Various Artists - Bill McClintock Mash-ups - Volume 1: 2017-2018

As the Monty Python comedy group used to say, "And now, it's time for something completely different." Here's something way off the beaten path of what I usually post here. I'll bet most people will either love it or hate it. Personally, I think it's brilliant.

I haven't paid much attention to the whole genre of people making mash-ups. Occasionally, I come across them, but I generally haven't been impressed. But I stumbled on a Bill McClintock mash-up while reading a social media forum that has nothing to do with music. The song was the first one here, "You Should Be Smoking." I was so impressed that I went and looked for more. I soon decided that Bill McClintock is some kind of freakin' mash-up genius. What he does is miles better than the usual, and turns mash-ups into an art form.

McClintock's specialty is taking two very different songs and merging them so well that I many cases a person who hadn't heard the originals would think the mash-up was a classic hit. He's really into heavy metal, and I'm not. But he frequently makes heavy metal songs palatable to me, and even very enjoyable by mashing them with something very different, often soul music. As a result, some commenters have claimed he's invented a new genre, "soul metal." Personally, I prefer the term "disco metal," because that better conveys the strange meshing of sounds that he somehow gets to work. (Note though that only a minority of his mash-ups included here involve heavy metal songs, though there are lots of hard rock ones.)

In my opinion, the key to his success is attention to detail. I can only imagine there's hours of painstaking work behind each mash-up he does, because he must spend hours figuring out how seemingly totally different songs actually share many musical commonalities. Then he carefully places even little bits, like snippets of backing vocals or brief musical riffs. He also tends to patch in solos, usually guitar solos, from yet other songs, and makes them fit perfectly. He posts all his mash-ups at YouTube, and he's taken great care to mash-up the videos for each song as well. If you like these, it's totally worth it to check out the video aspects as well. Here's his YouTube page:

Bill McClintock - YouTube

I like most, but not all, of the mash-ups he's done. The ones I don't like are generally the ones involving heavy metal songs with what I call "Cookie Monster vocals" - lots of rough screaming and groaning. So that's another reason to check out his YouTube page, to catch the songs I didn't include here. I found enough songs I like for four volumes, all at about this length. I've posted the songs in rough chronological order of when he posted them.

Due to the unique nature of mash-ups, I had to come up with my own style for the song titles and artist names. First comes the song title McClintock gave his mash-up. (Although in a few cases I've altered them. For instance, he simply called the second song here "Beat It/Urgent" whereas I thought "Beat It Urgently" worked better.) Then, in brackets, I've listed the two songs that have been mashed together with a "vs" separating them. Finally, I've put the two artist names in parentheses, also separated by "vs." The first song title matches the first artist name and so on. Occasionally, three songs are mashed together, though there aren't any cases of that with this volume.

If you open your mind to it, I think you'll find this a really entertaining listen. Some songs are amusing, some are interesting, and some legitimately stand up as impressive songs of those own. There are cases where I prefer the mash-ups to the originals. Hopefully, this will allow you to appreciate some songs in a brand new way.

As an aside, I also appreciate what is NOT here. And that's any hip hop or rap song. I've noticed a lot of mash-ups involve that genre. I would think that's easier to do when the source material is just rapping without a melody. I also like that he's avoided doing any Beatles songs. I love the Beatles so much that I don't think I'd like most mash-ups involving them.

I'll be curious what you all think of this, and if you know of other mash-up artists that are on this level. If you've read this far and you're on the fence about downloading this, I strongly suggest you do.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 You Should Be Smoking [You Should Be Dancing vs. Smoke on the Water] (Bee Gees vs Deep Purple)
02 Beat It Urgently [Beat It vs. Urgent] (Michael Jackson vs. Foreigner)
03 Fly like Kid Charlemagne [Fly like an Eagle vs. Kid Charlemagne] (Steve Miller vs. Steely Dan)
04 Billie Cocaine [Billie Jean vs. Cocaine] (Michael Jackson vs. Eric Clapton)
05 Break on Through [To the Funky Side] [Break on Through vs. Shakey Ground] (Doors vs. the Temptations)
06 I Heard It Round and Round the Grapevine [Round and Round vs. I Heard it Through the Grapevine] (Ratt vs. Marvin Gaye)
07 The Way the Bayou Makes Me Feel [The Way You Make Me Feel vs. Born on the Bayou] (Michael Jackson vs. Creedence Clearwater Revival)
08 I Wouldn't Want to Be like the Holy Diver [I Wouldn't Want to Be like You vs. Holy Diver] (Alan Parsons Project vs. Dio)
09 Living for the Paradise City [Living for the City vs. Paradise City] (Guns n Roses vs. Stevie Wonder)
10 I Can't Walk This Way Next to You [Walk This Way vs. I Can't Get Next to You] (Aerosmith vs. the Temptations)
11 Mother Was a Rolling Stone [Mother vs. Papa Was a Rolling Stone] (Danzig vs. the Temptations)
12 With a Rebel Yell, She Cried Get Up, Stand Up [Rebel Yell vs. Get Up, Stand Up] (Bob Marley vs Billy Idol)
13 Stayin' a Hollaback Girl [Stayin' Alive vs. Hollaback Girl] (Bee Gees vs. Gwen Stefani)
14 My World Is Empty without a Maneater [My World Is Empty without You vs. Maneater] (Hall & Oates vs. the Supremes)
15 Ice Cold Ground [Cold as Ice vs. Higher Ground] (Foreigner vs. Stevie Wonder)
16 We Are All Right Now [We Are Family vs. All Right Now] (Sister Sledge vs. Free)
17 Let's Dance, Let's Shout [Shake Your Body Down to the Ground vs. Stand Up and Shout] (Jackson 5 vs. Dio)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16687600/BILLMCC2017-2018_MashsVolum1_atse.zip.html

I put these albums together a few weeks ago. But I was stumped as to what I could do for the album covers. In the end, I used the circular logo that McClintock uses for his YouTube page. I also found a photo of him, and put that in the middle.