Saturday, September 24, 2022

"Get Donald!"




This performance by Loleatta Holloway is absolutely riddled with samples-to-be  - vocal bursts that when you hear them here, in their original timespace, hit a seasoned dance music listener as electrifying portals,  flash-forward leaps into any number of later dance tunes. A phenomenon known as the sample epiphany. But this must surely be the most densely packed song ever, in terms not just of the amount of usage but of the sheer number of different bits used.  An epiphany overdose. 

Here's an inventory, quite likely incomplete, of sampled snippets: 

you got me burnin' up

such a good sensation

fill me

sweet sensation

i can't find the words to explain

right on time

i wanna say yes

oh it's got me 

so good so good

baby

a feeling that I know so well

find a way

walk right in

real

yeah

you get down

let me tell you

time won't take my love away


And then there's also various non-verbal outcries - moans shrieks gasps yells woahs...


But there is one moment in "Love Sensation" that I've heard in various tunes - hardcore and jungle,  for sure, possibly house tracks too - but I'm struggling to recall which.

This particular vocal burst occurs at 15 seconds in the below (it's also at 3.07 in the non a cappella extended version of the song at the top of the post)


And I always hear it as the ecstastic if somewhat mysterious diva command: 

"Get Donald!"

It used to tickle me -  "what's she got against this Donald fellow then? What's Donald done?"

Definitely feels vengeful to me, rather than say an urgent appeal for Donald's presence.

(Now it rings out even more oddly as a motto for our time - a demand to the DOJ and attorney generals across the country to end the impunity)

Probably the utterance is in reality something along the lines of  "get down y'all". But I always heard it as "Get Donald!" and I'm attached to this mishearing.  (In the rave / jungle uses of the sample, it's sped up and compressed, adding to the "Donald" effect).  

However I cannot dredge from memory which precisely are the hardcore or jungle tunes that deploy "Get Donald!" (whosampled is no help here). 

Any clues? 

update 10/2-/2022 - Spiro in comments identifies the hardcore tune that uses the "Get Donald" bit  - Noise Factory "The Fire" . First appearance is at 1.21 


Loleatta is also heard in the form of another famous much-sampled bit: "sweet sensation /i can't find the words to explain". And again with "oh it's got me in its...  feeling that I know so well"

And then Stevie Nicks and Loleatta Holloway in the same track - goddess overdose!

"wait a minute baby stay with me awhile / said you'd give me light / but you never told me bout the fire"

Always took that as the plaint of a raver coming up a bit too hard on their first pill or pills.

The whole song is of course an ode to E

Hark ye, a few years ago there was a Dramatic Remix of "The Fire"


Bit too frantic for me. 






8 comments:

Sam Hutchinson said...

Great tune. Amazing these old songs, bursting with a multitude of ideas and snippets that went on to form the basis for entire tracks from the 90's onwards.

"You get down to the real nitty gritty" is the lyric, with the delay making it sound like "Get Donald!".

Russ Tuffery said...

It came at an emotional price for L.H. though didn't it? I seem to remember her breaking down in tears on a UK television programme because she hadn't received due recognition for the success of "Ride On Time."

SIMON REYNOLDS said...

Yes "Ride on Time" in particular was outrageous. Did she end up getting some kind of compensation? Perhaps it would go to Dan Hartman, the writer of "Love Sensation" rather than the performer.

I was just surprised how many other bits from that single song got used. It's not quite the astronomical level of unremunerated use as happened with Gregory Coleman the drummer who did the Amen Break, but it's heading that way.

Wiki has a list (see below) but it's from complete - it doesn't have "You Got Me Burnin'" by Cloud 9 aka Nookie or "Burning" by 4 Hero, and there are many many other hardcore and jungle uses


"I Wanna Have Some Fun" (1988) by Samantha Fox
"Ride on Time" (1989) by Black Box[7][8][9][10]
"I Don't Know Anybody Else" (1989) by Black Box/Martha Wash.
"Grand Piano" (1989) by Mixmaster
"Just Like A Queen" (1989) by Ellis-D
"Dance 2 Trance" (1990) by Dance 2 Trance
"We All Feel Better in the Dark" (1990) by the Pet Shop Boys
"Take Me Away" (1990) by 2 in a Room (using the same sample as Cappella)
"Take Me Away" (1991) by Cappella
"Good Vibrations" (1991) by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch[11]
"Move" (1993) by Moby
"(You Got Me) Burnin' Up" (1998) Cevin Fisher feat. Loleatta Holloway
"Semisation" (2004) by Technical Itch
"Love Sensation" (2006) by Eddie Thoneick & Kurd Maverick
"Take Me Away" (2008) by Chase & Status
"Burning Up" (2009) by Skream
"Still Speedin'" (2011) by Sway
"Blind Faith" (2011) by Chase & Status
"Bootleg Fireworks (Burning Up)" (2012) by Dillon Francis
"Soul Train" (2012) by Geck-e
"Devil In Me" (2012) by Alexandra Burke
"Semisation 2013" (2013) by Technical Itch vs. The Panacea
"Overtime" (2013) by Cash Cash
"Day and Night" feat. Will Miller & Carter Lang (2014) by A Billion Young
"Good Vibration" (2015) by Majk Spirit & DJ Mad Skill
"Good Vibes" (2015) by Kryder & The Wulf
"Temptation" (2015) by Still Young, Simon de Jano & Madwill
"Gud Vibrations" (2015) by Nghtmre & SLANDER
"Natural Power" (2015) by Ruiz Cunha
"So Nice!" (2016) by Diserpier
"World of Our Love" (2016) by Client Liaison
"Disco Sensation" (2016) by Funkatron
"Let Me Tell You" (2017) by ANOTR
"Ketamine Dreams" (2017) by Partiboi69
"Sensational" (2017) by Sam Feldt
"Sweet Sensation" (2018) by Flo-Rida
"Summer Love" (2018) by Liam Berkeley
"You Get Down" (2019) by Todd Terry
"Seat Belt" (2019) by ROBPM
"You Little Beauty" (2019) by Fisher
"This Is Oh!" (2019) by Elio Riso and Muter & Muter
"Camba" (2019) by Fer BR
"Feeling Good" (2019) by Brokenears

SIMON REYNOLDS said...

"You get down to the real nitty gritty"

so the "to the real" becomes the "Ald" in "Donald"

can't quite hear that I must say

i'm sticking with Donald (although increasingly I hear it as Ronald)

SIMON REYNOLDS said...

"far from complete" i meant to write

Matthew McKinnon said...

According to Wikipedia (and I remember there was a guardian piece about it fairly recently…?) Ride On Time originally used a sample, but they didn’t get clearance so re-recorded it with Heather ‘M-People’ Small doing an LH impression, and that’s what we heard week in week out in 1989.
So yeah - royalties would go to Hartman.

Spiro said...

Noise Factory's absolute masterpiece "The Fire" prominently features the "get donald!" sample, firstly as part of an alternating call and response sequence with a ragga sample and then with a blissed out 'uh ohh'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd3Gsvg8Vwo 1.21 is the first "get donald!" section.

I'm sure there's plenty more ardkore tracks that feature this particular sample but this is the only one I can think of right now!

SIMON REYNOLDS said...

Ah well done Spiro - that is exactly what I am thinking of, or at least the main example - there might be others.

Yeah the whimpering bliss-sigh, I can hear now

I will amend this post accordingly!