Nuclear Beef

Motown Sadness With A New-School Breaks Remix Audio Beef Today. Smokey Robinson gets some hot snax to comfort himself.

(Both are available on The Ultimate Collection.)

'Tears Of A Clown (Hotsnax Remix)', remix by HotSnax from 2005's Motown Remixed

I originally wrote this post about a year ago, but didn't post it because of interpersonal weblog drama! Hooray for semi-public life.

But today I saw this Motown Remixed album and oddly enough the best mix on it was of 'Tears of A Clown.' So I decided to resurrect this post, and let you hear the HotSnax remix. It's a remix by pop producer HotSnax (otherwise known as "Full Phatt") and it casts the original in a dancefloor friendly new-school breaks style.

When you're doing a remix of songs that everyone has heard a million times, I think it's wise to respect the source material. He more or less leaves the vocal alone, and updates the beat with that New Jack Swing. If I heard someone play this at a party in the park, I'd dance to it. I ain't ashamed.

Now take a good look at my face /
You'll see the smile looks out of place /
If you look closer it's easy to trace /
The tracks of my tears
The tears of a clown /
When there's no-one around

Weird. How'd that happen, brain? The songs are 5 years apart in time, but have the same subject matter, and a similar hook. I guess my brain just mashed them together.

Well there's some sad things known to man /
But ain't too much sadder than /
The tears of a clown /
When there's no-one around

Amen.

(For what it's worth, I agree with Chris Lemon-Red that the rest of Motown Remixed is pretty damn awful. Nowhere near the level of quality attained by the Verve remix series. When the best remixes (Easy Mo Be, Z-Trip) basically just get out of the way of the originals, you know you're in trouble.)