15 December 2009

Slave To The Rhythm

Grace Jones partially terrified me when I was a kid. She was in 'A View To A Kill'. went out with Rocky IV's Drago and leathered Russel Harty on his chat show for being rude to her. She frequented the clubs of New York, catwalks of Paris, her image was featured in a cool as fuck advert for some car and made a sexy record called 'Pull Up To The Bumper,' with a groove that could inspire an erection. Don't worry, Grace fans, she isn't dead or anything. If she wasn't popstar material then I don't know who is or was. She was more Gaga than Lady Gaga. For me this song is intrisically Grace Jones and it represents one of the best productions I have ever heard. On first listening you can dismiss it as a kind of wine bar, yuppie disco kind of song that Patrick Bateman might wax lyrical about. It's much more than that. It's lush, aspirational, bizarre, terryfing 'Herrre's Grace!', satirical, luxury chocolates, expensive perfume. The sound itself is spacious as a fast car whisking you off to drinks at a casino in Monte Carlo, it's an epic film , it's indescribable.


My other half can't listen to it. It brings back bad flashbacks of her perforated eardrum. The video is also absurd, exotic, sleek, sensual and also in its own way quite tormenting and traumatic. All these adjectives could easily apply to Grace herself. Listen to it...about 15 times and make up your own mind.

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