this slate quote is crazy! it sounds like half the hit pop songs of the 80's! it sounds exactly like the 80's. like eerily so. in the 80's video they would have had a dog in sunglasses and at the end of the video the dog would drive away with the model in the sports car and everyone in the video would look at the car driving away and go WHUUUHHH????
― scott seward, Friday, March 20, 2015 7:48 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
voting scott for king of 80s examination
― mh, Saturday, 21 March 2015 02:51 (nine years ago) link
also I am pretty sure jaymc is a complete alien if he has never heard Walk the Dinosaur, or his .xls started sometime after that era
― mh, Saturday, 21 March 2015 02:52 (nine years ago) link
so it's clearly a really loving celebration of all this music, and maybe part of what it does is redeem those earlier sounds (clearly still MUCH beloved on "older folks" radio as mentioned above) by way of those later ones that kinda-sorta but didn't quite carry them over to the mainstream. i dunno, i think it's cool. i know jack shit about bruno mars's upbringing or w/e but i'm kinda imagining it like a tribute to his parents' music.... like what he heard around the house growing up. i guess that makes it like vampire weekend and graceland or something. or maybe not - all the sounds in the song (and the vintage black male fashions in the video) were pretty much totally disappeared from the wider landscape by the time he was six years old, if not from other outlets including hypothetical parents' stereos.so sure, potentially it's more arch and reviva
this is such a good post. yes it's referencing a load of things.but that's not necessarily a bad thing in itself. The number of times in my own attempts at music making I realise I've ripped off the bassline to 'Pass the Dutchie' or sang a melody line out the UB40 songbook or copied Wham or accidentally repurposed Men At Work or the Flying Pickets or A Flock of Seagulls. It's part of my upbringing really, and I don't see it as 'stealing' as it's totally subconscious stuff brimming up from the primordial ooze of my first musical impressions.
― why dont u say something or like just die (dog latin), Saturday, 21 March 2015 02:56 (nine years ago) link
The video is very Moonwalker innit?
― why dont u say something or like just die (dog latin), Saturday, 21 March 2015 02:57 (nine years ago) link
weird how Was (Not Was) went from no disco gurus to Mick-Keef enablers.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 21 March 2015 02:58 (nine years ago) link
this is my jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8PjjxJ7v78
I saw Was (Not Was) play a reunion show here maybe, dunno, five years ago? Less? It was the day after New Year's Eve, there was a blizzard, and there were maybe 50 people there. Pretty good, iirc.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:00 (nine years ago) link
going back to Dr Casino's post, yes it's like a turbofied 'look what this could have been' best-of-all-worlds marriage of overlooked style married with new turbofied production values.
― why dont u say something or like just die (dog latin), Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:01 (nine years ago) link
"Spy in the House of Love" video basically shows Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers backing "Living in America"-era Brown
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 21 March 2015 03:03 (nine years ago) link
If Marty McFly went back in time thirty years ago today, what song does he play at the dance to blow everyone's mind?
