Albums featuring interludes that sound like oral history interviews with the artist's forebears (biological or otherwise)

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I was listening to Nathalie Joachim's Grammy-nominated Fanm d'Ayiti on my drive home, and it got me thinking: Is this a thing?
It feels like a thing.
When did it become a thing?
And what might its being-a-thing reflect about the status of the album in the age of streaming?

Solange's A Seat at the Table (2016) springs to mind as a cornerstone of this aesthetic, and probably the first that I recall hearing; but surely others were doing it prior to that? The idea seems so simple, and the appeal so obvious once you hear it, that I can't believe there weren't a handful of these peppered in among the skits on the forgotten tracklists of some rap albums from the 90s or early 2000s.

handsome boy modelling software (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 00:32 (four years ago) link

Jay-Z black album had those quotes from his mom

ƒ©˙∆˚¬ (Whitey on the Moon), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 00:40 (four years ago) link

And Earl Sweatshirt Some rap songs had that track with a poem by his late father overlaid with a speech by his mom

ƒ©˙∆˚¬ (Whitey on the Moon), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 00:42 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AawuuAw5vY

Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 00:49 (four years ago) link

kendrick lamar obviously - on GKMC he has all the purported recorded phone messages from his mother, while on TPAB there's the fake interview with Tupac at the end.

Tim F, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 01:35 (four years ago) link

That Kacey Musgraves song on Pageant Material that starts with her aunt(?) talking.

a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 02:50 (four years ago) link

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album Uncle Charlie includes one of these.

A breezy pop-rock feel fairly typical of the mid-'80s (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 03:11 (four years ago) link

I'd figure Shorty Medlocke's appearances on a few Blackfoot songs would be filed here.

earlnash, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 03:26 (four years ago) link

The L'Rain album does this with voice messages from her late mum, iirc.

emil.y, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 03:32 (four years ago) link

Ariana Grande’s “Daydreamin’” (2013) ends with a short clip of her grandparents reminiscing about how they fell in love:

Outro: Marjorie Grande & Frank Grande
— He was a man’s man and a ladies’ man...
— 18, 19, I began to become more serious about things in life...
— Oh, I think when I was standing on that stoop and I looked at him... I was 11 years old...

Soy Bean False Chicken (morrisp), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 04:17 (four years ago) link

Daft Punk spend 9 minutes of Random Access Memories reframing a series of quotes from Giorgio Moroder reflecting on his career into a kind of origin story for their own act:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m4ZkEqQrn0

what else are you all “over” (Champiness), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 06:35 (four years ago) link

Swans did this a few times on Love of Life and Soundtracks for the Blind in the 90s, which included taped reminiscences by Gira's father and Jarboe's mother, and Jarboe herself as a young girl.

van dyke parks generator (anagram), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 08:05 (four years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrzOwPdijxQ

Bloody Snail, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 08:11 (four years ago) link

Neil Young speaks to his mother in the afterlife before several tracks on A Letter Home. (It's really sweet and more humorous than sad.)

Valentijn, Wednesday, 27 November 2019 08:32 (four years ago) link


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