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Adding orchestras to classic recordings - Motown now!


casapete

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Just heard that Aretha Franklin is the latest artist to have her classic recordings re-done with new string parts.

Think she is the first artist to have this done who is still around,  probably due to recent successful sales of

albums by Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison.

Only heard a couple of tracks of the Aretha stuff so far, but despite it being the RPO playing on it, I just

can't understand why it seems okay to meddle with something that was pretty damn perfect all those years ago.

The Elvis stuff was to me pretty dreadful too ( anybody hear 'Burning Love'? :angry2: ), and although Orbison's material

lends itself to the more orchestral approach, the originals were just sublime as they were.

Some things just need leaving alone......rant over.

Edited by casapete
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Feel your pain, although I have no issue with the original artists, and appreciate some will love the re working,,my issue is all the dreadful elvis impersonators that now seem to have a new lease of life and have re done backing tracks and now think it’s ok to torture us for another ten yrs, even tho they should have given up yrs ago

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The “ Lush New Arrangements” :biggrin:

“Watch the new video for the Aretha Franklin and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra version of “Respect,” which shows some gorgeous archive footage of the Queen of Soul performing live, along with the orchestra adding lush new arrangements at Abbey Road Studios in London. The track is included on A Brand New Me: Aretha Franklin with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, out November 10.”

 

 

 

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I'm not sure what to make of the Aretha song.  The new orchestral backing was not too intrusive so the first lady of soul's voice was loud and clear.  I well remember, as a teenager at school, hearing Aretha sing "I Ain't Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You".  It was played on Radio Caroline (North) while I was waiting to go in for school dinners!  I fell in love with her voice and songs right there and then and I don't think you can improve on perfection (that's Aretha as perfection not the school dinners!).

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17 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Classic rock & pop tunage + orchestral re-arrangements  = goddam' , firkin awful. Heard some of the Elvis stuff..mamma mia and ay caramba!!!

Now, now, don't go sitting on the fence like that, you shrinking violet. Tell us what you really think; don't hold back. :|

...

xD :P

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  • 6 months later...

And the madness continues, this time with The Beach Boys. Clips of Brian and some of the band on YouTube saying how wonderful this is etc. Radio 2 currently playing 'Fun fun fun' which is truly vomit inducing IMO. Why can't these be left as the classic recordings they are, and who the feck is buying this garbage?

 

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33 minutes ago, casapete said:

And the madness continues, this time with The Beach Boys. Clips of Brian and some of the band on YouTube saying how wonderful this is etc. Radio 2 currently playing 'Fun fun fun' which is truly vomit inducing IMO. Why can't these be left as the classic recordings they are, and who the feck is buying this garbage?

 

OMG that’s rotten.

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They're just music for Gawds sake - you don't have to like them (or approve)!

Personally I don't give a rats derrière what they do, as long as the originals are

still around..........(original is not always best)..........I notice that the Aretha has

been delisted (no surprise there)

😎

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I really can't stand this kind of carry on. Mind blowingly unnecessary.

They all seem to follow a pattern - simply ruin a track with meaningless orchestral flourishes where they detect there should be an accent.

Taking old rock and roll, it's doing to it exactly what rock and roll wasn't!

To me, it's like taking the Mona Lisa and drawing a dirty great 'tache on it, or worse! 🧔

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1 hour ago, spongebob said:

They all seem to follow a pattern - simply ruin a track with meaningless orchestral flourishes where they detect there should be an accent.

That's exactly why I can't stand it!

 

1 hour ago, spongebob said:

Taking old rock and roll, it's doing to it exactly what rock and roll wasn't!

Nail on head.

 

1 hour ago, spongebob said:

To me, it's like taking the Mona Lisa and drawing a dirty great 'tache on it, or worse!

Can you think of any other art form where this would be deemed acceptable?!!

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Why is this an issue..? Over decades, popular tunes have been re-worked, often as 'lift musack'. It does nothing, as far as I can see, to degrade the originals, and if one doesn't want to buy the stuff... Just refrain, no..? There must be a market somewhere for it, so it pleases someone. What does it take away..? Not my cuppa, certainly (but I'm not an unconditional of BH either...). How many 'jazzed up' versions of 'Yesterday' are there, or 'Eleanor Rigby'..? Is no re-working ever allowed..? What about the synth versions of Bach..? No good either..? More is more, isn't it, and adds to the world's music, whilst removing nothing. What's the beef..? :/ 

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29 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Why is this an issue..? Over decades, popular tunes have been re-worked, often as 'lift musack'. It does nothing, as far as I can see, to degrade the originals, and if one doesn't want to buy the stuff... Just refrain, no..? There must be a market somewhere for it, so it pleases someone. What does it take away..? Not my cuppa, certainly (but I'm not an unconditional of BH either...). How many 'jazzed up' versions of 'Yesterday' are there, or 'Eleanor Rigby'..? Is no re-working ever allowed..? What about the synth versions of Bach..? No good either..? More is more, isn't it, and adds to the world's music, whilst removing nothing. What's the beef..? :/ 

We're not talking about doing covers here, or taking the tunes and redoing them in a different style. This is using the original recordings and adding things which the (usually) deceased writer / person who recorded it originally presumably has no say in what is being done. It's no doubt down to their family / manager to decide, and why wouldn't they if it's going to make them pots more money? ( As with spongebob's analogy above, would the family of say Matisse give permission for someone to take their work and redo it in the hope of selling more prints? )    Also the danger then is that over time these reworkings obscure the genius that created them and become the accepted versions, denying new listeners the pleasure of hearing them as the artist intended. 

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