― with HD lyrics (Eazy), Saturday, 21 March 2015 05:35 (nine years ago) link
I thought the video was a reference to the closing credits in jay and silent bob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O3vC8tDj1M
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 21 March 2015 07:56 (nine years ago) link
For most of my life I've only known "walk the dinosaur" from the George Clinton & the goombas version
― sexpost TMIing! (wins), Saturday, 21 March 2015 09:25 (nine years ago) link
1 Walk The Dinosaur (Single Version) 3:482 Walk The Dinosaur (Club Remix Edit) 3:423 Walk The Dinosaur (Funky Goomba Remix) 6:144 Walk The Dinosaur (Goomba Dub Mix) 4:14
― example (crüt), Saturday, 21 March 2015 10:02 (nine years ago) link
"I Gotta Feeling" is actually a really helpful non-obvious point of comparison, not just for length but also the sense that it's not immediately apparent what is the key hook
In a song that's all about anticipation (and basically only ever played at one point in the evening), surely it's instantly apparent what the key hook is? I still kinda think you could replace the boshing bits with virtually any EDM pop at the right tempo and no one would really care, as long as you also gave them the opportunity to sing the "let's do it" bit right at the end.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 21 March 2015 10:20 (nine years ago) link
i like "i got a feeling" specifically for the fact that it rhymes "mazeltov" with "take it off"
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 21 March 2015 10:26 (nine years ago) link
You are literally the only non-lame person I have ever met who has admitted to that.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 21 March 2015 10:28 (nine years ago) link
"i gotta feeling" is horse trash
― soyrev, Saturday, 21 March 2015 11:03 (nine years ago) link
i always thought it's funny that black eyed peas use "i gotta feeling" to close their shows
― ufo, Saturday, 21 March 2015 11:32 (nine years ago) link
I've always suspected that Black Eyed Peas wrote "I Gotta Feeling" after a run of bar and bat mitzvahs will.i.am attended. He probably eyed all these rich and powerful LA industry friends and their children and the wheels started spinning in his head like a slot machine.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 March 2015 13:13 (nine years ago) link
IMO this song is a stunning parade of signifiers and catchy as hell, deserves its success, but like crocodile rock of someone dismisses it as mindless ersatz bubblegum all I can say I don't hate that on principle.
― da croupier, Saturday, 21 March 2015 13:42 (nine years ago) link
I like this song, I mean of course I like the original 80s bounce stuff it co-opts a lot better but so what really....I can like both.
I will admit this is one of those songs people tend to beat into the ground quickly though - can't escape it lately.
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Saturday, 21 March 2015 13:50 (nine years ago) link
It's not nearly as annoying as "Happy," that's for sure, not least because Pharrell's phalsetto sucks and Bruno's funk yelp is pretty on-point. I actually haven't heard it out and about so much, and my wife had somehow never heard it at all until yesterday. But my kids sure know it.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 March 2015 14:23 (nine years ago) link
the thing I hate about "Happy" is shitting on it gets you a side-eye like you just ate somebody's beloved pet
"It's called 'Happy', do you hate the sun too?"
hard to drive when its blaring in my eyes iirc
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Saturday, 21 March 2015 14:25 (nine years ago) link
i like "happy" loads more now that it's not fucking everywhere
― example (crüt), Saturday, 21 March 2015 14:54 (nine years ago) link
You are literally the only non-lame person I have ever met who has admitted to that.― Matt DC, Saturday, 21 March 2015 10:28 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Matt DC, Saturday, 21 March 2015 10:28 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
....thanks?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 21 March 2015 20:48 (nine years ago) link
really good post dr. c
― raih dednelb (The Reverend), Sunday, 22 March 2015 00:41 (nine years ago) link
I've really come to love a lot about this song, even - or maybe especially? - the build, because unlike all these half-assed EDM clowns like Calvin Harris, Zedd or Avicii or whomever, it doesn't just build to some louder, wall-to-wall amplification of already established lazy minor key riff, it builds to this totally ecstatic horn chart that actually, per Avicii, lifts you up, not in a pat bite-your-lower-lip-in-anticipation way, but in an honest to goodness celebration of upbeat release. I did end up making a mix for the family of many of the aforementioned "Uptown Funk" ingredients and influences, and darned if I'm not happy to head back to "UF" again when they get tired of Earth Wind & Fire. Though hilariously, my younger one has been walking around the house singing her own mash-up of "Uptown Funk," "Ladies Night" and "Walk the Dinosaur."
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 March 2015 13:43 (nine years ago) link
It's also better than "Crocodile Rock."
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 22 March 2015 13:52 (nine years ago) link
I remember when bounce was young
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 22 March 2015 13:57 (nine years ago) link
I unreservedly love Crocodile Rock
― example (crüt), Sunday, 22 March 2015 14:07 (nine years ago) link
As you'd expect, I've heard Uptown Funk quite a lot at this point, but somehow every time I try to remember how it goes Young Guns (Go For It) pops into my head instead.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Sunday, 22 March 2015 16:25 (nine years ago) link
I haven't tired of it yet.
