Since the rules of the game devised by my blogger friends at Far Away Series and Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends (FFFF) call for Battle of the Bands (BOTB) posts on the 1st and 15th of each month, this week I'm adding an extra post on a Sunday while maintaining my regular schedule. In order to stay focused on the BOTB feature my preceding post and my post tomorrow are connected to today's post.
In this round we've decided to take on a theme of sorts. We are doing face-offs between versions of songs from the musical Hair. I won't go into the history of this musical here since most of you are probably familiar with the musical, the movie, or the songs. If you don't know about Hair then you can either look it up or I'm sure Stephen T. McCarthy will have some great information on his FFFF site.
Let My Battle Commence
For my Battle entries I'm going to start with the original Broadway cast recordings of two songs--"Ain't Got No" and "I Got Life". To listen you will probably have to click on the box below a couple of times to be taken to YouTube. You might even have to suffer through a very, very brief commercial. Sorry--that's YouTube and not me. The YouTube links are also in the titles below in case you have any problem accessing the embedded video. Enjoy.
"Ain't Got No" Original Cast (1968)
"I Got Life" Original Cast (1968)
And Now Another Version
In 1968 Nina Simone released an arrangement of a medley of these two songs from Hair. Her rendition did particularly well on the pop charts in the UK. Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity expanded on Simone's arrangement on their 1969 album Streetnoise and this is the version I became familiar with when I saw them perform it on the Tom Jones television show in 1969. That's when I became sold on the talents of Brian Auger.
Take a listen to their version and compare it to the original Hair cast.
"Ain't Got No/I Got Life" Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity (1969)
Which version do you like best? Why? Give us your thoughts and vote for your favorite in the comment section. Don't forget that you will be eligible for a prize later if you vote. Find more information on the prize eligibility here.
Find other battles at:
Faraway Series
Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends
Your Daily Dose
DiscConnected
