Acid House was one of the great youth movements of the modern era. The first was Rock’n'Roll in the 1950s, the second was the 1960s Flower Power revolution, then the 1970s had Punk and Disco and the end of 1980s saw the explosion of acid house.
The emergence of Acid House truly was a new revolution that changed the face of generation, most notably in the UK. It seemed everyone from the age of 15 to 30 (and a damn site older) was into the scene. It crossed musical, racial and geographic boundaries. It stopped football hooliganism m(it really did, I’ve seen sworn enemies hugging on a dance floor). It didn’t matter where you were from or who you were the difference was that you were there and you were into acid house and evertything that came with it. The music, the openmindedness and the togetherness that came with the feeling that the world was changing and you were riding that wave of change. It sounds cheesing now, and maybe we were a little naive at the time, but that was how it felt.
These characteristics gave it a lot of similarities with hippie/flower power revolution. of the 1960. It wasn’t just the use of acid and similar drugs and it wasn’t just that fact that flares and baggy colourful clothing were were the order of the day, it was psychological similarities that really made us think “wow this is what the 1960s must have felt like”.
This similarity filtered through to the music, which was heavily influenced by the music of the 1960s (as it was also by funk and disco). Samples of from the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and Hendrix abound. Not so much The Beatles because their copyright was heavily protected from sampling and permission was rarely given, although Candy Flip did do their famous cover over Strawberry Fields.
Probably the most well known, and most obvious, is the house classic ‘JJ Tribute’ by Asha from Italy, release in 1990. There was a lot of house music originating from Italy at the time and this is one of the best with it’s uplifiting piano and Janis’s rough vocals it was the perfect tonic for the acid house era. At almost 20 years old it still sounds remarkably fresh. The JJ in the title stands for Janis Joplin, so the record is essentially fitting tribute to late great Woodstock legend. The song samples her song ‘Ball and Chain’ plus some of the rambling speech she made at Woodstock.
And, here is Janis singing the original at the 1967 Monterey music festival
Jimin Hendrix is very rightly known as one of the greatest guitar legends ever. But, funnily enough, it wasn’t his guitar playing that was used on the best known record that uses his sample from the era, which was by hip hop/rap outfit Caveman on 1990’s “I’m Ready”, which takes a riff from Jimi’s “Crosstown Traffic”. This is a bit scratched but if anyone wants a better copy let me know and I’ll email it.
Here is a veritable piece of history: Jimi Hendrix’s original video for “Cross Town Traffic”.
The Rolling Stones were also heavily sampled. The next record ‘Movin’ (Transluna Injection Burn Mix) by Marathon aka Joey Negro. The record cover on the video is 1992 reissue of this mix, which was originally released the previous year. It uses the unmistakable sound of the introduction to The Stones’s ‘Gimme Shelter’ at the beginning.
Here’s the Stone’s original ‘Gimme Shelter’
This record called “It’s A Moment In Time” was heavily played by DJs like Sasha at the time. At about 38 seconds in there is a huge piano riff, which sounds like modern piano riff of the time but it is actually a speeded up sample of the piano from The Stones’s song ‘We Love You’.
And here is the original Rolling Stones ‘We Love You’
Anymore suggestions anyone can think of are most welcome
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