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  • Jheri Curl June: The S.O.S. Band’s “Tell Me If You Still Care”

    Friday was the 55th birthday of James Samuel “Jimmy Jam” Harris III: former keyboardist for The Time and, with partner Terry Lewis, one of the main architects of the “Minneapolis Sound”–or, as we call it in these parts, good old-fashioned jheri curl. As usual, though, Mr. Jam was overshadowed by his almost-birthmate and former boss Prince, who turned 56 on Saturday and was the subject of Friday’s Jheri Curl June special article. But I wanted to make amends, so to make up for last week’s snub, we’re kicking off Week Two of Jheri Curl June with one of the earliest projects by Jam and Lewis’ Flyte Tyme Productions: “Tell Me If You Still Care,” a classic cut from the S.O.S. Band’s 1983 album On the Rise, and a shining example of the jheri-curl ballad.

    The S.O.S. Band originates from Atlanta, not Minneapolis; though you’d never know from the song, a Jam/Lewis original that brings the same smooth, pristine, soulful yet eminently radio-friendly sound that would soon drive bigger hits by the likes of Janet Jackson and the Human League. Unlike those later hits, though, “Tell Me If You Still Care” is still fully rooted in the R&B sound: it’s basically quiet storm with a nice, slick, dreamy sheen, and singer Mary Davis’ vocals are the perfect combination of soulful and ethereal. Plus, there’s that bizarre slow-motion video, which is so pop-surreal I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me it was directed by a moonlighting David Lynch. And the male lead sports a rare example of the white man’s jheri curl–what more could you ask?

    Apparently, though, not everyone was pleased by Flyte Tyme’ work with The S.O.S. Band: during work on the album, Jam and Lewis were grounded in Atlanta by a blizzard, which caused them to miss a Time concert in San Antonio and led to their being fined and then fired from the group by Prince. But look at it this way: their replacements, Mark Cardenas and “St. Paul” Peterson, went on to play with Jesse Johnson’s Revue and front The Family, respectively; Jam and Lewis proceeded to become one of the most successful musical production teams of the ’80s and ’90s. No disrespect to Jesse or The Family, but I think it’s pretty clear who got the short end of that stick.

    As always, the Jheri Curl June Spotify playlist can be found after the jump. And hey, since Callie is out of town until Wednesday, I decided to make an executive decision and deem this week of Jheri Curl June Ladies’ Week, since the S.O.S. Band is just the first of several female-fronted acts I plan to highlight. Who said jheri curls were just for men? See you tomorrow!

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  • Jheri Curl June Special: Prince

    I think we’ve already established that we are huge fans of Prince here at the ol’ DDP, so we have to do something to celebrate his 56th birthday tomorrow, June 7–especially when that birthday falls right at the end of the first week of Jheri Curl June. And besides, if we’re really going to celebrate jheri curl music this month, it’s important to acknowledge that Prince practically invented it: he was the first R&B artist to popularize the use of synthesizers instead of horns, a major cornerstone of the jheri-curl sound. So today, instead of choosing just one Prince track for Jheri Curl June, we’re going to present an informal history of Prince’s role in the jheri-curl movement, musical and otherwise.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Dazz Band’s “Joystick”

    In my introduction to Jheri Curl June, I noted that jheri curl music is an inherently hybrid, polyglot genre, blending funk and soul with rock, disco, and pop. Another prominent influence–one that spawned its own subset of JCM, better  known to the less folically-obsessed as electro-funk–is the robotic, heavily synthesized form of dance music known as electro. One could detect traces of electro-funk in yesterday’s selection, Midnight Star’s “No Parking on the Dance Floor.” But its influence is even more evident in today’s: the title track of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Dazz Band‘s 1983 album Joystick. With its vocodored vocal hook, throbbing drum machine beat, lyrics drawing from the imagery of those newfangled vidya games, and washes of “futuristic” synthesizer squiggles, the debt “Joystick” owes to the likes of Afrika Bambaataa is obvious. But it’s still very much a jheri-curl song, as evidenced by this 1984 Soul Train appearance:

    See, if you couldn’t figure it out from the album cover detail above, an arcade/Atari joystick looks kinda like a dick. So, the Dazz Band helpfully suggest, “just take control of the stick” and they’ll “let you play around.” It’s a ridiculously sophomoric premise, and the band’s explanatory dance moves are performed with absurd conviction. But still, you have to kind of admire the historical moment that allowed a bunch of grown-ass African American men to claim that “love is just like a video game” and come across as smooth, rather than…well, nerds.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with a very special installment of Jheri Curl June. In the meantime, keep up with our Spotify playlist after the jump!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Midnight Star’s “No Parking on the Dance Floor”

    Today’s Jheri Curl June entry is the title track from Midnight Star’s 1983 album No Parking on the Dance Floor. It has all the necessary ingredients of a classic jheri-curl track: a squealing synth line, bass that pops like crazy, and a camp-as-hell introduction that threatens, “if you don’t get a move on that body, I’ll be forced to give you a ticket–so get…WITH IT!” Plus, impossible as it might sound, the video is even better:

    It’s one of those great ’80s videos that take the concept of the song and make it blissfully, absurdly literal. So a traffic jam turns into an impromptu dance party, with the nine members of Midnight Star–whose own spectrum of jheri-curl lengths and shapes is right up there with that of Jesse Johnson’s Revue–serving as funky pied pipers, leading frustrated drivers to step out of their cars and join the fun. Then, at 1:35…is that…is that Prince? Well, no, of course not, though they sure took pains to make it look that way. But this is one party that doesn’t even need a random breakdancing Prince-alike to make it awesome. Midnight Star, I’ll get stuck in traffic with you any time.

    Check out the Jheri Curl June Spotify playlist after the jump!

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  • Jheri Curl June: Jesse Johnson’s “Be Your Man”

    Jesse Johnson’s birthday was Sunday, so this is a little bit of a belated birthday tribute. “Be Your Man,” from Jesse Johnson’s 1985 debut solo album Jesse Johnson’s Revue, is quintessential Minneapolis jheri curl funk: the pounding drum machine beat, heavy bassline, glossy synth “horns” (which he calls out in a James Brown-esque band leader style), and of course, the tiny funky guitar noodling.

    The video showcases Jesse as basically the dark-skinned, pink version of Prince. Plus, together the members of Jesse Johnson’s group exhibit six variations of jheri curl shapes:

    © A&M Records
    © A&M Records

    Check back tomorrow for another song, and remember to follow along with the Jheri Curl June Spotify playlist (after the jump).

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  • Introduction to Jheri Curl June

    In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new form of predominantly African American popular music began to take shape. Rooted in soul and funk music, but largely stripped of those genres’ grit; with elements of rock and disco, and at least one eye forever resting on potential radio play; the loosely-defined style has gone by a variety of names, including post-disco, pop/funk, and the maddeningly nondescript “urban.” But Callie and I have always preferred to call it “Jheri Curl Music.”

    Jheri Curl Music is not necessarily music made by artists sporting the once-trendy hairstyle invented by hairdresser Robert William “Jheri” Redding–though obviously there is a good amount of overlap. Instead, we see it as music that embodies the properties of the Jheri curl itself. Jheri curl, whether the hair or the music, is an intrinsically hybrid style: somewhere between Black and white, kinky and straight, silky and dry. It’s fussy and high-maintenance. And, like the Jheri curl parody “Soul Glo” in John Landis’ 1988 comedy Coming to America, it leaves a greasy residue on everything it touches. Not all R&B from the early to mid-’80s qualifies as J.C.M.; but when you hear that telltale sign–usually a particular kind of muted guitar, clean slapped bass, or synthesizer squeal–you will recognize it instantly for what it is.

    Along with its namesake hairdo, jheri curl music faded from mainstream popularity by the end of the 1980s: eclipsed largely by another hybrid R&B style, the hip-hop-influenced New Jack Swing (or maybe we should call it “hi-top fade music”). But it’s never really gone away. Tune in to the obligatory “old-school hour” on any Adult Contemporary R&B radio station worth its salt, and you’ll hear plenty of jheri curl alongside the smooth soul and quiet storm. In recent years, too, the career resurgences of jheri-curl innovators Prince and (posthumously) Michael Jackson–not to mention the coming of age of legions of ’80s kids–have driven a critical and popular reappraisal of music that would have been considered dated and kitschy twenty years ago. Indeed, the sound has been steadily creeping back into contemporary artists’ repertoires since the early 2000s or so: everyone from Snoop Dogg to Daft Punk has gone to the jheri curl well at least a few times, while artists like Dâm-Funk and Chromeo have made it a foundation of their musical styles.

    So for the month of June, we’ll be celebrating jheri curl music with a new classic jheri curl video every weekday. Why? Basically because we love J.C.M., and the month of June starts with a “J” (and “Jheri Curl July” just doesn’t sound as good as “Jheri Curl June”). We’ll also be adding to the Spotify playlist at the bottom of this and every other Jheri Curl June post, so you can have easy access to a bunch of classic Jheri curl cuts to bump in your home, car, gym, or hair salon. Today, I’m kicking things off with what might be my choice for the ultimate jheri-curl song, Carl Carlton‘s 1981 single “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked)”:

    “Bad Mama Jama” has a lot of things to recommend it as a classic of J.C.M.: including its lascivious lyrics in the tradition of the Commodores’ “Brick House,” praising a woman who’s “got all the curves a man like” and gets Carl “so excited viewing her anatomy.” But what really makes it for me is that bass synth line, as curly and wet as Carlton’s hairdo. The song is the essence of Jheri curl: sleek, stylish, and more than a little sleazy. I can’t think of a better way to kick off Jheri Curl June.

    See you tomorrow!