Dystopian Dance Party

Tag: cameo

  • Jheri Curl June: Carl Carlton’s “Private Property”

    Jheri Curl June: Carl Carlton’s “Private Property”

    Over the weekend, I attended a Record Riot in nearby Frederick, Maryland; and, this being the midpoint of June, you could say I had Jheri Curl Music on the mind. I ended up walking out with a solid armful of vintage Jheri Curl on vinyl, including Break Out by the Pointer Sisters, Word Up! and Alligator Woman by Cameo, and today’s pick, the 1985 album Private Property by Carl Carlton.

    Long-time Jheri Curl Juners will recognize Carlton’s 1981 hit “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked)” as the subject of our first-ever J.C.J. post way back in 2014. That song, written and produced by the ever-freaky Leon Haywood, was Carlton’s second-biggest hit after 1974’s “Everlasting Love.” The title track of Private Property, on the other hand, was not written by Haywood (it’s credited to Bar-Kays and Ebonee Webb manager/producer Allen A. Jones), but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise because it’s basically the same damn song; if you told me Carlton created the track by singing new lyrics over a slight rearrangement of his earlier hit, I’d honestly believe you. The only real difference is that now he’s landed the bad mama jama of his dreams, and is warning everyone within earshot to keep their distance: “Can you read the sign that says / ‘No trespassing’ from her feet to her head / ‘Cause all her body parts are P.V.T. / ‘Cause everything she has belongs to C.C.” It’s a musical sequel equal parts heartwarming (Carl’s found love!) and offputting; one hopes there’s a third song in the trilogy where he finally realizes that bad mama jamas’ bodies belong to themselves.

    Look, I’m not gonna lie, “Private Property” is a pale retread of “Mama Jama,” and the American record-buying public broadly agreed: the track only reached Number 28 on the R&B charts, while its predecessor went as high as Number 2. But I’ve long maintained that the key to the magic of Jheri Curl Music lies less in its milestones than its mediocrities, and this is exactly the kind of record I will always love to buy for five dollars sight unseen. Plus, of the tracks on the album, only “Private Property” and the even more minor hit “Slipped, Tripped (Fooled Around and Fell in Love)” (which also kinda sounds like “Bad Mama Jama,” if I’m being honest) are currently available on streaming services; I don’t know if the rest of it is worth listening to, but I’m excited to find out.

    In the meantime, you can stream “Private Property”–and our other picks from Jheri Curl June 2023 to date–below:

  • 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: Cameo’s “Flirt”

    It’s a testament to the depth and breadth of Jheri Curl Music that in five Jheri Curl Junes, only two bands have been featured repeatedly: Slave (with 2015’s “Watching You” and 2017’s “Turn You Out”) and the Gap Band (who kicked off 2015 with “You Dropped a Bomb on Me,” followed by last year’s “Disrespect”). This year, for our sixth Jheri Curl June, we’re bequeathing that honor on a third group: Cameo, whose 1986 jam “Candy” was part of the very first JCJ way back in 2014.

    My pick for this year comes from earlier in the group’s career, but is even more of an essential Jheri Curl cut. “Flirt,” from Cameo’s 1982 album Alligator Woman, has it all: futuristic synths, a funky groove that splits the difference between P-Funk and the Minneapolis Sound, and a music video (above) that is roughly equal parts synchronized dance moves and leering closeups of models’ butts and cleavage. And speaking of leering, you’ll probably recognize the young lady from the Alligator Woman album cover: that’s none other than Denise Matthews, a.k.a. Vanity, star of the 1985 Jheri Curl Cinema classic The Last Dragon.

    We’re halfway through our first week of Jheri Curl June VIbe and just getting started! Click through for YouTube and Spotify playlists, and see you tomorrow.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Charlie Singleton & Modern Man’s “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

    This is our fifth year of Jheri Curl June, and it continues to amaze me how little we have to search for new songs and artists to spotlight: even five years in, we still end each June with a backlog of tracks we weren’t able to cover. But, especially toward the end of the month, it doesn’t hurt to have a little help. That’s why I was grateful when a friend of the podcast, Berlin-via-DC DJ and nu-disco artist Snax, brought Charlie Singleton to my attention earlier this month.

    Not to be confused with the Charles Singleton who co-wrote “Strangers in the Night,” Charlie Singleton was a guitarist and songwriter who played a major role in the band Cameo’s early-’80s shift from George Clinton-style P-Funk to Jheri Curl Music–he contributed backing vocals and guitar to our 2014 Jheri Curl June inductee “Candy,” among many other tracks. But he was also the focal point of a few of his own groups, including the delightfully-named early-’80s boogie group Stargasm and his vehicle from later in the decade, Modern Man.

    The title track from Singleton’s second album with Modern Man, 1987’s “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained” has all the makings of a late-period JCM masterpiece: Minneapolis-style synth hits, clean funk guitar, and backing vocals by Charlie’s pals in Cameo–including a healthy helping of Larry Blackmon’s signature “oww!”

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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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