Carnivalism Beauty is in the Beat
Message for Sunny
Matt produced this mash-up where Grandmaster Flash meets Boney M.
Credit also has to go to Mark Ronson who did a sterling job at programming the drums over Boney M’s 1976 original “Sunny” for his 2003 track “Ooh Wee” that charted No. 15 in the UK.
Sunny was actually a cover in itself (and covered many times in its history). Written by Bobby Hebb the day after Kennedy as assasinated in ’63, which coinsided with the death of his older brother who died in a knife fight outside a nightclub in Nashville. When watching this saccharine styled performance you cannot help wonder what was going through the 28 year olds mind as he smiles uncertainly into the camera.
1982 brought Grandmaster Flash’s The Message to the masses and described by Rolling Stone as “the most detailed and devastating report from underclass America since Bob Dylan decried the lonesome death of Hattie Carroll – or, perhaps more to the point, since Marvin Gaye took a long look around and wondered what was going on”. It is doubtful that anyone of certainly Carnivalism’s crowd have not found themselves noting this seminal track in an evening, perhaps parting conversation or even getting a round at the bar to join in its chorus…
“Don’t push me ‘cos I’m, close to the edge…”