The Seven Day Listen: Ol' Dirty Bastard
What happens when you only listen to Ol' Dirty Bastard for seven days?
Forcing yourself to listen to one album and one album only for an entire week is a pretty hard thing to do. I’m pretty positive I’ve listened to a single album for a week before, but I didn’t realize I was doing such a thing – and the two situations create an entirely different mentality in your head. It’s like reading a book on your own time and being forced to read a book when you were in school. I’ll read on my own time, but there was no way I was reading for a college course. Luckily, just learning to “stick to the man” gets you a college degree.
I’d been thinking about this for a while, and I decided that I probably listen to an entire song about thirty five percent of the time. It’s like I have music ADD, so I decided to make a bet with myself. I’m only going to listen to one album for an entire week. Obviously there will be things out of my control – for instance I can’t control if I hear music while at a bar or something, and I’m also allowing myself to go see live music because, well, I don’t hate myself. So for seven days I will listen to only one album and write about what I pick up on – both musically and not so musically. It’s the Seven-Day Listen. First up - Return to the 36 Chambers by the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
Friday – ODB is vulgar, and I guess I never really realized how vulgar he is. I’m pretty sure everyone knows his solo hits (which would be “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and “Got Your Money”), and even those were pretty dirty. Hell, the very first line in “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” is, “Oh, fuck, you can’t even sing.” I’ll assume Richard Pryor is talking about Ol’ Dirty Bastard, because Pryor has never heard me sing, and it’s sort of rude to jump to conclusions. He is right, though. ODB can’t sing. He really can’t even rap. He just sort of yells.
That is one of the first things I’m learning about ODB, though – he was quite abrasive in almost a comical way. He brought some lightheartedness to the Wu-Tang Clan, yet is probably the only member that would say something at least a little inappropriate in every sentence. Maybe I’m just far too white.
Saturday – There is a part on the song “Goin’ Down” when Ol’ Dirty Bastard sings “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” while a girl tells him how worthless he is in the background. That, friends, is musical creation – but there is also about five minutes of total time in which ODB is making unintelligible animal/sex type noises. It’s been two full days and I already want to stop listening. “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” will probably never get old, though. Actually, I’ll get back to you about that on Wednesday. Did you know that Ol’ Dirty Bastard went by 25 other names? Most people really liked Dirt McGirt and Big Baby Jesus, but I’m pretty fond of Joe Bananas.
Sunday – Essentially, I’m a pretty lame person. Part of my lameness stems from a game I like to play every time I ride the train. I like to guess what everybody wearing headphones is listening to, which is probably pretty normal for some people – but I like to take it a step further and try to glance at their iPod to see if I’m right. Obviously I can only do this to one or two people on the train at a time. I’ve been right once, so I think that makes me pretty qualified in this art.
Apparently other people like to do this, too. I was riding on the train today and pulled out my phone to see which ODB song was on (you’d think I’d know them by this time, but I don’t). The song was “Drunk Game,” which is a completely accurate name because there is zero chance Ol’ Dirty Bastard wasn’t drunk when this was recorded. This could also be considered the romantic ballad of Return To 36 Chambers, unless you don’t find one minute and thirty seconds of sex noises romantic (which, luckily, I do).
Right as my phone was going back into my pocket I got a tap on my shoulder. “Way before his time, man. Way before his time.” I didn’t really know what to say, so I decided to say that I loved Joe Bananas (I thought my newly found knowledge would give me a leg to stand on. I’m not entirely sure it did). He didn’t even flinch. “Fuck yeah, man. Big Baby Jesus.” I really wanted to ask him what he thought I was listening to; but I was far too scared to hear his answer.
Monday – Return to 36 Chambers is long. In fact, it’s over an hour long. It’s also the weirdest fucking album I’ve ever listened to. You could say it’s a rap classic (and you’d be right – it’s pretty highly regarded), but you could also say it’s awful (and you’d be right – the production is really terrible). It’s just a very messy album, which makes it intolerable to listen to but impossible to ignore. I said earlier that Ol’ Dirty Bastard is very vulgar, but he is also a terrible lyricist. This is offset by the fact that he is completely intense. It really doesn’t matter what unintelligible shit he is yelling at you – you are going to listen to him because you have no choice.
Tuesday – I finally figured out this album’s shining moment, and it only took me four days. “Cuttin’ Headz” features Ol’ Dirty Bastard and fellow Wu-Tang member RZA exchanging verses for roughly two minutes. It’s possibly because the production on this song is pretty bad (really, you can’t hear them all that well), but ODB seems less intense (but still more intense than anyone else) and is focusing more on just creating something catchy. And trust me, there are about three total catchy moments on this album.
Wednesday – Return to 36 Chambers was actually ODB’s first solo album, and the second solo album for a Wu-Tang member. Return is a play off of Wu-Tang’s debut album, Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers. Return was actually nominated for the Grammy for Best Rap Album (and this is probably where you tell me the Grammys don’t mean anything, and you would be right in that assumption). Speaking of The Grammys, do you remember when ODB stormed the stage in 1998 upset that Wu-Tang lost? He went on to say how he spent a lot of money on his outfit. It’s probably a top five Grammy moment.
Every song on the album (sans two) samples at least one other song, with the best being “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Lyn Collins on the sort of hilarious “Don’t U Know.” It’s a pretty basic rap song until Ol’ Dirty Bastard decides to pretend to be a girl halfway through. Oh, and no, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” didn’t get old. It’s still pretty fucking awesome. I’m convinced this song would make my dad dance. Okay, that’s a stretch.
Thursday – I’ll go back to the conversation I had with that guy on the train. Did he mean that ODB died before his time (which I agree with) or that he was before his time in terms of hip hop (which I guess I agree with). ODB did die before his time, I mean, anyone that dies at the age of 35 dies before their time. However, I’m not so sure ODB was before his time, because I’m not exactly sure where his time would be. No other rapper (and maybe I’m a terrible person to be talking about this subject) has sounded quite like ODB. And really, nobody has tried to sound like him. Is this because Ol’ Dirty Bastard was so unique and talented in his delivery that no one else can do it quite like him, or does nobody want to try because it was so out there and actually not very good?
Whatever the case is, spending seven days with Joe Bananas gave me a pretty good feeling on Ol’ Dirty Bastard. I have no fucking idea what he was doing – but I don’t think he did, either.
Posted by Wes Soltis on Jul 17, 2009 @ 8:30 am