Shadow says: Happy MLK Day

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

In recognition of today's MLK holiday, I thought I'd reup a DJ Shadow goodie posted back in a 2005 Rosa Parks memorial post and a 2006 MLK and the Dreamers post.

It's a segment from DJ Shadow's Diminishing Returns mix originally broadcast by John Peel (rip) as "UK Buzz No. 3" on BBC Radio 1 in March 2003. After the broadcast, Shadow released 1,000 "party pack" copies (see above) through his website. Since then a few "official bootleg" editions in standard 2CD jewel cases found their way to some outlets (I picked up one of those bootlegs -- I don't have a numbered copy of the original Shadow release, unfortunately). Even with a few bootlegs out there, the mix is still very hard to get a hold of.

The BBC Radio 1 broadcast was in two parts: an 80 minute mix of relatively obscure hip hop -- mostly left field and left coast stuff from the 1980s. The second, 40 minute section is an amazing mix of rare, forgotten, neglected, or very obscure late-60s psychedelic tracks, with a couple weird, tripped-out, proto-prog pieces thrown in. Many are shrouded in a bluesy jazz haze. It's delicious and simply incredible.

The last seven minute segment of the hip hop mix features several treats, including a Czech(?) version of Hall and Oates' "I Can't Go For That" (which Shadow cuts with Hall and Oates' original), a steel drum jam of Gary Numan's "Cars," and a marching band cover of "Another One Bites the Dust."

But chief among the treats in this segment is "Martin Luther King," a great old school hip hop jam by the B-Down Brothers, released in 1986 on the Boston Goes Def hip hop compilation straight outta Beantown. It's a wide-eyed, earnest tribute to MLK:

Martin was my kind of guy
And if you wonder why
Because he wanted equal rights
For blacks and even whites
For men and women and boy and girl
Join hands around the world
Singing free at last, free at last
Thank god almighty we're free at last

Sure it's a bit cheesy, but that's part of its appeal. Check the slap bass line that really kicks-in towards the end the jam, which the B-Down Brothers close-out by singing "We Shall Overcome." Beyond sublime.

I Can't Go For That (MLK - steel edit) - DJ Shadow: Diminishing Returns

peace

p.s. "Boy, this scratching is making me itch."

p.p.s. "That's the end of part one of UK Buzz number 3. In part two . . . I'll be playing more records by people you've never heard of and don't like very much." (John Peel)

p.p.p.s. Good luck to Obama in South Carolina on Saturday and Florida next Tuesday.
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