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October 29, 2008

Retrohump: The Philly Sound

If you have ever asked a musician to describe the Philly Sound you probably can recognize the confused look/ mouth agape struggle of someone trying to put into words something that is only clear to them between the ears. I never fully understood what was so hard to grasp, after all if you ask someone to talk about Chicago Blues they will immediately bring up an amplified sound with deep bass. If you asked to describe the sound of New Orleans you are thinking brass bands or Dixieland. So what is it about the Philly Sound that is too hard to put into words?

Perhaps one of the reasons the Philly Sound is so hard to describe is because it can sound down right ridiculous in words. For example Wikipedia describes the sound as a style of soul music with the faint sounds of a glockenspiel. If all that it took to make the Philly Sound was to lower the decibel level of James Brown and bring in weird German instruments then to create a perfect Philly record all you would have to do is mate The Simpsons characters Üter Zörker and Disco Stu and package it in plastic.

The truth might be that the Philly Sound is much more of a feel then a tangible musical quality. Sure you can describe a style of sound that utilizes funk riffs with a much smoother well produced texture, however, I would have to argue that there are more things then traditional “Glockenspiel Soul” that fall into the character of The Philly Sound. After-all somehow the Philly musical tradition has gone from John Coltrane to Hall & Oates and all the way to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

If we are talking about The Philly Sound then we have to first take a look at The O’Jays. The group’s album Back Stabbers in 1972 defined the genre of Philly Soul and crowned Philadelphia International Records as kings of the sound. As we can see in “Love Train,” which went from being No. 1 to being the refrain in a Coors Light commercial, the first thing you have to do when making a song in The Philly Sound tradition is have all members of the group do smooth hand movements but be sure not to coordinate them together in any fashion.

The O'Jays- "Love Train"

Temple University has the honor of creating the bricks and mortar that allowed for Daryl Hall to meet John Oates. Though John Coltrane once practiced his scales at 1511 N. 33rd St., it is the creators of “Maneater” that hold the title for being one of the most successful acts ever to come out of The City of Brotherly Love (which is quite a coincidence since I’m convinced that John Oates will take a tire iron to Daryl Hall as soon as he renders his blonde locks useless).

Hall & Oates- "Private Eyes"

For some reason the duo of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince seem to make a lot more sense after having watched 15 Hall & Oates videos. The song “I Think I Could Beat Mike Tyson” is a story of hope, persistence in the grasp of failure, and relentless claims of greatness, all themes that could be used to describe Philly in the first place.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - "I Think I Could Beat Mike Tyson"

I know that I could spend many more hours delving into the deep historical pockets of The Philly Sound but unfortunately I have a 3 ½ inning baseball game to watch so I leave you with the soulful styling of the 1976 Phillies.

*Bonus- "Phillies Fever" -1976

Posted by Yonah Korngold at October 29, 2008 03:30 PM

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