STACK #180 Oct 2019

MUSIC FEATURE

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her pouty bronzed lips, all razor-sharp angles: cheekbones, flattop, furrowed brow and extended shoulder pads. Contemplating the direction Jones should go in after her triumvirate of disco albums ( Portfolio , Fame and Muse ), Blackwell encouraged her to celebrate her Jamaican roots and also embrace the notion that “part of the trip” is the fact that she comes across as “scary”. All of the Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing tracks were recorded live in the studio, and Blackwell recounts of these sessions: “If Grace or the group hadn’t nailed a song by the third take, it was dropped, and they’d move to the next number.” The mixes were then tested out in a New York nightclub setting: Paradise Garage. “Once those Compass Point mixes sounded right coming out of the Garage speakers, we knew we’d cracked it,” Jones wrote in her book, noting that the mixes were of particular importance since she was experimenting with her voice at the time. A fusion of genres as diverse as reggae, funk and art-pop, Nightclubbing comprises four cover versions that Jones reinvented and totally owns. Jones only ever listened to the original versions of the songs she covered once: “I wanted to drag it off into my territory without worrying I was not being faithful.” But she didn’t feel comfortable covering all of the songs that were brought in for her consideration, rejecting Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones and Concrete Jungle by Bob Marley. Two of the album’s original tracks, I’ve Done It Again and Demolition Man , were written specifically for Jones. The Police also recorded an upbeat version of the latter, Sting-penned song for their Ghost In The

GRACE JONES Nightclubbing Bryget Chrisfield explores a favourite record which spelled the lift-off to cultural stardom for an important act.

This month: Grace Jones’ Nightclubbing . Head to stack.com.au to read the full article!

Year 1981

“D aaaaaance in bars and I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango) by Grace Jones features in a memorable scene from Roman Polanski’s 1988 film, Frantic (the song isn’t included on its OST, though). If you’ve seen Frantic , hearing Libertango will forever trigger images of Emmanuelle Seigner dancing up on a young Harrison Ford. All suited- up and with a bewildered look on his face, Ford is no match for the seductive powers of Seigner’s titillating, fluid body rolls in that form- fitting red dress. Libertango was the second of six singles to be lifted from Jones’s nine-track Nightclubbing set – the second album in her Compass Point trilogy (sandwiched between 1980’s Warm Leatherette and 1982’s Living My Life ). Prior to the Nightclubbing sessions, Island Records president Chris Blackwell restauraaaaants/Hooooome with anyone who waaaaants...”

(described by Jones in her brilliant autobiography I’ll Never Write My Memoirs as “a prophet”) decorated one entire wall of the Bahamas’ Compass Point studio with an enlarged photograph of Jones, taken by Jones’s boyfriend at the time, the French artist Jean-Paul Goude. “Make a record that sounds like that looks,” Blackwell instructed assembled band Compass Point All Stars, referring to the photograph that wound up gracing Warm Leatherette ’s cover (described by Jones as “the killer clown interrupting some mysterious ceremony”). As for Nightclubbing ’s visual art: A painted- photograph by Goude titled Blue-Black In Black In Brown , which features Jones sporting a black Armani suit jacket with nada underneath, absolutely pops on its cover.

Jones glares down the camera lens, cigarette drooping between

Machine album (released after Nightclubbing , in October 1981). Jones’s chugging signature dance tune Pull Up To The Bumper started its life under the working title of ‘Pour Yourself Over Me Like Peanut Butter’ – an instrumental composed by Koo Koo Baya (Sly and Robbie’s collective alias). Wanting to have her wicked way with the track, Jones penned

new, cheeky lyrics together with Dana Mano. Of this song, Jones famously quipped: “If you think the song is not about parking a car, shame on you.” During her life-changing concert at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre back in February 2018, Jones promised us a new album “for the summer.” Just recently, a coupla studio photos appeared on her Insta (one captioned “Something wicked this way comes!”) and it’s fair to say we’re now, ahem, jonesing for new output from this unparalleled pop culture icon, who continues to embody fashion, art and music as a septuagenarian. BC

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OCTOBER 2019

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