NEVER ENTIRELY CONVINCED

In a matter of full disclosure I will admit to having liked Blondie. Their debut LP had just come out and they opened for the Ramones at the Whiskey, It was my first punk related show. While the Ramones definitely had the advantage music-wise, style points were won by the undercard. Blondie as a band never looked sharper. Gary Valentine had not left the band and the world was still safe from Nigel Harrison's Jheri curls. Clem Burke was still in his psuedo mod phase, Jimmy Destri and Chris Stein were both in skinny ties (before they became de rigueur for lame new wave bands). I don't remember what Debbie Harry was wearing. Really. Unlike many guys my age, I never really thought of her as all that hot. But I liked the style of the first LP era Blondie. That lasted about one album.

Long story short, they deviated. Still, I have a special place in my heart for the band, particularly Stein, Harry, and Burke. Burke because he;s a great drummer, and he's added a bit of legitimacy to just about every band he's been in since, and there have been many. He is also the main subject in what is known as, I shit you not, The Clem Burke Drumming Project. It's not a joke. It is described thusly,  "Physiological tests included the measurement of heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate in rehearsal tests and monitoring heart rate and blood lactate during live stage performances." Alright then.

I like Chris Stein and Debbie Harrry less for their musical contributions than their taste in stuff other than their own. I don't even remember specifics, but there were associations with Jungle Records, the Gun Club, the Screamers, and Tav Falco. And Joan Jett, Andy Warhol, Iggy Pop, and James Chance. Wait. James Chance? What the hell?

Because I appreciated them, but am not crazy about them as a band and haven't really listened to much of their stuff in years, not to mention my ambivalence towards Harry's supposed hotness, or lack thereof, I feel qualified to say that her voice pretty much sucks. But it always sounds like Debbie Harry, so there's that. Here's two oddballs to illustrate my point. The video above, Harry covering James Brown's "I Feel Good", backed by James White and the Blacks. Who knew? Below is her with some Argentinian ska band, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. Really. Doing "Strawberry Fields Forever". Gulp. Both of these, like most Blondie related things, probably looked good on paper. But, that's why I like them. It seems like relaxed scheming, kinda half-assed in execution. I can relate.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs  with Debbie Harry - Strawberry Fields Forever mp3 at ATumblr (?)

CRASH COURSE

Here's a nice contrast and compare exercise for anyone not really sure what the Jamaican DJ or toaster actually does. The first thing you should know is that they don't actually play records. In a nutshell, they talk, shout, boast, comment, make fanciful noises, and throw in a few of there own personal catch phrases, basically just about everything vocal but sing, and they do it over records being played at sound systems. Jamaican sound systems were basically mobile discos. In the beginning (late fifties) they played rhythm and blues, later moving to ska, rocksteady, and reggae, as Jamaican music evolved. DJing started back with Count Machuki, credited by most as the first person to toast over Jamaican records. It was one of those serendipitous improvised moments of brilliance. He was just fucking around, killing time while the sound system operator Tom the Great Sebastian took a break, just throwing out stuff over the records being played. When the crowd dug it, he went home and started working on his rhymes. "If you dig my jive, you're cool and very much alive, Everybody all round town, Machukis' the reason why I shake it down, When it comes to jive, You can't whip him with no stick."  People went nuts, so in no time others followed suit.

Which brings me to the song "The Tide Is High" by the Paragons, recorded at Duke Reid's studio in 1967. Here's the original version, along with an early U Roy version, toasting over it sans lead vocal. You can hear that a good DJ adds flavor, and U Roy was one of the best. (Just for context, the antiseptic version by Blondie is down there too. They add no flavor.) If you listen to enough U Roy, you'll start to recognize his catch phrases, which made me think of the last one below, "D.J.'s Choice" by Dennis Alcapone. It's a bit of a novelty, in that the first verse name drops about eight or so DJ's, followed by one of their catch phrases. The song actually annoys me, but I'm that way about name dropping in songs. Regardless, it's a  DJ toasting about other DJs, so it's interesting.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Paragons - The Tide Is High mp3 at Cubik Musik
U Roy - Tide Is High mp3 at A.Tumblr (?)
Blondie - The Tide Is High mp3 at Evil Vince
Dennis Alcapone - D.J.'s Choice (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
DJ at Wikipedia
The Tide Is High at Wikipedia
More DJ stuff