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  • Jheri Curl June: The Gap Band’s “Disrespect”

    Last Thursday, June 7, would have been Prince’s 60th birthday had he: a) not passed away in April 2016, and b) believed in concepts as prosaic as “birthdays” and “years.” Last week also happened to mark the underwhelming conclusion of the beef between rappers Pusha T and Drake, which just a few short weeks ago felt like the only thing anyone on the Internet was talking about. So, I thought, why not make today’s Jheri Curl June post a diss track about Prince?

    Released on Gap Band VI (actually, confusingly, the eighth album by Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Gap Band) in December 1984, there’s nothing about “Disrespect” that directly implicates Prince–except, of course, for the sound, which pairs Minneapolis-style sustained synth chords and a “Controversy”-esque bassline with call and response right out of the P-Funk playbook. The lyrics, by Gap Band frontman Charlie Wilson, are aggrieved but non-specific, excoriating some unfortunate “sucka” who “had the chance” but “disrespected” him.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Fatback Band’s “Double Love Affair”

    Long before SZA’s ode to sharing a man, Fatback Band had “Double Love Affair,” a playful, jaunty tune about two-timing from the point of view of a man who “has so much love inside” that he “has to spread it out.” It might be the most lighthearted, infectious song about blatant infidelity ever recorded.

    Musically, the Prince influence is undeniable. Or more appropriately, it’s as much a ripoff of Ebonee Webb’s “Something About You” as “Something About You” was a ripoff of Prince’s “Head.” The whole song is sung in falsetto with Prince-like yelps, and toward the end of the track there’s even some heavy breathing. That’s right, folks, five years into Jheri Curl June and we’re just beginning to understand the self-referential quality of Jheri Curl Music.

    Like Monday’s JCJ inductees, Mandrill, Fatback Band had been around for a full decade before 1983’s Is This the Future? While certainly not their strongest output, it’s an album that speaks to Fatback Band’s ability to successfully adapt to the New Wave sounds of the ’80s.

    And that’s Jheri Curl June Week 1 in the can! Click through below for the latest updates on our Spotify and YouTube playlists. See you again on Monday!

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  • Jheri Curl June: West Phillips’ “(I’m Just a) Sucker for a Pretty Face”

    I’ve been sitting on this song for at least two Jheri Curl Junes now, but I always held it back because I didn’t know what to say about West Phillips. The only information and the sole photo I could find of him are both above, stolen from his Discogs artist page; and when I Google Image Search “West Phillips,” I just get a bunch of photos of buff hunks in bikinis by a photographer with the same name (you’re welcome, by the way). Earlier this spring, however, I heard “Sucker for a Pretty Face” on Andrew Joseph’s and Laura Caringell’s Paid Time Off radio show and was reminded of what a monster fucking jam it is. What else do we need to say, really?

    In case that’s not enough, here’s some info on West Phillips, all paraphrased from the aforementioned Discogs bio. He was born Everton West Phillips in Antiqua and later relocated to Chicago, where he began his music career working with songwriter Jerry Butler on songs for R&B artists like Sam & Dave and Percy Sledge. He then graduated to work as a musician for Butler’s label Fountain Records, playing on sessions with groups like Omni. Also, at some point circa 1984, he had a wicked jheri curl (see above).

    But even if Phillips hadn’t sported a curl, the spirit of JC was clearly with him when he recorded “Sucker for a Pretty Face,” his 1983 debut single and a masterclass in airtight electro-funk groove construction. The thumping “Another One Bites the Dust” bassline, the exquisitely whining synthesizer, the synthetic drum-machine claps and surgical rhythm guitar–all with Phillips’ incessant, pitch-shifting, lightly Caribbean-accented vocals layered on top, complete with a rap featuring the line, “let me get to munchin’ on your lollipop.” What else is there to know? West Phillips is a sucker looking for some sugar; and in the end, aren’t we all?

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  • Jheri Curl June: Imagination’s “Just an Illusion”

    As we mentioned in our Jheri Curl June 2K18 podcast, one of our favorite activities here in the Dystopian Dance Party universe is digging in the crates for Jheri Curl Music; and the British JCM group Imagination is my favorite discovery since the Deele.

