Beware (Jay-Z Remix) by Punjabi MC

Recipe for great song:

Fist let’s start with a 1980s TV theme song:



Now let’s take the bass line from that and add in some vocals. How about we use “Mundian To Bach Ke” by Punjabi artist Labh Janjua. This Indian song warns a young girl that now that she is grown up she needs to be careful of boys, perfect.



Ok. . . this ought to be good, let’s see what happened when Punjabi MC mixes these things up.



That’s a party right there, maybe we should add a little of the “H to the Izzo” and see what we get:



My mind is officially blown.

This is one of those things that on paper seems like it would never work but it comes together in a way that is unbelievable. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised with Jay-Z, this guy did sample a song from Annie (which I wrote about in this earlier post).

Every once in a while a Western pop artist deeps into what people call “world music” for influences like Sting’s song “Desert Rose” which featured Algerian singer Cheb Mami.



I came across this song for the trailer for new Sacha Baron Cohen film The Dictator.



While the song seems to fit the vibe of this film it doesn’t really make sense. The trailer portrays this fictional dictator as being from a Middle Easter country and well, “Beware” is clearly of Indian origin. It’s like using “La Bamba” for the movie trailer for New Year’s Eve, which is set in New York City.

Besides being a pleasing mix of sounds what does this all add up to. The bass line from a show about a talking car makes sense in the way its about protection and so is the warning about men. Jay-Z’s lyrics start with typical boasting in the first verse talking about how he’s the “black Brad Pitt” but he gets decidedly political in the second verse.

Jay-Z takes this palate of sounds to talk about issues in the Middle East. He talks about screaming, “leave Iraq Alone” and wanting the troops to have a safe return. Then we get a deeper look at Jay-Z’s world view.

Before Bin Laden got Manhattan to blow
Before Ronal Reagan Got Manhattan the blow
Before I was cabbing it there back and forth
Raw we had it all day, Papi in the hallway
Cop one on consignment give you more yay
Yea, but that’s another story
But for now, Mami turn it around and the let the boy play.

Jay-Z starts talking about the attacks on 9/11 as well as referencing speculation that the Reagan administration had partial responsibility for the distribution of crack cocaine. He goes into his experience selling drugs out of a cab with his distributor. Then he wraps the verse up basically saying that it’s time to party.  Like most Jay-Z lyrics there’s a lot crammed in here and he puts it across while effortlessly rapping through a variety of rhythmic patterns.

This song represent diversity in the best way.  There's layers of meaning in all of the ingredients involved and each group of people these separate parts represent are invited through this song to explore cultures outside of their own.

This song isn't created for the sake of being "diverse."  It's not a lesson in "diversity training," rather it's a celebration of how great a time we can have by coming together.

Redemption Song by Bob Marley

Diagnosed with cancer, in pain and facing his own mortality, Bob Marley wrote “Redemption Song” in 1979. Marley had already changed the way the world viewed Reggae music, Jamaica and the Rastafari movement.

With insightful lyrics and a sound that popular culture had never heard before, Bob Marley penetrated deep into the American consciousness, which is evident in his greatest hits album, Legend selling over ten million copies in the United States.

Unlike earlier songs, which featured his band The Wailers, Marley recorded “Redemption Song,” recorded for his seventh album Uprising with a simple acoustic guitar accompaniment. It’s simple presentations echoes back to American folk singers and early works by Bob Dylan filled with social commentary and powerful imagery. There’s something about redemption song that is unique, not only in the protest music but in Bob Marley. Earlier Marley had called out to the world to “Get Up Stand Up” but in “Redemption Song” there was a softer tone, a more personal statement.

Inspired by a speech by Marcus Garvey, urging people to emancipate themselves from mental slavery, Marley composed a song of freedom, a song of hope. He begins in the first verse singing about pirates taking him into physical slavery but “the hand of the almighty” keeping him strong as hi moves forward in his generation. He invites us to sing in his song of freedom because he states “all I ever have, redemption songs.

