John Legend | Green Light (Change Request ReVision)
For this Revision, I pull a tune that I have always loved from this artist, as it was very different sounding for him.
A great production, with a nice pop-rock, Hall and Oates type up-tempo feel, but more smoothed out and soulfully synthesized, drawing orchestration inspiration from atmospheric Drum & Bass. I always liked the feel of this song but felt a slower version with more expanded drums programming was needed.
Written by John Stephens, Andre 3000, Fin “Fink” Greenall of Ninja Tune, James “Malay” Ho, and Rick Nowels. This track was then produced by Malay and then, label A&R, Kawan "KP" Prather. “Green Light" was the first single from John Legend’s 2008 album, Evolver.
Multi-instrumentalist producer, James “Malay” Ho, did the entire album, Evolver, for John Legend, taking his sound into new territories, which eventually got the full-length effort certified Gold, with this particular single achieving Platinum certification from the RIAA.
This most unique track on the record, I recreated this by taking the double-time feel of the record and dropping it down about 24 BPM to coast around 60BPM/120BPM. Keeping roughly the same arrangement as the original, I extended this song from what was a radio edit length into an extended main mix.
Using a mixture of Oberheim, Roland, and Sequential Circuits bass, pads, brass, and synth stabs, I was able to mimic the simple, yet effective synthetic textural gestures of the original. The slower speed of these parts, without changing the key of the original, sounds more dramatic contrasted against the now more polyrhythmic drum patterns that I thought the original was lacking.
