Dystopian Dance Party

Category: jheri curl june

  • Jheri Curl June: The Time’s “Jerk Out”

    Well, here we are: the last day of Jheri Curl June, and I don’t think there could be a better band to go out with than the greatest band in the world, the muthafuckin’ Time. Today’s selection, “Jerk Out,” comes from the earliest of the Time’s many reunion albums, 1990’s  Pandemonium: their first release as a group since 1984’s Ice Cream Castle, and the first time the supremely talented live band were allowed to play their own instruments on record. Like Full Force, the Time during this period represented a transitional moment, bridging the last gasps of jheri curl with the rise of New Jack Swing: just check out singer Morris Day’s hair in the video below, an unholy combination of a flat-top and a pompadour with a tiny rat-tail in the back that would never have passed muster in the first half of the ’80s. But the song itself dates from 1981, when ghostwriter Prince recorded a demo for the band’s second and greatest album, What Time is It? In a way, then, we’re taking “Jheri Curl June” full circle, with a song from the golden age of one of the genre’s greatest innovators, brushed off and updated by his most accomplished disciples to mark the end of an era.

    And what a way to go out: “Jerk Out” isn’t just a standout track on Pandemonium, it’s one of the best jheri curl songs ever. It perfectly captures both the Time’s smooth-as-silk funkiness and Day’s ludicrous persona of a squawk-laughing pimp daddy who coordinates the color of his suit with the color of his BMW (though not, it must be said, in the video, which is maddening if you’re even the slightest bit OCD). The song’s glossy production demonstrates all the tricks Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis learned during their (then) seven years as hitmaking producers for the likes of Janet Jackson and the Human League. The video, too, has everything a Time fan could possibly ask for: Morris preening in a selection of smoking jackets, a bewildering cameo by a Jack Nicholson impersonator in a Batman T-shirt, and of course, the obligatory post-48 Hrs. scene of Jesse Johnson playing one of his sexy solahs in a country and western bar while angry rednecks pelt the stage with beer bottles. And yes, of course, Jerome brings Morris a mirror before it’s all over.

    So there we have it: the end of Jheri Curl June. There are a lot of great jheri curl artists we have yet to cover, and we both had a lot of fun doing this, so I’m happy to announce that we’ll be doing it all over again next year. Yep, you heard it here first: I’m committed to keeping this blog up and running for at least another year, if only to give myself an excuse to spend another month writing about jheri curl music next summer. In the meantime, we hope you’ve enjoyed this maiden voyage of the S.S. Jheri Curl. Check out the now-finished Spotify playlist after the jump, and we’ll see you again next summer! (Or…you know, later this week, since we do post other things throughout the year. Seriously, don’t wait a whole year before coming back to this blog.)

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  • Jheri Curl June: Full Force’s “Love is for Suckers (Like Me and You)”

    As we discussed in a previous post, by the middle of the decade the popularity of jheri curl music was waning, thus making room for both hip-hop and New Jack Swing.  Full Force, who released their first album in 1985, combine equal parts of all three genres, helping to bridge the gap between JCM and New Jack Swing that many other jheri curl musicians crossed. This is evident in “Love is For Suckers (Like Me and You),” the first single from Full Force’s third album, 1987’s Guess Who’s Comin’ to the Crib?

    The video, an unwatchable nearly five minutes of aggressive goofiness set in what appears to be Pee Wee’s Playhouse, features the group (with either a child or a midget in a full-face helmet… maybe it’s a play on words?) breaking down a white family’s door to eat all their fried chicken and otherwise terrorize them until they disappear into thin air, apparently going back to the fantasy world from whence they came. The one where white spandex fringed bodysuits are fashionable.

    We have only one day left of Jheri Curl June, but our playlist is at a whopping 48 songs! Check it out after the jump.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Roger’s “I Want to Be Your Man”

    Roger Troutman was a talented guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and harmonica player, yet he is undeniably best known for perfecting the use of the talkbox in R&B music. Between his band Zapp and his “solo career”–a term I employ loosely, as most of the personnel on his solo records were in fact members of Zapp–Roger had a string of hits between 1980 and 1983 that helped to put synth-heavy Ohio P-Funk on the map, and made the talkbox a mainstay in jheri curl music.

