Lily Allen – Alright, Steal
For all the Lily Allen fan’s who still seem to flock to the site here’s a little compilation for you to grab.
Its the originals of all the tracks Lily samples on her “Alright, Still” album, and a few others that may or may not have been influences. Hold on to your rib cage while I tell you its called “Alright, Steal“… I know don’t give up the day job!
For the record I’m not critising Lily or her producers for sampling, this is not a negative post. Hopefully her use of a selection of wonderful old reggae and soul tracks might introuce that music to a new generation. Many of the samples were recreated for the finished record – I believe (correct me if Im wrong) that this is done to save money, its cheaper to give songwriting credit than an actual chunk of someones record.
If I’ve missed any samples or you think I should add a track please leave a comment.
To download the compilation click on the link at the end of the post. It contains all the MP3’s and artwork.
Also here’s a tasty South London remix of LDN by Hard-fi’s tour DJ WrongTom
Lily Allen – “STH LDN” (MP3) (click don’t right click)
For more Lily MP3’s, videos and pics try my previous posts Lily Allen @ Bush Hall & Lily @ yOyO.
If you’re a Lily fan can I strongly advise you listen to Adele (here). “Daydreamer” will break your heart.
1. Pierre Bachelet & Herve Roy
“Emmanuelle In The Mirror”
“Littlest Things”… well it’s an obvious Cat Stevens steal surely?? Apparently not, it’s actually based on two tracks from the Soundtrack to Sylvia Kristel’s 70’s soft-core porno classic Emmanuelle.
Pierre Bachelet (1944 – 2005) (co-writer with musical director Herve Roy) was a French singer-songwriter specialising in dreamy romantic vocals. Lily uses “Emmanuelle in the Mirror” and an instrumental version of the title theme, minus Pierre’s whispered voice.
Director Just Jaeckin (both a name and a descriptive term for what most 70’s teenagers did while watching) was asked by dvdmaniacs why he chose Pierre Bachelet to write the score?
How did you choose Pierre Bachelet to write the score?
I did a small TV fashion series, and Pierre was involved in putting some music into the finished project. We became friends, and when I finished Emmanuelle we talked to some very good musicians and singers to work on the score. They would all say no, we don’t want to be involved in an erotic film, so I told Pierre he had to do the music himself (Serge Gainsbourg turned it down, later regretting the decision when the single sold millions). We pushed him to sing the song, and when we heard him sing the first time, we said it was perfect.
2. The Soul Brothers
“Free Soul”
On “Smile” the wonderful summer ska sound and keyboards are taken from “Free Soul“, a 1969 track by The Soul Brothers.
Produced by the legendary Coxsone Dodd, with piano from Studio One’s very own Keyboard King Jackie Mittoo, it’s certainly an inspired choice to pilfer.
3. Professor Longhair
“Big Chief”
Taking a break from rifling through old reggae compilations for samples, “Knock ‘Em Out” finds Lily heading to New Orleans and snatching some Mardi Gras magic courtesy of the “Big Chief”.
Saint Henry Roeland Byrd, Fess, “the Picasso of keyboard funk” the list of Professor Longhair’s (1918-1980) aka’s and nom de plumes are almost as huge as his reputation and influence. Known for his unique piano playing style, creating entire solos on a limited range of notes “Big Chief” is one of his signature tunes, and no compilation of New Orleans funk would be complete without this track.
Home of the groove has a short history of the track:
“In 1964, songwriter/performer Earl King and arranger/bandleader Wardell Quezergue brought Fess into the studio to record “Big Chief”, which King had written years earlier. They surprised Fess, who hadn’t been active in a while, with a big session, including a large horn section. As it turned out, the song ended up being about five minute long and was split up on the A and B sides of the record, with Part 1 being instrumental, and Part 2 having Earl King singing the lyrics and whistling as the song faded. While King wrote the lyrics and the basic song structure, I am sure it was Professor Longhair who devised the finger-tangling piano riff that few people other than he could ever play well. Also, it is said that, in rehearsal, Fess showed drummer Smokey Johnson the syncopated beat he wanted by playing it on a cardboard box.”
4. Lord Kitchener
“London Is the Place for Me”
“London Is the Place for Me” is not actually sampled by Lily, but I’m sure she’ll have heard it before, and for me at least it’s the “LDN” of its era. It’s possible to draw a lyrical line back from Lily Allen to Kitcheners tales of London fifty years ago.
Calypso star Lord Kitchener (real name was Aldwyn Roberts) arrived in 1948 on the SS Empire Windrush with the first wave of West Indian migrants invited to work in post war Britain.
