The Grey Album
The Grey Album | ||||
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Remix album (bootleg) by | ||||
Released | February 2004 | |||
Recorded | 30 May – 14 October 1968 (The Beatles' sessions), July – October 2003 (Jay-Z's sessions) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 44:36 | |||
Producer | Danger Mouse | |||
Danger Mouse chronology | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
The Grey Album is a mashup album by Danger Mouse, released in 2004.[1][2][3][4] It mixes an a cappella version of rapper Jay-Z's The Black Album with samples from the Beatles' self-titled ninth album, commonly known as "The White Album". The Grey Album gained notoriety when the Beatles' record label EMI attempted to halt its distribution despite approval of the project from Jay-Z and the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.[5]
History
Danger Mouse created The Grey Album as an experimental project intended for a limited 3,000-copy release in February 2004. While Danger Mouse never asked permission to use the Beatles' material, Jay-Z's
Danger Mouse is quoted as saying:
A lot of people just assume I took some Beatles and, you know, threw some Jay-Z on top of it or mixed it up or looped it around, but it's really a deconstruction. It's not an easy thing to do. I was obsessed with the whole project, that's all I was trying to do, see if I could do this. Once I got into it, I didn't think about anything but finishing it. I stuck to those two because I thought it would be more challenging and more fun and more of a statement to what you could do with sample alone. It is an art form. It is music. You can do different things, it doesn't have to be just what some people call stealing. It can be a lot more than that.[7]
Danger Mouse also commented at length on the creation of The Grey Album in the 2007 Danish documentary Good Copy Bad Copy.[8]
Legal repercussions
The hype around The Grey Album caught the attention of Beatles' copyright holder EMI, who ordered Danger Mouse and retailers carrying the album to cease distribution.
Reception and legacy
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 79/100[11] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [12] |
Chicago Sun-Times | [13] |
Entertainment Weekly | A[14] |
Houston Chronicle | 4/5[15] |
NME | 10/10[16] |
The Observer | [17] |
Pitchfork | 7.7/10[18] |
Q | [19] |
Spin | A[20] |
Tiny Mix Tapes | 4/5[21] |
Danger Mouse is quoted as saying: "This wasn't supposed to happen … I just sent out a few tracks (and) now online stores are selling it and people are downloading it all over the place." Danger Mouse denied being the agent provocateur, saying it "was not my intent to break copyright laws. It was my intent to make an art project."[22]
Cultural critic Sam Howard-Spink observed that "The tale of The Grey Album and Grey Tuesday offers a rich case study for the examination of a wide variety of contemporary cultural issues within the context of the 'copyright wars' remix culture and the age of the digital network."[23]
As a matter of pure legal doctrine, the Grey Tuesday protest is breaking the law, end of story. But copyright law was written with a particular form of industry in mind. The flourishing of information technology gives amateurs and home-recording artists powerful tools to build and share interesting, transformative, and socially valuable art drawn from pieces of popular cultures. There's no place to plug such an important cultural sea change into the current legal regime.[23]
On November 16, 2010, Jay-Z offered his thoughts on the album during an interview on NPR. "I think it was a really strong album. I champion any form of creativity, and that was a genius idea—to do it. And it sparked so many others like it … I was honored to be on—you know, quote-unquote, the same song with The Beatles."[24]
On February 11, 2011, Paul McCartney whilst commenting on the influence of the Beatles and black music gave this assessment as part of a BBC documentary titled The Beatles and Black Music, produced by Vivienne Perry and Ele Beattie.[6]
It was really cool when hip-hop started, you would hear references in lyrics, you always felt honored. It's exactly what we did in the beginning – introducing black soul music to a mass white audience. It's come full circle. It's, well, cool. When you hear a riff similar to your own, your first feeling is "rip-off." After you've got over it you think, "Look at that, someone's noticed that riff."
McCartney said of EMI's reaction: "I didn't mind when something like that happened with The Grey Album. But the record company minded. They put up a fuss. But I was like, 'Take it easy guys, it's a tribute.'"[25]
Track listing
All songs sampled are by the Beatles, except where noted.