    By 1983, however, Zapp’s popularity was waning, and Roger began to focus more and more extensively on his solo career.  1987’s “I Want to Be Your Man,” written by Roger’s brother and Zapp percussionist Larry Troutman, reached number three on the Billboard Charts, becoming the most successful hit for either Roger or Zapp.

    The video, which stars Roger’s cropped jheri curl, features Troutman hamming it up for the camera and showing off his ability to play multiple instruments in the best way possible: with a backing band of tiny Roger Troutmen, all on stage at the same time.

    By this time, the talkbox had become less of an element of Roger’s work, both solo and with Zapp, and more of a defining feature. While the use of the talkbox as a lead singer was interesting on such Zapp tracks as “Dance Floor” and “Heartbreaker,” it soon sunk into novelty territory. “I Want to Be Your Man” manages to avoid this fate, at least at first, by being a good R&B song in its own right, with Roger singing a lot of the song in his own tenor. By the end of the song, however, the talkbox becomes an irritatingly tinny soprano that sounds like a very seductive mosquito. Still, it deserves a place in jheri curl history as one of the genre’s best slow jams.

    Two days left of Jheri Curl June…Spotify playlist after the jump!

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  • Jheri Curl June Special: Michael Jackson

    It’s only fitting, as we spend the last full week of Jheri Curl June discussing the twilight years of the genre, that we pay tribute to the man whose passing five years ago today helped spark a revived interest in the music he popularized: Michael Jackson. Though Jackson didn’t play as formative a role in the invention of jheri curl music as his onetime biggest rival, Prince, he damn sure might have perfected it with his string of early-to-mid-’80s crossover hits, both with and without his brothers in the Jacksons. He certainly sported a jheri curl for longer than any of the other artists we’ve discussed so far; posthumously, in fact, if we count his holographic performance at this year’s Billboard Music Awards, making him possibly the first person in history to be outlived by his jheri curl.

    So today, let’s celebrate the life and legacy of jheri curl music’s second most important figure. Just like with Prince, we’ll take a tour through the history of Jackson’s jheri curl music and fashion, and discuss his significance to the genre. Michael may be moonwalking with the angels now, but fortunately for us, his music still lives on.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Was (Not Was)’ “Walk the Dinosaur”

    Is jheri curl music still jheri curl music when it’s self-aware? This is the existential question raised by “Walk the Dinosaur,” the hit 1988 single by Detroit new-wavers Was (Not Was). It has all the ingredients of a great late-period jheri-curl song: clattering synthesized percussion, a bassline that pops all over the place, soulful vocals by singers Harry Bowens and “Sweet Pea” Atkinson. But it’s also coated with the thick layer of ironic detachment that comes with the territory of white art-school types like David and Don Was (born David Weiss and Don Fagenson) interloping in African American culture (see also: Beck, Jack White, Dystopian Dance Party). Indeed, the campy, Flintstones-inspired music video, whose line-dancing cavegirls set off a short-lived late-’80s dance craze, threatens to take the song directly into novelty territory.

    Fortunately, however, the “brothers” Was were both dedicated pastiche artists and certifiable pop-music geeks with a genuine love for the styles they imitated; these are the same guys, after all, who employed P-Funk musicians years before Talking Heads, and sounded more like the real thing in the process. So yes, “Walk the Dinosaur” is both an arch postmodern jest that uses contemporary R&B as a vehicle for ironic visions of nuclear apocalypse, and a goofy novelty dance number; but it’s also, at least as far as I’m concerned, a good-ass song, and a worthy addition to the annals of jheri curl music history. Let’s, uh, just try not to think about that 1993 cover by George Clinton.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with another Jheri Curl June Special about the other titan of jheri curl music. In the meantime, check on that playlist after the jump!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Sheila E’s “A Love Bizarre”

    Way back at the end of week one of Jheri Curl June, we argued that Prince left jheri curl music behind just after he arguably perfected it with his 1984 masterpiece Purple Rain. And while that’s technically true when you consider Prince’s career strictly as a solo artist/bandleader, it’s not quite the whole truth. Because by the mid-1980s, Prince had turned his patented “Minneapolis Sound” into a full-blown cottage industry of ghostwritten, ghost-produced, and sometimes even ghost-performed jheri-curl goodness; so while by 1985 he had moved on in his own work to stretch himself stylistically (and, eventually, just implode in on himself and resort to desperate trend-chasing), his presence continued to be deeply felt in the jheri-curl “scene” through the music of protégé-avatars like Mazarati, Jill Jones, and of course, Sheila E.

