I HATE the song Salt Peanuts


I don't hate that it was ever written (early 40’s) and played by Dizzie Gillespie, just that so many jazz artists insist on covering it since. Why?! It is such a meaningless premise for a song (warning: I am not a music scholar so I might be way off here) to be so revered as it seems to be – play a few bars of a goofy, disjointed "chorus", followed by "play whatever the hell you want, and real fast". I dig jazz and its premise of playing a few bars of a recognizable (or not) song, followed by "play whatever the hell you want." I'm OK with that. But Salt Peanuts is such a thrash of herky-jerky, oddball timing, that it not only throws off any groove laid down prior to it, but it is so odd that I rarely (if ever) hear anyone play it without being sloppy. It is a fast, herky-jerky, sloppy mess of a "chorus". It has no merit to keep on living. Pick/Write some other insignificant, meaningless, nonmelodic notes to play for a few bars to be simply used as an excuse to then "play whatever the hell you want", and play those instead. Why Salt Peanuts?

I hate it so much I have avoided purchasing certain jazz releases which have it included, such as Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. And I LOVE Miles. I have his Workin', Relaxin', and Cookin' from the same sessions as Steamin', but not Steamin'. (I realize I could simply burn the CD wihtout that one song, but I hate it so much I've yet to buy the CD.)

I say, let's kill the bastard song and extricate it from our libraries! Come on, are ya with me? Let’s go!
rockadanny

Showing 1 response by peterbj