Sunday Samples 36

I’ve just picked up the 2005 album by Lemon Jelly, entitled ‘64-’95. It definitely strikes a darker note than their earlier works like “Spacewalk” (which you may have heard in a recent cat food ad).

Each track on the album picks a song released between 1964 and 1995 as its conceptual basis, and most sample that song extensively. The closing track, though, is only inspired by Lorne Green’s 1964 spoken-word ballad “Ringo”, and is musically constructed out of whole cloth. But who could possibly replace a Canadian 1960s-era spoken-word recording artist and science-fiction television actor?

Enter William Shatner, turning in another excellent performance in Lemon Jelly’s “‘64 aka Go”. Side note: the section in the middle is all but incomprehensible, more meant to be experienced than parsed. Watch the video and you’ll understand.