Effortlessly Cool Tunes

[alan nagsworth]

There's a lot of hip musicians turning up in the Kool (Accordin' 2 A Verbwhore) thread, and on listening to some songs, the gutsy attitude rubs off on you whatever mood you were in. That smug grin on your face is the unberable phatness of being. These songs are effortlessly cool and they hold a monopoly on music everywhere.

I would like to nominate the following into the Hall Of Cool:
Kool (obviously) And The Gang - Jungle Boogie
Pantera - Walk
Gorillaz - Rock The House
Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)

[jaydee81]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but this clip is the coolest music ever produced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PB76jVZGkU

[Pogue Mahone]

[youtube=425,350]http://youtube.com/watch?v=pjR29uT5LTE&feature=related[/youtube]
^{Beastie Boys - "Get It Together" (featuring Q-Tip).}

[Vitalstatistix]

"Move on Up" by Curtis Mayfield is my favourite song of all time - talkin bout the 9 minute album version here - and also, I think, qualifies as effort-motherfucking-lessly cool. Much as they may try and play this song to death, it just refuses to get old, or less cool.

Also, I was watching No Direction Home: Bob Dylan last night, and this guy was hella cool. OK, maybe it's more himself being an effortlessly cool guy than his tunes being particularly 'cool' as such, but at Newport '65, when he comes out with the band and they blast out "Maggie's Farm" - cool.

[Spang!]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNCw9SbcwYI[/youtube]

I could listen to this all day.

[Derek Trucks]

They may be cool, but how can they be effortless when a lot of the tunes mentioned are so meticulously produced?  To qualify there has to be a real feel of "turn the tape on, start recording, album finished one afternoon later".  I'll give you "Train to Skaville" by The Ethiopians as a starting-off point.

[fremsley]

They may be cool, but how can they be effortless when a lot of the tunes mentioned are so meticulously produced?

I quite agree. So here are Monks

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5iI0__9S1c[/youtube]

[BJB]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPIjsGl4JIc[/youtube]

[Don_Preston]

Sex Machine by Sly and the Family Stone.

Edit: Just remembered the man who gave Birth to The Cool, which is Miles Davis.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Also, I was watching No Direction Home: Bob Dylan last night, and this guy was hella cool. OK, maybe it's more himself being an effortlessly cool guy than his tunes being particularly 'cool' as such, but at Newport '65, when he comes out with the band and they blast out "Maggie's Farm" - cool.

The fact that such an epochal tune probably was more-or-less effortless makes Bob dictionary-definition cool.  No meticulous production here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAbtg9dz5P0

[olafr]

Two similarly themed offerings:

Cal Tjader's most famous tune:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmSUL1_a6CM[/youtube]

Sadly I can't find a YouTube for it (looking for stuff on there with a dial-up connection is a nightmare) but whilst Welles' Touch of Evil gets acclaim for the great, opening Metty crane shot &c., the film's soundtrack is fantastic too. Gershenson's main theme is a toe-tapper and a hip-shaker, make no fucking mistake.

[Mary Hinge]

They may be cool, but how can they be effortless when a lot of the tunes mentioned are so meticulously produced?  To qualify there has to be a real feel of "turn the tape on, start recording, album finished one afternoon later".  I'll give you "Train to Skaville" by The Ethiopians as a starting-off point.

Good point and bloody good tune. Yes there are a few too many males in this thread who seemed to have studied how to be cooool.
So here are some ladies who haven't and are therefore ipso facto cool.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ikcEGYhwc[/youtube]

[Mindbear]

One of my favourite bands...
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njhtIFqWn2E[/youtube]


The Make Up doing I Am Pentagon. The live element makes it sound slightly less cool, but only a bit. They're so fucking good.

[alan nagsworth]

They may be cool, but how can they be effortless when a lot of the tunes mentioned are so meticulously produced?  To qualify there has to be a real feel of "turn the tape on, start recording, album finished one afternoon later".  I'll give you "Train to Skaville" by The Ethiopians as a starting-off point.

I was more referring to not having to put the effort in to really enjoy a tune, it's just "cool" from the offset. The type of tune that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and pulls you to the dancefloor. I'm well aware of, and acknowledge with awe and wonder every waking hour, the love and effort gone into making theaw tunes. Sorry, that sounds a bit condescending, but just thought I'd make that clear.

[Lord of divs]

This for me:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWztb49ziE

Yeah.

[thehungerartist]

Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug

The Stones - Under My Thumb

[samadriel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggLbeVlvpKw

[Lord Summerisle]

Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie & Clyde

[Whug Baspin]

Yes to Bonnie and Clyde. The Herbert Mix of that is also very cool and the same albumn has a remix of a song called Hoping which is unbelievably cool.

Steely Dan - Any Major Dude Will Tell You has an amazingly almost horrizontal rythm to it.

Also Cajun Moon by JJ Cale, makes you feel like Cocaine does in movies..

[CaledonianGonzo]

Kudos to whitest-men-alive Belle and Sebastian for knocking together a catchy, breezy, singalong, recorder-drenched dancefloor anthem about the drinking habits of Aiden Moffat.  Now that's effortlessly cool...

[Epiphany_n]

The Make Up doing I Am Pentagon. The live element makes it sound slightly less cool, but only a bit. They're so fucking good.

Heh. It's the presenter from Soft Focus, an internet music TV show with a suitably groovy opening tune.

[Sovereign]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYSbUOoq4Vg