Big Twelve-Inch Record

In the mid-80s sometime, I bought about 20 12" singles. I have no idea why. I had no designs on being a DJ. Well, actually, I did want to play records on the radio, but I mean I had no intention of setting up the wheels of steel and doing some mixing and scratching in front of a bunch of bad-dancing white folks at the El Charro nightclub back in my hometown.

So I have these platters for some reason. They're stuck in with the other vinyl, so I got to looking through them the other day. I think I was fascinated with the remix concept. Understand that where I grew up was not exactly New York City. While proximate to Los Angeles, there was no "inner city" where I lived. I didn't know about hip-hop. I didn't know about rapping (if there was such a thing back then). And I sure didn't know about taking regular music and remixing it to make it danceable. Heresy, I would have thought. Especially with The Clash.

So the remixes fascinated me, once my mind and horizons broadened a little. There was also sometimes stuff on the 12" that wasn't on the album. The 12" basically took over the 45s I used to buy, giving me not only a single if I didn't want an entire album, but also an occasional B-side, if you will.

What I hold here in my hands today are some remixes and some singles.

The Rappin' Duke. Often name-checked, never duplicated. Shawn Brown and Greg Brown wrote this rap masterpiece. The Gossiping Bitches blog has a funny article about this classic.
Rappin’ Duke.mp3

The Ghetto Boys. Before they became the Geto Boys and before Bushwick Bill, these Houston rappers were a relatively benign bunch, sampling Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog." As best I know, this is probably their first single. The Geto Boys Web site omits mention of this early stuff, playing up the gangsta angle, but a more detailed history, along with links to buy Geto Boys disks, is at Answers.com.
You Ain’t Nothing.mp3

The Fat Boys. They were the shit! I remember one of my buddies doing "Fat Boys are Back" on an acoustic guitar. That had us in tears for days. I've got a dub version of the Boys doing James Brown's "Sex Machine." The Box, a hip-hop archive site, has some cool links with other Fat Boys songs and video. Also worth noting is that Prince Markie D is now a DJ at 103.5 The Beat here in Miami. Darren "Buffy, the Human Beatbox" Robinson died of a heart attack December 10, 1995, in Rosedale, NY. He was 28 years old and reportedly 450 lbs.
Sex Machine.mp3



The Clash's "Magnificent Seven" is "skanking soul music with a serious political agenda and unstoppable rhythm set into motion for one reason and one reason only: dancing," Raoul Hernandez, the Austin Chronicle's music critic, wrote in 2000. So it should be no surprise this song was lifted and remixed into the "Magnificent Dance" a forerunner by about two decades of the London Booted remix album. The single has no credits, other than the Clash's writing credit, so I don't know who remixed it. But who cares - let's dance.
The Magnificent Dance.mp3

posted by aikin @ 2:43 PM