The idle mind is a playground for the devil

If you haven't figured out by now, I am charmed and fascinated by artists who come from nowhere, go somewhere--for a little while--and then who seem to return to obscurity, leaving us only what may have been the peak of their life's work or may have been just the product of a single instance of fruitful synchronicity (or drugs).

I bring you another: son of Blue Island (but, yah, he grew up out in Palos), SAIC dropout, diligent multi-instrumentalist, unexpected funkmeister, #1 Top New Male Single Vocalist (1978), first-ever certified gold 12-inch single awardee, unassuming disco icon, Madonna-nicknamer, MTV VMA nominee (1985), what's-hot-in-pop adopter, tinnitus sufferer, web designer, one-hit wonder.

(And now I know where a lotta guys in Logan Square are getting their look.)

I remember this song.



Labelmate Betty Wright backing up, it's meticulously arranged disco. Assembled from a boxed puzzle: whooshing strings, signature bass line, scratchy guitar riffs, four-on-the-floor, a back-up lyric that's not part of the body of the song, and a general lyrical premise that proposes someone (a woman) just let go and dance. It's just all very--sterile. There's no passion in it. Out-of-the-box.

This track, however, is not. Gruffer, rougher, longer, stronger. This will keep you on the dance floor even if those new spike heels have your dogs barking.



I rarely read or acknowledge Youtube comments, but I love the second one, from "drumrman1:"

"FO SHO. back in the day, i used to bump the shit outta this in the clubs. no longer a deejay, however i'm driving beats on the kit like paul bunyan now and sometimes i try to replicate these grooves. getting close...feel me HOLLA"

The first song was made for the radio, to neatly layer between . The second song was made for the club, the club, the joyous, messy, hot club. Feel me HOLLA.

Excuse me I'm only human

This one is about being affirmative.

And I'm posting/playing it because a. I need to post on this blog daily and b. I want to continue to perpetuate the feelings of Love, Tenderness, and Devotion so inimitably, unforgettably, high-heeled-ingly twice laid out by my Purple friend this week.





By the way (there is always a "by the way," isn't there), I love that the members of the Love Men LTD, which eventually became L.T.D., piled into a car and drove to New York to seek their fortune--and then did it again a couple of years later by driving to Los Angeles, this time with a second car to carry the additional members. During the New York days, they picked up a drummer/singer named Jeffrey Osborne, whom we can thank for later, when his solo career took off in the early 80s, providing a song for wedding processions and probably funerals alike for years to come. I prefer the turquoise-shirt-and-white-pants-1983 funk of this track, though. Oh-whoaaa-ohhh-BASS LINE.

Affirmative.