Marlena Shaw - I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel to Be Free)

From the album Marlena Shaw - Out of Different Bags/Spice of Life - Chess

Category:

Music

Tags:

• pop
• jazz
• soul
• funk

[ROCKNROLLFAN]

a nice looking woman......

[rayclarkpalmer]

part 2 of 2: my orignial mess was lost so I will summaize. Maralene's verision takes the civil rights atsmospher out of the song. Compare her version to Nina's the absence of the word "bars" speaks volume. I can not see people using Marlena's version as they march on Washington, New York, New Jersery or other places of discrimination. Maralene's is a dance hall version of a civil rights antham. I undertand musicians tweekings words and music but I feel Marlena et all went too far.

[rayclarkpalmer]

Okay, I will explain this slowl. for those that complain there are moreimportant things in the world oing on an that I should not take time to critize this song, please, take a reality pill. This board is for commeting on the song. There are other boards for people to comment regarding the more serious issues. P.S. this time I am not apologing for any typing spelling erros part one of 2

[ILikeLadyGooGoo]

But I'm stumped on the kit drummer and percussionist - Richard and Marlena are still around, so perhaps someone could ask them. (There seems to be no information about her 1960s sessions anywhere publically available).

[ILikeLadyGooGoo]

More interestingly - I have been trying to work out who were the musicians working with Marlena on this. The only credit is for Richard Evans, who is therefore presumably the bass player. I'm reasonably sure that the guitarist is Phil Upchurch, as they worked together a lot, and it sounds like him (tasty series of diminished chords over the flat-9!). It seems likely that Odell Brown is on organ as he was working at Chess/Cadet then, and it's not dissimilar to his sound on those records.

[ILikeLadyGooGoo]

Heaven knows how rayclarkpalmer came up with that strange idea - Marlena's version was one of the first to be made as a vocal, and she was right in the thick of the 1960s soul-jazz crossover. This version is a little more up-tempo than most, but "jazzed-up"? It's a funky jazz tune! And it was picked up by the civil rights movement right around the time she was making this.

[zivkovicable]

@rayclarkpalmer With all that i wrong with this world you find time to criticise this beautiful music. In no way is this disrespectful , the message comes out strong. You have no idea about Marlena's struggle, & her right to sing those words any way she wishes. Since when was jazzing something up disrespectful anyway? Rhythmic syncopation bad? Sounds racist to me.

[rayclarkpalmer]

I think it is some what disrespectful to the history of this song, as well as to the words themselves for the song to be jazzed up in this fashion; to be made a pop song. The song is a civil rights freedom anthem (sorry for the misspelling) and should remain as such; not converted to some pop/soul/dance tune..

[kmonkey918]

I think I like the Nina Simone version better, has a little more soul to it

[IPyroAngel]

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