In the second verse, Marley urges us to free ourselves from a different kind of slavery to free our minds from “mental slavery.” He redirects our fear of atomic energy as they can’t stop who we are and asks us “how long shall they kill our prophet, while we stand aside and look.”

Marley is asking is how we can stand by and watch the things that mean most to us be killed. Instead of focusing on outward fears of nuclear energy, Marley is telling us to look for our spiritual larders, protect what is most important. At the end of the verse Marley states that other people say that we simply have a role to “fulfill the book.” All we are doing is playing falling into place with what others have planned. In this way we truly are slaves and its up to us to free ourselves for this new kind of slavery.

Marley sings that all he ever has is “redemption songs” but “Redemption Song” isn’t one of them. The redemption that Marley asks us to seek is not found in the words and melody of this song, they are found within ourselves. When we finally get there, we can join Marley but until then what we have is this call to freedom.

As the final song on his last album, “Redemption Song” is a powerful statement of the nature of change. Marley can’t make the world change, he can only invite us to think about our lives and do something different. Many people have answered to call to help him sing with him and maybe that’s all we need to do to change the world not through a grandiose speech but through a simple song of freedom.

Underneath Your Clothes by Shakira

I have three impressions of singer that I do. One is Barry Gibb the lead singer of the Bee Gees, one is of Kermit the Frog and my favorite one is of Shakira. My wife is convinced that all three of these impressions sounds exactly the same. I disagree. The Barry Gibb one is slightly more nasal, while my Shakira one is a little bit more swallowed.

I love Shakira. Was her dancing the only reason I initially paid attention to her? Yes. Did I watch her music videos regardless of whether or not I like the song that I was hearing? Yeah. Did I buy that first American album, Laundry Service because of the great reviews? Not really, but did I eventually grow to respect her as an artist and have a legitimate interest in her as a musician? Yes.

Shakira’s voice is all of the map. She goes from doing the nasal pop singer thing, to singing from the back of the her throat (which sounds like someone singing when they are yawning) and throws in some adolescent girly tone. Similar to Michael Jackson, Shakira is able to do things with her voice that nobody else is able to get away with and makes it work. Also, similar to Michael, sometimes her lyrics are incomprehensible.

One of my favorite Shakira songs is “Your Embrace.” Listen through the chorus and you’ll clearly hear “Hope it isn’t too late to say, ‘I love you.’” It's a really cute line, and she repeats “hope it isn’t too late to say” setting you us up for a deeper description of her love however what comes next is indecipherable. Try to figured it out, my best guess for a while was “That without you this place looks clouds, and it rains every day.” This was what my wife and I figured out after listening to this line repeatedly for about 20 minutes one time in the car.



Now usually when I don’t understand the lyrics to a song, and I look them up, the phrase makes more sense, but that wasn't the case with Shakira. The line is: “That without you this place looks like London, it rains every day.” First off, I know that Shakira has a heavy accent but how did she manage a “c” sound in front of the word “London” and seriously, could you come up with a more awkward way to describe love?

As much fun as it is to make fun of Shakira and do my impression, my wife pointed what really works with Shakira, her voice matches her songs perfectly. In “Underneath Your Clothes” the melodies give her time to sail through the different colors in her voice. The nasal sounds come across as strength, her swallowed sounds are joyous, and her girlish voice, sounds intimate and personal.

When someone expresses emotion with their voice in a deep and personal way, people don’t really care about the technique of the singer or the quality of their voice. While singing technique helps singers breaking down the barriers between the heart and the voice, some singers like Janis Joplin and Shakira manage to do this in a pure and unconventional way.

Listen to her sing "Underneath Your Clothes" in this live performance and you'll know what I mean.



Even if I sometimes have no idea what she’s saying or can't make sense of the way she sings, there is something undeniably powerful, personal and beautiful in her voice.

