C/D: Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm

'blooded' version = can't argue with it on any level.
also the best pop promo ever; a load of old euro orangina ads and what not slung together but so much more!

"ladies and gentlemen...ms grace jones..." that's lovejoy that is!

And classic for having the 12" version of Slave to the Rhythm, def. one of the top ten 12" of all time.

hadn't heard this in ages, undeniably great. best trevor horn production?

poll

I want to say probably but it's very very tough

Absolutely fantastic, but really badly in need of a reissue- the only readily available CD (on Island Masters) drastically cuts down the LP, mostly the interview bits, for no good reason, and the tracklisting on the back cover is full of typos and fuckups. Truly embarrassing.

but really badly in need of a reissue- the only readily available CD (on Island Masters) drastically cuts down the LP, mostly the interview bits, for no good reason, and the tracklisting on the back cover is full of typos and fuckups. Truly embarrassing.

kind of expected considering the state of the back catalogue for ZTTs golden era.
how is it a very influential/significant label of the late 80s has such a dreadful situation when it comes to the digital age.
of course, i realise things are getting better with the recent box sets (propaganda/AON/Act) - but there is so much more in the vaults in need of reissuing - and this album is one such example.
after all, if they can dust down enough tracks to make a 3cd boxset for ACT then surely this album is worthy of a double cd reissue ?

just remembered : they even gave the pretty unnecessary Honky album a 2 cd reissue treatment...

What sort of mook wouldn't think this was ueber-classic?

v v v form queue here

kind of expected considering the state of the back catalogue for ZTTs golden era.

This is an Island album though. It may have been produced by Trevor Horn, but was never a ZTT title.

As for ZTT, I believe nothing else has been remastered than the debut albums by Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Art Of Noise. And Seal.

Kind off-topic, but, it's weird, I keep dreaming of names or music that end up showing up here the next day as revived threads or new threads. For instance, the other night I had a dream about the song "Lighting Strikes", and then the following day someone started a thread about that Lou Christie record from the seventies. Last night I dreamed about Grace Jones, and now today there is this thread. My unconscious apparently has some bizarre linkup with ILX SYSTEM. Why can't I just dream of winning lottery numbers or something?

This is an Island album though.

fair point Geir. I have just checked and my copy has ZTT logo all over the cover and labels, on the spine its declared as ZTT/Island.
therefore I assumed that this meant that after a certain period of time the rights of the album would have reverted back to ZTT.
Perhaps this is all part of the problem as to why this classic remains in its current shoddy state.

I could indeed imagine this being reissued, deluxe-style, by the ZTTeam. Since the AoN box, they seem to have been a bit quiet.

Perhaps this is all part of the problem as to why this classic remains in its current shoddy state.

Island's remaster series is usually a very well-done one. Those remasters by Nick Drake and Traffic sound wonderful, for instance. But they have been a bit lazy when it comes to more recent stuff. After all, only one U2 album has been remastered and that was very recently with the "Joshua Tree" special edition.

I bought this (Blooded version) from Amazon MP3 and am a much happier bro as a result.

I was disappointed to find out that Amazon MP3 has like no ZTT stuff at all!

But yeah the entire compass point sessions comp is GREAT

This song is one of the best things in the entire universe.

Yes. And so is that video, especially the car commercial part.

FANTASTIC performance of this by Grace on Jools Holland last night.

The rest of the cast - especially boring Razorlight - really needn't have bothered turning up.

well I can see from the rest of the thread that rocks will be thrown, but this song has always annoyed me. Yeah, the horns, and wow the cover of the 12". And that video, too. But as a song, it's pretty flat and hookless. At a party, it's when you go get a drink. It's dull.

Dud, in other words.

Yes, it doesn't have obvious hooks unlike real 1985 classics, e.g. "St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)."

I never said I liked St Elmo's Fire better, see I told you, throwing rocks.

It lacks the instant appeal of "Lean On Me (Al Grecco-Ey-Yo or whatever the subtitle was)" by eighties pioneers Red Box.

Cut me some slack, I'm American. I have no memory of Red Box at all. But the video for this song is 1000x better than the song.

The knowing jauntiness present in contemporaneous hit parade inhabitants such as Paul McCartney's "Spies Like Us" is absent from "Slave To The Rhythm."

oh stop it

Video of last night's performance.

Thanks, Gerry!

It's Grace Jones, that's for sure.

This is clearly not the thread for me.

I only caught the end of 'slave to the rhythm' at the time. Did she do anything from her new album?

wikipedia says she's 60 years old!

Just "Slave" on last night's live show but she'll be doing tracks from her excellent new album on the full Jools show on Friday.

now thats how to do a tv performance.
i guess this backs up the reason as to why the song wasn't cleared for the ZTT boxset - the girl is obviously holding onto the track as she is well aware of its popularity.
glorious.

ARRGH. Can't wait to watch all this later. Marcello is totally cracking me up on this thread, too. Hell, even the thought of "St. Elmo's Fire" cracks me up.

Is the Jools stuff on You Tube yet?

Oh my god, that Slave To The Rhythm video. I've just now seen it. I don't have any words for that. I really don't. Holy hell of all mankind.

Dude, she could slay Prince with her little pinkie finger.

I bought the 'Slave to the Rhythm' 12 inch at the time of release. I used to listen to it obsessively, marvelling at the pristine Trevor Horn production. But now I just find myself irritated by the prissy-sounding shuffling beat and muso rhythm guitar. For me, it's all far too 'session man' in the wrong kind of way.

Love this song, love that "Later" clip.

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE'S GRACE!!!!!!

It's that part when she finally sings "I'm just playin' around, baby" and she finally starts singing. That's the moment when you know that this is one of the most amazing tracks in all of music, I think. Honestly.

This is deeply nerdy and extremely wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47M5Oz6kUKs

Surprised how little Trev seems to have been involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB1eQkKii4E

Toyah Wilcox, Robert Fripp and Simon Darlow