so I'm stoked about thus John Mayer country album.
for a long time I thought I didn't dig country music,
but a few years ago I realized that I dug a lot of r&b tunes that I didn't notice were
country records.



take for instance, the chi-lites, "have you seen her"

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xVYxKRXDT2I

replace that clavinet with a slide guitar,
and you've got a country song.


speaking of the chi-lites,
"oh girl" doesn't need to change anything...
it's a country song already.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pjN8huzS2Nc




beyonce's "irreplaceable" would be a country hit
if Tim McGraw was singing it.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oILEuPPNDKk




and although this isn't a well known song,
MJ and babyface went country with this ballad from invincible...


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mdsb6zByWfY

yeah, george straight could sing that tune and not miss a beat.






anyway, add on.

lionel richie fans should be all over this post...

take the kick drum out and you got country.

its just labels Man, White folks stole it and put a redneck and a conferdarate flag and changed the name.

Ray Charles showed you what time it was as did Charlei Pride and Neil Mccoy still does as does darrius Rucker.

take the Bass and drums a bit on "Midnight train to georgia and Gladys Knight and the pips have a certified country album.

Bill withers grandma's hand could easily be sung by Willie Nelson.

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

On the dock of that bay serving a life sentence,even if I’m going to hell I’m gonna make an entrance

country seems to be a lot more straightforward
than the riddles offered by the roundabout lyrics found in purple rain,
and I don't mean that as a diss.



country artists are the only ones nowadays
that don't use irony, and that's not b/c country fans don't understand irony...
it's just because they like their lyrics when they are not inscrutable.

it took me years to kind of understand "purple rain",
and I've never heard a country song that was that intentionally ambiguous.

musically though, I can see it.



but lyrically, I can't see it.

>country artists are the only ones nowadays
>that don't use irony

that simply isn't true. if you're in the u.s., you can just turn to the country station and hear this for yourself, no recommendations needed, just listen and think.

irony is all over the place, but it seems to be more earnest.
somehow it seems to be more.... sincere. somehow.


idunno.




>>country artists are the only ones nowadays
>>that don't use irony
>
>that simply isn't true. if you're in the u.s., you can just
>turn to the country station and hear this for yourself, no
>recommendations needed, just listen and think.

(it ain't on Youtube, dammit)

also Ray Parker Jr's "Let Me Go"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F1IJuBN7cU

there are a number of R&B songs that came out in a certain time that I think were following a certain someone that fit this ideal

is a country song in disguise.

I mean I can clearly hear Jodecis "Forever My Lady" being sung as country.

I'd love to hear somebody do amarillo by morning R&B style.

^ sees it.

anyone w/ ears & experience can listen to mad country songs & feel the emotion behind em

i mean who among us has NOT felt like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgXgEbKy118&feature=related

i submit if you havent you have not yet fully lived

i mean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBkLeI9PZcc

CMON!

you do something to me that i cant explain, hold me closer & i feel no pain!

GATDAMN son...thats real shit right there idgaf who sang it


do or die

This R&B angel made a helluva rendition of a c&w classic: http://youtu.be/y1Igm0J5Vy0

i mean, back in the 60's, after Motown broke pop,
white artists and black artists used to influence each other.


Motown influences the Beatles who influenced sly stone who influenced Motown
w/ the psychedic soul and back again.


music got segregated again by the late 70s
but MJ changed that so then you had thriller influencing van halen
and Phil Collins and music became integrated again....


my point is, there was a point when Lionel richie could go country
and nobody batted an eye.....


and that was a cool era in music.


I wonder can we go back to that?



(forgive the poor syntax, I'm buzzed posting. but hopefully I'm making sense lol)

fuck you.

Now, I've always said that there's a thin line between c&w and r&b, and like you pointed out, different of instrumentation exposes the connection between the two.

But even more than that, I think what make both genre similar is the emphasis on narration, as artists from both genres rely(or relied) more on storytelling.

Listen to Percy Mayfield, Bill Withers or even Bobby Womack, I'll not be surprised if a country singer, ANY of them, recorded a whole album based on their songbook.

In all honesty though, I wish more R&B singers combined the two genres again. Ray Charles did it of course with much success, but that was about it. Bobby Womack, Syl Johnson, Tina Turner, and even Stevie Wonder tried(Peddle guitar in "Too Shy To Say") however, not as the same impact as Brother Ray.

good to be back.

but yeah, that's what I was getting at.
i mean... it's weird how folks will say "i don't dig _________"
but really, what they mean is the right face isn't being placed on it to market it.




seriously, as much as we hear "disco is dead,"
it's strange how disco breaks pop at least once a year. (yeah, I'm looking dead at you lady gaga. SEE ALSO: Madonna...

and I've still seen folks not realize "off the wall" is a disco album)



but yeah, thin line.


thin line, indeed.





>Now, I've always said that there's a thin line between c&w
>and r&b, and like you pointed out, different of
>instrumentation exposes the connection between the two.
>
>But even more than that, I think what make both genre similar
>is the emphasis on narration, as artists from both genres
>rely(or relied) more on storytelling.
>
>Listen to Percy Mayfield, Bill Withers or even Bobby Womack,
>I'll not be surprised if a country singer, ANY of them,
>recorded a whole album based on their songbook.
>
>In all honesty though, I wish more R&B singers combined the
>two genres again. Ray Charles did it of course with much
>success, but that was about it. Bobby Womack, Syl Johnson,
>Tina Turner, and even Stevie Wonder tried(Peddle guitar in
>"Too Shy To Say") however, not as the same impact as Brother
>Ray.

Check for 'I Ain't Gonna Stand For It'.

Prince did it on 'Alphabet Street'.

Sly did on 'Spaced Cowboy'.

fuck you.

I was gonna mention "I Ain't Gonna Stand For It" but it sounds like a parody of a w&c song instead of a straightforward one.

As for Prince, "Still Waiting" could cross the line to a w&c song as well.

Dwight Yoakam - If There Was a Way country meets Stax

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zjXiOX-Pho

<-Fear Ameer

Tilt - Arcade Funk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPtLcEoyxKY

the original "gotham city"

the original "Igniation"

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

babyface when can i see you again, how come,how long

bill withers use me

earth,wind and fire "i'll write a song,

James debarge and DJ Quik tha divorce song

tony,toni,tone whatever you want

rick james mr.policeman

lenny kravitz it ain't over till its over

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

William Bell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibceLWcN0Jo

And the Byrds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2AnszaTyy8

~Austin

"Where in the world is your inspiration to say the things you're aching to say?"

http://austintayeshus.blogspot.com

http://www.last.fm/user/Austintayeshus

http://twitter.com/Austintayeshus