June 20, 1969, 50 years ago this month, live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Eddie Harris & Les McCann's incendiary performance of Eugene's protest song "Compared to What" put the nascent festival on the map. The song became a huge hit, a first for a jazz recording, and went on to become an anti-war anthem for so many disheartened by the US involvement in the Vietnam war, and every war since.
https://youtu.be/kCDMQqDUtv4
Welcome to the official Eugene McDaniels aka Gene aka Left Rev McD website!
As creators of the site and fans of his music we are dedicated to expanding his important legacy, exploring the multi-musical personalities of Eugene McDaniels. From pop to provocation and much of the music in between Eugene followed the whims of his muse, his conscience and his heart as a songwriter, singer, and producer.
No matter how, when or where you first heard of Eugene McDaniels there is something here for you! Thank you to Mike Rich of Mike Rich Designs for bringing his love of the music to the piece he created for the site and a huge thank you to Jim Petty of Workplay Media for bringing his appreciation of the music, for his partnering in the creation of the website, and his help to realizing a vision barely formed at the inception of this project.
There is more to come as the story of Eugene, his legacy and the scope of influence of his music continues to unfold.
We'd love to hear from you! Please let us know in the comments section of the blog that you were here, we'd love to hear about how you first heard of Eugene, what you'd like to see more of, or if you know something about his music that we haven't covered yet.
"A lot of his message songs were so hard hitting that even John [Legend] thought it was a bit too much. Every song of this record had ended up in samples by Pete Rock, ATCQ, Beastie Boys…with his vocals that the VP of the USA in the Nixon admin and called and had him blacklisted from the musicians union. When the United Stated govt and vp has you blacklisted then you must have said something really really strong. The last time I played the record was on a L Hill record and one song “The Parasite” 10 mins by the time your got to the 5th min the audience would be like 'what the hell is this'."
read the full article here:
http://www.vibe.com/2010/09/5-message-albums-you-should-ownaccording-questlove/
This article, written by Mark Anthony Neal, for popmatters.com on October 18, 2016 talks about Eugene's song, “Compared to What” being used in a Coke commercial featuring Common and Maya.
"While it is in some ways welcome to hear McDaniels’ 'Compared to What' drift through the air courtesy of Common, Maya, and Coke, the fact remains that the song’s appropriation is yet another example of how the marketing of 'classic cool' often obscures the political contexts in which some pop art was initially created, whether it be witnessed in Che Guevara tee-shirts (on Taco Bell commercials with a 'militant' Chihuahua) or celebrity recordings of Marvin Gaye’s 'What’s Going On' like those witnessed directly after the 9/11 attacks."
read the full article here: