no such thing as a "blackest white band"

Having not read the article Radiohead have a little jazz influence. Is that what they mean?

No. They have some hip-hop type beats on some songs (see Kid A) but they do their own thing.. and quite well. Some of those 70's groups sounded "blacker" like Hall and Oates and even The Eagles to some degree. I'm sure there are even better examples that just aren't coming to mind right now.

this was written by the writer who did an essay in the new SOTT book in the box set so i thought it deserved to be posted here lol

I never ever thought I'd see that written about Radiohead when I first saw them in the mid-90s, they feel like the very definition of starbucks hipster ofay - Radiohead make The Eagles seem like Three 6 Mafia. Why would a professor of African American studies write such things? 2020 keeps throwing up some wild claims but this takes the coffee cake, OK Com-boomer, this got to be a yikes from me Professor Brooks.

Wow. Radiohead is about as black as the Andy Griffith show.

alphastreet said:

Radiohead has no soul

Normally, I'd agree with this (and I love Radiohead for precisely this reason) but A Moon Shaped Pool changed that. Check out Identikit for some soul-baring sadness.

I don't know whether "our times" means a 20-year cutoff. For my The Police had grooves for days. Zenyatta Mondatta has three of the funkiest basslines from any rock band ever.

[Edited 10/6/20 10:29am]

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

https://www.theguardian.c...-our-times

ANSWER: Not hell no, not shit no, but m-----f--- no! The blackest [and funkest!] white band honors belongs to the Average White Band.

namepeace said:

I don't know whether "our times" means a 20-year cutoff. For my The Police had grooves for days. Zenyatta Mondatta has three of the funkiest basslines from any rock band ever.

[Edited 10/6/20 10:29am]

if forced to pick, id definitely pick The Police... my favorite white band ever... Stewart Copeland's heavy-handed Michael Blandish drumming and Sting's reggae influenced basslines, Andy Summers unique rhythmic guitar picking... alotta grooves from those 3

u mean Led Zep.

TonyVanDam said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

https://www.theguardian.c...-our-times

ANSWER: Not hell no, not shit no, but m-----f--- no! The blackest [and funkest!] white band honors belongs to the Average White Band.

That was the first band that came to mind, but I think she tried to finesse her position by saying "of our time," and seemed to limit the period to 20 years. And even then I still wouldn't pick Radiohead as the "blackest white band" of the last 20 years as much as I like and respect their work.

RJOrion said:

namepeace said:

I don't know whether "our times" means a 20-year cutoff. For my The Police had grooves for days. Zenyatta Mondatta has three of the funkiest basslines from any rock band ever.

[Edited 10/6/20 10:29am]

if forced to pick, id definitely pick The Police... my favorite white band ever... Stewart Copeland's heavy-handed Michael Blandish drumming and Sting's reggae influenced basslines, Andy Summers unique rhythmic guitar picking... alotta grooves from those 3

Steely Dan came to mind too.

Woeful article there in the Guardian. "Black" as generic replacement for hundreds of words meaning whatever positive thing you like.

[Edited 10/7/20 9:34am]

I adore Radiohead - but they don´t sound very black to me. in the category "Blackest sounding white band", f.e. Jamiroquai would be better suited. And I´m sure, there are many more examples.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

this was written by the writer who did an essay in the new SOTT book in the box set so i thought it deserved to be posted here lol

lol - it's worse than the Sign of the Times booklet essay...

Average White Band

KC & The Sunshine Band came to mind, but that was just a white dude faking the funk in front of a mostly black band

RJOrion said:

KC & The Sunshine Band came to mind, but that was just a white dude faking the funk in front of a mostly black band

Didn't he write the songs though?

MotorBootyAffair said:

Average White Band

Bingo!

CynicKill said:

RJOrion said:

CynicKill said:

Didn't he write the songs though?

he didnt arrange or compose the music...the band's sound is what made them sound "black"...that was the TK Records house band/session artists that were in place before KC&TSB even formed. that band played on records by Betty Wright, George & Gwen McCrae, Peter Brown, Foxy, etc... all those session musicians playing on hits by those artists, ended up becoming The Sunshine Band...and except for 1 or 2 horn players, they were all black...in performances, KC (harry casey) would stand behind a keyboard and act like he was playing it... as far as "writing songs", 'shake your booty' and 'get down tonight' are elementary school level lyricism, made catchy, and fattened up by some serious Miami funk.. Harry Casey was a fraud as an artist, but he was apparently very intelligent, well connected and opportunistic.

Thanks for the info.

I should've known KC did WAY too much bopping behind that keyboard to be actually playing it.

Session careers, which thrived in the 70's, seems all but dead now.