GOING BACK TO MY ROOTS

Listen to GOING BACK TO MY ROOTS by Richie Havens.

Greetings blogfans from our undisclosed location!

Going Back To My Roots is a song I got from Stu probably the first week I met him. At the time he was playing it quite a lot, but in the past four years I'd think no one's played it more than me!

As you might know, Going Back To My Roots was a hit for Lamont Dozier in 1977, and an important disco building block, as discussed in "Turn The Beat Around" by Peter Shapiro, which is the book I'm currently reading in our undisclosed location.

But this version is from 1981, and it's by Richie Havens. Until the time this cover was released, Havens was known as the earnest black folkie who opened Woodstock. So it must have come as quite a shock for people to hear him front this deep grooved smash. But front it he did, and I daresay the massiveness of this song is possibly the first thing music fans of 2008 would know about, not the Woodstock stuff.

Going Back To My Roots became a mainstay of the Ibiza Sound, the Balearic Beat--the (relatively) leisurely paced, upbeat groovers with loose, organic percussion championed by Paul Oakenfold and co. back in the 80s. Happy music that you can chill to as well as dance to.

I was none the wiser about any of this stuff until I raided Stu's library of music and started (but not finished!) educating myself.

Well, that's your lot. Back to the beach!undisclosed location.

Photo: Snowy trees (3).