Thread by @polishedsolid

Thx for the generous intro @deejayumb for my contribution—Sampling Jill Jones—to the superb JJ #PrinceTwitterThread series!

You can tell a lot of 💜 & care have gone into crafting those that have gone before & will follow!

@jilldjones deserves it!

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1418584277537730576

"When you're coming up with different ways of getting old memories to transform - you're scratching, you're doing all this kind of sampling - what ends up happening is that you're becoming a kind of writer with sound."
~DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller) #PrinceTwitterThread

This is gonna get super meta and deeply personal. I have live(d) with this record for decades! It is a part of me. So if you're looking for an impersonal thread about samples. This ain't it! #PrinceTwitterThread

Before participating in this brilliant and most deserving #PrinceTwitterThread for Jill Jones, spearheaded by @deejayumb & @EdgarKruize...

Before writing about Jill Jones for a special 2020 Prince issue of Black Magnolias Literary Journal, edited by my personal Purple pastor C. Liegh McInnis and featuring two of my favorite writers @gonzomike and @RobertVLoss...

psychedelicliterature.com/princeissue.ht…

Before speaking at Harvard University about Jill Jones for the Black Portraiture[s] IV: The Color of Silence conference in 2018...

(Massive shoutout to the audience for the Jill Jones call and response!)

vimeo.com/272033575

Before recording a Jill Jones podcast for @GrownFolksMusic in 2017 with @iorr03, @arrthurr & @RhondaNicole_ (2 of the 3 also wrote threads for this JJ #PrinceTwitterThread series) soundcloud.com/grownfolksmusi… (where I sample Jill Jones, the album, to death)...

I sampled Jill Jones A LOT for my online radio show, No Turn Unstoned (2005-2017), where I genre-hopped around a different theme every show.
dj.polishedsolid.com/category/radio…

In fact, there were 4 Prince or Prince-related samples that I used throughout a lot of mixes for No Turn Unstoned.

The one I sampled the most was Vanity's moan from Vanity 6's unreleased "Vibrator." I was obsessed with this moan more than Prince himself which is commendable if you read my Come #PrinceTwitterThread, covering Prince's use over a decade!

https://twitter.com/polishedsolid/status/1276470786858123264

2 of the 4 were both from Jill Jones:
Jill Jones' vocals on "Intro (Baby, You're A Trip)" from her eponymous release, Jill Jones (1987, Paisley Park Records)...

(Listen to those @clare_fischer strings! NEVER, EVER, EVA gets old!)

and Jill Jones' acrobatic cries from the beginning of "Mia Bocca (Dub Version)" from the Mia Bocca 12" (1987, Paisley Park Records).

To hear how Vanity and Jill were constant throughout loads of my mixes, I present to you exhibit A, No Turn Unstoned #138: Valentine Mix (Lust Edition) from February 2011.

mixcloud.com/noturnunstoned…

In addition to sprinkling profuse amounts of Vanity's moans everywhere, the mix also Included Jill Jones' "All Day, and All Night," which @Art0fficialAge covered perfectly earlier this week...

https://twitter.com/Art0fficialAge/status/1417529753117016065

and I sampled and mashed the song with "The Whisper Song," an instant ATL classic by the Ying Yang Twins in the mix above!

No Turn Unstoned #138: Valentine Mix (Lust Edition) also included Jill Jones' "G-Spot" which @misstlc covered so brilliantly (and, hilariously, I must add) earlier this month!💜🙏

https://twitter.com/IAmMissTLC/status/1413506746878857226

To get even more meta, over 10 years ago on 7 February 2011, I wrote on my DJ website: dj.polishedsolid.com/2011/02/07/no-…

"This is my love letter to Prince & His Associates and like-minded musicians who preceded or continue to promote his legacy of lust in one way or another. I wanted to commemorate the end of The Welcome 2 America tour in some way; Seeing Prince perform again has been a blast;)"💜

We're coming full circle to Welcome 2 America in exactly one week. Can't wait for the release! I'm headed to Paisley Park for the concert screening, next week, and I'm organizing a Welcome 2 America Virtual Celebration (#W2AVC) in August.

w2avc.eventbrite.com

But we won't open those floodgates, just yet! Let's get back to Jill...