Newsreel footage of the time has Kitchener on the docks brimming with optimism, and singing “I’ve been travelling to places years ago, but this is the place I want to know.” It’s a giddy tribute to a city he had never lived in before, with a piano evocatively recreating the chimes of Big Ben.
It’s so upbeat and positive it seems churlish to note that by 1952 he was singing “I regret the day I leave sweet Jamaica, if I had wings like an airplane, I would fly to that blessed country again.“, and he returned disillusioned to Trinidad in 1962. Kitch did however enjoy massive success in England, with Princess Margaret known to be one of his biggest fans.
5. Tommy McCook & The Supersonics
“Reggae Merengue”
Lily’s love of vintage reggae must be putting a huge grin on the Trojan Records accounts department. LDN’s trademark horn stabs are lifted wholesale from the glorious calypso of “Reggae Merenge” by Tommy McCook & The Supersonics.
Tommy McCook (1927 – 1998) was quite simply a bonafide Jamaican legend whose trademark tenor sax blessed many a reggae classic. A founding member of The Skatalites, who as in-house band for Coxsone Dodds Studio One created the ska sounds for groups like The Wailers, The Ethiopians and The Maytals.
After the Skatalites split, McCook went on to form the “Supersonics” for Coxsone’s deadly rival Duke Reid and his Treasure Isle Studio. As band leader and musical arranger he oversaw a string of hits for the label, as well as helping to develop Rock Steady and Reggae, having already overseen the birth of Ska with the Skatelites.
Darker Than Blue history of Tommy McCook
6. Pierre Bachelet & Herve Roy
“Theme from Emmanuelle (Instrumental)”
“Littlest Things” samples the instrumental version of Pierre Bachelet’s dreamy title music to the 1970’s soft-core classic, as well as the previously mentioned “Emmanelle in the Mirror”.
7. John Holt
“For The Love Of You (Original version)”
“Friend of Mine” takes its hammond keys and summer reggae-lite feel from John Holts “For The Love of You”, or at least I think it does as the history of reggae features more than a few covers of this Isley Brothers original.
For non Reggae fans John Holt is perhaps most famous for cover versions, his covers album “1,000 Volts of Holt” remains one of the biggest selling reggae albums of all time. His version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It through the Night” made the top 10 in the UK. Returning the favour Blondie had a huge hit with a cover of “The Tide Is High” originally recorded by John as a member of “The Paragons”.
“For The Love of You” does feature on “1000 Volts of Holt” but in a slightly different version to the one Lily samples (I think). In order to make them more palatable to the UK market and more likely to get airplay, Trojan Records frequently overdubbed lush strings to the Jamaican master tapes.
Released towards the end of 1973 the original was produced at Vincent “Randy” Chin’s Studio 17 by Chins son Clive with backing by the In-Crowd. It’s a straight up summer anthem, as X says a “masterful interpretation and the epitome of Jamaican soul”. Holt’s voice is simply stunning, and the beat coupled with killer keyboard work adds up to make this an irresistible reggae soul classic.
The History of “For The Love Of You”
8. Origin Unknown
“Valley of the Shadows”
“Cheryl Tweedy“, the b-side to “Smile” liberally steals from one of the biggest drum & bass tracks of all time “Valley of the Shadows” by Origin Unknown.
Created in 1993 by a 15 year old Andy C (Andrew Clarke) and his mate Ant Miles, it took its famous “long dark tunnel” sample from a BBC QED documentary featuring a woman s near death experience during labour (along with that old chestnut Lyn Collins “Think” for the drums). It’s a dark-core jungle style track with heavy breakbeats and twisted synth hooks… a repeated “31 seconds loop” was taken from one of the NASA Space missions.
Interview with Andy C about “Valley of the Shadows”.
9. 50 Cent
“Window Shopper”
Taken from 2005’s “Get Rich or Die Tryin” Soundtrack Fiddys “Window Shopper” is warped into one of Lilys best and certainly funniest tracks “Nan, you’re a Window Shopper”. Almost every line is parodied, so 50’s “nigga when we rollin’, rollin’, rollin’” becomes “There’s a leak in your colostomy bag… It’s got a hole in hole in hole in…“. Its essentially a cover version just with lyrics guaranteed to make you grin.
10. Bob Marley & The Wailers
“Burnin’ & Lootin’”
Technically I’m not sure if Lily samples this, but it’s certainly the basis for 50 Cents original “Window Shopper”. Scratch magazine found it: “a little strange to hear Bob Marley’s signature anthem for insurrection being used by 50 Cent to brag about blasting thieves and sexing freaks. However, C. Styles and Sire seem to find the original natty dread’s “Burnin’ and Lootin’” (from Burnin’, 1973) the right inspiration for a slicked-up interpolation which shines up the original songs keys with a brighter, lighter touch”.
