What Was THAT? (Black History 1979)
We're doing Black Pop History Month '78-'81 at the People's Pop Polls, and here are three discoveries from '79, the latter two firmly in the category What Was THAT?
Paulette & Tanya Winley – Rhymin' & Rappin'
Tanya's the great discovery here, less grab-you-in-the-face than Roxanne Shanté, but she raps with the same insistent glue, our attention immediately glomming onto her. Her counting up the years at the end just presses and presses and presses, then the tape runs out.
Little Scotty – Going To A Disco To-Night
Sounds like a saloon in an old western movie right before the fight breaks out. Not sure what they gain from the last three minutes, though (they're sweeping up broken glass and the piano player keeps going).
Ayisha – Space Man
Lyrics have her observing from outer space, but it's more like she's down in the Mariana Trench gurgling her way upward.
[EDIT: Oops. Looks like I misattributed the year for "Space Man." It's 1978.]
Meta paragraph for Substack: "Not sure what they gain from the last three minutes, though." I don't have a consistent opinion on long stuff versus short stuff (why should I?) – stretching out "I Feel Love" makes it stronger and more spacey; stretching out "Love To Love You Baby" wears it out. Sometimes the unchangingness builds and builds, other times you want bits and variation. Sometimes the bits are just busy bits, other times they inspire a dancer's hands and feet. Anyway, constructing my Golden Beat list (Golden Beats are favorite tracks I hadn't heard prior to the competition) I'm going for great sections whether or not the whole satisfies. So the Paulette & Tanya Winley "Rhymin' & Rappin'" may outrank Tanya Winley's "Vicious Rap" even though the latter is better overall for being all Tanya – but "R & R" has that tremendous part at the end, Tanya climbing up the years. Whereas on "Going To The Disco To-Night" I'm not docking Little Scotty for drawing out the ending inconsequentially. (And surely he – or some typographer – gets extra credit for the dagger of tension that's added between "To" and "Night"! The promise and fear of nightlife!) Think the bits on Fern Kinney's "Baby Let Me Kiss You" make the whole thing sparkle; haven't made up my mind about Joe King Kologbo's "Sugar Daddy" – a heap of a long time, but those horns are gorgeous. And is Charmaine Forde's exploratory singing enough to carry Michael Boothman's "What You Won't Do For Love"?
This entry was originally posted at https://koganbot.dreamwidth.org/391336.html. Comments still welcome here, there, and anywhere.