Idolator Request Line: Please Help Us Tap "The Wire" One Last Time - Idolator Comments

Idolator Request Line: Please Help Us Tap "The Wire" One Last Time

TQuid — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:09:49 EST

With all due respect to Mr. Weller and to the brilliant maestros of The Wire (perhaps the best TV drama ever, the competition being Mr. Simon's previous show, Homicide), nothing matches the original versions of "Walk on Gilded Splinters" by The Night Tripper himself, Dr. John aka Mac Rebennack on his album, Gris-Gris. Released in 1968, a fact I find as startling as the album's music. No psychedelic effects or clichés but The Night Tripper's 33-minute Creole melding of African rhythms and call-and-response, bayou voodoo themes, and sophisticated jazz harmonies is more mind-altering than anything I've heard from that wild year. The don't make 'em like they used to. They certainly don't record them like they used to. No compression, no punch-ins, or digital editing, just great writing and playing in a real space.
And for anyone who thinks, as I once did, that The Talking Head's Remain in Light is the great African/progressive rock breakthrough, I recommend a trip back to the roots - i.e. New Orleans. (Well, The Yardbirds Roger the Engineer may have blazed a trail ...."

TQuid

Idolator Request Line: Please Help Us Tap "The Wire" One Last Time

Breliant — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:30:21 EST

It is a cover of the Dr John song, not as self-indulgent as the Humble Pie cover.

Breliant

Idolator Request Line: Please Help Us Tap "The Wire" One Last Time

brasstax — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 12:35:20 EST

I'll be interested to hear this, assuming it's a cover of the Dr. John song.

brasstax

Idolator Request Line: Please Help Us Tap "The Wire" One Last Time

Brian Raftery — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 11:40:34 EST

Fresh = commenter of the day.

Brian Raftery

Idolator Request Line: Please Help Us Tap "The Wire" One Last Time

Fresh — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 11:23:47 EST

You might try asking Blake Leyh over at The Ten Thousand Things. He's the music supervisor for The Wire, and occasionally posts some of the harder to find tracks that are used on the show.

Fresh