Can You Feel It (Larry Heard song)  

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Can You Feel It? is a 1986 house record released by Larry Heard (also known as Mr. Fingers). It is regarded as one of the first deep house records, and is still a popular track in the deep house scene today. Its seminal impact on deep house has been compared to that of Derrick May's "Strings Of Life" (1987) on Detroit techno.

Contents

Original release

"Can You Feel It" was originally released as an instrumental on Mr. Fingers' "Washing Machine" EP in 1986 on Trax Records. It became popular in the Chicago club scene and was often mixed with Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The song later appeared on the 1988 Fingers, Inc. album Another Side.

Remixes

In 1987, Rhythm Control released a track called "My House," which contained spoken word vocals from Chuck Roberts discussing the feeling and meaning of house music. In 1988, the speech from the a cappella version of "My House" was later used in a remix of "Can You Feel It?" and overlayed over Heard's original instrumental (with samples from The Jacksons' "Opening/Can You Feel It" off their 1981 The Jacksons Live! album used in the introduction). This speech version of the track was a bootleg and was dismissed by Heard, who has always been vocal in his disapproval of sampling the work of other artists without their permission. Regardless, this quickly became the most well-known version of "Can You Feel It?" Both the instrumental and vocal versions have appeared on many house-music compilations.

A rarer alternate mix was also made with soul vocals from Fingers Inc. vocalist Robert Owens.

Use in pop culture

The vocal remix was featured in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on the radio station SF-UR.


Text

In the beginning, there was Jack. And Jack had a groove. And from this groove came the groove of all grooves. And while one day viciously throwing down on his box, Jack boldly declared, "Let there be House!" And House music was born. I am, you see. I am the creator. And this is my House. And in my House there is only House music. But I am not so selfish, because once you've entered my House, it then becomes our House, and our House music. And you see, no one man owns House, because house music is a universal language spoke and understood by all. You see, House is a feeling, that no one can understand really, unless you're deep into the vibe of House. House is an uncontrollable desire to Jack your body. And as I told ya before, this is our house, and our House music. And in every house you understand, there is a keeper. And in this house the keeper is Jack. Now some of you might wonder, "who is Jack and what is it that Jack does?" Jack is the one who gives you the power to Jack your body. Jack is the one who gives you the power to do the snake. Jack is the one who gives you the key to the wiggly worm. Jack is the one who learns you how to walk your body. Jack is the one that can bring nations and nations of all Jackers together under one house. You may be black, you may be white, you may be Jew, or Gentile. It don't make a difference in our house. And this is fresh!!! --Mr. Fingers, 1986




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