Sharon Jones Says Amy Winehouse Jacked Her Sound
What does a former Rikers Island correction officer and Amy Winehouse have in common? If you have Sharon Jones tell it - a whole lot.
Sharon Jones says everything that’s defined Amy Winehouse’s new and fresh sound, she’s been part of for years.
“They jumped on us!” Ms. Jones exclaimed in a NY times interview.
For the past 10 years, Sharon Jones has been making music on the independent scene; music very familiar to the Waxpoetic types. Her name can even be found on 45’s - as in vinyl records, the tiny ones. Which is appropriate, because although the music was recorded in this decade, the songs sound as if they’re straight from the late 60’s.
The church singing youngster that she was, early on, Sharon Jones’ music career aspirations didn’t pan out, but the passion for music remained. While working on Rikers Island as a corrections officer, during her off days you could find Jones singing at weddings, doing spotty session studio work, and hitting backup vocals. It was during one of those studio sessions in 1996 that she ran into Gabriel Roth, a bass player for the Dap-Kings.
The Dap-Kings were a Brooklyn based instrumental band that were doing some serious funk reviving of their own. Gabriel Roth also happened to be the owner of Daptone Records.
He signed her to the label and the Dap-Kings became her backing band.
In 2002 Sharon Jones’ first album was released, “Dap-Dippin’ With…”
She followed it up in 2005 with “Naturally”
The buzz was out. Mark Ronson was doing production for Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” album. Mark Ronson was trying to create an old school sound using keyboards and drum machines, when he heard what the Dap-Kings were doing with Sharon Jones he was blown away. He hired them to work on Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” and a sound was born..
“We were using every computer trick in the book to make it sound old,” Ronson said. “But it was just so ridiculous.” He said that on the first day the Dap-Kings joined him and Ms. Winehouse in the studio, “it just sounded a million times better.”
A miilion times better for Amy Winehouse; a bigger profile and cash for the Dap-Kings; Sharon Jones, she’s getting more recognition and work too. Sharon Jones will appear as a juke joint singer in Denzel Washington’s upcoming movie “The Great Debaters” and her new album hit stores yesterday.
She’s still not sure how to feel about Amy Winehouse and crew.
“Even what’s his name Ronson.. They came to us to get the sound they wanted behind their music. We were just sitting here minding our own business, doing our little 45s and albums, and all of a sudden they were like, ‘I want your sound.’
First, I feel kind of angry about it,” Jones said, but then added, “Well, if it took Amy to get the Dap-Kings heard, then it’s a good thing. I say it’s great. Thank you.”
Here’s a few songs from Sharon Jones “100 Days 100 Nights” versus Amy Winehouse “Back to Black.”
Even though they are using the same band, I think Amy Winehouse benefited from bigger production and the fact she can sing makes the ‘jack move’ work.
Make your own determination.
☼ What's Your Opinion? ☼
No comparison. One sounds OK but ordinary, the other sounds extraordinary. A better comparison (not just lifestyle but subtlety of vocal styling) would be Amy to Billie Holiday.
I don’t think amy jacked this women’s sound! It’s bull! amy probably never heard of this women! Amy said in a interview she dose’nt know much new artists she only listens to old music! Maybe it’s just the WAY THE DAP KINGS SOUND!... gosh why are people stupid.
Sad Sharon. So bitter. If she wants to be hostile to anyone it should be her dear Dap Kings, not Ronson or Amy. The DK are the ones who sold their sound [which by the way is -their- sound to do with whatever they wish and not Sharon Jones’ sound]. Ms. Jones has talent, but it’s the same flavor of talent that thousands of black women singers have all over the U.S.—stop in any random club in any random city in the U.S. and you’ll find very similar women just like Sharon Jones. And to refer to Ronson as “what’s his name Ronson..” is just plain unprofessional.
total rip off. amy and ronson ripped her and the dap kings off and the dap kings let it happen. glad to see someone exposed the real influence. sad when new artists can’t give the o.g.s their due. shame, shame, shame.