11. The Specials
“Blank Expression”
“Friday Night” certainly has a darker Specialsy “Ghost Town” feel to it, but I’ve included “Blank Expression” (from their 1979 debut album) instead as Lily covers it for an “itunes only” bonus album track. Terry Hall is the master of taking rocking Jamaican rhythms and undercutting them with a world weary, bathetic, English drone, while Lily at her best carries on Hall’s fine tradition of white boy or should I say girl reggae.
Download the album as a zip here. Download the art work by visiting here. Thanks to stop.me for the art (and please let me know if it works?)
Popularity: 8% [?]
Behind The Music: Lily Allen…
Head to Music Like Dirt for a zip of the original songs sampled on Alright, Still “and a few others that may or may not have been influences.” I had no idea I liked vintage reggae so much. Thanks Idolator……
It’s not working…
just kidding…
This is terrific. Thank you
Yeah man it totally works!
What a great read & some great tracks. I especially like that Lily sampled the THEME from EMMANUELLE. I think that’s just hilarious.
Thanks so much!
cheers for the comment Blonei and Christina
and Kier you had me going for a second there (shakes fist angrily)
you’re god !!! nice work!!
[...] Hip? Ja. Zomers? Ja. Een hit? Ja. Gepikt? Ook wel een beetje… [...]
dope, downright dope…always loved Lord Kitchener, his turn of phrase is really simple but got this quirky thing going on, likes it muchly….nice work mld
[...] Alright Still [...]
Great job. Question tho… is the Origin Unknown sample from a particular remix? Pulled out the original 12″ and listened to the one in your zip and just can’t hear it. Was more suprised thhat you didn’t liknk that one to the Specials “Friday Night” as she lifts that song entirely on Cheryl Tweedy.
The Cheryl Tweedy one was just the demo/or mix tape version and I have to admit I havnt heard the version that came out for real… will have to dig it out. Perhaps it was only used on demo???
As for “Friday Night”… completly missed that one
will have to go hunt my Specials selection to have a listen. cheers
Dan Le Sac – Thanks.. Lord Kitchener is excellent… my wifes nightie is the work of genius. nice new scroob track btw
i owe u lunch in the park
al fresco stizz
Wicked stuff. Some fantastic tunes in there, unquestionably. Can’t fault the samples, wonderful to hear them in their original, unLilyfied versions. And any fans of Massive Attack’s Protection LP might recognise a chunk of the lyrics on the Specials track.
Thanks for this.
nice one, and thanks to Del for the tip-off
ST
Yeah Delface.
But thanks dude, sweet idea!
Thanks so much! Was looking for that SoulBrothers track. Excellent info too.
Great job! Looking forward to giving this a listen.
One song heavily samples ‘No No No’ by Dawn Penn. But I can’t remember offhand which one…. I think it’s ‘Shame for You’ (the one that goes ‘oh my god you must be joking me, if you think that you’ll be poking me’)
Either way, that’s a great song for a mix tape!
It doesn’t seem to work for me – it creates a folder with a file in it called _MACOSX but it seems not to unzip. Does it only work with Macs? I’d love to hear it!
this is splendid what what
props to Music Like Dirt!
tonyp
I’m pleased to have the opportunity to hear where the Prof. Longhair sample comes from. Much thanks.
tony p – thanks – ive been on a download frenzy since I clicked through to your blog – good stuff.
Kevin – Not sure why its not working :s Ive downloaded it on work PC and seemed to be fine. Anyone else had PC problems?
Headphonesex – Nice to have a comment from one of my top 5 favourite music blogs
Will check out the Dawn Penn steal. Congrats on 6th place in BT thingy
Thighs – rolling stone have hyjacked your homepage!
Del – Had forgotten about the Massive Attack pilfering… all the best people rip off the Specials.
Awesome compilation, while it’s always great to hear original samples, these songs stand on their own which can’t be said for everything that gets flipped nowadays. The girl (and her producers) have taste.
You get definite props for this one.
tenuous link but i thought it worth mentioning…del mentioned Tricky using a Specials line on Eurochild from Massive Attack’s Protection LP, and it reminded me of the Terry Hall and Tricky collaboration Nearly God…anyone who likes trip hop its worth a listen, its good to hear Terry Hall and Tricky fucking about!
Lily Allen @ Hiro Ballroom, NYC | pics…
This show was supposed to be mediocre. The blogosphere should be full of nasty comments today – about how terrible Lily Allen was live, and how she should stay in the studio where she belongs. But I doubt it……
A slightly belated big up for an amazing post. It truly was worth the wait…
[...] Click here to download ‘Alright, Steal’. It’s a compilation of the tracks that Lily has covered, sampled and been influenced by. MusicLikeDirt compiled it with artwork by myself. Enjoy. [...]
