Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a 1959 pre Hip Hop (proto Hip Hop) sound file by Six Boys In Trouble entitled "Why Can't I Get It Too?". That clip is from the album "Street And Gangland Rhythms, Beats, And Improvisations".
Information about that album is included in this post along with lyrics for that song and selected comments from the discussion thread for that embedded YouTube sound file.
The Addendum of this post showcases two music electronic music sound files which sample clips from Six Boys In Trouble's "Why Can't I Get It To?": Bonobo's "All In Forms" and The Avalanches' "Because I'm Me". Selected comments from those sound files are also included in this post.
The lyrics for The Avalanches' "Because I'm Me" are also given in the Addendum to this post.
-snip-
I found Six Boys In Trouble's "Why Can't I Get It Too? song and Bonobo's "All In Form" from comments in the YouTube discussion thread for the Avalanches' "Because I'm Me" tune.
I found the Avalanches song by searching for "White covers of 1950s Black songs". However, I don't consider The Avalanches' and Bonobo's sampling of "Why Can't I Get It Too?" in the same category as Elvis Presley's cover of Willie Mae Thornton's "Hound Dog", Pat Boone's cover of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and a host of other White covers of African American songs. One major differences between The Avalanches and Bonobo and those 1950s White recording performers is their intent. The Avalanches's and Bonobo's intent was to produce creative music in part by using samples of often obscure old songs. In contrast, here's an excerpt that describes the intent of "cover" recordings:
From http://50spopmusic.com/50snoveltysongsmore/50scoverrecordings.html
..."Rhythm and blues artists had difficulty getting their records played on white-dominated radio. Instead, mainstream artists recorded their own versions of R&B hits. The term ‘cover recordings’ referred to the record company practice of utilizing a popular singer to record a version of a song that was very similar to an original recording from a less-well-known singer, released by a small independent record label.
Black musicians found themselves isolated from the dominant recording companies and thus separated from the majority of the record-buying public. Worse yet, when a black artist developed an original, potentiallysuccessful tune through a small independent recording outfit, white artists, including Pat Boone, the Crew-Cuts, Gale Storm, and the Fontane Sisters, hurriedly supplied the white-record-purchasing-audience with an acceptable ‘cover’ version of the same tune. Popular fifties singers, Perry Como, Teresa Brewer, Eddie Fisher, and the McGuire Sisters, all recorded ‘safe’ sanitized cover recordings of material from black and R&B artists. The major record companies would use their influence to promote their cover versions to the exclusion of the work of the original performers.
The major record labels started recording covers in the early 1950s to deal with the threat of ‘cross-over’ songs from the rhythm and blues and country artists. The major labels didn’t want the specialized country, R&B, and black musicians to threaten the dominance the major studios enjoyed in the mainstream POP music market. Sometimes the covers of the original songs kept the same lyrics but re-orchestrated the music with arrangements that would burr off the rough edges and turn the raw, driving beat and the fast tempo of the originals into the familiar, mellow, and non-threatening style of white popular music. Covers of R&B songs might include the feelings of guitars and drums, but not emphasize them."...
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The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the anonymous "six boys in trouble" for their creativity and their musical influence and thanks to all those who were associated with that 1959 "Six Boys In Trouble" album. Thanks also to Bonobo and The Avalanches for their music and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
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SHOWCASE SOUND FILE: Six Boys In Trouble - Why Can't I Get It Too
HiCommaJoel, Published on Aug 7, 2012
1959 Proto Hip-Hop
Street and Gangland Rhythms, Beats and Improvisations by Six Boys in Trouble
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE ALBUM "STREET AND GANGLAND RHYTHMS, BEATS, AND IMPROVISATIONS" BY SIX BOYS IN TROUBLE
Excerpt #1:
From https://folkways.si.edu/street-and-gangland-rhythms-beats-and-improvisations-by-six-boys-in-trouble/african-american-music/album/smithsonian
"This album features jams on homemade percussion instruments by six 11- and 12-year-old African American boys living in New York City public housing, about 1955. These young, untrained musicians improvise the tunes and tales of their upbringing on this rhythmic release and draw inspiration from family folk traditions and popular radio and juke box hits of the era. The group’s enjoyment is apparent in their school yard musical expressions, as is their self-identification with the community in which they live. The album is divided into three parts: Percussion Ensembles, Rhythms with Voices, and Rhythms with Verses. The liner notes provide a deeper look into each section, as well as a subsequent transcription of the lyrics.