If you were to listen to ALL 277 No Turn Unstoned radio show mixes, you'd hear Vanity and Jill Jones sampled the most!

So much so that I thought Daedelus had sampled Jill Jones when it was *I* who added JJ to my Ya'll Don't Know The Same Daedelus I Know (No Turn Unstoned #148) mix.

However, Daedelus did sample John Barry in the same song, "Disco, Disco, Disco" from Live At The Low End Theory (2008, Alpha Pup Records), where I added my Jill samples!

mixcloud.com/noturnunstoned…

He sampled John Barry's "Capsule In Space" from You Only Live Twice (1967, United Artists Records), which will be extremely relevant later and is why my memory is all jacked up! It's complicated.

In fact, Daedelus is a master sampler using the Monome, an Upstate New York-based company, founded by Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain, as his weapon of choice.

This midi instrument is featured on the cover of the album.

monome.org

Daedelus brilliance as a sampler could be an entire separate thread of its own, but, hopefully, you'll check him out on your own if you love the art of sampling! He's one of the best to ever do it! daedelusmusic.bandcamp.com

I would also do tribute mixes when my favorite artists would transition, focusing primarily on samples, covers, or remixes instead of playing originals. I did this for many such as Donna Summer, Etta James, DJ Rashad, Gil Scott Heron, Donald Byrd, etc.

dj.polishedsolid.com/2013/02/24/don…

I could NOT do this for Teena Marie, however. I had to play her originals.

dj.polishedsolid.com/2011/02/14/no-…

DJ UMB covered Teena Marie's significant connections to Jill Jones in his "Intro Pt. I" #PrinceTwitterThread.

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1409518462096007168

I did so many of these tributes that one of my friends began to call my radio show "The Death Show."

So when English Film Composer John Barry died on 30 January 2011, I had to do a mix! For those of you who don't know but you really should... John Barry is best known for the incredible music scores he composed for 11 out of the 25 James Bond films.

dj.polishedsolid.com/2011/02/20/no-…

And if you're curious You Only Live Twice *is* my favorite James Bond score out of John Barry's 11 and any other Bond score for that matter.

youtube.com/playlist?list=…

So I headed over to @whosampled and listened to every single song that sampled John Barry. He's sampled up the wazoo! It took a long while.

I stumbled across the 12" release of Acen's Trip II the Moon (Part 1) which would be a pivotal moment for me. The title track sampled John Barry's "Capsule In Space"!

The b-side of Acen's Trip II the Moon (Part 1), "Obsessed," also sampled another John Barry original score, Diamonds Are Forever, a James Bond film.

However, the kicker is that within a minute of listening to "Obsessed" I hear Jill!

My mind was simply blown because up until this point I didn't think anyone had sampled Jill.

Acen sampled "Intro (Baby, You’re A Trip)." You can hear snippets of "I Want You Every Day" and "You're Like An Ocean" throughout the song.

To celebrate this find, I opened the mix by sampling Jill myself. I smashed "Intro (Baby, You're A Trip)" with "Space March" featuring Leftfield by David Arnold from the album, Shaken And Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project (1999, EastWest)

mixcloud.com/noturnunstoned…

I didn't include Obsessed II (Pictures Of Silence) from the third release of Acen's trilogy in 1992, "Trip II the Moon (Kalidoscopiklimax)," which also sampled Jill Jones.

Coincidentally in the 2020/2021 box set release for Acen, Trip To The Moon 2092, Jill's vocals remain in tact in Obsessed (Coco Bryce Remix), a new drum & bass remix

soundcloud.com/kniteforcerevo…

Let's pause for a minute & marinate on the significance of this box set, dedicated to one 12" release. This February 2021 review for The Wire by Simon Reynolds explains why Acen's Trip II The Moon is so significant almost 30 years later. …ergyflashbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2021/04/acen-t…

Obviously, I wanted to find out if other artists had sampled JJ.

