Tye Tribbett & G.A. – Mighty Long Way (Or How I Learnt To Love The Internet Again)

Whilst I might have been moaning about the internet recently, it doesn’t take much to remind me why I really love it so much. Take the way I discovered and got hold of this track, Mighty Long Way by Tye Tribbett.

I originally heard it on a podcast mix that Blacktronica did for Lovebox a couple of years ago (unfortunately the podcast is no longer available). I forgot about it for quite a while but recently put it on and have been listening to it religiously over the last few weeks (it made the perfect soundtrack to walking along the beach in Ibiza.) And whilst it’s nearly all great, there were a couple of tracks that I just couldn’t get out of my head.

One was a cover of Stevie Wonder’s As whilst the other was what could only be described as a piece of 21st Century Gospel. Having done any number of searches for the main lyrics (“look where he brought me from”) I was able to discover that it is indeed a gospel track, but couldn’t find the version I wanted: the version I found was by the (equally excellent) Five Blind Boys of Alabama.

So, in an act of desperation I decided to go to the source: I posted a comment on the MySpace profile of Charlie Dark, the genius (and gent) behind Blacktronica and a host of other influential British music acts. And, that done, I promptly forgot about it. But then I got an email from Charlie. He said that he couldn’t remember the track but asked me to send him a link – by this time I’d found a version that sounded familiar to the one on the podcast so sent him a link to that.

I then got another email from Charlie with details of the track (Tye Tribbett’s Might Long Way – confusingly not called Look Where He Brought Me From like the other versions of the song), what had been on the B-Side and where I might be able to get hold of the white label he had with the track on it (the wonderful Sounds Of The Universe in Soho.) However I’m a man of little patience so I decided to try & track it down on MP3.

However the only version I could find online was on Amazon’s download service which is currently unavailable in the UK. At this point I turned to my online network of friends and posted a Tweet asking if anyone fancied downloading the track for me  & again promptly forgot about it, expecting no response at all. So imagine my surprise when I logged in this evening and found two messages from people I’ve never met & only ‘know’ online.

The lovely people involved were Kate, the SEM expert also known as longhornkateChris of social marketing gurus 10e20 and, as Chris had been the first one to reply, he had the honour of downloading Mighty Long Way for me and emailing it to me. But I’d like to send both a profound thank you.

So, what’s Mighty Long Way by Tye Tribbett & G.A. actually like? Well, rather aptly it’s an incredibly uplifting song, which can’t fail to fill you with optimism when you listen to it. It’s got a classic gospel call & response element to it, with Tye leading the choir in the glorious lyrics (even for an agnostic like me):

Things I used to do I don’t do no more
Places I used to go I don’t go no more
Things I used to say I don’t say no more
Ways I used to think I don’t think no more

Look where he brought me from
Look where he brought me from
Look where he brought me from
Look where he brought me from

He brought me from a mighty long way

And all the while the band knock out sounds that wouldn’t go amiss on an album by Common, John Legend or The Roots. Truly magical.

And what about the other track I was after from the Lovebox Podcast? The cover of Stevie’s As? Well Charlie told me who that was by (Gene Harris) and it turned out I already had it on a Blue Note compilation I only bought about a month ago.

I guess I haven’t come a mighty long way as I really am that stupid.

Thank you image by psd on flickr

3 comments

  1. It was a pleasure sir and glad you found it at last. I’ve been critical in the past but internet digging definitely has a place. Well written write up as well.
    keep in touch and thanks to kate and Chris for your help.

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