Hip Hop

(2)Deep: Jack Bruce – Born To Be Blue.. Who’s Version Is Better?

blame it on JES7 October 15, 2010

It’s been widely argued over who truly discovered and first flipped Jack Bruce’s second solo LP, Things We Like. Some say Showbiz dug it up first, but really, what fucking difference does it make. As an avid vinyl miner myself, I never understood how one could argue over who found which record first; they’ll all end up sampling the same damn record anyway. The info that I’ve come across regarding the subject attempts to portray Showbiz as if he found it, therefore he owns it. You know that ain’t right. Maybe it’s just the old school mentality. The real challenge is who could flip it the best. In this post, I’d like to focus on one of the more known cuts off Jack’s Things We Like, Born To Be Blue. Jack, one of the founding members of UK rock band Cream decided to produce a bee-bop / free jazz sound for Things We Like, recruiting Dick Heckstall-Smith to provide the elegant soprano and tenor saxophone sounds which really shines on Born To Be Blue.

Digging through my collection as well as doing some extensive research, I’ve come up with eight prime, classic cuts which utilizes bits and pieces of the aforementioned song. The question to y’all is who do you think flipped it the best? A couple of notes before we get to the meat and potatoes: If you copped (or downloaded) Showbiz & A.G.’s Broken Chains: Runaway Slave Demos, you may have heard the fourth instrumental which directly sampled Born To Be Blue. These demos happen to be from somewhere between 1990 and 1992, and as far as I know, predates any of these other cuts. That specific instrumental may have actually been the precursor to Nice & Smooth’s Blunts, released in ’94. However, Da Beatminerz’s version for Smif-N-Wessun’s Bucktown (’95) is eerily similar. Adding on to the “Show found the Things We Like LP first” argument, this invalid dispute eventually spawned some tension between Show & D.I.T.C. and K-Def & the Lords of the Underground camp. Remember that line “Fake Lords, they get strangled with mic cords // Taking beats from my LP for sure ain’t healthy” off Next Level? Guess who that was aimed at.

DOWNLOAD: Jack Bruce – Born To Be Blue

DOWNLOAD: Smif-N-Wessun – Bucktown (prod. Da Beatminerz)

DOWNLOAD: Nice & Smooth – Blunts (prod. Showbiz)

DOWNLOAD: LOTUG – Chief Rocka (prod. K-Def)

DOWNLOAD: Diamond D – Sally Got A One Track Mind

DOWNLOAD: Showbiz & A.G. – Hold Ya Head (prod. Showbiz)

DOWNLOAD: Cella Dwellas – Land of the Lost (prod. Lord Digga)

DOWNLOAD: Artifacts – Wrong Side of Da Tracks (prod. T-Ray)

DOWNLOAD: The Wiseguys – We Be the Crew…

DOWNLOAD: (2)Deep: Jack Bruce – Born To Be Blue.. Who’s Version Is Better? .zip

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