Elbow’s been all over since releasing its latest (and fantastic) album The Seldom Seen Kid.
The band’s latest promo stop was on BBC’s Radio 1 Live Lounge, where they performed (with a string trio) two songs, including a cover of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. It’s a very sympathetic and endearing cover.
Clearly, Winehouse has the band’s respect if singer Guy Garvey’s introduction to the cover is any indication: “This song probably defines last couple years in British music. Also, it’s an opportunity to say the artist is someone who’s in the press an awful lot. And I think you should only go on your experience of people. Having met her a few times, I just know her to be a a very sweet girl who works very, very hard.”
Elbow | Back to Black(Amy Winehouse cover on Radio 1 Live Lounge)Elbow | One Day Like This(on Radio 1 Live Lounge)
Related:
More Elbow posts on this site (there are too many to list individually).
The Houston TX based Geto Boy’s first solo album is the illest Rap record of all time? Quite possibly. It’s all here: Drugs. Sex. Murder. How can something Wrong be oh-so right? For example: the song I Need Some Pussy has the P word repeated 17 times in the first chorus alone! As a bonus, the Geto Boy’s LP cut Do It Like A G.O. is on here too! On Kinky Motherfucker, Willie tells us all about, you guessed it, how he’s a kinky motherfucker. Welfare Bitches tackles the serious social problem of welfare abuse by bitches, and the crown jewel: the song Bald Head Hoes. I consider BHH to be THE definitive song about bald headed groupies, but D doesn’t just point out the problems, he offers solutions: “I’m proposing a bill/ to Capitol Hill/ to kill/ all baldhead women at will.” Willie D for Senator!
Pomona-bred permed pimp Suga Free teams up with producer DJ Quik and makes a masterpiece. While his punchline filled fast rap is akin to E-40 Fonzerellli, theres so much more going on here. I hafta shout out J-Zone for putting me up on this record. He once said that I’d Rather Give You My Bitch was the best rap song of all time, and after repeat listenings, it’s hard to disagree. Sex and humor have long been linked, but not so much in the rap music, but Free’s pimp tales make panties drop “just to warm her ankles” and you also get some great cameo raps by Quik and Hi-c, who I love. If your’re still doubtful, just check Why U Bullshittin? And understand that the line “Perm silkier than Charolette’s web/ waves deeper than Redondo Beach” is worth price of admnission alone!
Because E-40, B Legit, D Shot, and Suga Tee hath sprinkled the nation, i understand folks know about the Click. They did put V-Town on the map and all, but lets get into the wayback machine for a sec. After self releasing Down and Dirty, and selling mad copies outta the trunk, they signed to Jive Records, but a funny thing happened between the DIY tape and Jive CD: sample clearance issues. It’s unfortunate that the version America heard was all changed around. A song was dropped, snippets were reversed or changed all together. The result is a slightly different record, leaving the superior version to live on bootleg dubbed cassettes passed from person to person like folk tale or spinning yarn. For bonus points, also look for the Lets Side EP, which also stands the test of time. 
One could argue that I shouldn’t list a compilation here, but my argument is this: why go through the hassle of finding classic cuts yourself when you have rap scholars (Mao, YN, Sacha J, GA and BR) to do so for you? From the groundbreaking magazine of the same name, to TV specials, and reality television forays the ET crew do it well, a la LL, and continue to innovate. As the story goes, after the magazine folded, the crew makes 