[...]
Album Info:
CATALOG NUMBER
FW05589 / FD 5589
YEAR RELEASED
1959
LABEL/COLLECTION
Folkways Records
COPYRIGHT
2004 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings / 1959 Folkways Records
Track Listing:
101 Two Bongo Drum Sets and Sticks
102 Bongo Drums and Sticks
103 One Boy Playing Three Sets of Bongo Drums with His Hand and One Drum Stick
104 Rhythm Ensemble with Voices
105 Zum, Zum
106 Ole
107 Bo Diddlie
108 Gugamuga
109 Riding Hood Boogy Man
110 Sister Suki
111 Why Can't I Get it Too
112 Cha Cha Cha
113 The Fox
201 Gang Fight
202 Shoe Shine
203 Shoe Shine Shakedown
204 Dumb Boy
205 Money Honey
206 I Want Some Food
-snip-
Note: "Why Can't I Get it Too" is listed as being 2:21 in length in this track listing, but the YouTube sound file of that tune below is only 1:14.
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Excerpt #2:
From https://www.allmusic.com/album/actual-sounds-street-gangland-rhythms-mw0000887707
Various Artists
Actual Sounds: Street & Gangland Rhythms
AllMusic Review by Eugene Chadbourne
"If this album was going to be rated on notoriety alone then the sky would be the limit. This is a release that never fails to come up if the topic of discussion is strange records. It has also had quite an interesting history since it was first released in the late '50s, and in most cases this was accomplished just sitting in the collections of various weird record fiends, because it is not a recording that gets played a lot. In the '60s and '70s this record, subtitled "Beats and Improvisations by Six Boys in Trouble," was mostly listened to for laughs. Not that there is anything funny about boys in trouble, but to supposedly record the made-up poetry, street patter, and whatnot of a bunch of '50s hoods and have it sound as clean as this could only be accomplished in two ways. One would be some kind of divine intervention from the recording gods, which would be doubtful. Another would be some kind of contrived censorship, which considering that it was the late '50s and a government-sponsored recording label is probably the case.
There are those who think the voices and sounds heard on this record are not "boys in trouble" at all, but rather performers of some sort doing a shtick. They remain anonymous probably to help push the idea of them being dangerous hoodlums; they gather together here in front of microphones, plopping on bongo drums, knocking sticks together, and working through a variety of philosophical, action-packed themes that inevitably end up with the all-encompassing demand "I Want Some Food." Which is the best track on the record, probably because its the last. For many years this record was just considered cheesy, like the hoods in the "Blackboard Jungle." Then along came rap music, and musical scholars were looking everywhere for obscure clues that might have predicted such an intense, communicative, and ferociously popular art form. That's how this recording has gotten passed off as some kind of early influence on rap, an opinion that has to be weighed against the fact that very few listeners will be able to get through the entire program without winding up throwing something at their turntable. The liner notes, however, are well-worth reading from beginning to end, including as they do classic comments such as "in particular, the boys take pride in their accomplishment on the bongo drum" and "bongo drumming is an accepted art." For bongo drummers, this album is something of a small payback for years of being accused of ruining everyone's parties."
-snip-
This quote is reformatted to enhance its readability.
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LYRICS:
From https://genius.com/Six-boys-in-trouble-why-cant-i-get-it-too-lyrics
Why Can't I Get It Too
Six Boys in Trouble
Produced by E. Richard Sorenson
Album Street and Gangland Rhythms, Beats and Improvisations by Six Boys in Trouble
If I would be a boy like her
I would never knock at door
Because he love her
Why can't I get it too?
Because she said, "He's the one that drill the charms."
She's the one that said, "Honey let's go wrong."
If she don't love me, what can I do?
Just put on my best pair of shoes
I just want to know
What's wrong with me?
He is just a square
So am me
Why can't I say, "Let's go to the park."
Or be in love with you
I just want to say, "What about that day
Underneath the tree?"
When I was lonely of you, you came passing by
Didn't you say that I look at your eyes?
