The S.O.S. Band - Take Your Time (Do It Right)

Long time reader(s) of ERV will know that we have a soft spot for early 80s funk, and "Take Your Time" is one catchy song.  We debated putting it up, since it is not a promotional video, but then we thought of all the positives:

1. It is a Soul Train clip ...
2. ... which means that Don Cornelius introduces the band.  Was there a cooler, more debonair dude ever?  (Maybe, but you have to think that Mr. Cornelius is in the discussion)
3. The song has a xylophone in it.  Funkiest xylophone ever?  (Maybe, but you have to think that this xylophone is in the discussion)
4. We totally love how much Bruno Speight (guitar) and John Alexander Simpson (bass) are grooving to the song (around 1:43 for the best example ... bopping in time)
5. The guitar line has to be on the short list of best funk guitar lines ever (see 2:55)
6. The band looks like they were some kind of funky navy ... or they had been watching too many Adam and the Ants videos

So there you go ... some readers may know that this was off the first (and self-titled) S.O.S. album, from 1980.  The album sold well, driven by "Take Your Time," which hit #3.  While the S.O.S. band did not have another top 40 hit on the main charts, they had a string of R&B hits, four of which showed up on the Billboard 100.  Most of these songs were produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis; the band worked with them starting in 1983.

Although there have been some personnel changes, the S.O.S. band continues to perform to the present day.

Cool trivia fact:  S.O.S. stands for Sound of Success.  The band was originally called Santa Monica (although they were from Atlanta, Georgia, as Mr. Cornelius points out), but they changed their name prior to their first album.

Dazz Band - Let It Whip

The Dazz Band were part of the vibrant early 80s funk scene, along with The Gap Band, The SOS Band, Kool & the Gang and (of course) Rick James.  The band formed in Cleveland in the late 1970s, and was the result of a merger between two local funk bands -- Bell Telefunk and Mother Braintree.  The name came from "Danceable Jazz" which was the musical concept for the group.

Although the Dazz Band are an official one hit wonder on the pop charts, they were R&B stars, and had 18 charting songs between 1980-88 (plus two more in 1998).  However, only "Let It Whip," from their 1982 LP Keep It Live broke the pop top 40.  It peaked at #5.

The video is a performance clip of the band (at the LA Roxy, we believe).  As an aside, few funk bands made videos, and those that did tended to simply record their performances.  This is similar to hard rock bands of the era, and opened the door to the new wave artists who embraced the video music format.  We do not recall seeing this video back in the day (MTV was also not great about showing black artists until Michael Jackson broke through with Thriller).

The Dazz Band stopped recording in the late 1980s, but then re-formed in the mid-1990s as part of the funk revival trend.

The Gap Band - Party Train

Originally called the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band, after their neighborhood in Tulsa, the Gap Band produced some of the catchiest funk this side of Rick James.  The band was centered around three brothers -- Charlie, Ronnie and Robert Wilson, who started playing music in the late 1960s.  They eventually moved to LA, and released their first album in 1974.  However, it wasn't until the early 1980s that the band really took off.

"Party Train" is from 1983's Gap Band 5: Jammin', the last of 4 straight gold or platinum albums for the band. While the song peaked at #3 on the R&B charts, it surprisingly did not break the top 100 on the Billboard pop charts.  The album peaked at #28, although it did hit #2 on the R&B album charts.

The video is classic Gap Band -- flashy, exuberant and fun.  Yes, the Wilsons loved their cowboy hats and boots (they were, after all, from Tulsa).  However, the video is just a crazy, funky California beach scene.  With the exception of Charlie Wilson's ill-advised (really small) bathing suit, this clip is a winner.  And there is even dancing with roller skates (briefly, around 4:37).

Although the Gap Band's popularity declined after the 1980s, they continued to perform until Robert Wilson's untimely death from a heart attack in 2010.

A rarer Gap Band classic, "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" was posted on ERV in January 2014.

Prince - Dirty Mind

Although Prince was a huge success in the 1980s, this is his second time on the blog ("Controversy" was posted on September 23, 2011).  And we believe that this is justified -- both Prince posts are great songs and rare videos.  In fact, we don't believe that "Dirty Mind" was even played much on MTV -- the only time we recall seeing it was on the old USA show Night Flight (and yes, we did watch Night Flight a lot).

(In fact, seeing this video as a young lad in the early 1980s was a memorable experience.  My thought process went something like this ... "hey this is a really good song ... wait, is that dude wearing panties and garters and a trench coat?  Man, he seems odd ... but I really dig the song.")

"Dirty Mind" was the title cut of the 1980 LP that showed the eccentric music genius of Prince.  He had released two solid, if unspectacular albums in the late 1970s.  However, on the Dirty Mind album, he broke all of the rules, fusing rock, pop, new wave and R&B in a way that hadn't been done before.  He also went way over the line of good taste -- it was an insanely raunchy album for the time.  This combination of weirdness, hyper-sexuality and great music in many different styles would lead Prince to superstardom in a few short years.

The song itself  is driven by a keyboard riff by Doctor Fink, one of the few Prince songs that he did not exclusively write.  It also does not have a chorus -- it is a groove driven song (unconventional, and very cool).  While the Dirty Mind album is now regarded as a masterpiece by many critics, it was not a huge commercial success, peaking at #45 on the album charts.  The single did not even chart.  However, Prince was comfortable with the new direction, and it would lead to tremendous commercial and artistic successes just a few years later.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your audio and video pleasure ... His Purpleness.

Cool trivia fact:  Rolling Stone rated Dirty Mind as the 18th best album of the 1980s.  Purple Rain was ranked second (behind The Clash's London Calling), making Prince the only artist to have 2 LPs in the top 20.

Note that "Uptown" was posted on ERV in January, 2015.

Cameo - Word Up

One of the more interesting (and eccentric) bands of the 1980s was the funk group known as Cameo.  The band was formed in the mid-1970s, with front man Larry Blackmon ( a Julliard grad) serving as the focal point.  While they had some success in the 70s and early 80s, it was their 1986 release, Word Up (and the single of the same name) that really launched them into mainstream stardom -- the single peaked at #6 on the Billboard charts, while the album hit #8.

The "Word Up" video does a great job of highlighting the band's strengths -- it's a great funk song accentuated by their flair for the dramatic -- including Blackmon's red codpiece, and a young LeVar Burton (as a police detective trying to arrest the band).

"Word Up" represented the peak for Cameo, and while they released a few subsequent albums, they were not able to recapture the magic.  Larry Blackmon went on to become an A&R executive at Warner Bros.

Cool trivia fact:  "Word Up" samples from ... the theme song from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" by Ennio Morricone (yes, really).

"Candy," the underrated second single from the Word Up album was posted on ERV in March, 2015.

Prince - Controversy

I know, I know.  Prince on a rare 80s video blog?  I mean the dude dominated the 1980s (along with Madonna and Michael Jackson).  But wait; hear me out.

While Prince did indeed become a massive star, starting with 1982's 1999, he was no overnight success.  In fact, 1999 was his fifth studio album; two of which were released in the late 1970s!!  And as would be expected from a prolific, slightly insane musician who later became an unpronounceable symbol, there is some really good stuff on his early albums that did not receive the airplay that it deserved.  Although it took us a while to warm up to Prince, we have to say that he produced one of the broadest and most interesting bodies of work of any artist of the past few decades.  In particular, his ability to fuse rock, pop, R&B and funk was unparalleled.

"Controversy," the title cut from his 1981 album is a great case in point.  This is the album that immediately preceded 1999, and it shows an artist at the top of his game.  The song itself is a catchy new wave funk song that was ahead of its time.  One interesting point:  the video is the edited single version of the song.  The album version is almost twice as long, and contains the Lord's Prayer (in full), which went over with religious conservatives about as well as you would think.  To be fair, Prince and his band also went over with religious conservatives ... well, you get the idea.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your audio and video pleasure ... His Purpleness.

Note that Prince's "Dirty Mind" was also featured on ERV, in March 2012, and "Uptown" was posted on ERV in January, 2015.

George Benson - Give Me the Night

And now for something completely different.

George Benson got his musical start playing ukulele at age 7, and later became an successful jazz guitarist.  By the late 1970s, he was an established star, and his music had evolved into something new -- not jazz, not quite disco, but something that fit in well with the emerging R&B movement.

In 1980, Benson had the smarts or good fortune (or both) to collaborate with Rod Temperton and Quincy Jones.  Quincy Jones went on to become one of the biggest record producers in the world.  Tempeton co-wrote the Michael Jackson songs "Off the Wall," "Rock with You" and "Thriller" (all produced by Jones), along with "Stomp" by The Brothers Johnson.

The resulting song, "Give Me the Night," became Benson's biggest hit, and rose to #4 on the charts.  It also hit #1 on the R&B charts.  The video received little airplay, partly due to the fact that it predated MTV by a good year or so, and partly because MTV was not very friendly to R&B acts in its early days.  It also may have something to do with the roller skates.  Just sayin'.

Cool trivia fact:  supposedly, Quincy Jones suggested the echo on Benson's guitar that drives the sound.