― raih dednelb (The Reverend), Sunday, 22 March 2015 20:19 (nine years ago) link
is there a spotify playlist of that mix you made josh? anyone done one with the influences listed here yet?
― brotherlovesdub, Sunday, 22 March 2015 21:30 (nine years ago) link
I haven't tired of hating it yet. Eventually I do.
― clemenza, Sunday, 22 March 2015 21:35 (nine years ago) link
Clem, do you listen to the acts the song alludes to? No ulterior motive in the question. I can understand loking The Time and Gap Band and not a pastiche.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 22 March 2015 21:44 (nine years ago) link
I have some albums that I would have played once. As I acknowledged in my initial post, I'm not a fan of funk in general. But there's '80s stuff I like: "Word Up," "Crazay," a few Prince songs of course. Even as an outsider, though, "Uptown Funk" strikes me as this really bad and bombastic imitation, tantamount to having someone get right up beside me and yell in my ear for four minutes. I'll be interested to see how people feel about five or ten years down the road.
Most Embarrassing Pazz & Jop Top 3 Singles 2004-1979
― clemenza, Sunday, 22 March 2015 21:53 (nine years ago) link
I don't do Spotify, but I essentially used what that Billboard article mentioned, plus "Ladies Night," "Living in America" and "Walk the Dinosaur."
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 March 2015 22:41 (nine years ago) link
I do think songs like this are helpful in recognizing how relevant production is as much as arrangements. That is, you hear tons of songs in this, but this song, just by dint of being 2015, sounds totally different. Which is one reason my kids looked at me funny when I said this sounded like any of those other songs. Yeah, it sounds like them, but it doesn't really sound like them.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 March 2015 22:43 (nine years ago) link
I'll be interested to see how people feel about five or ten years down the road.
Ha, come on, man. Try five months. But hit singles aren't necessarily built to last, they are built to hit. That said, I'm not sure what time traveling this one does that "Treasure" did not, though I do think this one is sharper.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 March 2015 22:46 (nine years ago) link
"Treasure" always sounded good whenever I heard it somewhere. There was also some time traveling of a different sort in "When I Was Your Man," with that Otis Redding or whatever the heck that beautiful thing was that happened in the bridge.
― timellison, Sunday, 22 March 2015 22:52 (nine years ago) link
(xpost) Yes and no. Whatever they're built for, the best singles last.
― clemenza, Sunday, 22 March 2015 22:54 (nine years ago) link
Hmm, I dunno. It's splitting hairs, but I think the best songs last. The best singles are not always the best songs, imo.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 22 March 2015 22:57 (nine years ago) link
Add "New Sensation" to the list of potential influences.
― with HD lyrics (Eazy), Monday, 23 March 2015 01:31 (nine years ago) link
a few Prince songs of course.
just a few?!
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 March 2015 01:36 (nine years ago) link
In terms of his funk side, yeah, just a few; I much prefer poppier stuff like "Raspberry Beret" and "Mountains," and I wasn't really including those. I think the least funkiest guy in the world should voluntarily remove himself from this thread.
― clemenza, Monday, 23 March 2015 01:53 (nine years ago) link
oh I see your distinction
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 March 2015 01:57 (nine years ago) link
would love to see morris day/the time (or other old funkateers) getting some extra bookings on the back of this song.
― StillAdvance, Wednesday, 15 April 2015 11:32 (nine years ago) link
esp as ronson thanked them during his brits speech
agree
― maura, Wednesday, 15 April 2015 15:45 (nine years ago) link
i'm guessing there'll be plenty of opportunities to do performances of this w/ guest stars at award shows over the next year, would be surprised if they don't do something like that at least once
― some dude, Wednesday, 15 April 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link