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  • Jheri Curl June: Vanity’s “Under the Influence”

    I’ve been sitting on this song for the last seven years holding out to see if maybe, just maybe, Vanity’s music would appear on streaming services and we could add it to the Spotify playlist. Unsurprisingly–and, like Eddy Grant‘s absolute fuckin banger “Electric Avenue,” with which we kicked off the festivities this year–that doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. So, I’m finally including Vanity in Jheri Curl June Ladies’ Week (although we did mention her back in 2015 in our Jheri Curl Cinema writeup on The Last Dragon).

    “Under the Influence” is my favorite Vanity song. Granted, it was written by Motown songwriters, which is probably why it’s, uh, better than most of her solo stuff (although I love the entire Wild Animal album as well, and will die defending it). Vanity looks stunning in the video, flipping between a glamorous white ’20s-inspired look shot in black and white and some bizarre lacy number with a scarf, two different-colored knee-high boots, and what looks like the pirate hat that I got from the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop at Disney World back in 2007. Who else BUT Vanity could look that good wearing that stupid outfit and rolling around on the stairs of an opulent hotel entranceway?

    We’ll be back with our final day of Ladies’ Week tomorrow. In the meantime, check out the Spotify and YouTube playlists below… just, sadly, don’t expect to see Vanity on the former.

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4DHwfbLgF2W2Xp2ZpqcDdg?si=d6d168e9a0b645e6

  • Jheri Curl June: Bonnie Pointer’s “If the Price Is Right”

    Earlier this week, we mentioned that Bonnie Pointer had departed the Pointer Sisters for a solo career in the late ’70s. Her third album, 1984’s If the Price Is Right, still has remnants of the disco sound of her former musical output, but soaked with Jheri Curl juice. Even the album cover features a glossy image of Bonnie in a Vanity 6-esque teddy.

    Sadly, Bonnie Pointer passed away last year, on June 8, 2020; but because we postponed Jheri Curl June that year, we are honoring her with a posthumous induction into a year late. Rest in peace, Bonnie Pointer!

    Remember to check out the Spotify and YouTube playlists below. We’ll be back tomorrow with another day of Jheri Curl June Ladies’ Week!

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4DHwfbLgF2W2Xp2ZpqcDdg?si=f829cd851df945f8

  • Jheri Curl June Fredi Grace & Rhinestone’s “Tight”

    Fredi Grace & Rhinestone was a trio from Atlanta, Georgia consisting of Fredi Grace, Rosalind Sweeper, and Keith Rawls. “Tight,” the titular track off their second (and last) album, is a sparse, funky opener with soaring vocals by lead singer Grace. On a side note, Grace’s tensile strength must be incredible, because after nearly six minutes of instructing her lover to hold her EVEN TIGHTER, she still seems unsatisfied. Squeeze responsibly, folks!

    We’ll be back tomorrow for Day 3 of Jheri Curl June Ladies’ Week. In the meantime, remember to check out the Spotify and YouTube playlists below!

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4DHwfbLgF2W2Xp2ZpqcDdg?si=f829cd851df945f8

  • Jheri Curl June: The Pointer Sisters’ “Automatic”

    If there’s one thing to be said about Jheri Curl Music, it’s that–much like its namesake hairstyle–it’s remarkably gender-neutral: Many of the genre’s greatest tracks were sung by women. That’s why every Jheri Curl June, we designate one week as “Ladies’ Week” to celebrate the contributions of woman artists to our most beloved style. And boy, oh boy, are we kicking off the latest installment right with this 1983 number by the Pointer Sisters.

    Formed as a duo by June and Bonnie Pointer in 1969, the Pointer Sisters eventually grew to a quartet and scored a number of hits in the 1970s–including their 1974 country crossover “Fairytale,” which earned them the distinction of becoming the first Black musical group to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. By the end of the decade, the group was on the brink of dissolution, with Bonnie departing for a solo career while June opted to take a break from music. Ultimately, however, the other two sisters (Ruth and Anita) coaxed June back to continue as a trio with producer Richard Perry, and they began releasing more pop- and rock-oriented material, beginning with 1978’s Energy.

