I bought the various artists CD Flying Funk because I couldn't ignore anything with a song title as far out as "Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter" on it. Turns out the tune, perfomed here by Nina Simone (according to the liner notes it's originally an Ike & Tina Turner song!) is just one of many rare delights discovered within. I use "rare" because there aren't many known names on this compilation of tracks heavily sampled by hip-hoppers. Simone's probably the most recognizable, followed by Gil Scott-Heron or maybe The Jimmy Castor Bunch. But recognizability means nothing when you find a bunch of new artists you've never heard of whose music you now dig. And if you think "hip-hop" means "beats," you'll be surprised because the music ranges from funk and soul to jazz to the Summer Place-like strings of Esther Marrow's "Mama". The New Birth's "Got To Get A Knutt" exists in a category of its own with the incorporation of advertising jingles, innuendoes, and moaning that would shame Donna Summer. Most of the tracks are from the early 1970s, so some overused chicka-chicka-bow-wow guitar does abound, but the overall inclusion of high quality artists and material on Flying Funk makes it an easy recommendation. Grade: A- Highlights:
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Comedian Marty Ingels died Wednesday at 79 from complications from a stroke. He had been married to Shirley Jones since 1977. Ingels registers on my radar for portraying Pac-Man on the yellow fellow's cartoon show that ran on ABC from 1982-84 that I watched every Saturday morning. Here's a clip of him demonstrating the voice on the network's program highlighting the new cartoon season that was shown during prime time. Fast-forward to 2:09 to see him, or watch a little before that to see clips from the cartoon show. Yes, I definitely remember viewing this as a child. Note that Pac-Man was so hot that they saved him for the very end of the broadcast, and also notice the deely-bobber head gear that was also popular at the time.
30 years ago, in 1985, one of the biggest groups was the Scottish band Simple Minds, who scored a #1 hit that year with iconic "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and a #3 with "Alive & Kicking." The band's US popularity then simply disappeared. Simple Minds formed in 1978 from the remnants of a group called Johnny & the Self Abusers and started scoring big hits in the UK in 1982. Their US breakthrough came the next year, and their next 2 albums both charted in the 60s. However, the band did not have a hit single until they were forced to record a song against their will. "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was slated to be the theme for a teen film called The Breakfast Club, but no one wanted to record it. Bryan Ferry was interested, but had to decline when his father died. The Eurythmics also refused and Billy Idol, the current production client of the song's co-writer Keith Forsey, wasn't interested either. (Idol would later record it for his 2001 Greatest Hits compilation.) With a deadline approaching, A&M, the label releasing Club's soundtrack, forced their act Simple Minds to record the song. The band retaliated in the press and told one interviewer that the single made them vomit. However, both film and song resonated with teens and "Don't You" to #1 for one week in mid-May, synching perfectly with the timing of youth graduation rituals. The band's followup album Once Upon A Time was released later that year, and its first single "Alive & Kicking," a beautiful song with a lovely keyboard break that Coldplay should envy, hit the charts 30 years ago this week. Once would make #10 and sell 500,000 copies, spinning off two more Top 40 singles in 1986: "Sanctify Yourself" and "All the Things She Said." 1987 saw the release of a live album Live In the City of Light, but their US fan base had moved on. The album only made #96, and three further albums charted similarly. The band would score one more Top 40 hit in 1991 with "See the Lights" and would even reunite with Forsey for 1995's album Good News From The Next World, which spun off the #52-charting "She's a River." They haven't made the US singles chart since then.
Here's an interesting little curio that I found on YouTube - Frank Sinatra's 1984 video for his single "L.A. is My Lady." I had heard about it and all the odd cameos in it but had never tracked it down until yesterday. Sinatra hooked up with the then ultra-hot producer Quincy Jones (shown above) to produce an album. Sinatra and Jones hadn't worked together for 20 years since he did arrangements on another Sinatra project, and he brought some needed hipness to it thanks to his recent work on a little album called Thriller. In fact, Jones was able to get Michael Jackson to visit the studio during the sessions so it could be filmed for the album's making-of documentary. Which leads us to the video, mainly filled with cameos from Jones' recent collaborators but also some odd choices like David Lee Roth and Missing Persons. In fact, the Missing Persons appearances are mainly what makes it so cool as the band's in a decent-sized part of it and it's fun to see Dale Bozzio goofing around with inflatable antennae on her head. As for the song co-written by Q, it's surprisingly good if a little bit light in the George Benson/Toto vein Jones was mining at the time. The video got some MTV airplay,but the tune never charted even though it probably served as a great PR boost for Los Angeles, which was already hot for hosting the Olympics that summer. The album of the same name made a respectable #58 but there's no word if any Ratt fans were inspired to buy it because of the Van Halen cameo. Here's "L.A. Is My Lady" I have taken it upon myself to chronicle the cameos therein, although I can't recognize all of them. Still, this is a more comprehensive list than any I was able to find on any other site, so here goes:
beginning - David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen (dig that antique pop-up VCR) 0:54 - Donna Summer 1:02 - possibly L.A. Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela (wanna try shooting in the light next time???) 1:30 - Michael McDonald 1:37 - Missing Persons (riding in a Jeep to show that they're definitely not walking in L.A.) 2:01 - James Ingram 2:16 - Dino! And LaToya Jackson???!!! 2:29 - Quincy Jones 2:40 - probably not Michael Jackson 2:45 - young Michael Jackson 2:50 - adult Michael Jackson 3:08 - aerobicizing! 3:22 - L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda |
Walburgh's BlogMostly retro, mainly music, but generally whatever's on my mind. Archives
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