12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Secret Origins of Moby, January 12, 2005
This review is from: Alan Lomax: Popular Songbook (Audio CD)
I already had a passing knowledge of the work of Alan Lomax before I first heard Moby's "Play" album in 2001. But the strangely exhilerating sound of the sampled Lomax field recordings mixed with electronic dance beats, made me curious to find and hear the original recordings. And I've really been meaning to do that -- since 2001. Fortunately, Rounder has done some serious legwork for me: "Popular Songbook" includes three tracks used by Moby for "Play" ("Sometimes", "Joe Lee's Rock", and Trouble So Hard" were heavily sampled in Moby's "Honey", "Find My Baby" and "Natural Blues", respectively), and the 1959 original version of "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby", which was re-worked and performed in the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack. Plus a 1937 "Midnight Special" by Lead Belly, a truly rockin' 1947 "Stagolee" by Memphis Slim, and that's just for starters. I have read some rather condescending reviews of this collection from folk music academics, getting all sniffy at the notion of 21st Century radio airplay dictating the track choices for a folk music collection -- yeah, whatevah! For us middlebrow-type music lovers who've been meaning to check out this Alan Lomax guy but never quite gotten around to it, "Popular Songbook" is a good starter kit.
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