Today’s studio-blog is about Berwick Street Studios.
A song-writing genius, a summer smash, two kids from Jersey City and a tragedy.
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Fantastic of course. I have a couple of sidebars:
Ode to a Forgetful Mind might have died on its arse in the real world, but it got played by J*hn P**l four or five times in the autumn of 1989, which is a kind of success. The song was eventually rehanilitated, in remixed form, as the b-side of Paper Doll. Warlock was a very decent label -it gave us the Jungle Brothers, who led the way for De La Soul and Quest.
I was a fan of KRS One in the 80s-90s but “that” incident makes me mad. What a hypocritical gobshite he is. It’s particularly galling when you consider that his partner Scott la Rock was basically shot dead for something KRS said on his records (see the Bridge Wars). He then founded the Stop the Violence Movement – even though he didn’t mind violence in real life, it seems.
He made some brilliant records but I’m glad he’s now basically famous for cheering 9/11.
(sorry, rant over… as you were)
Great stuff, Moose. I confess to being way out of my depth when writing about hip-hop, even though I loved PM Dawn, so this has been a really fun episode to research. Thanks for the additional info.
Of The Heart….. is one of my all time favourite albums, irrespective of genre. It’s glorious, thoughtful music with a positive vibe eight hundred yards wide.
That’s a lovely final sentence.
Absolutely first class piece @niallb, just a great read covering some of my most treasured musical touchstones, between whom I had no idea there were such studio connections.
Thank you. The research for this one was enjoyable and gob-smacking. I had no idea that Prince Be had died so young, or anything about his story. Gerry Rafferty was much more my area and I knew most of his story. Edwyn? I loved Rip It Up and A Girl Like You so much that I just knew I was going to like him.
Thanks again.
A Girl Like You was one of the best songs of the 90s. The b-side, an acoustic version of If You Could Love Me, is gorgeous.
@Hamlet, completely agree.
Crikey, that’s a whole book in one chapter!
And all the hours I spent in the bargain basement of the Berwick St Music & Video Exchange, and I didn’t know what was just over the road. That head shop was a reggae record shop in my day.