BOBBY MCFERRIN COVER OF 'I FEEL GOOD' OFF 'THE VOICE' ALBUM GREAT FOR A GOOD LAUGH

PRINCE OF BEL AIR meets SEINFELD, such a description can almost sum up the 1984 BOBBY MCFERRIN album THE VOICE, a live album made up of a number of his concert dates on his german tour in the same year. At least in Australia, it might be diffrent elsewhere, McFerrin is almost exclusively known for the one song he recorded for the COCKTAIL soundtrack in 1988 - DONT WORRY BE HAPPY, a slightly reggae influenced jazz vocal pisstake special. I dont know much else about McFerrin's output except for THE VOICE album, which i discovered after reading a write up in a jazz publication around 10 years ago. I wouldn't exactly call it jazz, i'd call it more of a stand-up performance where comedy, theatre and some jazz singing co-incidently collide, taking nothing away whatsoever from the pure singing genius of McFerrin. Before embarking on his tour to Germany in 1984 he had already taken his unique voice only concert format right around america to rave reviews from both music critics and fans, he certainly had guts to get out on stage with no band to back him up improvising his way at random, the whole experiment could have easily made McFerrin look bloody stupid but he pulled it off every time he went out on stage and THE VOICE only consolidated his genius status. THE VOICE features two covers, one of which i have made the feature clip for this article because it is just so damn funny. The album opens with Lennon/McCartney's BLACKBIRD, certainly sounds nothing like the Beattles, he arouses a bit of laughter in the live audience with his goofy interpretation of this song, but it's his sidesplitting cover of I FEEL GOOD by JAMES BROWN that rates as the album's definitive moment. Over the past decade if i have ever been feeling a bit down i have often got the album out just to play this one song, it's unbelievably awesome stuff. The rest of the songs are excellent examples of McFerrin going it alone with just his voice, but i guess because the songs aren't familiar they might come across as being a little self indulgent and meaningless. However, all the songs showcase an extremely difficult musical artform being performed by the best in the business.