AR Roots: You Should Be Dancing - cover by AndyR

[AndyR]

Found this little chappie while I was preparing my latest original.

It was a quick demo recorded on my Boss Micro BR sometime in October or so last year (2011) while I was working on Shine.

It was a sort of "blow the cobwebs out" exercise (I've got another such exercise - an original - in progress, coming soon, called, er, "Cobwebs Out", but that one's more about stayin on yer back).

I quite liked this crazy-assed swamp-blues version when I did it, but I always intended to "do it properly" - mebbe get all the actual words together for starters, this was done entirely from memory. I didn't think, at the time, that this was "good enough" to make public. But things have moved me on slightly, and I reckons it's a bit of a giggle now.

It was the last thing I recorded before before we moved house. One double-bass, two resos and some bloke grunting and hitting things in a random fashion.

I seem to remember I caused the lady in the flat downstairs a lot of grief while I was recording the bass... oh well, I'm gone now, dear... tum-te-tum

Oh, and in case, you don't know - I am a huge Bee Gees fan, their 60s and early 70s stuff is what started me off making music. Never thought I'd do anything to this one though.

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[Gritter]

i Love it AR...geez that's a swampy groove. Love all the percussive touches and that low down dirty slide all anchored with that bad ass bass...I'm going back in for more!

[Gritter]

...a right gritty vocal too...a la Long John Baldry.

[AndyR]

a la Long John Baldry.

That's who it is! I was thinking "Tom Waits" when I was doing it...

[Hilary]

Yeah baby - I'm lovin the new relaxed Andy!

[AndyR]

He's not that new - there's loads of him knocking about here... it's just that I don't usually post him!

[Hook]

Post on Post on! Love this dirty, backwoods groove. The grit in your voice & that slide make for some swampy disco!
Rock On!

[launched]

I thought I was the only fan of the Bee Gees' mid/late 70's disco stuff, at least here on this forum. The changeup on this is spectacular!

Of course it was well recorded and performed but the feeling and the vibe is infectious. You've got the whole package, bro. I'm loving this tune!

[AndyR]

I actually prefer the '67 through to '72 stuff - that's what I grew up with (and country music and Frank and Doris ).

But Children of the World, that this is the opener of - is a stunning album. And the previous album, Main Course, the one where they really "found" what they were trying to do, is probably my over all favourite. The band sound on that album (Nights on Broadway, especially) is, for me, the epitomy of a "real" pop-rock ensemble playing popular music. And the songs -ooh, Songbird, and Come on Over, and Fanny Be Tender, and Country Lanes, sigh...

But it's still things like I Gotta Get a Message to You, I Can't See Nobody, First of May, Holiday, etc, etc from before the first split in 69/70 that really gets me though.

What's really interesting (to me, anyway) is that they were always trying to do the RnB thing they ended up doing, even with the 60s material - they just didn't know how to achieve it early on (and still had hits!).

Their image is cheesy, there's the teeth, and the late 70s voices that are so easy to parody - but, flippin nora, they were SO good at making music. And Robin's voice... sigh... I've spent nearly all my life trying to sing like that (in private mostly), but I can't do it. Love Me on Children of the World, or Country Lanes, and the one that started me - I Can't See Nobody on the very first album in 1967 (listening to that one now, trying to figure out how to record it, one day maybe...).

[launched]

Their image is cheesy, there's the teeth, and the late 70s voices that are so easy to parody -

You forgot the chia-chests!