Published
Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 10:17
- The keyboardist is perhaps best known for "Cola Bottle Baby," which was sampled on "Harder Better Faster Stronger."
US funk, disco and jazz artist Edwin Birdsong has died aged 77.
Born in Los Angeles in 1941, Birdsong was an experimental keyboardist, organist and singer-songwriter active in the '70s and '80s, releasing five solo albums on labels such as Polydor and Salsoul. Though he never achieved commercial success on his own, his music has been heavily sampled, perhaps most famously by Daft Punk, who used 1979's "Cola Bottle Baby" as the basis for their 2001 hit "Harder Better Faster Stronger."
Other artists to have sampled Birdsong include De La Soul ("Me Myself And I"), Gang Starr ("Skills") and Snoop Dogg ("Lodi Dodi"), all of whom tapped the 1980 jam "Rapper Dapper Snapper." Birdsong also worked extensively alongside Roy Ayers, coproducing three albums, and as a session musician for Stevie Wonder.
Listen to "Cola Bottle Baby," followed by "Harder Better Faster Stronger."