100 Reasons Why "Ignition - Remix" Is So Damned Great

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (438 of them)

OK so after reading this fine thread I decided to download a copy of the track, and HOLY SHIT! knocked my socks off! I'd heard it before in various background-music environments but never paid attention/realized what it was. I think I'm in love.

I'm totally with #7. I love that he identifies the song as a remix--it's a song about itself!

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 15 June 2003 17:54 (twenty years ago) link

49) The 'stirring dance'

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 15 June 2003 17:55 (twenty years ago) link

he's just demonstrating that it is indeed hot and fresh out the kitchen

― Al (sitcom), Sunday, 15 June 2003 17:59 (twenty years ago) link

Exactly. Greatness.

Plus:

50) His green-and-white wristband.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 15 June 2003 18:07 (twenty years ago) link

I kiss all of you so much right now.

― Cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 15 June 2003 18:30 (twenty years ago) link

51. The very second before a Hip Hop artist (with a huge 'fro') was about to go on stage came over and confessed his love for the track, knowing that I loved it. A memorable moment for me as it was a risky time, months before the anyone had broken cover and rhapsodised about it.

52. It doesn't sound like a 'real' song, rather some studio experiment, or album interlude.

― nick.K (nick.K), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:01 (twenty years ago) link

BUT i'd normally cross oceans to avoid kelly but i accidentally heard this tune in the megastore today and christ, it's brilliant for abt 43 of the reasons described above. i will now have to reappraise my entire life.

― kieron, Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:04 (twenty years ago) link

53. ok I'm back

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:35 (twenty years ago) link

Wow. Brilliant thread, John. Somehow I haven't heard this song before just now, I just downloaded it because of this thread. (I listen to virtually no radio aside from WFMU these days, and I've never heard it on MTV or BET while channel surfing.) Thank you! It's a wonderful song.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:36 (twenty years ago) link

54. There's the sudden change in vocal tone in the chorus, right at "mama rollin' that body" - where R Kelly reveals himself to be not just a consummate soul singer, but a pretty clued-in one. Loop that damned line. "Mama rollin' that body": who's that? It's not Kelly. I mean it is him singing, but whose moves is he copping?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:45 (twenty years ago) link

55. reggae, it's something reggae: dancehall specifically

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:45 (twenty years ago) link

56. Elephant Man? No, gentler

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:45 (twenty years ago) link

57. Ini Kamoze? No, that was what I thought, too, but no

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:49 (twenty years ago) link

yeah, I thought the same thing--but I can't really identify what artist

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:54 (twenty years ago) link

58. Oh Christ it's Shaggy, where the hell did that come from?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:55 (twenty years ago) link

59. Would anybody who's not comfortable with having their contributions posted as part of my weekly Last Plane to Jakarta update please say so before the thread's over, thanks

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:56 (twenty years ago) link

60. Yes I am aware that technically speaking that last one is not a reason why "Ignition - Remix" is so damned great, and neither is this one for that matter

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:57 (twenty years ago) link

61. But hey, what can you do?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:57 (twenty years ago) link

62. Anyhow

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:57 (twenty years ago) link

63. (note also that the whole feel of the remix owes a fair amount to Buju Banton, of all people)

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 19:58 (twenty years ago) link

64. let's posit that somebody involved with this record has heard some dancehall

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:02 (twenty years ago) link

65. and let's further posit that R Kelly is that guy, which is a lot more probable than the "oh-but-he's-do-dumb" crowd would like to admit, but all the disparate elements in his style suggest either the happiest accident of all time or a remarkable keen ear for when to put what where

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:04 (twenty years ago) link

66. I actually hear a little bit of Prince in it. I can't be too specific or refer to any particular song (though I could hear the backing track fitting in fairly well on Sign O The Times), but it's a general feeling. Maybe it's the keyboards. Like the best Prince songs, it has an ability to make you feel vicariously smooth and sexy, even if you are not a particularly smooth or sexy person.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:04 (twenty years ago) link

Why would anyone doubt that R Kelly has heard some dancehall?

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:05 (twenty years ago) link

67. Spot-on Matthew, Prince is in here

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:05 (twenty years ago) link

68. So's Curtis Mayfield

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:05 (twenty years ago) link

...the glasses...because he wants to

― s.r.w. (s.r.w.), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:06 (twenty years ago) link

69. And Marvin' freaking GAYE

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:06 (twenty years ago) link

70. So we've got the feeling of lots of reggae that most Americans have sadly missed just ripping across the front of the track, and this dumb weekend lyric that's not actually dumb, hitting-on-a-dozen-points vocals flexing so effortless that you might be forgiven for thinking it was guileless

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:08 (twenty years ago) link

71. since after all that effect is the point

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:08 (twenty years ago) link

69. that 180 degree head shot in the video is classic.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:09 (twenty years ago) link

That video online anywhere?

― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:11 (twenty years ago) link

70. Julio you're right, this thread warrants at least two 69s

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:11 (twenty years ago) link

71. Haven't seen the video

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:12 (twenty years ago) link

72. Where was I? Oh yeah

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:12 (twenty years ago) link

73. A dozen disparate elements in play all at once and that's when Kelly throws in the deep emotional vocal timbre that is his unique gift, and it's just where "adamwest" said it was:

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:13 (twenty years ago) link

74. "bounce bounce bounce bounce"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:13 (twenty years ago) link

75. I mean listen to that, for the love of heaven listen to it, it's the depthless endless joy of pop music compressed into one word repeated four times

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:14 (twenty years ago) link

76. john you have to see that video!

77. you'll spend the rest of yr time wondering abt that one shot.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:15 (twenty years ago) link

Sorry, but I don't hear Prince or reggae, I hear R Kelly.

(ps. Beyonce & Jigga's new single pretty much kills this tune)

― ss, Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:15 (twenty years ago) link

78. gotta be R's a big Orson Welles fan from the sound of it - crazy, crazy times

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:16 (twenty years ago) link

79. beyonce's new single is great.

80. at least as good as kelly rowland's last one

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:17 (twenty years ago) link

81. twenty posts to go and it's finally getting away from me

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:17 (twenty years ago) link

Hmmm I smell Kanye West.

― ss, Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

82. (if you don't hear reggae on that one line, ss, you're not listening, I mean it's blatant)

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

If you mean the little toast bit in the middle of the chorus, well, it's hardly fundamental to the record is it

― ss, Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:20 (twenty years ago) link

83. the vibrato, the misplaced depth of feeling, the totality of it: "bounce bounce bounce bounce"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:20 (twenty years ago) link

84. (of course it's fundamental, it's a pop song, every line is fundamental)

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:21 (twenty years ago) link

85. (especially the ones in the chorus)

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:21 (twenty years ago) link

86. ok now where was I - oh yeah

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 15 June 2003 20:22 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 338 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.