MetaChat - AskMeCha (Gospel Singing and Faith No More)

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21 June 2005

AskMeCha (Gospel Singing and Faith No More) Here's hoping y'all can help me on this so I don't have to take it to AskMeFi and get one of those callouts that's all the rage. [MI]

post by: bugbread at: 10:33 | 21 comments

Having listened to a lot of electronic music and a lot of metal, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that every genre has a billion subgenres that only folks who like that genre can identify. I need help finding out one of those subgenres.

I'm looking for music like "Just A Man" from Faith No More's "King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime". I can guess that it's gospel, but it doesn't sound like a lot of the gospel that I've heard here or there in PBS documentaries and the like. What kind of gospel is it (if it's even gospel)? What bands/choirs have the same kind of sound? Who would you recommend as being similar in a good way?

posted by bugbread 21 June | 10:34

do you have an mp3 of it to share?

posted by amberglow 21 June | 12:27

I wasn't sure about the appropriateness of it. You're a mod, though, so you're probably a good person to ask. Is it OK to post an mp3 of it?

posted by bugbread 21 June | 13:07

...Actually, either way, being at the office, I don't have access to my mp3s (or, rather, they're sitting in my mp3 player, taunting me for not having a cable to put them on the computer). The closest I could find is this link to a stream from mp3.com, but since I'm behind a corporate firewall, I can't check if it's a stream of the whole song or just the first 10 or 20 seconds (before all the gospelly bits that make up the last half of the song).

posted by bugbread 21 June | 13:38

There's a snippet of it here too, but the snippet they chose has no gospel overtones at all. I'm guessing the song builds to a gospel choir ending or something. I'll find it when I get home...curious to hear it now.

posted by iconomy 21 June | 13:44

Try spending a little time here, especially on weekends. They play the strangest stuff & often gospel type music. You may well find what you're looking for - even though I don't know what it is. Nevertheless, NCW is the best for various forms of old-time music. You could try emailing them too - the djs are very knowledgeable.

posted by mygothlaundry 21 June | 13:46

I'll upload an mp3 when I get home from work (another 8 hours or so).

posted by bugbread 21 June | 14:03

ok. we'd need to hear it to make guesses, i'm guessing.

(and i think it's always safer not to put a mp3 in a post on the front page, but as a comment it should be ok)

posted by amberglow 21 June | 15:01

i have the mp3 but nowhere to put it.

posted by puke & cry 21 June | 15:52

puke & cry, if you email it to me, I can upload it to my site. Addy is "misc circly-a-thingy bugbread one-dimensional-shape com".

posted by bugbread 21 June | 15:57

It's a great song, but I can't think of any other group (or, for that matter, another Faith No More song) that sounds quite like it. I doubt you'll find an entire genre.

"Just a Man," as we'll hopefully soon hear, is an over-the-top rock anthem playing with two rock/metal clichés:
1. Gospel-style backup singers. Think of U2's Rattle and Hum version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" but with less bombast and gospelly showmanship.
2. A melodramatic spoken-word interlude, common among metal bands and obviously mocked here. Sum 41 also mock it at the beginning of their breakthrough album.

posted by me3dia 21 June | 16:05

sent! great song, too.

posted by puke & cry 21 June | 16:08

I just listened to it. It's like three songs in one.

posted by iconomy 21 June | 16:30

Ok, here's a link to it (thanks puke & cry). The audio skips a bit in the middle (I think it skips back a few dozen seconds), so the part I'm asking about starts at about 3:16.

I realize there's no genre that sounds like the song in its entirety (that would be too kind to me), but there's something about the way the gospel part is sung that really rubs me right, while gospel versions of "Go Tell It On The Mountain" don't.

posted by bugbread 21 June | 16:55

Relistening to it, I think I've identified the element I'm looking for: Vocals making more of a soundscape than constantly singing words.

Also, puke & cry, while the sample you provided works perfectly for the purpose of this post, it's got crazy amounts of skips and pops. Was that on purpose to make the post less RIAA ire-drawing?

posted by bugbread 21 June | 17:02

Damn, I had two different versions of this, one ripped and one downloaded. I thought I had deleted the bad one and kept the good one, but I guess I got it backwards.

I've never downloaded an "entire works"-type torrent without a good portion of it being garbage.

posted by puke & cry 21 June | 17:29

When I get home, I'll sling you a good version of it. Check out the other tracks on that album as well, and let me know which you need.

posted by bugbread 21 June | 18:08

Bugbread's MP3 cuts off for me at 2:09, right after the start of the spoken word part.

posted by matildaben 21 June | 21:16

Ok, better late than never: nonglitched version.

Sorry about the delay, home computer crashed on me so I got distracted with repairs.

And in the non-glitched version, the gospelly part starts at 03:16 as well.

posted by bugbread 22 June | 00:15

It's just an actual gospel chorus as backup i think. The liner notes would probably say who it was.

It's some good song!

posted by amberglow 22 June | 00:24

i was thinking "call and response" but it's really not--they just echo.

posted by amberglow 22 June | 00:24

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