White Guys Playing Black Music (Part 1 of 5)

The following is an excerpt of a 20 January 2015 email sent from Will to Art.

I've been listening to "Hey Rome" a ton and really enjoy it. You really fixed up my lyrics!

Also, I'm into the music. It's a smooth song, but the phrasing is really jagged: the phrases don't stay in predictable patterns of 8 or 12. It has a Sly and the Family Stone funk box-style drone. It's really well-suited to a hypnotic drum part--there isn't really room for many fills, and barely any unison parts to orchestrate other than dudda dun dunnnn, but it's more together than a lot of Sly's mental breakdown stuff was.

I can see Will liking how smooth and funky it is, but being horrified at the content of the lyrics and how long they go on. It's a very cryptic rant, yet very listenable. You have to be a boss to play the groove well, yet, there's never a spot where a boss can show off. I can also hear plenty of room for highly orchestrated "Young Americans"-style vocal interplay.

I've been thinking about the reverse Heart of Darkness concept and the issue of white guys playing black music.  It seems like four tropes dominate the field. The first is the all-white guy band, which I'd say is made famous by Ambrosia, early Average White Band, Wild Cherry, Hall and Oates, and Gino Vanelli.




(I included this clip for the glow-crotch intro--the next one is the one I really wanted to show you)