Anderson .Paak’s favourite songs of the 1960s
Anderson .Paak is an artist in every sense of the word.
His versatility as a singer-songwriter, rapper and producer can be sourced largely from his eclectic range of tastes. Early in his career, he was difficult to define, unafraid to experiment with genre. His all-covers EP, 2013’s Cover Art, featured artists such as The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Toto, and the sonic influences of rock, soul, jazz and R&B are heard across his discography.
Paak began producing music as many young artists do: in his teenage bedroom. Born in 1986, his childhood in Ventura, California, was soundtracked by 1990s R&B and old-school soul, and his early exposure to live music came from playing drums at his family’s church.
Faced with adversity from a young age, dealing with familial struggles and brief homelessness alongside his wife and infant son, Paak was soon immersed in the Los Angeles scene. Taken under the wings of Shafiq Husayn of Sa-Ra and Los Angeles-based rapper Dumbfoundead, Paak was a creative assistant, videographer, editor, writer and producer. His debut mixtape, 2012’s O.B.E. Vol. 1, marked the beginning of his genius output.
Ahead of his debut album, Venice, in 2014, Paak sat down with DJ Booth to name his 15 favourite songs, a list that showcased a spectrum of influences. He names Tupac Shakur’s ‘Keep Your Head Up’ and describes the late rapper as the “leader” of him and his friends as young kids. He reveals that he and his little sister were “almost driven to tears” by Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’ after watching the music video on MTV. There is an evident timeline in the list, dating from his late 1980s childhood, but there are two stand-outs from the 1960s that continued to resonate in Paak’s mind.
The first is The Beatles’ ‘In My Life’, from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. Paak explained: “I love this group. Like I know they doing soul music and blues and they white boys from the UK and all that, but damn, I fucking love this group. I don’t give a fuck man; they was on some other shit. This was the first song I heard of theirs. It was during my senior year of high school and this joint hit me like a ton of bricks. This white boy was like, ‘you never heard this before??’ ‘Hell nah!’ My mom didn’t listen to the fucking Beatles! She thought that shit was corny.”
He continued: “Too much was going on in my life, and a lot of those lyrics spoke to me even at a young age of 17; timeless music no matter what era it’s made in. If it can still hit you like a ton of bricks upside your fucking head then it’s special and powerful. Shit hurts in a good way.”
The second is Aretha Franklin’s rendition of ‘I Say A Little Prayer’. Originally written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick, it appeared on Franklin’s 1968 album, Aretha Now and became a top ten hit. Paak said, “The feeling I get from this song is unreal. I think of riding in a train in the winter time, snow falling and Burt Bacharach pouring me some chilled Grand Marnier in a tin glass. I like that there is a baked version of this song (Deon Warwick) and a deep-fried version (Aretha Franklin).”
Listen to Paak’s full list below.
