— Cliff White
I have a soft spot for the era but even I have to admit that the late eighties have a lot to answer for. Big hair, big drums, big shoulderpads: it's all been critiqued before but one aspect that seldom gets picked over is how it ruined the 12" single. Records that either had no business being lengthened to seven minutes or had been mixed in such a ghastly fashion or had been "spruced" up by the current dance sound were all guilty of taking a once specialty medium and rendering it lousy and mundane. As a result, I did all I could to avoid the 12": I never bought them and if I happened to purchase a cassette or CD featuring one as a "bonus" I'd torture myself by playing it once before henceforth pressing fast forward or skipping over it.
It hadn't always been this way. Dance music paved the way for extended mixes, first in Jamaica and then once the disco boom took hold in the United States. (It could be argued that the tradition goes back even further to Duke Ellington taking his pristine three minute marvels from the late-thirties and early forties and having his band "extend" them for both the new format of long playing discs and live concert hall settings) Producers, mixers and DJ's began to become stars in their own right and the 12" mix of a single was a good opportunity for them to put their stamp on a record. Paced by cocaine, it also allowed for self-indulgence. But some of the finest disco and funk recordings of the era by the likes of Chic ("I Want Your Love", "Good Times"), Donna Summer ("Love to Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love") and Stevie Wonder (the fifteen minute double act of "As" and "Another Star" that magnificently concludes the second disc of Songs in the Key of Life) perform better in stretched out form and manage to make a mockery out of connoisseurs of pop brevity.
Cliff White reviews the 12" version of "High on Your Love Suite" and doesn't even bother to mention that that there's a condensed 7" mix also available (and this was at a time when the Smash Hits singles review would give helpful info on available formats). Quite right too. Rick James may have been making a name for himself in the US but he wasn't much of a factor in Britain so curious penny-pinching purchasers of singles probably weren't on the lookout for his latest release anyway. At best, the shorter mix would have been an adequate radio-friendly replacement for the real deal. But even that doesn't hide the fact that it sounds neutered next to the more fleshed-out extended version. I don't even like referring to it as "extended" because there's the implication that we have a three-minute tune that's been remixed into something much longer, much the way many subsequent 12" singles would be put together in the eighties.
Opening with a ten second intro that swiftly shifts course, the "High on Your Love Suite" part is a typically thrilling high-octane funk attack driven by a James and his crack band of jazz and R&B veterans. Any song that's about an orgasm being not unlike a coke binge shouldn't let up and it doesn't. Being a medley, the fragments of "High on Your Love" and "High on the Funk" segue so beautifully that you scarcely notice. Funk stars are required to mythologize their style of music and James is no exception but where someone like Bootsy Collins may lapse into gimmickry or self-parody, he stays within its limits while being as flagrant a show-off as any of his George Clinton-Sly Stone-James Brown forefathers.
We then reach the mid-point "break", a still-relentless boogie with a spiraling sax solo, some percussion pyrotechnics and some jazz fusion fretless bass (I was half expecting to see Jaco Pastorius' name in the credits) and Return to Forever spacey synth bits. The original single release includes so-called Eye-Cue programme times (I assume for the convenience of DJs and mixers) but for the average listener it's hardly needed: as I've been trying to follow along, I only find myself caught up in the sounds. Those seven minutes just fly by when you can't stop listening — it's just a shame it couldn't have gone on for longer.
It hadn't always been this way. Dance music paved the way for extended mixes, first in Jamaica and then once the disco boom took hold in the United States. (It could be argued that the tradition goes back even further to Duke Ellington taking his pristine three minute marvels from the late-thirties and early forties and having his band "extend" them for both the new format of long playing discs and live concert hall settings) Producers, mixers and DJ's began to become stars in their own right and the 12" mix of a single was a good opportunity for them to put their stamp on a record. Paced by cocaine, it also allowed for self-indulgence. But some of the finest disco and funk recordings of the era by the likes of Chic ("I Want Your Love", "Good Times"), Donna Summer ("Love to Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love") and Stevie Wonder (the fifteen minute double act of "As" and "Another Star" that magnificently concludes the second disc of Songs in the Key of Life) perform better in stretched out form and manage to make a mockery out of connoisseurs of pop brevity.
Cliff White reviews the 12" version of "High on Your Love Suite" and doesn't even bother to mention that that there's a condensed 7" mix also available (and this was at a time when the Smash Hits singles review would give helpful info on available formats). Quite right too. Rick James may have been making a name for himself in the US but he wasn't much of a factor in Britain so curious penny-pinching purchasers of singles probably weren't on the lookout for his latest release anyway. At best, the shorter mix would have been an adequate radio-friendly replacement for the real deal. But even that doesn't hide the fact that it sounds neutered next to the more fleshed-out extended version. I don't even like referring to it as "extended" because there's the implication that we have a three-minute tune that's been remixed into something much longer, much the way many subsequent 12" singles would be put together in the eighties.
Opening with a ten second intro that swiftly shifts course, the "High on Your Love Suite" part is a typically thrilling high-octane funk attack driven by a James and his crack band of jazz and R&B veterans. Any song that's about an orgasm being not unlike a coke binge shouldn't let up and it doesn't. Being a medley, the fragments of "High on Your Love" and "High on the Funk" segue so beautifully that you scarcely notice. Funk stars are required to mythologize their style of music and James is no exception but where someone like Bootsy Collins may lapse into gimmickry or self-parody, he stays within its limits while being as flagrant a show-off as any of his George Clinton-Sly Stone-James Brown forefathers.
We then reach the mid-point "break", a still-relentless boogie with a spiraling sax solo, some percussion pyrotechnics and some jazz fusion fretless bass (I was half expecting to see Jaco Pastorius' name in the credits) and Return to Forever spacey synth bits. The original single release includes so-called Eye-Cue programme times (I assume for the convenience of DJs and mixers) but for the average listener it's hardly needed: as I've been trying to follow along, I only find myself caught up in the sounds. Those seven minutes just fly by when you can't stop listening — it's just a shame it couldn't have gone on for longer.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Billy Preston: "Get Back"
The one member of the notorious Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie cast to appear on a Fab Four recording, the umpteenth "fifth Beatle" probably should have known better but at least he lends an expertise that the Gibb brothers and Peter Frampton and George "just pretend to laugh till he goes away" Burns didn't have. Covers by Aerosmith and Earth, Wind & Fire are generally regarded as the two saving graces of such a horrible enterprise but Preston's "Get Back" is faithful and his organ playing rivals that of the original even if it doesn't offer much else. Paul McCartney's charming vocal and John Lennon's sweet lead guitar playing are nowhere to be found which only confirms that while the original "Get Back" wouldn't have been up to much without Preston's superlative keyboard playing, this one is in dire need of the first, second, third and fourth Beatles to join him.
The one member of the notorious Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie cast to appear on a Fab Four recording, the umpteenth "fifth Beatle" probably should have known better but at least he lends an expertise that the Gibb brothers and Peter Frampton and George "just pretend to laugh till he goes away" Burns didn't have. Covers by Aerosmith and Earth, Wind & Fire are generally regarded as the two saving graces of such a horrible enterprise but Preston's "Get Back" is faithful and his organ playing rivals that of the original even if it doesn't offer much else. Paul McCartney's charming vocal and John Lennon's sweet lead guitar playing are nowhere to be found which only confirms that while the original "Get Back" wouldn't have been up to much without Preston's superlative keyboard playing, this one is in dire need of the first, second, third and fourth Beatles to join him.
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