And I thought she was original they are all samples!!!
Great piece of work, well done!
der, all I got was a Lilly track – not alright steal what’s wrong?
nice work getting all these tracks together. I saw Lily at ALL the festies over the summer and was a bit horrified to hear Big Chief being mangled into her set as it’s one of my fave tunes to DJ….but then I thought – her producers have evidently got good taste. what I want to know is this: did all these tracks get credited or did you have to do some digging to identify them?
[...] Also be sure to head over to Music Like Dirt where they’ve compiled a mix of the songs sampled on the album called Alright, Steal . You might find a new appreciation for old school reggae and ska in the process. (While you’re over there be sure to grab some of that stuff from The Good, The Bad, and The Queen). Tell ‘em we sent ya’. [...]
Dan – I was a total tricky anorak in a past life, so yes Im aware of nearly God. About time the man recorded some new stuff… he’s not got great quality control but always puts a gem or two on every record. Saw terry Hall at the Damon Alburn supergroup thing the other week
Growl – always takes me a while
but turned out good in the end 
Haley – Alright Steal is not a critism of Lily. I love a good sample or three, got to pick a pocket or two etc. I love the originals, and just wanted to get them a little more attention/credit than they were getting. If somethings number one largely built around classic reggae then it seems to me a perfect time to shine a spotlight on a wonderful but neglected treasure trove of music
Disapointed – Not sure what you did wrong? Did you click on the LDN remix :s if so well it may make more sense to click the thing saying “Alright Steal download here”. If anyone else is struggling let me know.
Biggabush – did a bit of digging, but the vinyl copy of her album has the songwriting credits so gave me clues to lots of the tracks. Listen to a few different version of For The Love Of You before I placed the source, and went down a few other dead ends but not that hard. Sounds like I miussed a couple from what people have posted.
The influences like Specials and Lord Kitch are just educated guesses, and tracks I love.
Cheers for all the comments – Glad its being enjoyed!
Great post.
I knew the album felt oddly odd.
You know what? I think I found one more: the beginning of “Alfie” kind of sounds like “Puppet on a string”! Don’t ya think?
yes, Alfie is Sandie Shaw – Puppet on a string
i’m a bit late to this party, but thank you so much. x
Very late to respond to this thread. Don’t think these have been said:
“Friday Night” – listen to “storm warning” by Lynn Tait
“Not Big”- small ascending sample from The Specials “Ghost Town”
Perhaps the biggest one that I’ve noticed it that the vocal melody is loosely based on the hornline of the Jackie Mittoo song “Loving you” from his album titled “Evening Time”
The vocal melody I’m talking about is the Lily song “Shame for You”
Good post! Great info blog bookmarked;)
Is it just me, or does the Mark Ronson Revisited mix of Smile sound like Walking on Sunshine?
Lily’s next album is called Just Lily. I wonder what other songs she’ll copy off of next!
will someone please tell me the name of the original which ‘everythings just wonderful’ by lily allen is sampled from.
haha man.. u make m laught publishing this type of pages… sampling is legal and lily knows that. but it seems to me that u dont.
if u dont like her why r u doing that…? i have the “alright still(still, not steal lol)” and in all the songs, there is a permission for using`em.
and tommy mc cook, emmanuelle, etc etc etc…earns money for each time that lily sings her songs.
love lily xxxxxxxxx
and in “everithing`s just wonderfull”, “take what u take”, “alfie”, “not big”, “shame 4 u” anda “friday niht” there is no samples
ericklinks – cheers for the comment, but did you actually read the page?
It doesnt slag Lily or suggest she didnt get permission. This blog covered and supoorted Lily since day 1, indeed Lily used pics from here on her first Website.
Download the originals and enjoy them, but you can enjoy “Alright, Still” too. Its possible to like both.
Bumbasnatch – I’ll have to have a listen to all those suggestions. Top trainspotting!
oh yeah? .. so why u put lily in “music like dirt” and u call her CD “alright steal” ??
explain me that: “indeed Lily used pics from here on her first Website”.
thanks 4 reading me
ericklinks
Alright, Steal is just a play on words based on her album being called Alright Still. I’m all for a bit of stealing. As for music like dirt, thats what this site is called. Its taken from an old Desmond Dekker track.
http://www.musiclikedirt.com/2006/05/19/lily-allen-yoyo-180506/
above is an old review of Lily from this site and here are some pics I took which Lily used.
http://flickr.com/photos/musiclikedirt/sets/72057594139063580/
Keep it trilly.
MLD
this page of musiclikedirt is the best thank for your good music ……javier
Jamaica embraces white reggae Artist. Get free music at avaleigh.co.uk.