Tricky/Martina Topley Bird -- "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" Public Enemy cover
When I was about 15 or 16, or 17 maybe, (late 90s) I saw this performance on TV a la PBS and it changed my life. Okay, not really that dramatic, but I always remembered this and thought I'd never see it again. And at the time I was so moved by it, but I had no idea what I really saw. I remember they introduced the performance as a female singer-- I couldnt recall the name-- who was filling in for Tricky's vocals because he had a sore throat that day (umm... doesn't he always sound like he has a sore throat? singing like that probably caused it), so instead he's in the background working the equipment during the show.
I'm wasn't a fan of Tricky's voice (Maxinquaye had come out just a few years earlier), so I felt that I wasn't a fan of his music in general-- that is, until I saw this gorgeous chick in the orange hoodie singing his tunes and I realized he is an amazing composer-producer, he just shouldn't be singing-- ever (his spoken word/rap thing is cool though). And, in the hands of an amazing vocalist, his music could be incredible.
Skip ahead to today, somehow this performance popped into my head today and I just happened to think there is a one-one thousandth of a chance some amazing fool posted this video on youtube (hey, if some wierdo posted the 'Dur dur bebe' song...). And sure enough...
The singer is Martina Topley Bird. She's my new, rediscovered, favorite singer at the moment. I always was completely floored by her intensity, interpreting all these Tricky songs and I thought I'd never find out who she was. Of course, this song is not completely Tricky's, its his amazing arrangement/cover of PE's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos".
There are more videos from this Tricky-Martina episode of West 54th you can check out on youtube. This is my other favorite part of their performance:
(WHO IS that bassist? She kicks so much ass. I want her in my imaginary fantasy band.)
I wanted to see what else she's done, and found some great stuff. How do we not already know about her?? She was clearly ahead of her time back in '98. Here's her video/song "Anything" (2003):
This one is an intensely beautiful shaky fan video (cell phone?)-- which are usually terrible to watch
unless its your favortite performer ever, but this comes across as a dark and intimate capture of her live
performance:
yeah being able to find things that we came across once in our childhood that we liked is amazing! long live youtube!
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