I had a conversation with someone recently wherein I was asked what my favorite album was. While I couldn’t pick one with certainty, I could say that I knew what the first album I listened to that made me want to be a musician was. I had already been taking piano lessons for a few years, but when I was about 11 years old, I remember hearing Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters album and it completely changing my life. My ears had never processed, nor had my young mind ever conceived, of music that sounded like that. I instantly pored over the liner notes, figuring out what everyone was playing, and how they managed to make it sound that way. For that reason, there is a special place in my heart for the song “Chameleon,” and I am quite particular about the way it should be played. Anyone who knows me well knows that this breakdown is perhaps the funkiest thing ever played in the history of music. Or perhaps it’s the first time that this happens, which might be the recording responsible for making me want to start playing the drums. (Harvey Mason is a monster.) I could go on and on, but I’ll stop.
Which brings me to this travesty. Those same people who know me well also know that one of the things I can’t stand is when lyrics are added to originally instrumental songs. There are a lot of reasons that I hate this, but I’ll give you a major one right now.
Enter the late, not-so-great Eddie Jefferson, father of “vocalese,” which is basically the term for “that thing I just mentioned that I can’t stand.” Eddie has added lyrics to ruin all of your favorite jazz classics, including “Parker’s Mood” and “So What,” which even includes all of Miles’ solo, sung note for cringe-inducing note. And on his album, Still On The Planet, he even murders my aforementioned favorite, song-of-all-songs, “Chameleon.” A few choice lyrics:
“They’ll put you in a ghetto/A rat will bite your toe…Oh Lawd, oh Lawd, tell me what do I do now/Tell me, hip me…”
What do we do now, indeed, Mr. Jefferson. Well played, good sir.
Props to my man Hayling for bringing this through the crib last month during a recording session. We all nearly died listening to it. You’ve got to listen to this thing all the way through for full effect. Enjoy.
-BrotherSpanky
