I hate that I am posting a commercial for a liquor in a can (I think) that I may or may not ever drink, but um, this is ZZ Top covering the Texas classic from DJ DMD, Fat Pat and Lil Keke - "25 Lighters."
I hope my man DJ DMD is seeing some royalties and airplay monies off of this. Also Lil Keke and the family of Fat Pat. Do they cover the whole jam? I guess it's in the movie Battleship. And Rick Rubin is the one who brought this to the table. I think. Below is from The Hollywood News.
Quote:“I approached Rick Rubin, who’s a good friend of mine and who I think is as talented as anybody on the planet musically today, and he’s never got involved in a film, he’s never done this. So I asked him if he wanted to help and be a part of the music and help create a tone for the film, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, sure, what are you interested in?’ So I played him a couple of AC/DC songs that I liked, and he said, ‘You know I produced both of those?’ Great! And then I played an old ZZ Top song that I really liked and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s pretty good, but listen to this,’ and he played me this crazy song called 25 Lighters, it’s this old gangsta hip-hop song about drug dealing, but it sounded like a rock song. I was like, ‘This is insane, who made this?’ and he said, ‘ZZ Top; it’s new.’ […] So we put that in. I was pretty sure I wanted a rock vibe for the film – we had a great composer, Steve Jablonsky, who’s as talented as anyone I’ve ever worked with, he worked close with Rick. We realised we needed to find a real rock guitar player, and Rick said, ‘Who’s your favourite guitar player,’ and I said it’s Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine, and he’s like, ‘No problem.’ A day later I was in Tom Morello’s studio, we had the movie up and Tom Morello and these guys were playing. To have someone as talented as Rick Rubin put his spirit into this film, and I’ve had a lot of people compliment that the film’s music is awesome. It’s a rock soundtrack, it’s a rock vibe.”
http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/2012/04/11/battleship-press-conference-qa-with-rihanna-peter-berg-taylor-kitsch-brooklyn-decker/
Full version asap please. Thanks.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
If you find out that Fat Pat's family gets the payment they deserve from this, please let us know.
Yes, indeed…ZZ TOP's Billy F Gibbons and studio engineer, G.L. "G-Mane" Moon and Joe Hardy went to great lengths to secure proper royalty payments for Fat Pat and the co-authors covered under the family estate assigned holder, EMI. All the players and parties associated in the arrangement are good friends from Houston way back in the day and everyone made certain that legalities would be straight and clear to proceed. The background is also straight ahead as to how the alliance came about as published in The Hollywood Reporter:
ZZ Top’s “I Gotsta Get Paid” and “25 Lighters”: A Cross-Cultural Collaboration
“I Gotsta Get Paid,” a new ZZ Top song that made its debut as part of a promotional video for the Jeremiah Weed line of Flavored Malt Beverages, is a preview of the band’s long-awaited forthcoming album, as yet untitled. The song reflects a unique amalgam of musical and cultural threads that bears some explaining.
Enter our key player, G.L. “G-Mane” Moon. Mr. Moon is the 'go-to' guy at two Houston studios, the famed "Gold Star Sound Services" and "Foam Box Recordings" home of the new ZZ album. Mr. Moon began as the staff engineer at Houston’s "Digital Services Recording Studio" in the 1990's. ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, hanging out at Digital Services, struck up friendships, along with Moon, with some of the leading lights of the underground Houston rap scene at that time.. The Geto Boys, 8 Ball & MJG, Big Hawk, Mista Madd, SPM, C-Note, Lone Star Ridaz, Scarface and various members of and the Screwed Up Clik, including DJ Screw, Southside Playas Kay-K. And who hit it big…? DJ DMD, along with Lil’ Keke and Fat Pat – -- with their song, “25 Lighters” back in 1998. Back then, Billy was keenly aware of the “25 Lighters” track, a very hypnotic chronicle of the toils of an enterprising ghetto hustler. He confided with ‘G-Mane’ that he had become fixated on the song and wanted to transform it to use it as the basis for something ZZ Top might be able to record. The idea stayed ever present in Billy’s sonic senses.
Fast-forward more than 14 years. Billy, in collaboration with Moon and studio ace Joe Hardy, inspired by DJ Screw’s “chopped and screwed” process for deconstructing hip-hop songs, finally figures out a way to realize his vision for ZZ Top to incorporate “25 Lighters” into a new song, insuring credit and royalties, of course, with the original “25 Lighters” song writers (Dorie Dorsey, Kyle West and Albert Brown III). The result is “I Gotsta Get Paid,” produced by Billy F Gibbons and Rick Rubin, recorded by ZZ Top. The song certainly is an homage to “25 Lighters” and the Screwed Up Click, [though doesn’t include any samples from that recording] and inspired, as well, by another Houston legend, Lightnin' Hopkins. "25 Lighters" transformed into a blues-based rock-guitar song that ranks among the most sizzling ZZ recordings of all time.
Billy Gibbons, whose powers of musical alchemy kept the project on course, explains how the song fits into the ZZ canon from an historical perspective. “Since the very beginning, we have been inspired and influenced by the musical and cultural eccentricities that have emanated from Houston’s ghetto. If you look back, you’ll find [fellow ZZ Top members] Dusty [Hill] and Frank [Beard] had served as Lightnin’ Hopkins’ rhythm section before we all joined forces in ZZ. We often ask ourselves, ‘WWLD?’ – meaning “what would Lightnin’ do?” That circumstance came from exactly the same place – both geographically and spiritually – that this new one does. We fully acknowledge this as we continue to pay tribute to those known as ‘the heroes of the Houston ghetto.’”
Nice thanks so much for the informaion! I am really happy that this happened and am glad to know more. Thanks so much for commenting!
Hey Anonymous
Very proper that this song receives commercial acclaim, and much love to ZZTOP for putting that out there. Still an advertisement though... Whatever the case, I won't weed through the 8 paragraph explanation. I'm sure that ZZTOP did things properly, and also confident that 25 Lighters is worthy of being heard in its original version. ''Well I hear it's fine, if you've got the time"... Both artists are deserving of due respect...
Post a Comment