    Sheila E rightfully gets props as the most talented of Prince’s many protégées, and it’s purely a testament to her abilities that we say “most talented” rather than “least talentless.” She was really the perfect storm for Prince, who has a notorious history of choosing what women to take under his wing via a combination of happenstance and penile plethysmography: not only is she just as sexy as a Vanity or Apollonia, but she’s also a tremendously accomplished musician in her own right (the “E.” is short for “Escovedo,” as in her father, virtuoso percussionist Pete Escovedo). By the same token, today’s track, “A Love Bizarre,” isn’t just a great song for a Prince protegee; it’s a great fucking song, period, and it stands toe to toe with everything else that came out of the Paisley Park camp in 1985-1986. Indeed, it’s still a staple of Prince’s live repertoire to this day, with or without the woman who made it a hit.

    At the same time, though, certain aspects of “A Love Bizarre” indicate storm clouds beginning to gather on the jheri-curl horizon. The video above is taken from the 1985 movie Krush Groove, which co-starred Escovedo alongside up-and-coming rappers like Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys. Supposedly, Sheila and her band were objects of derision for many of the films’ extras–authentic B-boys and -girls from the Bronx–and it’s easy to see why: synchronized dance steps and New Romantic wardrobes may have passed for the cutting-edge of youth culture just a year earlier, but in the face of the hip-hop revolution, they looked as dated and cheesy as…well, the jheri curl. “A Love Bizarre” is, again, a stone classic, but look at the rappers’ names displayed behind Sheila in this video and you’ll see the writing was literally on the wall: by 1985, jheri curl music had already peaked, and it would spend the rest of the decade in recession.

    I know that was kind of a bummer note to end this post on, but take heart: we’ll be back tomorrow with another highlight of late-period jheri curl music. Because even when jheri-curl is in decline, it never truly goes away: it lingers behind forever, like a greasy perm stain on a pillow. So cheer up, and check out all 12 minutes of “A Love Bizarre” on the Spotify playlist after the jump!

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  • Jheri Curl June: The Egyptian Lover’s “Freak-a-Holic”

    I’m going on record now to say that the Egyptian Lover‘s “Freak-a-holic” is the ultimate jheri curl track. It has everything you could possibly ask for: a thumping artificial drumbeat, whining bass line, one of the  most unconvincing synthesized horn riffs EVER, and of course a sleazy obsession with sex. In fact, the song is basically a confession from the perspective of someone suffering from sex addiction. Yet the video, in which the Egyptian Lover keeps having hallucinations of lingerie-clad women, makes it seem like he’s just really deprived. Or maybe he just has sex with a lot of imaginary women. Either way, admitting that you have a problem is always the first step, and he seeks help from a Freak-a-Holics Anonymous ad in the Yellow Pages.

    Far from being helpful, however, the Freak-a-Holics Anonymous meeting seems to be a room full of triggers. Behind the cloud of smoke that greets him at the door are all the makings of a wild, freaky party: the same women from his imagination, two keyboardists and a keytar player, choreographed dancers in matching outfits… BALLOONS. I guess the old adage is correct: “Once a freak-a-holic, always a freak-a-holic.”

    See the playlist after the jump…we’ll be back Monday!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Rick James’ “Glow”

    Rick James never actually sported a jheri curl, yet he inarguably made some of the best jheri curl music of the first half of the 1980s. By his 1985 album Glow, however, he had lost even his long glittery braids in favor of a curly, light dye job that made him look more like Rowlf the Muppet dog than a freaky punk funker. His music had become similarly faded, limp, and lackluster. But Glow‘s title track is still worth mentioning–mostly because the video is nothing short of amazing.

