Genius of Love

yes, i've heard it sampled somewhere too... i think it might be on the most recent black eyed peas album. this is a very vague and possibly fabricated memory tho.

'wordy rapping hood' is sampled on that 'absolutely flawless' song, i know that one for sure.

(I like how ODB rhymes "mariah" with "pacifier")

a quick google search mentions the song sampled by Naughty By Nature, X-Ecutioners, and Mariah Carey.

Tom Tom Club: (Sire 1981)
* “Genius of Love”
     Almighty RSO’s “Badd Boyz”
     Ant Banks’s “Roll 'em Phat”
     Above the Law’s “Dose of the Mega Flex”
     Boogiemonsters’s “Bronx Bombas”
     Busta Rhymes ft Erykah Badu’s “One”
     Cam'Ron ft Kenny Greene’s “Me, My Moms & Jimmy”
     Dr. Jeckyll’s “Genius Rap”
     Dream Warriors’s “And Now the Legacy Begins”
     Fresh Kid Ice’s “Roll Call”
     Funkdoobiest’s “Natural Fun”
     Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “It's Nasty”
     Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “We Will Rock You”
     Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy”
     Mellow Man Ace’s “Linda”
     PM Dawn’s “Gotta Be Movin' on Up”
     Redhead Kingpen’s “A Shade of Red”
     Redman’s “Brick City Mashin'”
     Second II None’s “N----z Trippin'”
     Threat’s “Give it Up”
     Tupac’s “High Speed”
     Wascals’s “Class Clown”
     X-Clan’s “In the Ways of the Scales”
     Yush 2K ft Dangerman’s “Face N Da Shape”

And I can think of at least one more right off the top of my head.

There are so many reasons why this song is genius. Let me list a few:

1: That riff! It's certainly one of the greatest synth riffs of all time.

2: The riff again! Sonically, all of the interweaving synth lines are really amazing and unique.

3. As you mentioned, the way she sings "jeen-ee-us OF love" has a very english-as-a-second-language quality to it that is endearing and somewhat mysterious (who are these people singing? they are tough to picture.)

4: There is a tension created between the icy coolness of the vocals (heightened by quality mentioned in #3) and a sort of spirit of raucous goofiness (James Broooooowwwwwn).

5. There is also an interesting tension created between the sparseness and minimalism of the groove and the density of ideas contained in the song (weird chanting, references to other musicians, lyrics that go all over the place).

6. The song has kind of a strange structure. The incredibly strong hook ties the whole thing together and it's mainly what you remember. But all of these different little vocal parts are pretty different from the average verse/chorus structure of a pop tune. It's also interesting that the song title itself is the part you mentioned that sounds very awkward. The lyric "Genius of Love" is interesting and could have made a cool vocal hook. But instead that line is sort of thrown away awkwardly and the memorable vocal hook on the record is the crazy "James Broooooowwn" part.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but I'm sure there are other reasons for its greatness.

(Unless I'm ignorant and "Genius Of Love" has its own animated video as well. In which case, please chastise me.)

anyway, wonderful song.

They also do a surprisingly good version of "Under The Boardwalk."

Chicks on Speed did a good version of "Wordy Rappinghood" and there is a excellent Trevor Jackson/Playgroup remix of Common's "New Wave" that rides the synth hook from WR.

Thanks for your message. The guess of Icelandic is close because Tina and her sisters lived in Iceland for several years in the mid-sixties when their father was stationed there with NATO.

But, no cigar because, in fact, that is not a sample. That is Tina's sister Lani speaking in a "made up" language that she invented to amuse herself when she was younger. She recorded the voice in one or two takes and we loved it because it was so weird.

Hope this answer helps.

Warm regards,

Chris Frantz

can we get a startrekman query into the keyboard effects pls?

Yamaha DX-7? Processed how?

JLPetersen01 (1 month ago) Show Hide -4 Marked as spam Reply

fantastic number, lousy sound quality. Listen to how the original dynamic is compressed in this digital reproduction, like all digital sound to the public is today. Sorry but I am an old hifi nerd from the hay days of pure reproduced analougue recordings, when there were nasty expensive equipment to record and and reproduce sound with. It could be heard in the sound quality and I miss those times, listening to music. Comments is welcome

treetree761 (1 month ago) Show Hide 0 Marked as spam Reply

Stop runnin your mouth

can we get a startrekman query into the keyboard effects pls?

you mean Adrian Belew's rubbery guitar line? sent through lightly detuned pitchshift feedback, eventide harmonizer most likely.

best song in history

MILTY: ref the youtube above 0:16-0:24... is that guitar or keyboard?

the deeper, lower percolated rhythmic sound

god i love it

Nod to Walterkranz, but I think this song is so good because it sounds like a party. A party in the sunshine in a grassy area with wine drinks and fruit drinks and girls in swishy skirts. A party at which children are welcome (and probably do most of the actual dancing) but which is, paradoxically, not horrible. A party at which there is likely to be some discreetly sexy business, but at which no one will bong any beer, use the word "bro", or make gross comments about your sister's anatomy. A party featuring at least three generations of at least one family, and plenty of delicious foods which are small and attractively presented. A good party that greets you with a smile and open arms.

yeah this is one of the best songs ever. i had a shitty genius of love ringtone for a long time before eventually replacing it with a shitty ace of spades ringtone

MILTY: ref the youtube above 0:16-0:24... is that guitar or keyboard?

that's Belew's guitar, full grounds for his co-writing credit on this song right there

nuts!

thank you,

startrekman

i need to know what model synthesizers are used in the bass sound that Primus uses.

the deeper, lower percolated rhythmic sound

― (*ﾟーﾟ)θ L(。･＿･)　　　°~ヾ(･ε･ *) (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:29 PM (50 minutes ago)

mmmm hmmm

who needs to think, when your feet just go?

whatcha gonna do when you get out of jail?

I'm gonna have some fun!

what do you consider fun?

fun, natural fun!

this is one of the best songs ever

Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon.

Just sold a promo 12" of this on eBay for $18.50!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XJw7SHsdUs

oh this'll be good

this is one of the best songs ever

no question

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFDUEQ-FpXk

i've seen that Mr Yellow 12" but not sure what it was. pretty weird.

jeremy and I actually spoke to Chris and Tina about it when we met them while they were DJing some meatpacking district party. I forget the story of which came first but they were done at the same time in the bahamas. One of the Muzic Box bootlegs has a version of the Yella version with only the chorus "it's hard in New York" or whatever, which is pretty awesome.

it is one time I'm glad I'm not a man

i've seen that Mr Yellow 12" but not sure what it was. pretty weird.

― jaxon, Friday, September 11, 2009 12:54 PM (4 months ago)

it was originally the b-side of "genius of love" iirc

ya. that's where i saw it

we went insane when we took cocaine

i've heard of that happening

Time isn't present in that dimension.

Anyway, heard this today and I thought about doing a spotify playlist of songs which sample it. If anyone wants to add to the list upthread then thanks!

One of the Muzic Box bootlegs has a version of the Yella version with only the chorus "it's hard in New York" or whatever, which is pretty awesome.

― dan selzer, Friday, September 11, 2009 1:39 PM (1 year ago)

this is the dub, you can find it as a b-side to the MR YELLOW 112".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWU1x5h3n_k

please stop posting that in this thread, it's AWFUL

o dammit! i already posted it. i'm a failure

have you guys heard this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWU1x5h3n_k

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7461/notfunnyci4.gif