STEVE “SILK” HURLEY – “Jack Your Body”
Future shock? If you’d been told before the fact that a Chicago house record was going to hit number one in the UK, you might well have put your money on the showy, song-driven side of house providing it. A record like Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)”, maybe, with a big vocal hook to grab on to. But no: Steve “Silk” Hurley throws us in at the tracky deep end: repetition, repetition, repetition, the sweeping hiss of the hi-hat, the crack of the snare, that flexing and bucking keyboard line, and from out of the mix those snarls, cries and commands – “Jackitupoutthere!”
More than anything, early house music makes me think of darkness. Not in the sense of negativity or of terror and malice deep within the human heart – though it could provide those when needed – but the darkness of the club, where flickering patterns of light briefly let the bodies around you shine red or blue before they vanish back into the murk. It’s that darkness which seems to fill the space in “Jack Your Body”, emphasising the pure physicality of this dance. The word “jack” – mechanical, sudden, carrying the idea of uplift, a wave of energy passing through you – does an awful lot of work in an apparently meaningless record. This isn’t one of my very favourite Chicago house tracks – I tend to like the music with a little more incident – but there’s a heat and purity to it which is still tremendously exciting and shows how glorious it must have sounded in clubs.
It’s tempting to see “Jack Your Body” as the wavefront of a revolution, but as several people have pointed out you can’t quite draw a straight line between this early Chicago sound and the dance music explosion to come. Obviously house was big – to get to #1 even at this point you still had to shift a good few singles – but other club music styles had been big before. To me at the time – by now at boarding school and applying myself to learning the ways of classic rock, so about as poorly placed to comprehend house music as you could possibly be! – this didn’t register as minimal un-music: I thought it was basically along the lines of hits like Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F”, only a bit less colourful. So a little bit of the excitement I feel listening to it is the false anticipation of hindsight: “Jack Your Body” sounds more important because I know what’s coming after. Early house was vital raw material for ‘dance culture’ and its reshaping of British pop, but it wasn’t a revolutionary force by itself. Which, of course, doesn’t stop “Jack Your Body” from being an enduringly fine record.
8
Ah yeah I’ve seen ‘Carino’ mentioned in response to this question posed elsewhere.
TOTPWatch EXTRA! By popular request, here are the appearances of madcap roving reporter Jonathan King from the USA, and the songs he promoted;
10 June 1982; Asia – Heat of the Moment, Tommy Tutone – 867-5309, Rick Springfield – Don’t Talk to Strangers, Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder – Ebony & Ivory.
5 August 1982; The Go Go’s – Vacation, The Motels – Only the Lonely, Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me, Survivor – Eye of the Tiger.
9 September 1982; Melissa Manchester – You Should Hear How She Talks About You, John Mellencamp – Jack & Diane, Chicago – Hard to Say I’m Sorry.
11 November 1982; Marvin Gaye – Sexual Healing, Laura Branigan – Gloria, Michael MacDonald – I Keep Forgetting, Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes – Up Where We Belong.
30 December 1982; John Cougar – Hurts So Good, J Geils Band – Centrefold, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – I Love Rock & Roll, Olivia Newton John – Physical.
2 June 1983; The Tubes – She’s A Beauty, Bryan Adams – Straight From the Heart, Irene Cara – Flashdance.
#77 clearly he had an American MTV feed, almost all of these songs were in constant rotation on MTV the first couple years. I don’t recall a video for Gloria or the Melissa Manchester, but every other one is burned into my teenage, MTV addict brain.
Thanks Billy, amazing! And clearly it wasn’t a guarantee of a UK hit. No Africa on that list, either. Coo. There goes my cosy theory. (psst… can you confirm or deny my memory of Jack Your Body?)
Punctum, I’m sure you get what I was on about – we were talking about bending the rules of qualification for TOTP ie it should be a hit already or just outside the Top 40 and climbing. I have no problem with Centerfold at all, and Africa features one ofmy favourite unwieldy lines (you can guess). Joan Jett, I’d forgotten, was another JK beneficiary. At the height of New Pop I thought ILRnR was a risible, dated piece of cawd-rawk crap, though of course I now think of it as Louie Louie’s soulmate.
Top of the Pops showed the Jack Your Body video twice, over the two weeks that it was number one, but don’t seem to have done anything about playing it beforehand, which chimes with how I remember things.
“At fifteen, still a year or two away from seeing the inside of a nightclub, I remember classifying this as arty electronic studio experimentation – ah, I thought, this is what Americans sound like when they try to be Art of Noise or Yello. These strange, simple uncompromising, pulsing, thrilling, inhuman sounds were bedroom headphone music for me – nothing to do with the sweaty, fleshy mess of real bodies dancing, surely?”
