{"id":61126,"date":"2020-03-27T08:34:01","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T08:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=61126"},"modified":"2020-03-27T08:34:01","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T08:34:01","slug":"king-ropes-shine-a-light-on-the-current-world-situation-with-cover-of-classic-ray-charles-song-the-danger-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2020\/03\/king-ropes-shine-a-light-on-the-current-world-situation-with-cover-of-classic-ray-charles-song-the-danger-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"King Ropes Shine A Light On The Current World Situation With Cover Of Classic Ray Charles Song, ‘The Danger Zone’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in July last year<\/a> we brought King Ropes to the attention of EP readers. The group, who describe themselves as a \u201cpsychedelic, hard country garage roots rock band\u201d (what a mouthful!) will be releasing their latest album, ‘Go Back Where They Came From’, on May 22. The album comprises 12 songs, all tracks by legendary artists, some well known, others less so. The first single from the record is the Ray Charles track, ‘The Danger Zone’ – a timely song if ever there was one.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

“The world is in an uproar \/ the danger zone is everywhere” are the pivotal lines from ‘The Danger Zone’, and the drawling vocals of Dave Hollier convey a feeling of utter despair about the state of the world, accompanied by the slow, bluesy instrumentals of the band. The music video for ‘The Danger Zone’ is no more cheery – clips of atomic blasts, floods, civil rights era footage, nuclear fall-out…stuff that helps us to realise that there’s been other times in human history when things were equally dismal – and we survived.<\/p>\n

Listen to ‘The Danger Zone’ a few times through. It’s not going to bring a smile to your face, it’s not going to cheer you up; but it will bring into perspective the realisation that no matter how horrible the world is right now, it won’t always be. This too shall pass.<\/p>\n

The album ‘Go Back Where They Came From’ takes Hollier’s vision of musical history, and imbues 12 covers with King Ropes’ personalised interpretations. Besides Ray Charles’ ‘The Danger Zone’, there’s also songs by such diverse artists as Roger Miller, Elton John, Al Green, Talking Heads, Willie Nelson, and The Beastie Boys – among others.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the album, Hollier said,<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMost of what I know about songwriting I\u2019ve learned by covering other people\u2019s songs. But I\u2019ve never been interested in copying the original version of a song. The covers I love to hear are when someone takes a great song, and makes it into something new.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn this album, we\u2019ve tried to strip the songs down to the bare bones, and then build them back up again and take them pretty far from their original context,\u201d he continues. \u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about cover songs for a long time, and I thought it would be fun to try a covers album with a bunch of songs from all over the map, and take those songs in a bunch of directions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The album sees King Ropes adapting each song and giving it their own style, not necessarily confining themselves to their original genre. Hollier says of the process,<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI hope this genre bending thing isn\u2019t too heavy-handed, but I think that this record is a pretty upfront statement of us having a lot of different music that we love and are influenced by. It was a lot of fun taking a bunch of songs that might seem to have nothing to do with each other and getting them to hold together as a cohesive whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

TRACK LISTING<\/p>\n

1.Tall Trees \u2013 Matt Mays
\n2.Take Me To The River \u2013 Al Green
\n3.Drugs \u2013 Talking Heads
\n4.Rocket Man \u2013 Elton John
\n5.Eisler On The Go \u2013 Billy Bragg \/ Wilco
\n6.Girls Like Us \u2013 Tandy
\n7.Transcendental Blues \u2013 Steve Earle
\n8.Bloody Mary Morning \u2013 Willie Nelson
\n9.King Of The Road \u2013 Roger Miller
\n10.Neighbourhood #4 (Seven Kettles) \u2013 Arcade Fire
\n11.Song For The Man \u2013 Beastie Boys
\n12.The Danger Zone \u2013 Ray Charles<\/p>\n

\n
\"KING