Weekend Song - Gladys Knight And The Pips
I listen to this song and I don’t know where to start. I marvel. I reel. I gaup. I go back to reeling before thinking maybe I should stuck with marvelling.
I normally pick the Weekend Song early on in the week, and sometimes have the words written about the same time. Until yesterday, this review read simply: “Fucking hell.” And I was happy to leave it there until Friday night.
There’s so much space in this song – it’s so loose and slow but relaxed and still has you hanging on to every word. How else can you explain a song that starts so slow and sweet and shuffles up with:
“Mmmmmmm LA.”
“Proved.”
“Too much for the man.”
Even after you’ve heard this a dozen times, it’s like a gentle reminder, like being woken up on your birthday.
Thing is, this one’s all about the performance for me. The backing vocals are great because of the tight arrangement and the lead vocals are great because it’s left so open and Gladys Knight nails it. I mean fucking nails it.
I like a good backing vocal. Good backing vocalists are to music what a saucier can be to cooking. Get it right and you’ve no idea what makes it so good, get it wrong and you’ve no idea it could be so bad.
I have written about this before, but it really makes it.
Good Backing Vocals
Bad Backing Vocals
V. B. B. Vox
I use vox to host these songs because:
1) It is very easy to use and you can upload directly from itunes,
2) It doesn’t have a copyright policy so I can share songs (and also)
3) Listeners can not download the songs, so if people want the tune themselves they have to buy it so the artist doesn’t get ripped off.
But once I put a song on a different site so I could count the number of plays it got. You know how many people played the song? Nine. And I knew who four of them were, and I’m pretty sure I played it twice myself. Without blowing my own trumpet, that’s low compared to the number of people who read this site, so please if you normally skip this segment, you should give this a spin this one time.
Said he’s leaving on that midnight train to Georgia
Said he’s going back to find the simpler place and time.
Listen: Midnight Train To Georgia
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Related pages
Weekend Song archive
June 8th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
The backing vocals on “Jesus Children Of America” are so good that you could almost listen to them on their own.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
That is a song by Mr S. Wonder, no relation to Wayne.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Nice! I listened to that on the way in this morning. Thanks for the tip.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Cliff!!!
New reader, but old friend checking in (yes, it’s me). I heard you mention that you were keeping a blog so I used my crack detective skills to track it down.
Anyway, just letting you know I am here… and I have to admit, you’re much funnier in print than in person. J/K!
June 9th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I have to admit, you’re much funnier in print than in person
Yes, my friend, but you are ugly and I can always learn a few jokes.
Even. You mean even funnier.
Nice to see you. Only joking, by the way. About the ugly thing. The rest is all true.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Great, isn’t it? I don’t understand how these people don’t go on to make a name for themselves. Ever wonder how many superb singers are languishing behind younger, skinnier, mediocre one-hit wonders? I try not to. It depresses me.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
You mean people like Kevin Federline?