OK, confession time. I’m not a big fan of the Hamilton Mixtape. It has its moments — principally the ones I’m featuring this week — but too much of it falls flat.
I think the problem is that Hamilton is already a hip-hop musical. It doesn’t benefit from “modernized” versions of its songs because it’s modern. An R&B remix of a South Pacific song might sound adventurous, but asking Alicia Keys and John Legend to perform songs that are already slinkily soulful adds very little.
Like yesterday’s selection, today’s Hamilton Mixtape song is a rap inspired by a single line from the musical.
In this case, it’s the beloved line from ‘Yorktown’: “Immigrants, we get the job done.” It’s a throwaway line that became a rallying cry during an election year that saw so much demagoguery against immigrants (and that was before the chief demagogue won).
Back in May, I spent two weeks featuring songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton in advance of my family’s trip to see the celebrated musical on Broadway. That was just as the show was transforming from mega-hit to full-on phenomenon, before the Tony and Pulitzer wins, before the (shudder) future president called it overrated.
Now we have the Hamilton Mixtape, a collection of songs from and inspired by the musical performed by popular artists. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda initially conceived of the project as a mixtape, so in a sense this album is as much a prequel as an accessory. This week I’ll feature five of its songs.
Now here’s a blast from the past. In 2008, Duffy rode the Amy Winehouse retro pop wave to a hit record, ‘Mercy,’ from her debut album, Rockferry.
She was never heard from again!
That’s not exactly true. She released a sophomore album, Endlessly, two years later and was met with shrugs from critics and record buyers alike. Then nothing.
You know the whole Bob Dylan bootleg thing has gotten out of control when I’m looking for a YouTube clip of today’s Random SOTD and I dig up at least four outtake versions, none of which appear to be the one I need.
Last year Dylan released an 18 CD set of every song recorded during the 1965-66 studio sessions that resulted in Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde.
