Yes, and no dessert either!!
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TLC covering the Time's Get It Up was a lead balloon for me from the giddyup. Not just tasteless but a bad cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0mDMJs1Dqc
Speaking of horrible covers, somebody should be in jail for this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIOH8Trfas4
Good question. I kind of wonder if the Atlanta sound of LaFace Records had any true musical distinction. The musicians didn't stand out. If you heard Babyface's first couple of albums, you pretty much heard most LaFace output that followed them. This is odd because the Deele stood out to me, as did Babyface's writing and production for Midnight Star.
You could hear a difference in New Jack [[and really, a lot of New York records in the '80s), Minneapolis, and LA [[Solar, most prominently). But in that decade and the next, LaFace made wonderful songs that were kind of indistinct from a composition standpoint IMO. Maybe Toni Braxton is the exception, but most of the voices could be swapped with something different without the songs suffering greatly. Maybe I should just avoid going there though...
No offense taken. I kid, I kid...
https://media2.giphy.com/media/PR7xR...&rid=giphy.gif
One of the saddest stories in a business full of them. I think Tommy Boy was out of its league with a genuine R&B act. With that said, Antoine Lundy genuinely had one of the best voices ever [[no hyperbole) in R&B music and that voice carried the group. But even though Jam & Lewis blew the top off of them with Tender Love, I always thought the Force MDs bore that '80s NYC sound. Lost opportunity to have done so much more in the short time they recorded.
All right, this one takes the cake for me. My dearly departed dog could write a better song than this...but it's such a damned earworm!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjsDNRsewuA
I'm posting this one on behalf of dear, late grandmother. She could not stand this record here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBBw1MEOMWI
I liked some of their stuff, but not this one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTizYn3-QN0
Mr. Roboto - Styx. Sounded like something from a Broadway play or something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIro5YYtteQ
This...https://youtu.be/BqDjMZKf-wg
the na na na na na coda gets on my last nerve.
And this https://youtu.be/68ugkg9RePc
Dennis DeYoung was such a butthole. Styx was a really good band but his ego led to this song and other crappy efforts. I saw a concert on TV and they did an elaborate production of Mr. Roboto and literally nobody in the crowd was either dancing, smiling or looking as if they were having a good time. Great choice for this thread.
There was no excuse for this hideous train wreck. "Who that is" and "That's just my babby daddy" are easily the most unfortunate lyrics in history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfhsXlNf4XI
I loved Cameo. Loved about 80% of their music, but like so many, in 1982 they pushed the envelope too far in trying to be trendy and came out with this awful record "Alligator Woman"!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Sh9WSbO6s
Simon LeBon did an interview on the radio a few years ago and he sounded happier performing out of the limelight. Didn't suggest he regretted anything but I got the impression that the band learned the right lessons from their hey day and aren't stressing about reliving that era. Actually shocked me because I used to think he was like Peter Wolf and David Lee Roth since he was an '80s front man of a popular outfit, but that's because I'm quick to judge. Don't forget that John Taylor and Andy Taylor teamed up with Tony Thompson of Chic to form Power Station with Robert Palmer. Hope they're all doing well.
I was upset when Cameo chopped down from an 11-member outfit [[as ridiculous as that sounds today) to just Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins and Nathan Leftenant. But the records still sounded good to me and that era is almost as good as the previous one. I was not a fan of punk funk [[hated the Bar-Kays' Hit and Run change in sound) but I used to rock Alligator Woman, which I think is Cameo's only punk funk record.
Aaron Mills is one of the most underrated funk/soul bassists. He was a huge part of their sound, as was their horn section, and they missed him when he left. I thought that Word Up was going to send them full pop after I heard it played in some top 40 nightclubs. It would have been a smart money-making move for Blackmon & Co. and many would have taken the bait. But then they released Skin I'm In and it cemented them as one of my favorite outfits forever. That song resonates to this day, even though it probably ran contrary to what the label was hoping they'd produce.