No. | Title | Song(s) sampled | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Public Service Announcement" | " Julia" | 3:59 |
7. | "Moment of Clarity" | "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" | 4:00 |
8. | "Change Clothes" | "Piggies", "Dear Prudence" | 4:04 |
9. | "Allure" | "Dear Prudence" | 4:06 |
10. | "Justify My Thug" | "Rocky Raccoon" | 4:12 |
11. | "Lucifer 9 (Interlude)" | "Revolution 9", "I'm So Tired" | 2:01 |
12. | "My 1st Song" | "Cry Baby Cry", "Savoy Truffle", "Helter Skelter" | 4:44 |
The Grey Video
In the autumn of 2004 Swiss directing team Ramon & Pedro (Laurent Fauchere and Antoine Tinguely) made "The Grey Video" to promote the single "Encore". The black and white video mixes clips from the Beatles' film
The video begins with The Beatles performing before cameras and a live audience. Ringo Starr begins to drum to the 1:00 to 1:08 segment of "
The video was not available commercially, but became popular over the Internet. Due to the legal issues surrounding the use of copyrighted material, the video is shown with the disclaimer that it was made for non-commercial and experimental purposes only.
Remastered version
In November 2012, recording engineer John Stewart produced a remastered version, The Grey Album (Remastered), after deciding that there was something amiss with the original sound, and released it for free download.[26][27]
Other Black Album remixes
The Grey Album is one of many The Black Album remix albums. Producers Kno (from the
Notes
- ^ Grey Album Producer Danger Mouse Explains How He Did It
- ^ Cease and desist letter from EMI #1
- ^ 'Grey Tuesday, online cultural activism and the mash–up of music and politics' by Sam Howard-Spink, First Monday, volume 9, number 10 (October 2004)
- ^ '‘99 Problems’ but Danger Mouse Ain’t One: The Creative and Legal Difficulties of Brian Burton, ‘Author’ of The Grey Album'
- ^ York, Jillian C. (24 April 2014). "The fight to protect digital rights is an uphill battle, but not a silent one". Guardian News and Media Limited. The Guardian. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
- ^ OCLC 1236265553.
- ^ Rimmer, pp. 132–133
- ^ Good Copy Bad Copy Archived 2008-02-13 at the Wayback Machine on blip.tv
- ^ Rambarran, Shara (2013). "'99 Problems' but Danger Mouse Ain't One: The Creative and Legal Difficulties of Brian Burton, 'Author' of The Grey Album". Popular Musicology Online. 3.
- ^ Rimmer, p. 130
- ^ "Reviews for The Grey Album by Danger Mouse". Metacritic. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
- ^ "The Grey Album – Danger Mouse". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
- ^ DeRogatis, Jim (25 February 2004). "Another 'Grey' area of sampling: Danger Mouse steals beats from right traps". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- ^ Browne, David (19 March 2004). "The Grey Album". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 12 April 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
- ^ Sullivan, James (7 March 2004). "DJ Danger Mouse: The Grey Album (Promotional)". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
- ^ Cashmore, Pete (19 March 2004). "Danger Mouse : The Grey Album". NME. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
- ^ Jamieson, Ruth (22 February 2004). "Dangermouse: The Grey Album". The Observer. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
- ^ Pemberton, Rollie (16 February 2004). "Danger Mouse: The Grey Album". Pitchfork. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
- ^ "Danger Mouse: The Grey Album". Q (214): 101. May 2004.
- ^ Ryan, Chris (April 2004). "Danger Mouse: The Grey Album". Spin. 20 (4): 91. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
- ^ Ranta, Alan. "DJ Dangermouse – The Grey Album". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
- ^ Rimmer, p. 133
- ^ a b Rimmer, p. 134
- National Public Radio (Interview). Interviewed by Terry Gross. NPR. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
- ^ "Paul McCartney Is Down With Hip-Hop". Wods.radio.com. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
- ^ "The Story Behind The Newly Remastered Version Of 'The Grey Album'". Forbes. 28 November 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
- ^ "Danger Mouse's trend-setting The Grey Album remastered". FACT. 27 November 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
- ^ "Bazooka Joe Presents / The Silver Album (RJD2 vs. Jay-Z) – Rollo & Grady: Los Angeles Music Blog". Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- ^ 9th Wonder - Black Is Back, retrieved 9 February 2023
References
- Rimmer, Matthew (2007). Digital copyright and the consumer revolution. ISBN 978-1-84542-948-5.