    The video opens with a spoken introduction by Rick James, giving the audience somewhat of a fair warning about what they’re about to see. The next image we see is James in an all white suit, chasing the lady from the “Give it to Me Baby” video across a beach in slow motion. I guess that’s some kind of metaphor for something. Fade in to a shot of a light brown poodle laying on top of someone’s aunt’s laundry… Oh wait, never mind, that’s Rick James again, his head slumped on the table of his dressing room vanity next to a half-empty fifth of Jack Daniels. You know, like a rock star. His manager is worried about him, his girlfriend can no longer stand to see him “do this to himself,” and on top of it all, as the band plays the fanfare-like opening cords to “Glow,” James saunters out, swinging his bottle, and takes a very obvious spill in front of the microphone. This seems to be the last straw, because as the crowd jeers and his concerned girlfriend looks on, James literally kicks his alcohol problem clear off the stage with a thigh-high leopard print high-heeled boot. The crowd goes wild and the group bursts once again into “Glow.”

    The whole thing just smacks of a really bad Purple Rain ripoff: James plays a tortured musician with a penchant for frilly shirts, although this time he’s struggling with alcoholism rather than just controlling artist tendencies like in Purple Rain (or with a cocaine habit, like in Rick James’ reality). Music video aside, with its background synthesizer noodling, the song is undeniably very jheri. Although “Glow” is barely worth mentioning when compared to James’ high points–such as everything on Street Songs—it’s interesting to note that it was only his second (albeit also last) single to reach number one on the dance chart, the first one being “Super Freak.” One thing’s for sure, Rick James was robbed of the Academy Award for best actor in 1985.

    Playlist after the jump!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Ready for the World’s “Love You Down”

    Jheri Curl June: Ready for the World’s “Love You Down”

    Today we give a shout-out to Flint, Michigan‘s own sultry jheri-ballad kings, Ready for the World. They were discovered by the WJLB Detroit radio personality The Electrifying Mojo in 1982, and gained underground notoriety in both Flint and Detroit for “Tonight,” the song that would eventually become the lead single for their 1985 self-titled debut. “Love You Down,” like “Tonight,” is another sexy opening track, this time for their 1986 sophomore album, the confusingly-titled Long Time Coming.

    The video for “Love You Down” is shot entirely in sepia, which as everyone knows was the universally recognized shade of sexiness for music videos in the ’80s and early ’90s. Singer Melvin Riley’s jheri curl emerges from the ominous darkness, his curls highlighted by the dark, as he lisps his way through a slow, sensual jam in which he seduces an older woman.

    After their second album, Ready for the World had lost the magic and disbanded after two more releases, only to be reunited in the early 2000s with some seriously unmemorable, poor man’s R. Kelly-sounding R&B. But as a Michigan original and true proponents of the Minneapolis sound (no, that wasn’t a typo), Ready for the World will forever hold a place in jheri curl history.

    Remember to read past the jump for the updated Spotify playlist!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Cameo’s “Candy”

    William Shakespeare once wrote, “Be not afraid of jheri-curl: some are born jheri-curl, some achieve jheri-curl, and some have jheri-curl thrust upon them” (note: I may be misremembering this quote). Cameo, founded by the inimitable Larry Blackmon in 1974, belonged to the latter category: they started out as a straight-up funk band in the P-Funk vein, but by the mid-’80s they were jheri-curl as all getout…even if Blackmon was more likely to rock a fade. “Candy,” from their 1986 album Word Up, is a great late-’80s example of the style–plus, as a bonus, it has one of the most demented music videos I’ve ever seen.

    Look, I don’t even know where to start here: the way the video begins with a slow pan across a city scene and then lingers on Blackmon’s codpieced crotch; the repeated shots of the singer leaping into the frame, getting closer and closer until you can practically count the individual hairs on his moustache; the stocky guy in leather flamboyantly putting his hands on his hips and mouthing “you’re so dandy.” But I know exactly where to end: that indelible image, right before the guitar solo, where a massive Blackmon stomps Godzilla-style into the middle of the street and wiggles his codpiece, while the people below seem more concerned with slowly marching in a circle than with the very real possibility of being crushed to death by Larry Blackmon’s balls. But hey, I guess if you gotta go, that’s one way to do it. Cocaine’s a helluva drug.

    Playlist as always is below the jump; we’ll see you soon!

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