While there are not many, there are a couple more from roughly the same time period as Acen's 12" and yes Daedelus DID sample Jill Jones! My memory...

The most fascinating song is A Guy Called Gerald's "Like A Drug," the b-side of "The Musical Magical Midi Machine" 12", another hardcore breakbeat also released in 1992, because it not only samples Intro (Baby, You're A Trip)

but also sounds, suspiciously, like he also samples Violet Blue's "a breathless army of ‘aaaahs,’ as Miles Marshall Lewis so eloquently described in his Jill Jones #PrinceTwitterThread about "Violet Blue".

https://twitter.com/MMLunlimited/status/1414960294816886797

Does anybody know which was released first, "Obsessed" by Acen or A Guy Called Gerald's "Like A Drug"?

And it gets meta again because Inta-Warriors' "Your Love is Yours" (1993 on Dee Jay Recordings) also uses the exact same sample of Jill Jones from A Guy Called Gerald's "Like A Drug."

Inta-Warriors' is the legendary Grooverider for those of you who were heavy into the jungle scene like I was. I wonder if Grooverider sampled it directly from Jill Jones, the album, or from a Guy Called Gerald AKA Gerald Simpson.

So if you haven't figured it out already, @Daedelus is one of my favorite artists. His 2008 release on Ninja Tune, Love To Make Music To, has one of the best album titles ever and is a stellar release!

Do your ears a favor and listen to the entire album!
youtube.com/playlist?list=…

When I originally got this release in 2008, I was already ready, but once I got to track 10, "Assembly Lines," my jaw dropped. Daedelus had sampled Jill Jones' "Intro (Baby, You're A Trip)".

This thread made me realize more than ever what the sampling rabbit hole will do to your memory! *I* had heard Daedelus sample Jill Jones 3 yrs BEFORE I discovered Acen's sample. However, Acen sampled Jill first in 1992, as far as I know!

There aren't many artists that have sampled Jill, but I wanted to shine a light on those who have because it's important. If you know of others, please do let me know by replying to this specific tweet. I'm thanking you in advance!💜🙏

Also, Massive Thanks to Acen AKA Syed Ahsen Razvi for sampling Jill Jones first, again, as far as I can tell. Pls correct me if I'm wrong. Regardless, I'm hoping a lot more musicians follow suit in the future.

Unlike Prince who has been sampled a lot:

dj.polishedsolid.com/2014/06/25/pri…

Sampling allows younger generations to discover incredible music like Jill Jones, the album, and will hopefully pressure Warner Bros. into releasing a proper reissue with a deluxe treatment. It's been out of print for years. Such a tragedy!

I'm with @deejayumb! I'd love a colored Jill Jones vinyl release, but my vote would be for the color violet blue ;)

https://twitter.com/deejayumb/status/1414729462479040518

Thank you @deejayumb & @EdgarKruize for the invitation, as always, and for doing "the work." How else would I have gotten a 30 year plus question answered about Jill Jones, the album, by Jill Jones herself? I am incredibly grateful!💜🙏

https://twitter.com/jilldjones/status/1413240925451476992

Next up @TrickyKid2 will be waxing poetic about "She's Always In My Hair," which is NOT on Jill Jones, the album, but is a Prince b-side ABOUT Jill Jones.

And if you're still reading I hope you understand that my intimate journey with Jill Jones, the album, will continue until I take my last breath!💜

I'll end this thread with another beautiful quote about sampling. Unfortunately, I have to split it over two tweets due to Twitter's limits:

"I think of music as creating a space. I like to put things in that are comforting to me and are nostalgic...

...To me, that's what sampling does in songs; it's making deeper layers for people who know where it comes from, but also referencing another part of my history & my memory or a memory that I have." ~Jamila Woods

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