Straight out of Surrey
March 6, 2009 12:29 AM Subscribe
There's really no need for all that swearing, Mr Ice Cube. While Adam Buxton has already revised one of NWA's finest in Help The Police, it has been soundly trumped by Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, who is about to deliver the extent of his street cricket knowledge.
I prefer the Buxton, but enjoyed the rhyme of tawdry and Hawtrey in the other.
posted by biffa at 1:03 AM on March 6, 2009
posted by biffa at 1:03 AM on March 6, 2009
The first vid is a double ... Of course I'm just mentioning this out of bitterness that my Australia Song FPP sank without a trace.
posted by Artw at 1:30 AM on March 6, 2009
posted by Artw at 1:30 AM on March 6, 2009
I'm with biffa. Buxton was genuinely clever and funny, whereas Mr B just reminded me of those musical productions that they'd mount at the end of Crackerjack, where Peter Glaze and Leslie Crowther would do supposedly amusing parodies of the top pop hits of the week in typical low budget, inoffensive BBC fashion.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:35 AM on March 6, 2009
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:35 AM on March 6, 2009
Adam Buxton is brilliant - his BBC 6 Music radio show with Joe Cornish is well worth listening to, as is the podcast.
posted by patricio at 1:36 AM on March 6, 2009
posted by patricio at 1:36 AM on March 6, 2009
Ach. Mr B wrote words for the whole song, Buxton just dropped in the occasional "biscuits" etc! Ah well. Each to their own. I saw Mr B go down a storm at the 100 Club a few weeks back, and his rapping skills are actually pretty sharp. A bit like Les Dawson playing crap piano – you've gotta be good to be able to pastiche stuff that well.
But yeah, I concede that enjoying "Straight out of Surrey" might require cricket knowledge AND familiarity with the original. Which isn't something many people have initially. Including me.
posted by rhodri at 1:44 AM on March 6, 2009
But yeah, I concede that enjoying "Straight out of Surrey" might require cricket knowledge AND familiarity with the original. Which isn't something many people have initially. Including me.
posted by rhodri at 1:44 AM on March 6, 2009
Stephen!
posted by Artw at 1:47 AM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 1:47 AM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Remember BTO's Taking Care of Business? This song can also be sung in an upbeat, singsong, english-accented, Gilbert-and-Sullivan style as me and my friends discovered in 1975.
posted by telstar at 1:59 AM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by telstar at 1:59 AM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Just coming!
posted by patricio at 2:13 AM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by patricio at 2:13 AM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
@Artw and patricio:
Came in just to say that. Well played.
posted by fatfrank at 2:51 AM on March 6, 2009
Came in just to say that. Well played.
posted by fatfrank at 2:51 AM on March 6, 2009
Mr B is the real deal. He's wearing an Eton Ramblers panama.
posted by Hogshead at 4:27 AM on March 6, 2009
posted by Hogshead at 4:27 AM on March 6, 2009
I saw Mr B go down a storm at the 100 Club a few weeks back, and his rapping skills are actually pretty sharp.
Yeah, for a stupid gimmick rapper he's actually pretty decent. That song linked has a ridiculously terrible beat, but it looks like some of his other stuff is better.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:18 AM on March 6, 2009
Yeah, for a stupid gimmick rapper he's actually pretty decent. That song linked has a ridiculously terrible beat, but it looks like some of his other stuff is better.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:18 AM on March 6, 2009
"the shaggy's so smooth/I've got the chair/by the fire/ so I shant move".
Genius.
posted by stinkycheese at 6:13 AM on March 6, 2009
Genius.
posted by stinkycheese at 6:13 AM on March 6, 2009
Given Ice Cube's career arc, I could easily see him doing a cover of Help the Police in his next family-safe movie.
posted by lord_wolf at 8:30 AM on March 6, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by lord_wolf at 8:30 AM on March 6, 2009 [3 favorites]
When I was a teenager I was both very curious about this whole "rap music" thing I kept hearing about, and possessed of an intense hatred of going to my small town's mall, where I would see a bunch of dicks I was in high school with and who I had to deal with plenty at school and didn't want to have to see any more than that. So I told my momma to go to the mall and buy me an N.W.A. album. She goes to the mall and asks the clerk at the chain record store that I can't remember the name of now for an N.W.A. album and he sells her Efil4zaggin and brings it back to me and I listen to it and think "I don't think this rap music is for me" and I tell one of my friends about the whole situation and he is like "No dude you have to get Straight Outta Compton, that is their good album." I tell my momma "No mom you are so stupid, you were supposed to get Straight Outta Compton. Go take this back and get that one!" My dear sweet saintly momma then went back to the record store at the mall and returned Efil4zaggin and bought a copy of Straight Outta Compton [the clean version] which I now know does not include "Fuck the Police" and which has all of the songs apparently rerecorded with cleaned up lyrics. But at the time I thought that was just the normal album, because I had never heard the real version and they didn't play any of these songs on the radio in South Carolina.
I ended up loving that album and listening to it hundreds of times and memorizing almost every lyric, thinking that I was actually listening to Straight Outta Compton. So, to this day, I can rattle off the lyrics to most of the songs on Straight Outta Compton, BUT ONLY THE CLEAN VERSIONS! I will hear the real version when it comes up on random on my mp3 player, and the actual lyrics will be playing ("Straight Outta Compton crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube . . .") but in my head I will automatically be mentally rapping along with the song, going "Straight outta Compton crazy young brother named Ice Cube . . .". But even though I have listened to the real versions of those songs dozens of times for a decade now, I still always rap in my head the clean versions, even while the real versions are playing, because that is the version of the songs that I have listened to way more often and which I learned by heart. No matter how hard I try, I can't make myself experience Straight Outta Compton as anything other than the clean version. Thanks a lot MOM!
posted by ND¢ at 8:55 AM on March 6, 2009 [6 favorites]
I ended up loving that album and listening to it hundreds of times and memorizing almost every lyric, thinking that I was actually listening to Straight Outta Compton. So, to this day, I can rattle off the lyrics to most of the songs on Straight Outta Compton, BUT ONLY THE CLEAN VERSIONS! I will hear the real version when it comes up on random on my mp3 player, and the actual lyrics will be playing ("Straight Outta Compton crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube . . .") but in my head I will automatically be mentally rapping along with the song, going "Straight outta Compton crazy young brother named Ice Cube . . .". But even though I have listened to the real versions of those songs dozens of times for a decade now, I still always rap in my head the clean versions, even while the real versions are playing, because that is the version of the songs that I have listened to way more often and which I learned by heart. No matter how hard I try, I can't make myself experience Straight Outta Compton as anything other than the clean version. Thanks a lot MOM!
posted by ND¢ at 8:55 AM on March 6, 2009 [6 favorites]
I second Pallas Athena's link; I've watched it maybe 20 times. Ooo! long! ooo! long!
posted by shavenwarthog at 10:57 PM on March 6, 2009
posted by shavenwarthog at 10:57 PM on March 6, 2009
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posted by minifigs at 12:58 AM on March 6, 2009