So, who is dude behind ‘Rapture Riders’?

[Streed_303]

Who is the man behind Rapture Riders? For those uninitiated, Rapture Riders is a mashup comprising Jim Morrison’s (Doors) vocals over Blondie’s Rapture (beats and rap). This little nugget is included on Blondie’s latest greatest hits compilation. But, the real gem is the single version! While the greatest hits version is a little over 3 minutes, the single version ups the ante and gives you almost 6 minutes of musical pleasure. Apparently, this track has been recieving enough buzz that there is a video on VH-1 which combines vintage Door’s performances superimposed with Blondie’s Rapture video. When, I was shown this video and subsequent interview with Blondie, they referred the ‘remixer’ as “Some Kid”. I did some research, and this ain’t just ‘some kid!

Rapture riders was put todether by Mark Vidler; a UK DJ who under the moniker of Go Home Productions , produced this back in 2004. So, what makes this particular mash work? First off, the vocals fit the chords. That works on a purely mechanical level. But on a stylistic lever it ges much deeper. Both Jim Morrison and Debbie Harry are considered sexy. When paired togeher, this track just oozes sexuality! Also, on an ironic side note. I did some more searching and found out that Door’s organist Ray Manzarek and Blondie’s bassist Nigel Harrison were actually in a band together in 1977 called Nite City.

Unfortunately, as with the fate of all things good (that exist in our music library) the promo Rapture Riders single has met the fate of theft. This is so unfortunate – Until now. In my research, I found that Mark Vidler has a web site and a Myspace presence. You can go and check them out here.

http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/markvidlerGHP
http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/riders.html

Upon visiting his site, Vidler has quite a body of work! In addition to Rapture Riders, there are a many more tracks available for your evaluation. Out of the array of tracks, Mark loves to play with The Beatles! Imagine The Beatles ‘Fool On The Hill’ over Queen’s ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’; ‘A Day In The Life’ over Radiohead’s ‘Karma’’; or how about ‘Paperback Writer’ over the Monkees ‘ I’m A Believer’ (this one is already hip to Dead Air’s Hugh).

A few more tracks that have caught my attention is ‘Wrapped Detective’. This features The Police ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ over Elvis Costello’s ‘Watching The Detectives’ in a wonderful dub style. Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’ and The Hollie’s ‘Bus Stop’ pay a visit as well… But the piece de resistance is ‘Marvin’s Not In Love Part 1&2’. This is basically Marvin Gaye’s ‘Lets Get It On’ inter-woven with 10cc’s ‘I’m Not In Love’. There is a 12” version that has a part 3! You know I placed an order for this. I can’t wait to see where it all goes…

Anyway, I don’t have the time to review all the tracks, but you can find a compilation in the RPM stack. I just hope this doesn’t go the way of the original Rapture Rider’s single…

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