UNDERNEATHICA: Evolution of a Man Next Door

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Evolution of a Man Next Door

The song Man Next Door (a/k/a Quiet Place, or I've Got to Get Away) was written in the late 1960's by John Holt of the Paragons.

In the 1970's, Bunny Lee produced a dub version for King Tubby, A Noisy Place. (There is also a rare "Dub Next Door" by Tappa Zukie). Dave Barker screamed like James Brown on his deejay version of I Got to Get Away. Dr. Alimantado warned about Poison Flour over Horace Andy's early version of I've Got to Get Away.

Dennis Brown sang the hell out of Man Next Door in 1979, which probably inspired the Slits to record it in 1980 for a Rough Trade single (produced by Adrian Sherwood). Here's a shambolic but loveable version of Man Next Door by the Slits (from their live album In the Beginning).

In the 1980's, Adrian Sherwood produced a funk version of Man Next Door by the Strange Parcels (featuring Bim Sherman on vocals, backed by Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald of Tackhead.) Horace Andy sang Man Next Door again in 1998 with Massive Attack, whose version includes a sample of the Cure song "10:15 Saturday Night".

5 Comments:

At 4/19/2008 6:59 PM , NØ said...: Jon,
Nathan here.
Just stopping by to see what's new under neathica.
An aside to your latest...You mentioned two of my favorite musicians (Wimbish & McDonald [don't let us forget Keith LeBlanc]) from Tackhead (don't forget their Sugarhill days). Are you familiar with Little Axe? They make some incredible music, their latest being Stone Cold Ohio.
My favorite is their second release, The Wolf That House Built on Okeh/Epic 1994.

Keep up the great posts.

NØ
At 4/21/2008 9:35 AM , jonder said...: Yeah! I've heard a bit of Little Axe. I remember that some music critics pointed out that Moby's fusion of electronic music with blues and gospel was predated by "The Wolf That House Built". Strangely enough, I recently heard Little Axe on the soundtrack of a Disney movie that my kids were watching called "Holes".
At 7/26/2008 2:51 PM , Anonymous said...: Nice little blip about Man Next Door.
If you're interested I just posted a whole mess of cover versions of it on my covers blog:

http://versionsgalore.blogspot.com/2008/07/hear-pots-and-pans-they-fall.html
At 7/27/2008 2:47 PM , Leopold Stotch said...: Yo thanks for the praise. FYI based on your mention of the Zukie version in your post, which I had no idea existed, I found a copy and added to my post. Big thanks.
At 7/27/2008 7:46 PM , jonder said...: Everybody should check out Leopold's new cover blog, "Versions Galore". Thanks for sharing more versions of "Man Next Door", Herr Stotch!