tribute to John Coltrane & MLK) there are some really great mlk related tribute cuts.
to keep the boxer theme, so many muhammed ali records - black superman, ali shuffle, etc etc.
who do you all think had more tribute albums/songs, mlk or muhammed ali?
For original small label 45s, Ali. For covers of Abraham, Martin and John, MLK.