One of the best starts of a song that I have on this list is the one that starts Jesus Walks. The pounding march of the soldiers, and the gospel humming and Kanye delivering one of the most poignant lyric in the rap world: “We’re at war. We’re at war with terrorism, racism, but most of all, we’re at war with ourselves.” Easily one of the most important popular songs to come out of this generation is Kanye’s first single from the phenomal College Dropout album. This song has highs and lows on an epic scale that people like Diddy have tried to replicate for a long time, but Kanye nails on this one song. Also for a Kanye song, it’s very low key in the self-boasting that he’s known for. It’s a social conscious song that bands like Public Enemy before him were known for. A song that is not afraid to ask the questions of the generation. In the 80’s it was racism and predujice, this time it’s about apathy and the out of control spiriling of the world. It’s humble and full of questions, but at the same time powerful and relevant. It mixes the power and spectacle of war and rap in general, with the social commentary and singing of gospel and jazz. Also it has a hell of a beat, and intense lyrics. I also believe that Kanye, with a string of amazing songs, will never top this. It’s beyond him now, this was when he was just starting to be popular, now I think he’s too much of a celebrity and a bigger than life person to lower himself enough to record something that moves as much as Jesus Walks.
Archive for November, 2008
All I know of Santana, and all you need to know of Santana is three albums. I know he’s done a gagillion albums and resurrected his career singing with Wyclef and Nickleback but that’s all garbage. All of it. The young latinos of the world are gonna start to hate but the old school ones will know what I’m talking about when I say that the only Santana albums worth your undivided time and attention are Santana I, Abraxas (Santana II), and Santana III. The first three albums, the ones he did with the same band he took to Woodstock and killed with Soul Sacrifice. That band broke up after III to create Journey. Flippin Journey ok? The first three albums were what I hope that Santana would always sound like. Brash, electric, experimental, lots of instruments, smooth ass guitar solos, much more youth than the old, veteran background instrument that he is now. Jungle Strut is from album III and it perfectly exemplifies what Santana used to be, and what he isn’t now. It’s an instrumental track that starts with a typical 70’s organ and it switches back and forth from that organ to Carlos’ kick ass guitar. In the background you can hear bongo beats, a second guitar, and synchronized drumming. It starts with basically the chorus of the song then delves into soloism. The guitar and the organ dueling each other, until it comes back to the “chorus.” But this track has so much jive, so much cool, so much brass, so much intensity that it can’t simplified to just chorus, solo, chorus. This is what I hear when people mention Santana, not the new age crap he released later, nor those 2000’s albums with a bevy of guest stars that dilute Santana’s true power. Jungle Strut and Santana III (one of my favorite albums of all time) make me proud to be latino. One day I really would like to sit Carlos down and make him listen to his first three albums over and over again until he gets it. I know he would never replicate it but damn it we need a band like this again, maybe he could manage it or something.
