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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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  • Jheri Curl June: The System’s “The Pleasure Seekers”

    Most of our choices for Jheri Curl June so far have fallen between 1981 and 1983, and for good reason: those years were arguably the high point of jheri curl’s Golden Age. But as we reach the second half of our month-long celebration, I wanted to also shift our focus to the second half of the decade, and the evolution that took place for jheri curl music in those years. And who better to do that with than the System?

    A partnership between singer/guitarist Michael “Mic” Murphy and session keyboardist David Frank, the System formed in 1982 and, thanks to Frank’s expertise in studio technology, quickly developed into one of the jheri-curl era’s most sonically sophisticated meldings of electronic production and pop-R&B songwriting. In fact, by the time of their third album, 1985’s The Pleasure Seekers, their sound was almost too sophisticated: all of the various synthesizer tones, electronic percussion sounds, and other assorted studio trickery make the title track sound a bit schizophrenic, almost like a more radio-friendly Art of Noise rather than conventional jheri-curl. But if you think I’m calling the System’s JCM credentials into question, you’ve got another think coming: I mean, just get a load of Murphy’s hair in the video, which is surely a contender for the Jheri Curl Hall of Fame if ever I’ve seen one. It’s like Prince‘s Purple Rain-era hair had a baby with Little Richard’s jheri-pompadour, and then left that hair-baby out in the rain for several hours. In short, it’s glorious.

    You know the deal: playlist after the jump, see you again tomorrow!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Klymaxx’s “Meeting in the Ladies Room”

    What would Ladies’ Week be without a tribute to Klymaxx: one of the few all-female, self-formed groups in pop music history? Meeting in the Ladies Room, Klymaxx’s fourth studio album, was co-produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and went platinum with four successful singles, one of which was the title track.

    The song–written by another trio of Jheri Curl June veterans, Reggie and Vincent Calloway and Boaz Watson of Midnight Star (hence the “stealth” “Freak-a-zoid” reference)–opens with Klymaxx singer/drummer Bernadette Cooper muttering about the behavior of the other women in the club who are eyeing her man, while dropping a few subtle hints at her financial status: “I had to leave my condo to come to this / Well, I’m back, but this time I’m with my man / And these women are putting their hands all over his / Yamamoto Kansai sweater that I bought.”

    Granted, the rest of the song is about dolling yourself up in the bathroom to look better than those other women, who are apparently succeeding at rubbing up on your boyfriend. These themes of female competition, beauty as a source of power, and uncontrollable male sexuality do somewhat downplay the concept of a successful woman who can buy her man designer clothes. But can we all agree that it’s pretty progressive just to have a group of women who could play their own instruments, weren’t put together by a Svengali to fit a caricatured male fantasy, and recorded songs about topics relevant to women?

    (P.S. I think it’s worth noting that the pop-arty video above was not only directed by Devo co-founder Gerald Casale, but also featured a young Vivica A. Fox as one of the “BW”s in the club. The more you know.)

    Playlist below the jump; see you next week!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Mary Jane Girls’ “All Night Long”

    The Mary Jane Girls were essentially Rick James’ answer to Vanity 6: the girl group Prince constructed as the prostitute foil to The Time‘s pimp image. In this case, though, Rick James might have actually one-upped his longtime rival; for their 1983 American Bandstand performance of “All Night Long,” the girls look like they were literally picked up off the corner on the way to the studio.

    James originally conceived of the Mary Jane Girls project as a solo act for his backup singer, JoJo McDuffie. The other members of the group couldn’t sing: hence why this clip is a lip-synced performance of the studio recording. Check out that choreography, though!

    The Spotify playlist continues to grow after the jump:

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  • Jheri Curl June: Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit”

    Ladies’ Week continues with “Juicy Fruit,” another jheri-ballad from 1982 by Mtume. The band is named for its founder and lead songwriter, former Miles Davis percussionist James “Mtume” Forman; but the voice you hear front and center in “Juicy Fruit,” as well as the band’s other hits, is female co-vocalist Tawatha Agee. And it’s the interplay between Mtume’s lush arrangement and Agee’s sensual vocals that make this possibly the sexiest jheri-curl song ever. When Agee sighs “I like it” at the beginning of the song, you know the juicy fruit she’s talking about ain’t made by Wrigley.

    The video above knows it too, with all those softcore closeups of a full-lipped brunette eating oranges while Mtume creepily looks on. And speaking of juicy, check out the jheri curl on keyboard player Philip Field…now that’s sexy.

    You know the drill: Spotify playlist after the jump, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more woman-powered jheri curl.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Evelyn “Champagne” King’s “Love Come Down”

    It’s Day Two of our informal Ladies’ Week for Jheri Curl June, which means it’s time to break out the Champagne. “Love Come Down” is the first single from Evelyn “Champagne” King’s 1982 album Get Loose, and it’s as frothy and ebullient as her liquid namesake, with one of those irresistible computerized synth-basslines early-’80s jheri curl did so well. “Love Come Down” did get an official video in which King and a Billy Dee Williams lookalike share a picnic lunch on the beach. But I’d rather highlight this 1982 clip from Solid Gold:

    Why, you ask? Three words. Silver. Satin. Pants.

    Check the Spotify Playlist after the jump, and we’ll see you tomorrow!

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