Grace Jones was a consistent and wonderful anomaly through these years. A slightly scary but deeply exciting Jamaican giant, she strode into view through urban steam. Her records, videos and TV appearances from the late Seventies onwards were consistently magical and genuinely funky. There was and is no one like her.
Her masterpiece was 1980's Nightclubbing. Sometimes an artist puts out a record that defines them and you have to say, you won't get any better. But 1982's Living My Life was pretty damned good too. Less substantial perhaps, there were only three songs on its first side. But what songs. Jamaican Guy, Nipple To The Bottle and this one. Big statements all. Personal identity, overt sexuality, the purest non-compliant vigour. Like a state of the art replicant striding on to the dancefloor.
But The Apple Stretching was something else. Another side of Grace which highlighted the tough road she's had to take to get where she'd got to. It doesn't sound like a hit single and it wasn't. A cover of a song by Marvin Van Peebles, originally written for a musical. She gave a completely 'Grace' slant on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment