Primitive Radio Gods “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”

Sampling. Are you For It or Against It? This track from the 90s pretty much makes your case. For either side of the argument.

The biggest Argument against sampling is that it’s lazy. You’re not talented enough of an artist, to come up with your own memorable hook, so you are relying on the listeners’ memory and love of an old hook, to make an emotional attachment to your song.

To wit: Primitive Radio Gods’ follow-up single, released a few months after this one, was called . . . anyone? . . . anyone ? . . . I didn’t think so.

But on the For It side, you have to admit that this is a pretty cleverly deployed sample of B.B. King’s “How Blue Can You Get.” In the story of the song, having King’s actual voice fits in perfectly as another detail of the vignette. Paired with the specificity of the song title, and the mood of the tune, it makes perfect sense, and justifies its sampled existence.

So maybe it works. Are you For It or Against It?

Hear Primitive Radio Gods “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand”

See the videos for the Sampler (PRG) and the Sampled (BB), here