Bombs Over Baghdad

yeeya

Whats currently getting me with the track is the organ line under the first verse, directly halfway between "Backstreet's Back" and "Like A Rolling Stone". Class.

The individual moment that's getting to me most at the moment is the chorus at the end, which sounds to me like raped Motown. And the way each listen reveals a new sound (early 90s hardcore, definitively) that you didn't notice last time. And everything, basically.

Love the "Vertical Speedwagon" did. I heard the V.Horizon song for the first time this week and can only count myself very, very lucky to live in a country where it hasn't been a hit yet :).

I reckon the sense in which "Bombs Over Baghdad" feels specifically American in a way that maybe Timbaland doesn't is that unlike most current American urban music, "Bombs Over Baghdad" doesn't sound like "craft". The fervour of the song, whether it holds true meaning or not, reconnects it with the sense of soul/purpose which characterised the Motown-->Public Enemy continuum Robin identified. Grossly inacurate oversimplification I know, but we do tend to equate America with rawness, soul, visionary zeal, whereas the Continentals are all about precision and artifice. Apparently.

The ironic thing is that Outkast's new position is probably craft in itself. I get the feeling that "Bombs Over Baghdad" is more of an attempt to recreate the sensation of fervour surrounding Public Enemy without the fervour itself. The feverish imploring of the rappers is as much a cynical, artificial technique of hype-inducement as a diva or rave stab in a hardcore techno track.

All of which helps, not hinders, its position as best single of the year so far.

Like Tim, I've heard UK garage producers achieve similar effects to those managed on "Bombs Over Baghdad", that combination of vocal fervour / hysteria and astonishing rhythmic dexterity. Thatechnique is up for grabs for anyone savvy enough to take hold of it (and there aren't many).

I'm tired of totally sociological music criticism, the kind that sets music in its historical / geographical context without ever trying to get to grips with the sonic / physical effect of the music, and indeed often sneers at any analysis of the latter. Tim is spot on when he says that the fervour "Bombs Over Baghdad" works up is closer to early 90s UK hardcore than it is to Public Enemy, and that's one of the positive elements that make it the single of the year so far.

That America / rawness: Europe / artifice dichotomy Tim identifies is a basic instinctive reaction for many more people than will admit it (myself included). And it probably explains my first reaction, my original illusion, on first hearing, that "BOB" didn't rely on the craft and contrivance that had me thinking "Try Again" could have been made anywhere. Because it seemed to equal the fervour / push- for-revolution / drive of the Motown / Atlantic / PE continuum, I was misled into thinking that it didn't involve the craft and production contrivances of Timbaland.

On repeated listens, as more and more sounds came through, I realised that it depended far more on production values, on the use of production techniques to replicate PE's fervour, rather than the fervour itself. The imploring-to-movement (as opposed to PE's imploring-to-insurrection) is closer to the hysteria-raising moments in early 90s hardcore than anything else I know. And I personally prefer it that way, and agree with Tim that that is one of the aspects that makes it so great.

Robin

Outkast is the shittimus maximus.

(Historical Note: This was the second thread on ILM, I believe.)

Uh, I still like it. Don't find it as astonishing as I initially did, but the more you know, the less you're blown away by. It's nevertheless quite, quite awesome, though other tracks from Stankonia (esp. "Xplosion") have caught up with it in my mind.

But what was last year's *best* single, Tom? And how much of my undie hip-hop writing on Elidor and NYLPM have you read, Ethan?

It isn't dating at all for me -- quite the opposite. Been listening to it a lot lately. Stankonia got me through the war. It's amazingly hard, and the soup of sound they create with this is just amazing. Hip-hop, big-ass rock, blips and blorps and -- what's this? A choir? Man, that shit is wiggy. Classic classic classic.

That was the weird thing: I haven't been hearing it much, but I heard it again lately and it just didn't seem as new and exciting as when I first heard it.

WHEN DID ILX BECOME SUCH A FUCKING NERD-FEST? GET ONE LIFE AND STOP PICKING APART EVERY SINGLE WORD I SAY AND GET BACK TO ENJOYING MUSIC!

I somehow managed to make it all the way to this morning before hearing this. What a fantastic record. I just want to mark the moment.

Anyone else can't control their physical response to it?

I know that I literally piss and shit all over myself and anyone near me every time it comes on.

Damn, dude.

Yeah, I'm not even an Outkast fan (gasp, I know), but this song was on my radar and completely beloved for all time.

Damn, dude.

that's how indifferent I am to this song.

A have a lot of favorite songs ever, but this is my favorite song ever.

was the original leak of this diff to the one that ended up on the album? im convinced it was.

I don't know what form the initial leak took, but the single edit was certainly trimmed down, (omitted the guitar solo and faded the coda, iirc) and the edit in the video different altogether.

Anyone else hear Bowie's "Panic in Detroit" in this?

hmmm... not reallly.

Well, maybe not in melody but in song theme, the gospel singers and odd rhythm. "Panic" is just a song I've always connected, if not strenuously, with BOB.

like the history of ILM in one thread

is there a version of this without the guitars?

or the solo at least?

is there a version of this without the guitars?

The history of ILM in one post.

The history of ILM in one post.

― cee-oh-tee-tee, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 7:43 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

lol

Wow! such an old thread!
― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, December 18, 2003 12:58 AM (9 years ago)

I found "Bombs Over Baghdad" on Napster

this is the Hubble Telescope of ilx

I love that one of the first ILM threads is everyone collectively freaking out about "B.O.B."

the "indie rock boy" britney/aliyah/destinys child shout out.

“It’s the greatest single in the history of rap music.”

It’s also Bomani’s walk-up song as he starts each show. #anyquestions with @bomani_jones pic.twitter.com/URtGZ3xP46

— Game Theory with Bomani Jones (@GameTheoryHBO) April 6, 2023

Still can’t believe the bigger hit at the time was the far-inferior Ms. Jackson (P&J single of the year while BOB “only” got to #3).