9/11 - 9th Anniversary

A re-post from 2008 HERE

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Magazine Scans part 5

On the back page is the lyrics to Doug E Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew's "The Show". I still think of these mis-printed gems each time I ever hear this song. For instance, have a look at what Street Scene thought Doug's DJ's were called.

News of graffiti doc, 'Bombin' (featuring Brim, The Wild Bunch and an early appearence of the great Goldie). Has anyone heard of the Steinski track?

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Magazine Scans part 4

This feature on Steinski was a big inspiration and fueled my desire to find out all the breaks used on the "Lessons". Twenty-four years on and I'm still not there yet!

I think this was expensive even for 1985!

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Steinski Tribute - Lesson Z

I recently received an email from Bulli which contained a link to his website where I could check out his own personal tribute to Steinski.

Entitled Lesson Z (as in Zed, bed, dread...it's British, yo) this is one hell of a mix. Utilising a lot of the same samples as heard in the original Steinski 'Lessons' and then some, you'll hear even more than Steve put in his tracks.
Martin (aka Bulli) has pushed the envelope to include some original dialogue from the same Vietnam documentary that Paul Hardcastle plundered for his famous 19 single from 1985. To say I'm a little envious don't even cut it, bud. Bulli's got it like that, people.

It all adds up to a brilliantly-crafted piece of sexiness which if I could, I'd quite happily take out for dinner and invite back for coffee.

Listen to Lesson Zed below. Your life might just depend on it.

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Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson 3

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Steinski - Origin Sources

Yep, it's another Steinski post.
It has become an almost lifelong quest for me to find all the more obscure samples from Steinski's 'Lessons' records.
As the internet has come into play it is now much easier to find such information. I have a couple of YouTube clips below which may be welcome to any fans.

If you have any more clips, mp3's or info on any other samples then please, please, please let me know!!

Thanks to Jake for kicking this particular post into effect!


This one used on The Payoff Mix (Lesson 1) is commonly misquoted as 'Have faith children, what does it all mean?'. It is not the most clearest of samples but the actual phrase is, 'And say, children what does it all mean?'.
Apparently New York City Mayor LaGuardia read out the comic section to the city over the airwaves in 1945 when the newspaper delivery men went on strike.(I can imagine Boris Johnson doing this!)

Fast-forward to 1 minute 25s for the scoop......





And this one is found near the end of the James Brown Mix (Lesson 2). As much as I love the 'iz' way of speak, I still don't understand it fully. If anyone could translate this specific passage for me then I would be as happy as Larry.
Chug-a-bug along to 2mins 33 if you have an MTV-like attention span. For all the cool kids out there I recommend you listen to the song in full though.

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Steinski - The Motorcade Sped On

As this song was never released commercially (or officially) it didn't ever have an accompanying (sp.) video.
So it's with great pleasure that finally someone has made one. Actually two someones produced this and has been a long time in the making (13 years). For more on the back story see here.

With thanks to Andy Turits and Lyndon Lorenz.

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9/11 Anniversary

I had the great fortune to visit New York City in February, 1998. The weather wasn't brilliant but that didn't matter because the experience far outweighed a bit of rain. It was like being on a gigantic movie set; busy, bustling, energising. Everywhere I looked it seemed I'd seen it before in some film - and I probably had.
One day I visited Wall Street. I went by subway and was very disappointed in the state of the trains - they were so clean!
I remember looking up at the Twin Towers and just feeling the awesomeness of these huge iconic buildings, the power was just immense.

Listen to Steinski's 9/11 tribute track.

Immense....

View from the Ferry

Outside Madison Square Garden - feel the energy

And that's me.....

The sound of da police

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Coldcut's In The Mix (1990)

This is a Steinski-esque mix from the Coldcut crew called 'Once Upon A Time'. I taped this from London's Kiss FM (Sept 12th 1990) when the station was still newly legalised. The actual mix was made earlier back when it was still a pirate.

Download Once Upon A Time

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Steinski Press Release - We'll Be Right Back (1986)

This is the press release given to the media by Steinski's then record label, Island Records back in 1986. And a pretty rare photo of the man, too.

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Steinski meets Coldcut

As promised, here is the Kiss 100FM interview with Steinski on Coldcut's Solid Steel Show. This dates back to 29th March 1992 and features all Steinski's tracks plus some extra goodies.

Enjoy.

Download here

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Steinski's Party Invite

I've always been a big Steinski fan. In fact the first time I ever heard a Double Dee & Steinski record would have been back in 1985 with the track, 'Lesson 3' (the Led Zep intro). This was my first taste of cut-n-paste and I was immediately hooked.

I bought what I then thought was the proper record but was actually a bootleg - red label, The History Of Hip Hop, RPM Records - from the legendary Groove Records a couple of years later and then another copy from Bluebird Records. Also included here were Lessons 1 and 2 - Lesson 1 being the Payoff Mix which was at the very least a remix of GLOBE and Whiz Kid's Play That Beat Mr DJ.

More tunes would follow in a similar vein. The elusive The Motorcade Sped On, which was a cut-up track about the assassination of President John F Kennedy using the news report from US news presenter, Walter Cronkite. I managed to get this on wax on a record from the US dj pool service DISCONET and subsequently later as a 7" on a special edition from the British NME magazine.

We'll Be Right Back came along in 1986 which used a succession of old 1950's US commercials all cut-up and scratched. In actual fact Steinski (Steve Stein), being in Marketing himself, used his network of tv voiceover artist friends to record a load of phrases, thus not having to pay for any copyrighted ads. This time he released the song as Steinski And Mass Media as Double Dee (Douglas Difranco) was not available.

1988 saw another release, the more clubby Let's Play It Cool which used bongos to help it achieve a nice groove. There were still a good amount of samples employed here, albeit very obscure but possibly to avoid any clearence issues. As with the previous release the accapella was included on the flip - a treasure chest to me!

The was a break for a while until 1992 when I first heard Steinski in interview on Coldcut's Solid Steel show - I will post this once I've converted it for the digital age. He gave us a new track entitled, It's Up To You' which was about the Gulf War. I personally preferred the B-side Television mix which was much more Steinski of old.

There's a pretty rare cd going around called Nothing To Fear - A Rough Mix which is just superb. Hold tight people, this is coming soon I promise.

In the meantime here is something which is pretty rare. In fact I've never heard it anywhere else. It's a cassette tape invite entitled: The Reckless Spenders Social & Pleasure Club in association with Mass Media USA proudly present The 1991 Autumnal Harvest Festival & The World's Greatest Soul Dance, Friday October 18th, 9pm. It's a specially-made short piece using obscure and not so obscure (Bugs Bunny) samples for a club night back in 1991.

I ripped it from a cassette and the reason I got this tape was because I won a competition on the Coldcut Solid Steel Show. Obviously Steinski had sent them the cassette and they were now giving it away. Lucky me. Now, lucky you. This is something I've always and will always treasure so grab yourself a listen. It's only 2m.40s.

Download Steinski's Party Invite Tape

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