Graceland by Paul Simon

"Graceland" live performance in Zaimbabwe
"Graceland" live performance with Willie Nelson

People often say that life is a journey. We travel through the events in our life like a car on a road trip, sometimes stopping, often hitting bumps in the road but always better for the experience and stronger because of the bumps (or is it humps?).

It is interesting to think of life as a journey since most of our lives consist of journeys that we take every day. They can be as elaborate as a vacation to Tahiti or as simple as a visit to the grocery store. People undertake these journeys for a variety of reasons, at times it’s for fun and other times it’s just another chore. However, sometimes there is something deeper involved.

Paul Simon recorded most of his album Graceland in South Africa melding African folk and popular music into his music creating a unique and refreshing fusion of art. Simon felt it strange to name an album focused on his experience in South Africa after an American cultural monument but he eventually embraced the title track of the album. Many critics and fans consider Graceland one of Simon’s greatest albums and the title track one of his finest songs.

“Graceland” isn’t a song that tells you how to feel. Instead of painting with broad strokes of human feelings like happiness or sadness, Simon mixes the more obvious colors of emotion like an abstract painting inviting us to contemplate and reflect the shades between the colors.

Simon begins the song describing the drive to Graceland, Elvis Presley’s Memphis home. When looking out the window of a moving car the images of the world take on motion and depth. As they move past our eyes they almost becomes a blur of color and light which the percussion and guitars paint as we hear Simon contemplate his journey to Graceland.

In the chorus, Simon describes Graceland as a religious experience. The visitors are “poorboys and pilgrims” and end this section stating, “I’ve reason to be believe we both will be received in Graceland.” Calling the visitors “pilgrims’ implies the idea of a religious pilgrimage to the holy land Jerusalem. Though it may be sacrilegious to think of visiting the home of a long dead rock singer as being a religious experience, for many people it approaches that level of importance.

Simon’s statement that he has reason that he will be “received” in Graceland brings to mind the idea of being “received in Heaven.” The belief of Graceland as being a place that accepts and welcomes journeymen is in stark contrast of the rejection that Simon goes on to describe in this song.

She comes back to tell me she's gone,
As if I didn't know that
As if I didn't know my own bed,
As if I'd never noticed,
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead,
And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart,
Everybody sees you're blown apart,
Everybody sees the wind blow.

There is pain in this rejection. He feels that she tells him something in a way that does not acknowledge his involved in the relationship and how much he really cared for her, “as if I’d never noticed, the way she brushed her hair from her forehead.” The description of losing love as being something that you cannot hide, something that everybody sees is not so much about the reality of the situation but how one feels after being rejected. People feel open and torn apart when they are hurt. It’s like the whole world is involved in witnessing the rejection and pain involved. It hurts so much how can other people not notice? In some ways we want people to notice our pain but the reality of the fact is that most people do not see what we are feeling as we cannot really see the wind blow.

As Simon journeys to Graceland, he struggles with the reality of his situation. In the end of the song, he makes a statement explaining his understanding of what this journey means.

And I maybe obliged to defend every love every ending
Or maybe there's no obligations now, maybe I've a reason to believe
We all will be received in Graceland

We are obliged to do only what we chose to feel obliged to do. Obligation is not a fact but a feeling. If Simon believes that he is obligated to defend himself, then Graceland is truly a place of salvation where Simon will be received regardless of sin. At the same time if he has no obligations, he is free to go on the journey and be accepted as free man. It is embracing this lack of understanding and ambiguity Simon is speaking to all of us who through life are never truly sure of how to deal with our past and what the destination of our journeys truly mean.

One of these days, I will visit Graceland. I don’t know exactly why I want to go there, I just know that it’s important. I feel drawn to the legend of Elvis. I want to experience the south and live through the history of the land. I want to feel excitement of a journey who’s conclusion is uncertain to a place that I do have reason to believe I will be received.