Sharon has been doing her thing since FOREVER and if you pick up a copy of her album, Naturally (hell, just listen to the iTunes previews) you can hear remarkable similarities between hers and Amy’s stuff because of the DapKings. But Sharon was definitely first. I guess Ronson knew he could capitalize on her sound with the band, which he did. But Sharon’s record is a must have because you will feel like you’ve just been put in a time machine, and the shit sounds authentic. Crazy thing is that all of this mess is like back in day when a black artist would record something, then the shady white record producer would give it to the white artists to cover and then you’d see them on the album with tight ass suits on, chilling on the beach (like in the 5 Heartbeats). Amy gets her props but her newer shit is LIGHT YEARS away from her old stuff and the DapKings (and Sharon) are why.
Stranger things have happened.
I will check out Sharon in Denzel’s movie.
sharon mentions amy and the dap kings every chance she gets. she using amy to get ahead .. so i guess they’re even now!
To Jane Jane
Amy Winehouse sounds like “the same flavor of talent that thousands of black women singers have all over the U.S.” as well. What makes her better? Because she’s not black?
And Russ a better comparison would actually be Amy Winehouse and Dinah Washington. billie holiday’s vocal styling is much more internal and intricate.
I love Amy Winehouse but you white folks need to quit!
sounds like ms. jones didn’t develop the Dap Kings as much as her label did. ms. winehouse is taking a lot of credit for a sound she imitates, rather than originates, but hey, that’s show business.
To Varla: How in internet hell can you assume that I’m white? That’s hilarious. Look, the person with the problem here is Sharon Jones. If you’ve heard Amy’s demo’s for Black To Black, which were made long before the Dap Kings entered the picture, it’s clear that she already had a sound that reinvented the girl groups of the 60’s. She’s the first to admit that. Sharon Jones ripped off James Brown and that’s a fact. No large deal. Everyone borrows from everyone.
The Dap Kings jacked Stax, Hi, Motown, etc. Amy Winehouse is a star NOT because she “sounds black”, which is BS anyway, but because her voice has character and she’s a brilliant, original songwriter. Sharon Jones is karaoke singer.
A new low for Sharon Jones. Get over it, woman! Winehouse has better voice, and an amazing songwriter! While your sounds might be similar, your voice is nothing we haven’t heard before.
No one really “owns” that sound anyway! Both of their stuff is taken right out of the late 50’s and 60’s soul sound. It’s an uncopyright genre! And yea…I like Amy much better. She has a vey special ‘something’ that I can’t quite define.
Hey I’d sell out for some quick cash to Winehouse, she’ll be dead soon anyway. I suppose it’s a hard decision when you have to pick loyalty over rent.
...I mean rent over loyalty… duhh…
Damon is right on here. The sound is not Sharon’s. She’s just ripping off other sounds and taking credit. One generation takes from the previous. That’s how it goes. Sharon thinks she’s original because she went back 4+ decades. She’s a hater.
and you will find that Sharon has a valid point. As an artist, you find that the history of soul music AND rock is always going to have a complexion connection to reach the masses. Motown had to put pictures of whites on their albums to SELL whatever hit they had going on early on. Don’t confuse the truth with the cash! PS - And I love both of them!
Damn folks, can’t you read? Sharon *thanked* Amy. Yeah, there was some bitterness, but I think she realizes it only means more success for her and the Dap Kings.
Oh, and here’s something: If you buy tickets to a Sharon Jones show, you can be assured she will play it, unlike say, an Amy Winehouse show. *Oh, snap!*
NOTYOU, I HEAR YOU.
Gabe Roth didn’t just arrange these peices for Winehouse. That is the “similarity” everyone HEARS…Gabe Roth. I think Gabe also wrote for Winehouse. I suspect there is more to the truth than is evident to non-writer/arrangers. Amy’s material is too sophisticated for her age and level of experience. Her first album was cliche’d RnB with drum machines…These two don’t just have the same band, same arranger,...I suspect more…something that would have people returning Grammy’s in violation of rules associated with the Grammy nominations. Oh, boy. Something is wrong here…and its gone over people’s heads. It’s not because the “house band” is the same…and the arranger. That happens.
The problem is the question of who wrote Amy Winehouse’s material….who really wrote that sophisticated “genre fusion” and what really happened here….
Burning question folks.
Perhaps, it was Gabe’s guidance and teaching…but the writing is too sophisticated for the vocalist, in short….the fundamental choice of notes, of melodic phrasing and the lyrical influences: what is copyrightable as a “song”. Not arranging, but the basic songs themselves. That is the burning question on my mind for the past two months as a writer/arranger myself. It’s a fair question.
