The wonderful Ms Tina Turntables is hosting her monthly night at D.O.C. this Saturday so we thought we’d ask her what fives songs are getting her shakin’ right now; and she said…
Some of my favorite shake songs in order of the evolution of a DJ set:
Little Willie John – I’m Shakin
I love this guy, and it is rare that I do a set without playing one of his songs, his original version of Fever was a favorite of mine for years in fact, and referenced in this song. There is just something about this period of early R&B (and I am NOT referring to nineties R&B which is just a little different…) where blues is evolving into soul. It had a massive influence on so much music and there is still a lot of undiscovered, not over exposed and played out till it’s dead, tunes from this era.
A great song to start out the night, it just sneaks up on you gently like, and starts the hips swinging despite yourself.
Sam Cooke – Shake!
I can’t include any Top 5 and not include Sam Cooke, that voice is just sublime… and as Muhummad Ali said he’s just so damned pretty -physically and musically; actually Ali said “he’s pretty like me”, but you get the drift… I prefer this version to Otis’s, it’s kinda sillier, in lots of ways, but I kinda like that about it, Otis kinda yells at you, making you feel a bit bossed about. The music video that has been compiled, is actually pretty awesome, with some killer dance moves that seriously need to be studied and mimicked as much as humanly possible… You’d bust this sucker out when everyone has warmed up and got comfortable, it might just get the shit rolling, you don’t always know what the break through song is that will get everyone dancin’ but shizzle like this, good 60′s pop is very often the tipping point.
Missy Elliot -Slide
I justified that I could include this song cause the lyrics go ‘slide, dip. Shake” and I needed to have some hip hop in here somewhere. I loved loved loved missy e, until I saw her seriously disappointing gig at the super top, but when I first started ‘dj’ing’ i.e. taking over the stereo at parties, I would often bust out some dirty old missy, cause she is just soo good shake your ass to… when it’s that time of the night and you feel like getting low down and a bit grimey for a bit. Kelis in some ways has taken over missy’s previously held role in my sets, but I really like busting this song out every now and then. Something really awesome about the groove yet hardness of this sound and (relatively) old school hip-hop is awesome to bust out as contrast to soul and rock’n'roll.
The Cars -Shake it Up
There is nothing like a bit of 80′s trash to lay down when everyone including yourself is nicely toasted. It’s just plain nasty stuff sometimes in the cold light of day and terrible, just terrible and kind of desperate too early in the night. You just can’t play this level of trash all night and expect to be respected in the morning, but busting some trash out, once you have already proved you have some intelligence already, is friggin awesome. Because frankly, you can’t ask to be respected at all times, other wise one turns into a bit of a missionary position only style DJ, one has to let loose and be a bit of a knob too, purely for humanity’s sake…
PJ Harvey -Let England Shake
From Harvey’s excellent and unusual new album, I have nothing but admiration for this woman, who is never complacent and always pushing the boundaries of what she does as an artist. She has evolved so much over the years and has consistently produced great and varied music that kinda doesn’t date because it’s always true to itself, a rare thing in a modern music industry more interested in profitability than in expression.
A fantastic end of the night tune, beautiful but not particularly danceable but allows me to maintain some kinda illusion credibility, after last call and still want to encourage people to get a little too contemplative and prefer the safety if their own bed rather than staggering around with a bunch of strangers, a concept that seemed awesome only a short while ago.
SHAKE! – This Saturday Sept 10th at D.O.C. Tina Turntables and Andrew Trouble