    Today’s track, “Automatic,” comes from 1983’s aptly-named Break Out: the Pointer Sister’s sixth album with Perry, by which time they had shifted from rock to straight-up electro-funk–or, as we know it in these parts, JCM. And let me tell you, it goes–especially in the extended 12″ remix, which gives plenty of room for session musicians John Van Tongeren, Mark Goldenberg, and Dennis Herring to weave their surprisingly funky spell. If this isn’t an all-time Jheri Curl slapper, I don’t know what is–plus, check the video below for some bonus, easy-to-follow choreography!

    https://youtu.be/HCWPodbRqHE

    We’ll be back tomorrow with more of the finest female-fronted Jheri Curl Music. Meanwhile, Spotify and YouTube playlists are below:

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4DHwfbLgF2W2Xp2ZpqcDdg?si=7956e9e65e094632

  • Jheri Curl June: The Egyptian Lover’s “I Cry (Night After Night)”

    Like yesterday’s spotlight artist the Jonzun Crew, the Egyptian Lover is a pioneer of the Jheri Curl-adjacent hip-hop subgenre electro (or, as they liked to call it on the West Coast, electro-hop). Way back in our first-ever Jheri Curl June, we even called his 1986 club hit “Freak-a-holic” “the ultimate jheri curl track.” And certainly, the Lover himself (a.k.a. Greg Broussard) had one of the most impressive actual J.C.’s of JCJ history, as evidenced by the aforementioned track’s legendary video.

    But Broussard was more than just a mixin’, scratchin’, record-lovin’ son of a gun: he was also a sensitive soul, as evidenced by this slow jam from his 1984 solo debut On the Nile. In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Broussard shared an unlikely source of inspiration for the song: Rat Pack crooner Dean Martin, specifically his 1969 cover of Buck Owens’ “Crying Time.” To be honest, I don’t hear it–partly because Martin sings the song in his indelible, boozy croon, while the Lover doesn’t “sing” so much as pout along with the music. But let’s face it: “Crying Time” also doesn’t feature a shit-hot guitar solo like the one session guitarist Chuck Gentry plays on “I Cry,” so it’s pretty much a wash.

    Join us again on Monday for Ladies’ Week, our annual celebration of woman-fronted Jheri Curl Music. In the meantime, you can listen to our picks so far on the playlists below.

    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4DHwfbLgF2W2Xp2ZpqcDdg?si=22e52865759940ab

  • Jheri Curl June: Jonzun Crew’s “Space Cowboy”

    The Jonzun Crew’s 1983 debut album Lost in Space contains several electro staples, but more importantly for our purposes, it features the Jheri Jam (TM) “Space Cowboy.” All I have to say about this song is that it fuckin’ rules. Just listen to that silky synth and funky bassline. Marvel at Michael Jonzun’s glorious Jheri curl, shimmering in the light beneath his enormous white ten-gallon hat. Laurence Fishburne would rock a similar style three years later as Cowboy Curtis in Pee Wee’s Playhouse:

    The whistling sound from The Good, the Bad & the Ugly that features prominently in “Space Cowboy” would also later be used by Cameo all over their Word Up! album. So, I don’t know what this connection with Western stuff and Jheri Curl Music is, but I’m all for it.

    As always, Spotify and YouTube playlists are below. We’ll be back tomorrow to close out the week with another Jheri Jam (TM)… but it probably won’t have as much yodeling as today’s.

  • Jheri Curl June: Trouble Funk’s “Good Times”

    Last month, I bought a house in Columbia, Maryland–putting me, for the first time since I moved to the “DMV” region in 2014, closer to Baltimore than Washington, DC. So, now that I’m a safe distance from the erstwhile Chocolate City, I have a confession to make: I don’t particularly care for go-go, DC’s main musical export and a cornerstone of its cultural identity. Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate its rich heritage, its importance to the District’s Black community, and its proven ability to annoy gentrifiers when played at extreme volumes outside the Metro PCS store in Shaw. But, well, I have to agree with my Baltimore-born girlfriend and say that a lot of go-go kind of just sounds to me like somebody banging pots and pans and hoarsely yelling along to the radio. I’m not saying that it’s bad; just that–like Mambo sauce, another favorite of DC locals–it’s an acquired taste, and I never acquired it.

    I say all this, partly to get it off my chest after almost seven years of DC-adjacency, but also to acknowledge that Trouble Funk is different–specifically, their 1983 album In Times of Trouble, which blends go-go with nascent hip-hop and, yes, more than a little bit of Jheri-curled funk. Lead singer Tony Fisher may still be yelling hoarsely on a track like “Good Times”–and somebody, somewhere, definitely still sounds like they’re banging on pots and pans–but these go-go stand-bys are seasoned with liberal dashes of razor-sharp funk guitar and slippery, squealing synths courtesy of James Avery and the late Robert “Syke Dyke” Reed. I doubt I’ll ever be a true go-go convert, especially now that I’m inching further and further away from DC; but between this and E.U.‘s “Da Butt,” I’d say there’s hope for me yet.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with more classic Jheri Curl cuts. In the meantime, grab some pots and pans and hoarsely yell along with the playlists below:

  • Jheri Curl June: Slave’s “OOOHH”

    We’ve already covered Slave not once, but twice in the seven years that we’ve been celebrating Jheri Curl June here at Dystopian Dance Party: First in 2015, with 1980’s “Watching You”; and then in 2017, with 1983’s “Turn You Out (In & Out).” But, Slave is my absolute favorite and they have bangers for days, so I’ll talk about them every year if I feel like it.

    Despite being a huge Slave fan, I had never bothered to listen to 1984’s New Plateau until a few years ago when I was watching old clips of The Scene and came across an episode in which there was a dance line to “OOOHH.” Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me find the clip again (and I highly suspect it either got removed from YouTube or had the music stripped from it due to copyright issues), but it got so hype during the part that goes “I’d love to see you party with me tonight / together we can make our own scene tonight / Ooohh.” Making our own scene! ON THE SCENE! The excitement in the room was palpable and infectious and I immediately found the song and listened to it 15 times in a row. Talk about a groove that you will remember.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with another classic JCM cut; in the meantime, check out the increasingly funky playlists below.

  • Jheri Curl June: Prince’s “Jungle Love”

    We’ve talked a fair amount about Prince, who would have turned 63 today, as one of the architects of the genre we call Jheri Curl Music: Most notably in our very first Jheri Curl June Special back in 2014, but also in various JCJ entries and profiles on his former colleagues (Sheila E, the Time, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Vanity, Wendy & Lisa, Jesse Johnson, and André Cymone), rivals (Rick James and, depending on when you ask, at least half of the previous list), and even a few knockoffs (Phil Collins, Ebonee Webb). In fact, we’ve talked so much about Prince on here, you’d be forgiven for wondering if there’s anything else about the Purple One we could possibly have to say (and that’s not even mentioning Zach’s long-running, exhaustively-detailed blog about him).

    The thing about Prince, though, is not only is his extant body of work both massive and exceedingly deep, but it’s also constantly growing, as more and more of his music is liberated from his storied Vault. Case in point: his version of “Jungle Love,” a 1984 hit for side project the time after its appearance in the Jheri Curl Cinema landmark Purple Rain, wasn’t even circulating on the robust bootleg market before 2019, when it was released on the posthumous compilation Originals.

    “Jungle Love” is actually a Jheri Curl milestone in more ways than one. Aside from being penned by Prince and made famous by the Time, it was also based on an instrumental demo by guitarist Jesse Johnson, whose 1985 “Be Your Man” has the distinction of being the second song ever highlighted for Jheri Curl June. As for the song itself, it’s one of the greasiest of Prince’s early-’80s peak as Jheri Curl progenitor par excellence: an infectious workout driven by a lubricious keyboard line, squelching bass-synth, and rhythm guitar so clean it sounds like it’s still in the shrink wrap. So happy birthday, Prince; here’s to another five years (at least!) of more Jheri Curl gems being unearthed.

    We’ll be back tomorrow! Spotify and YouTube playlists below:

  • Jheri Curl June: Four Tops (feat. The Temptations)’ “Hang”

    Four Tops teamed up with labelmates the Temptations for this toe dip into the pool of Jheri curl juice, 1983’s “Hang.”

    With lyrics about working hard to get by in a difficult world, “Hang” belongs alongside Zapp‘s “Playin’ Kinda Ruff” on any Jheri curl playlist. If you too feel like your life is an endless cycle of working and paying bills as your social life, youth, hopes and dreams slip through your fingers and time continues its relentless march, well, this is the song for you. “Hang” doesn’t really provide any solutions for life’s difficulties, except not to give up and give it all you’ve got. Otherwise, the message is a bit buried in the fun-time horns, synth and ambient party noises. But, hey, between a global pandemic and just plain old exhaustion, this might be the closest thing to fun that you’ve had in over a year!

    We’re taking a quick break for the weekend, but we’ll be back on Monday with more Jheri curl goodness! Playlists, as always, are below.