Friday Influences Thread 07.16.10

[Stackabones]

What has influenced you as a songwriter in the past ... or since the last FIT?

 

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Jorge Ben may be known to you as the guy who Rod Stewart ripped off. Ben's Taj Mahal became Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy. Another song, Mas Que Nada, came off Ben's first release and subsequently covered by countless artists, perhaps most famously by the Sergio Mendes and even later by him again but with the Black Eyed Peas. The song was also used by Nike in a heavily-rotated commercial for the 1998 World Cup.

 

Jorge Ben's original version is worth checking out, but I've always preferred Luiz Henrique's version with its grit and ginga.

 

[YOUTUBE]Syl1t6-UdTU[/YOUTUBE]

[Lee Knight]

Wow, that's very cool, Stack... I love his sound. Never heard him before, though of course I recognize the song. Awesome. Cool voice, and he clearly gets hooks, doesn't he?

 

This week I'm still Bach'ing but for the sake of playing, I'm going to dip into some Jonathan Coulton. One-Man-Band phenom, internet sensation for middle-aged geeks everywhere. He is consistently great, touching, funny, deep, silly... I love his stuff and his story is worth digging for. I let you dig...

 

 

[YOUTUBE]DE84HH8wNwY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[YOUTUBE]tGkalRgGMhs[/YOUTUBE]

 

[YOUTUBE]7s8S7QxpjeY[/YOUTUBE]

[blue2blue]

That Luiz Henrique version of Mas Que Nada is pretty hip. It's been one of my favorite songs since junior high (back when the Brasil '66 version was out).

[rockinrobby]

This one actually touched me very deeply/really spoke to me.