Sharon and Amy are friends - there’s no bitterness there! Of course Ronson and Amy jumped on SJ&theDK;‘s - why wouldn’t they? Gabe’s a total genius. Fact.
Why is everyone always looking for an angle??!
Sharon Jones! SOOOOO much better than Amy Winehouse!
Good music is good music. Backing bands work for all kinds of artists, and while Sharon and Amy certainly are working within the same genre, (Sharon having perhaps been there first), they don’t have THE SAME sound… Amy’s got a thing all of her own. Get over it people. Enjoy the music for what it is. Although I heard Amy first, I will no doubt delve deeper into other records the Dap Kings have recorded.
Look, it is well documented that companies look to market black soul music with a white face whenever possible, because caucasion people seem to feel more comfortable consuming it in this package. Amy Winehouse is just one more example of that product packaging. Elvis, the Shangri-las,Dusty Springfield, the Allman Brothers….etc etc. People who study the music industry in the last 100 years know what’s up. Amy Winehouse is a knock off who happened to have a whole lot of money behind her, and truth be told she’s got nothing on the AUTHENTIC black soul singers of the past or present.
The ‘sound’ does not belong to Sharon Jones.
Actually the ‘sound’ does not belong to anyone or any group of people.
Kafkadeft, how do you explain the popularity of ‘black’ music in the days when the only access most people had to it was on the radio and they therefore could not see the race of the performers? (Remember, there was no internet to watch it on, there were no cell phones or other devices to record it for your own enjoyment. Most people did not have their own land-line telephone, television was not around “...in the last 100 years…” How exactly did people (Caucasians) back then get the afirmation that they were only listening to pure-blooded herrenfolk?
Kafkadeft, do everyone a favor and lose the name. I knew Franz Kafka. You are no Kafka. You sir, are an ignorant racist.
Dear Kafkadeft, YOU are right on the money! In fact, I’d like you to email me sometime so we can discuss the matter. I, too, am a songwriter and musician and as a person of colour, I never get the push or money behind my musical projects. In fact, they are often stolen and white artists copy my style and “jack” my style. Speaking of which, look at Rhema (on YouTube) and you will see, the young girl is a WEAK singer (trying to sing Whitney). I do a lot better than her and in my own voice. Mr. Zhivago - get an original name or put your real name (if you have any guts) and just because people didn’t have television or cell phones long ago, didn’t stop whites from entering all-black neighborhoods and “stealing” dance/music styles. There is documented evidence to prove this. Amy is a copycat trying to invoke the dead spirits of black female singers of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Sharon’s bitterness is justified and right and I’ll be supporting her.
Everything happens for a reason…
Let what’s true be true.
Give respect where it is due.
Know what you believe.
Ask and you’ll receive.
This wisdom comes from above…
the Book that tells us: “God is Love”
Let God be true and every man a liar…(Romans 3:4)
Let Sharon Jones be all that God desires.
Listen to Billy Stewart 1950’s-‘60’s. He was way ahead of everyone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_m8xmL6Vck&feature=related
I have seen in an enterview of MTV to mark that he has composed the music of back to black song in one night, come on…he stole it…Amy is not guilty, she just heard it and liked it and decide to take for her lirycs…at least that what they told… I think that if we love this kind of music, just should enjoy it,...
I have been listening to Amy nonstop since her death. I cant get enough of both albums. I like Sharon I dont find her an amazing artist but I like her sound its old school and refreshing.
Now how I fell about Sharon’s comments claims as well as some of you all on this subject…Its really so childish and lacking in grace. I dont care if she said thank you even when she spoke of Amy’s death she made commnets that just sounded petty. They sounded nothing alike and Amy’s fist album was far from being bland. She wrote her own damn songs btw so stop trying to rewire history. That woman could play a mean jazz guitar and was hugely talented. Her phrasing was unique her voice deep and soulful. Its not unusual for a producer to look for bands to back up a developing talent like Amy’s. She didnt steal a damn thing. She worked in a genre that was actually percolating over in England and Sharon didnt invent the genre. Sharon isnt having a hard time because or her complexion it is sadly because she not um visually appealing. I dont like that about the industry but its true. The other reason she isnt ever going to be as big as Amy is because she just dosnt have the artistic range Amy had. Sharon has a very specific style but it dosn’t go beyond that. She is soulful but not terribly creative. Leave Amy be she was a genius musically and if you dont feel it then your ears suck.
Well said, marcart! Well Said!