    © R&B Records

    I picked up their first album, 1981’s Body Talk, solely because of the album cover, which features the trio posed around a white piano, wearing garters and gladiator sandals, in a room shrouded in dry ice smoke.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Aurra’s “Make Up Your Mind”

    Dayton, Ohio’s Aurra began life as an offshoot of Jheri Curl June Class of 2015 and 2017 members Slave, led by multi-instrumentalist Steve Washington with guitarist and singer Curt Jones, singer Starleana Young, and arranger/multi-instrumentalist Charles Carter all in tow. By their third album, 1982’s A Little Love, Carter had departed (replaced by a whole mess of synthesizers) and the group’s focus had shifted firmly to Jones and Young, with Washington taking more of a behind-the-scenes production role. They had also become what the kids today would call “Jheri Curl af.”

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  • Jheri Curl June: Mandrill’s “Get It While It’s Hot”

    We begin our fifth year of Jheri Curl June with Mandrill: a group from Brooklyn, New York that had existed for over a decade before embracing the slick, seductive sound of Jheri Curl Music. Like Jheri Curl June veterans Kool & The Gang, Mandrill began as a large funk outfit with latin and jazz influences. By 1981’s Energize, however, they had discarded the jam-heavy grooves for the tight, synthetic sound of Jheri Curl funk. It would also be their last album recorded before they disbanded in 1982.

    “Get It While it’s Hot” is an example of how early Jheri Curl Music often offered up exceptions to the rules; in this case, Mandrill maintained their live horn section instead of using a synthesizer to provide “synthetic” horns. Yet most of the characteristics are here, including a low melodic bass line and soaring synths. It’s early JCM for sure, but Jheri nonetheless. (more…)

  • Jheri Curl June: El DeBarge’s “Real Love”

    The last week of Jheri Curl June is always a story of decline, and this year’s is no exception: like yesterday’s song by After 7, today’s closing track is more New Jack Swing with a residual curl than it is JCM proper. Hell, El DeBarge even appeared on the cover of its parent album, Gemini, with a hairstyle more appropriate for the dawn of the 1990s–and when El DeBarge loses his jheri curl, you know it’s the end of an era.

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  • Jheri Curl June: After 7’s “In the Heat of the Moment”

    After 7 were formed in 1988, just in time to partake in Jheri Curl Music’s swan song before the genre gave way to the emerging New Jack Swing style. The group consisted of Kevon and Melvin Edmonds–brothers of singer, songwriter, and Jheri Curl June inductee Babyface–as well as Keith Mitchell, who was (incorrectly) rumored to be the cousin of music mogul (and another JCJ featured artist) L.A. Reid. Both Babyface and Reid wrote and produced much of After 7’s 1989 debut album, including their hit single and late Jheri Curl jam, “In the Heat of the Moment.”

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  • Jheri Curl June: R.J.’s Latest Arrival’s “Off the Hook (With Your Love)”

    The first time I encountered a record by R.J.’s Latest Arrival, it was in a bargain bin at 2nd & Charles in Woodbridge, Virginia. The moment I saw their 1986 album Hold On, with its mid-’80s barbershop’s assortment of jheri curls on the back cover, I knew I had to have it (it helped that it cost less than three dollars).

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  • Jheri Curl June: Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Let’s Go Forward”

    The fact that Sananda Maitreya, the artist formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby, was not considered for Jheri Curl June until our fourth year is surprising. Of course, his music isn’t Jheri Curl proper–few artists were, by the end of the ’80s–but the influence of Michael Jackson and Prince is particularly obvious.

    © Columbia Records

    Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby is a debut album with a title as cumbersome as you would expect from the man who once claimed that it’s the most important album since Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. I will neither support nor dispute that claim, but I will say that for a late ’80s R&B album, Hardline has certainly held up–and while we’re making comparisons, I’d much rather fuck with D’Arby’s album in the background rather than “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” I doubt even the most devoted Beatles stans can argue with that.

    Anyway, Hardline also garnered D’Arby’s several hit singles, including “Wishing Well” and “Sign Your Name.” But it was the lesser known track “Let’s Go Forward” in which D’Arby was at his most Jheri Curl. The sad robot-like atmosphere of the song sounds like a more mature version of Jesse Johnson’s “I Want My Girl.”

    We’re nearing the end of Jheri Curl June, but there are still a few posts left; meanwhile, check out the playlists below!

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