Werewolves At Number One!
“So what are you saying?” writes P$. “Did Kid Rock rip you off or is it coincidence?”
Dunno if you’ve noticed, but Kid Rock is at the top of the charts right now with a song that heavily samples Warren Zevon’s Werewolves Of London. Just like my song, Werewolves!, written a year or so ago, released on the Thieving mixtape in March.
Stream: Akira The Don - Werewolves!
Being a humble man, I obviously couldn’t imagine Kid Rock to have been bumping MY shit. Plus, knowing the way the record machine works, if this is out NOW, it was prolly written at least 12 months ago.
So, as ever, I shall blame my closer-than-average connection to the collective unconcious. Last summer myself and Trey reworked that Eddie Muphy song about how his girl likes to party all the time - a month later a trance version was in the top ten. Shit like that happenes to me every day. I remember Grant Morrisson saying something about how if you’re gonna get into magic, the first thing you might wanna do is start noticing all the synchronicities in your life. Mayne, I am just about ready to conjure up a frickin’ dinosaur or something. My synchronicity count is off the frickin’ RADAR.
I tell you something though. I am gonna have to stop playing Werewolves! live.
Anyway. The Kid Rock song (first sent to me by Colin back in May) is below. Here’s what Thesvenhunter says about the song.
Kid Rock’s ‘All summer Long’ is about how awesome it was being Kid Rock, particularly in the summer, particularly when he was younger, particularly when he was making out with some teenager by a lake and listening to ‘Sweet Home Alabama‘, which is one of the two classics of Americana lumped together here in the ‘mash-up’. The other is Warren Zevon’s iconic ‘Werewolves of London‘, which is soullessly stolen and looped to serve as the reanimated bones with which Kid Rock’s pungent musical zombie can shake its stagnant stuff.
Kid Rock doesn’t bother rapping anymore, he just sings (badly) over lifted riffs cobbled together by OTHER PEOPLE. This is it. this is the great summer hit that we’ll have to remember 2008 by; the odious Kid Rock tosses about in a fucking boat while bikini-clad babes wiggle around poles, which they apparently have hanging around - either on lake shores or boats - in Michigan.
These romantic reminisences are nothing revolutionary:
“We didn’t have no Internet, but man I never will forget / The Way the moonlight shined upon her hair”.
What does that mean? Those two things are surely unconnected. Not to mention the irritating ignorance of the irregular verb. Worst of all is the fact that this memory of Kid Rock’s - this personal picture of pastoral pleasantry - is simply impossible to translate to me: impossible to make me, the listener, give two hoots about.
It relies on another, much better song, for its message: for its very existence; the chorus, and refrain, ”Singin’ ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ all summer long…” simply serves to remind us how recycled and redundant our own music and culture is, and our own memories will become, unless of course they’re rendered insignificant by this Internet thing.
This is a terrible, terrible song.
Tags: akira the don, kik rock, sampling, sweet home alabama, warren zevon, werewolves of london, werewolves!
I remember I was on the phone to Trey just before you started that Eddie Murphy Remix then when I saw the trance version on TV nobody believed me. Bastardos.
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
We’ve taken to listening to radio as we drift off to sleep (how retro!) and every night, without fail, a certain Cardiff-based station that pipes its way across the Bristol Channel/Severn Estuary plays three songs:
1. Duffy - Warwick Avenue
2. Kid Rock - All Summer Long
3. Nickelback - Rock Star
Every night, I do my little plea to whatever higher powers are out there that I’ll be unconcious by the time they come on.
I hate those songs. Each one is an example, in different ways, of what is wrong with radio-friendly, video-friendly music these days.
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Ask the mans dem. I filpped the “Crazy In Love” sample (Chi-Lites) about 2 years before Beyonce did (in exactly the same way).
Not quite on the same level, but there is also a Black Milk track (One Song) which used a sample (in exactly the same way) I flipped way back in the 90’s.
Also (lots of people sampled this) the Nieleson track “Lonliest Number” (best e.g is probably Kwelis version) is actually one of the 1st samples I ever choped and looped.
Theres about 6 I can’t remember off the top of my head. It happens to me all the time though. Thought Thieves!
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Also it’s worth noting that whenever that Kid Rock video comes on, we wait for this one part when the young Kid Rock looks EXACTLY like you Akira. EXACTLY. I think it might be a secret diss track.
RESPOND!
Don’t.
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Do not argue with Kid Rock. He will drag you down to his level, then beat you with his multi-million strong pitchfork-wielding fanbase.
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August 5th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Kid Rock is rubbish. A friend who works with him says he is lovely guy but she is a pretty lady so that may help.
Anyone heard the Muse v Streets track? Thoughts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP0OLkBZTkU
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Nah but I saw that new Streets song/video on popjustice and it’s not great. Their review (”it’s shit”) seemed kind of harsh but it’s true that it was too long and he simply doesn’t have the voice to pull it off.
http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2816&Itemid=206
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Bobbins
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August 5th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
The new Streets video is one more sign of Skinner’s delusions of grandeur, monetary needs, and distance from reality.
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August 5th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Shit. When I was in MIA back in 04, this gang of kids ran up on me at the beach convinced I was Kid Rock, they had me sign autographs and everything.
I was wearing a cowboy hat, and an american flag vest.
Never agian!
Re The Streets track, I want the instrumental. It’s lovely.
And that Muse things kinda sweet…
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
This post is all about THIEVING! Firstly kid rock thieving you! and more hilariously Skinners rapping just like……….. ROBBIE WILLIAMS bwahahahahah
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August 5th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear said Mrs Rabbit. Why, why on earth did this song have to get big? I thought that it would graciously bugger off without anyone noticing. First Rockstar, now this. God, I’m glad that I dont work in a record store anymore. Joe C had all the talent anyway.
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
“I’m the J-O-E to the C hoe
Call me me Joe C got more game than calico
I’m a freako call me sick
three foot nine with a ten foot dick”
[Reply]
August 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Precisely.
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August 5th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Haha, it seems like you’re unconsciously a trend setter. But your version is still better anyway.
[Reply]
August 6th, 2008 at 7:50 am
“better” in the comment above is the understatement of the century so far.
[Reply]
August 6th, 2008 at 12:38 pm