White Lines and Cavern: A Tale of Two Songs
How one bassline shaped two very different, but also very similar songs.
In 1983, radio in my area was becoming more interesting. Hip hop was starting to find a regular place on the airwaves. It was a time filled with songs that would go on to become legendary. One of those songs had a bassline that stuck in your head and powerful lyrics with a message. That song was White Lines by Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel. I still enjoy it a great deal. Over the years, though, I have also come to appreciate the song it borrows heavily from Cavern by Liquid Liquid.
Hip hop is a genre known for its creative use of samples. That might be fine at a small scale, but as soon as real money entered the picture, lawsuits followed.
I had heard that the bassline from White Lines came from another song, but in the eighties, it was hard to track down music by Liquid Liquid. They are often grouped into the no wave genre, which was an experimental scene based in New York that blended punk, funk, and noise, while at the same time rejecting some of the elements of new wave and punk. It didn’t last long, but it left a lasting mark on underground music. I am no expert in music genres, though.
I was never someone who hunted down a song just because it had been sampled. But in the age of streaming, that has become much easier. When I first played Cavern, I was surprised by just how similar it was to White Lines. It wasn't only the bassline. It was the entire song that felt copied.
99 Records, who released Cavern, sued Sugar Hill Records, who put out White Lines. They claimed the songs were too close. The court agreed and ordered Sugar Hill to pay 660,000 dollars. But Sugar Hill was already having financial problems and filed for bankruptcy before they could pay. The legal process itself cost 99 Records a lot, and without the payout, they were forced to shut down.
Cases like this helped set early legal precedent for how sampled music would be handled, especially as hip hop became more commercial. Today, sampling is more formalized. Artists often clear samples ahead of release to avoid lawsuits like this one.
I still enjoy White Lines, but Cavern is a song worth knowing. While the former is full of lyrical weight, the latter has a sparse and haunting tone. It's amazing what two different songs can do with almost the same music
(If you have retro finds you would like for me to share, I want to hear them. What old useful website are still lurking on the web? Some old TV show streaming online? Old tech being brought back? Let me know.)
ONE COOL VIDEO
The No Wave music scene didn’t sweep the world, but it was influential. That means that not everyone got to see bands like Liquid Liquid perform. Lucky for us, this same era was when video recording was become more accessible. So lets travel back in time and watch the band perform Cavern way back in 1981.
TEN THINGS RETRO
⭐ Homestar Runner - It might not mean a return to the classic website format, but the new Homestar Runner video has Homestar Runner and Strong Bad briefly joining forces to celebrate 25 years of dot commery with an ode to where it all started, the website. So, let’s all go back to a website.
🖥️ Computers - When you think of the first personal computer, you might think of computers from Apple or Commodore. While they would both release machines in 1975, a year before that, the Altair 8800 was released, and its now 50 years old.
🌕 Cartoons - Disney’s Gargoyles was one of the finest cartoons made in the 90s, but it doesn’t get the attention of other series from the time. Its first season in particular was amazing, and is ready for your to rediscover.
🐟 Fast Food - Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips was a growing fast food chain when I was a kid. Over the years, its fortunes have plummeted, but it has never completely disappeared. Now, new locations are opening, which bodes well for fans of the venerable chain.
🎥 Movies - In this interview, Steven Lisberger, the mastermind behind Disney’s TRON shares memorabilia and behind-the-scenes stories from the 1982 film classic.
🐉 Video Games - It is the 45th anniversary of the release of Adventure, which was the video game that established the term “Easter egg” to describe something that has been hidden in the code by the developer.
🎸 Music - Have a decent cassette deck? Miss Showbiz Pizza and their house band the The Rock-afire Explosion? Terror Vision released an album of the bands music and while the Vinyl Album sold out, it is still available on cassette.
🚗 Travel - Some classic websites are still out there doing their job. Roadside Architecture has been around for over two and a half decades and has 3,300 pages and about 75,000 photo feature road side buildings, signs, and statues from all over the country.
📈 Technology - The stock ticker might not seem important in your everyday life, but its invention changed a lot. It replaced child labor that had up to that point did the work of communicating stock prices, it helped spread financial information, and gave us the ticker tape parade!
🎥 Movies - Movies disappear from the world for many reasons. Luckily Missing Movies has sprung up to try and track down movies and get them back on screens where they belong.
FEATURED RETRO COUPON
They still make salad dressings with bacon in them, but nothing like they used to before the Nineties. I completely understand why they fell out of favor, but as you might guess bacon and cheese dressing is pretty amazing.
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATION
Sometimes I find niche Substacks that are no longer updated, but still have interesting stuff that is worth checking out. Recently I read all the posts on The Vectrex Projects by Roger Boesch. This is a site dedicated to one the most interesting consoles of all time, the Vectrex, where the author talks about modern retro computing using things like PiTrex.
FROM THE RETROIST ARCHIVE
Let's take a moment to look back at four posts from the Retroist's past. I have been at this a long time.
One Year Ago…
🍔 The Rise and Fall of the Burger King Meatloaf Sandwich
Five Years Ago…
Ten Years Ago…
🍨 Bring back the Burger King Spooner!
Fifteen Years Ago…
🚚 Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
Sugar Hill was operated by Joe and Sylvia Robinson, who also operated the New York-based All Platinum, Vibration and Stang labels. In her younger days, Sylvia gained success teamed with McHouston "Mickey" Baker as Mickey and Sylvia, and would also have success as a solo artist in addition to her work as a producer, writer and executive.
Thanks for turning me on to this great song!