Sure, I had to read about this in Blender, but that doesn’t make it less true or insanely great. I first came across the song “Oh, Calcutta!” (which I always figured was from the musical) as the opening track (by the Dave Pell Singers) of the still fantastically interesting The Sound Gallery, Vol. 1. Apparently, the Meters covered it, too, and they have a break towards the end between just the guitar and drums. Incidentally, I think the Meters version is sort of thin and not that exciting. Anyway, Rich Harrison then enhanced the sample of like a few seconds of the Meters break of just two instruments, added some percussion, and created something positively deadly, the hook of Amerie’s “1 Thing,” a song I’m still not sure if I like or not, in its entirety.
To a large degree, I’m just repeating what can be read here or in the new Blender which also has a “are they exploiting my patrimony?” piece on favela culture and baile funk. But holy shit.
Also, the first time I heard the song, I thought it was a new Beyoncé track. Turns out Harrison produced both “1 Thing” and “Crazy in Love,” so there you go. I should pay more attention to this sort of stuff, it seems, and part of that might also involve digging into the Harrison stacks; anybody who could make Beyoncé sound like she was being backed by Daft Punk is definitely aces in my book.
Finally, Amerie’s opening vocals, coincidentally, sound like the vocals from “Half Forgotten Daydreams,” also on The Sound Gallery, Vol. 1, performed by John Cameron.
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