Where The Party At

Click the image to see The Man dance, not for everybody, only the sexy people

Lyn Collins: We Want To Parrty, Parrty, Parrty Parts 1&2
from James Brown's Original Funky Divas (Polydor 1975: cd released by Polygram 1998)

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five: The Birthday Party
from Adventures on the Wheels of Steel (Sugarhill 1981: cd released by Sugarhill 1999)

New Buffalo: No Party
from The Last Beautiful Day (Arts & Crafts 2005)


The other day I was listening to the old iPod when two songs played back to back and both of them had Party (or Parrty) in the title. Nothing unusual about that but when you've got about 2000 songs on it, and less than 20 of them have Party in the title of the song or album I figured I had a good enough reason to post up the songs on the Filthy Choice.

The first song is by the incomparable Lyn Collins. Along with Marva Whitney and Vicki Anderson, Lyn was the female voice that tempered James Brown hard edge funk without lessening it. This version of We Want To Parrty is the longer single including "Parts 1&2" with it's extended horn section and all female choral chants sounding very much like a party in the studio. Towards the end the bassline increases to almost breakneck proportions and not nodding your head to this effectively means your either dead or lack any rhythm.

The Birthday Party by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five is a rather odd song. When I first heard it as a kid waaaay back in the early 80's I loved this song and all the others that they recorded with similar musical themes like Freedom and It's Nasty, songs that sounded like they were actually having fun while they were recording it. But as I listen to it now, the charm and appeal has kind of wore thin. While Freedom and It's Nasty still retain the entertainment value that first attracted me to it, listening to The Birthday Party the song with it's kazoos and shout and response sections just comes off as derivative of the other two and the chorus with the line "any time is a happy time for a birthday party" tends to irk me now whereas back then those were parts of the song that I loved (and I really thought I connected with Melle Mel because our birthdays were two days apart according the song).

The third song No Party is a break from the party theme. Taken from the group New Buffalo, the song with it's heart rending lyrics is in no way indicative of a party atmosphere, but the wispy vocals and the airy beauty of the chorus still makes it a fun listen despite the melancholy of the sentiment.

I was actually going to do some other posts about Dusty Springfield, Joey Heatherton and some other new albums I picked up but unfortunately the SuperDrive on my iMac fizzled out on me and the stereo input that I use for converting my vinyl and tapes seems to have been misplaced, so I'll probably continue with this word-themed posts until I get the damn drive fixed or I find the audio adapter.