Then here he come on a motorcycle
And he drilled your charms
By the way don't down
Don't let him hit the ground
Fall on the boy with the blue pair of shoes and a bow tie on his hair
So what about me?
What about him too?
He don't got a decent pair of shoes
So, let's go to the park
And go under the tree
There we can hear peedeepee"
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE ENBEDDED YOUTUBE SOUND FILE OF "WHY CAN'T I GET IT TOO"
Numbers have been assigned to these comments for referencing purposes only.
2016
1. Finley Field
"The Avalanches!"
**
REPLY
2. Gabriela Jasso
"Because I'm me :D"
**
REPLY
3. gigahertz 1911
"bonobo did it first"
**
REPLY
4. Will Robertson
"But The Avalanches did it better."
**
REPLY
5. leah919
"+Will Robertson I completely agree"
**
REPLY
6. Tenacious V
"Wow I was just tripping on this. I saw a random video on Instagram with a voice I recognized and remembered it was on a Bonobo song. I saw the Avalanches song cited in the comments, went to YouTube and in the comments, this song was mentioned. So now I know what those lyrics are in Bonobo's "All In Forms". God I love social media."
**
REPLY
7. steino
"same here"
**
8. Lil OG
"How tf does the Avalanches even find this stuff, holy hell. It's good, but still! Where? Where are they finding this? It's from the late 50's!!! The kid in this song is old by now!!!
**
REPLY
9. Gabriel Pires
"every producer knows their stuff like this"
**
REPLY
10. bestfullyy
"it's from Smithsonian Folkways, not particularly obscure actually"
**
REPLY
11. creekandseminole
"it's all from crate diggin'."
**
REPLY
12. ImEasyAs
"Only the good producers :)"
**
13. Anna Kop
"what do you mean by the term proto hip-hop?"
**
REPLY
14. creekandseminole, 2017
"it's poetry. first forms of Hip-Hop came from poetry. Also more proto Hip-Hop would be Gil Scott Heron debut album "Pieces of a Man" and the self-titled album by the Last Poets among many many others."
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2017
15. Apollo Creed
"what comic is this"
**
REPLY
16. Apollo Creed
"nvm its DCs metamorpho"
-snip-
"nvm" is probably an abbreviation for "nevermind".
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ADDENDUM: TWO ELECTRONIC MUSIC TUNES THAT SAMPLE SIX BOYS IN TROUBLE'S "WHY CAN'T I GET IT TOO"
Excerpt #1: Bonobo - All in Forms
theelfreako, Published on Dec 15, 2010
from the album 'Black Sands'
-snip-
Here's information about Bonobo:
"Simon Green (born 30 March 1976), known by his stage name Bonobo, is a British musician, producer and DJ based in Los Angeles.[1] He initially debuted with a trip-hop aesthetic, and has since explored more upbeat approaches while experimenting with jazz and world music. His electronic sound incorporates the use of organic instrumentation, which would be recreated by a full band during his live performances."...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo_(musician)
-snip-
Bonobo's album Black Sand was released in 2010.
Here are selected comments from this sound file's discussion thread (with numbers assigned for referencing purposes only):
1. Gramsci, 2015
"Can someone please find out what the vocal sample is in this?
Is it original?
I've looked for ages and its really bugging me lol."
**
REPLY
2. Aryana Mugnatto, 2015
"The sample is "Six Boys in Trouble - Why Can't I Get it Too"
**
REPLY
3. baconfluffy, 2017
"I thought that it's from The Avalanches's Because I'm Me."
**
REPLY
4. Théo M., 2018
"This track preceded Because I'm Me, which also uses lyrics from the song mentioned above."
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Excerpt #2: The Avalanches - Because I'm Me
TheAvalanchesVEVO, Published on Oct 26, 2016
-snip-
Here's information about The Avalanches:
"The Avalanches are an Australian electronic music group, formed in Melbourne in 1997. They are known for their two studio albums, Since I Left You (2000) and Wildflower (2016), as well as their live and recorded DJ sets. Since I Left You was a critical and commercial success, receiving multiple awards, and has been considered both one of the best Australian albums of all time and best albums of the 2000s. It was followed in 2016 by Wildflower, which also received critical acclaim."...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avalanches
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Here are selected comments from this sound file's discussion thread:
Ephram Foong, 2017
1. "White guys from Australia who look like they came straight from IT helpdesk made this music. Genius. Lovely. More please...."
