Maria McCloy: CD of the week
So you might be sick of the endless articles about spiritual, herbal tea-drinking and turbaned “Nu-Soul Queen” Erykah Badu. You might think that Baduizm Live (BMG), the live version of her beautiful 1997 album, Baduizm, is just the record company cashing in on her massive popularity.
Maybe it is, but there’s no denying that this album, recorded with a three-piece band, displays her awesome voice to its fullest as well as her jazz, hip-hop, R&B and Billie Holiday inspirations, and ends up sounding as good if not better than the original. The album (dedicated to her new baby son, Seven) was recorded in front of a small and appreciative audience and it’s nice to hear her interacting, laughing and philosophising with them on the CD.
“I’m gettin’ tired of your shit you don’t ever buy me nothing …” begins Erykah on one of the album’s best songs, Tyrone, where she tells a useless boyfriend to leave. Lines like “when I ask for a little cash you say no, but turn round and ask for some ass … I ain’t no cheap thrill” are great since there are too many truly rotten love songs from the likes of Celine Dion or Barbara Streisand, wailing about “tell him that the sun and moon rise in his eyes”.
Alongside the familiar tracks like Other Side of the Game, Certainly and On and On, there are some new tracks. Not all are her own, but she’s given them the Badu treatment: the concert opens with a reggaeish version of So What? by Miles Davis. Tyrone and Ye Yo are two of her own new tracks, there are also cover versions of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s Stay, Roy Ayer’s Searching, Heatwave’s Boogie Nights and The Mary Jane Girls’ All Night Long.