**
2. Bonnie and Junior, 2017
"I dont even get the lyrics, It's nonsense to me 😅"
**
REPLY
3. Mark Keller, 2017
"The reason you don't get the lyrics is because the song it is from is being mixed. It isn't in order.
This is the original song being mixed. "Six Boys In Trouble - Why Can't I Get It Too" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW4ukFY2rPw
**
REPLY
4. Mark Keller, 2017
"+Bonnie and Junior The rapping part is from another song ... which is also being mixed."
This music group is known for how it mixes songs, movie/TV dialog, and different music genres together to make something new.
https://genius.com/The-avalanches-because-im-me-lyrics"
**
5. Lewis Wheeler, 2017
"man loves woman
Woman doesn't love man back
in her presence he feels like a child again
But she wont pay him any attention
He wants to show her how amazing he his / how strong he feels
But he cant express himself properly because he's starstruck by her
That's my interpretation of the video."
**
REPLY
6. Bigboss SupaUgly, 2018
"good analysis ;)"
**
7. Karla Tuplano, 2017
"i found this song on accident and i'm so happy about it damn"
**
REPLY
8. Danny Fenton, 2018
"Karla Tuplano, same thing happened to me"
**
REPLY
9. Ryan Olnowich, 2018
"Karla Tuplano I know right me too! It makes me happy, I imagine driving in the back of a cab from Kennedy airport and cruising around manhattan and seeing all the skyscrapers and people walking around in a rush! New favorite music group and he reminds me of Michael Jackson in Jackson 5!"
**
10. Brennan Sullivan, 2017
"Anybody else just really love the feeling of this video? Like all these different people/street performers coming together spontaneously for this kid, and then one by one leaving before the girl could realise what happened. It's kinda melancholy, but it's really cool at the same time."
**
REPLY
11. Mike utubesux, 2018
"I think it's a metaphor for how you can be so crazy about someone and they don't even know. While all of that was going on (presumably in his head), she's oblivious to it. And of course, the heart inflating and deflating was symbolic."
**
REPLY
12.Star Tsar, 2018
"The kid is the rapper inner child or the innocent lover in him...."
**
REPLY
13. Ken French, 2018
"Brennan Sullivan it reinforces the feeling of him being in So love and her not realizing his love is that much.
**
14. dr troy turner
"Clean Rap. Love it."
**
15. Daniela Cabrera
"What a beautiful freaking song, it's like fresh air with all of what I usually hear. I love this and the nostalgic feel, the lyrics it all just works"
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LYRICS FOR THE AVALANCHES "BECAUSE I'M ME"
Produced by Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi
"[Hook]
If she don't love me, what can I do?
Just put on my best pair of shoes
Because I'm me
Because she said, "He's the one that drill the charms
Honey let's go wrong"
I just want to know
What's wrong with me?
Being in love with you
[Verse 1: Sonny Cheeba]
Yeah
9th grade had the jingles of the swinging rainbow jacket
Lost lingo, Bronx's only Django
Snap, he'd got less tougher
That's where my props go
That's where my pops went
See my percentage is a pennant to the planet
Knock it out the ball park, Frankie
I should not tire this tire
To a better love, let the wings spread
It'll always come back, baby
Come back, shellac black, baby
A come back, flat black paint on a Chevy
[Hook]
If she don't love me, what can I do?
Just put on my best pair of shoes
Because, I'm, I'm me
Because I'm me
Because I'm me
Because I'm me, I'm me
[Verse 2: Sonny Cheeba]
Never mind my tone when I told Pretty Tony
Listen to my tone, you ain't catchin' you a Tony
Award-winning walk when you running with a shottie
Why you running from us?
Why you messing with us?
We ain't got no guns, we just let the bears witness
The Grizzly, maybe Polar
You ain't ready, you ain't ready 'ready rolled up
Pulling a machete, cut the bamboo paper
And let's roll out baby
[Hook]
I just want to know
What's wrong with me?
[Instrumental]"
From https://genius.com/The-avalanches-because-im-me-lyrics from The Avalanches' 2016 Wildflower album
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