This is basically how I approach the song now as a 28-year-old hearing it for the first time. It’s actually quite charming listening, I can imagine getting work done with this in the background, but I can’t exactly figure how you dance to it, certainly not in the kind of lurid, dark, grown-up world Tom implies here. That’s not a slam on the review or the song…I just don’t have the ears to hear this the way it was meant. Mind, I still am extremely vague on what “house” actually connotes, having had to derive it from context my whole life.
This is how you dance to house music! And there’s a Wikipedia page on jacking specifically. It’s a lot of fun to do, though it always makes me sad that British people tend to be so upper-body focused when it comes to dancing; often I wonder whether they realise they have hips.
I’m no dancer, still less a jacker, but I do find it amusing how some of the entries for different styles make such a big thing of terminology. The entry for ‘B-boying’ starts off “Though widespread, the term “breakdancing” is looked down upon by those immersed in hip-hop culture”, then continues with a punctumesque 500 words on exactly what’s wrong with it.
All this even though the entry itself is the main one in the category ‘Breakdancing’!
“British people”
“Punctumesque”? Call the OED, we’ve got a good one for them…
To tell the truth, the word “jacking” immediately called to mind a story told by a member of Dr Hook in a “Sounds” interview in the 70s. Speaking of going to confession as a youngster, he recalled:
I didn’t know how to explain masturbation to a priest, so I just said ‘I did something’. He said ‘Was it with a girl?’ – ‘No.’ ‘Was it with another boy?’ – ‘No – (gulp) it was with myself’. So he said, ‘Oh, you mean jackin’ off. Say two Hail Marys and here’s a jar of Vaseline.’
Punctum @ 52: “a moan about mythological and largely non-existent London tastemakers” precisely your argument made a ridiculous generalisation about London clubbers being wholly comprised of such mythological figures.
You haven’t changed have you? once again as so many times before you are unable to refrain from straying into the area of making personal insults directed at another poster.
Something that is almost invariably unpleasant and pointless and I try to avoid at all costs but on this occasion and your ridiculous final line it needs answering in kind.
Admittedly – that is until you start venturing into areas you don’t really know anything about- your pieces are often well written and interesting.
However your lack of self-awareness is something to behold and stunningly shown here in your lame attempt to delve into ‘psychology’ to make, what I imagine you believe to be some lacerating insult, when I think it was made amply apparent some time ago that your own overall arrogance really does border on the pathological.
I apologise to Tom for having to include the above in a post but I think such an unacceptable attitude needs questioning.
Lee at 41 & 71 and Steve at 65:
Yeah I forgot about Bobby Byrd “I Know You Got Soul” and you’re damn right that a lot of the old school non-Rare Groove soulboys liked oldies – I think what they used to resent was what rightly or wrongly they perceived as suddenly a few very hyped clubs in Central London were acting like they had discovered tracks which had often been played interspersed with the new stuff at the older clubs for years and even given them this new name “Rare Groove”.
I’ve heard that Trevor Fung tried to put on a house club as early as 1985! (where were the records!?) the Project in Streatham – but I believe it flopped. And that’s interesting about Delerium as that often gets left out of the story with everyone always quoting Shoom as the first in town from September (?) 1987.
I know that you really had to be in the know back then though as you could be completely immersed in the club culture back then as I was and literally not know Shoom or Delerium etc existed. In 1987 I remember it was still all Doo At The Zoo (Nicky Holloway), Special Branch and the old places like Flicks in Dartford (soon mentamorhosising into an Acid mecca in 1988).
Like Lee the memory plays tricks though as Danny Rampling was involved in the Special Branch – but he was obviously running Shoom by late 1987!
My own first encounter with Acid house was at Easter 1988 when to much bemusement a load of people turned up at the Bournemouth Weekender in bandanas, longer hair etc – in hindsight and as Danny Rampling could well have been at at Bournemouth they were probably from Shoom.
When I finally got to Spectrum myself (also at Heaven) in about May 88 I think it had been going a couple of months or so so I suppose they could have also been from there or Delerium if it was still going.
And something that has always seemed mysterious for me is the Belvederes, Ascot (early-mid 80s jazz-funkers Sunday midday thing) and the Full Circle, Colnbrook (post Acid-house Sunday thing)connection as they were very near to each other and I saw many punters and djs at both but didn’t visit either in the 1987-89 period – depending on when they starting playing the house could this be another late entrant in the who was first in London stakes?
#87 well Fung could’ve played a couple of things e.g. Jesse Saunders ‘On And On’ (from 83/84) at this Streatham club.
I used to work with a bloke who knew Noel Watson so he clued me in to a lot of things that were going on, got me tickets to the VIP bar on their first night at Heaven where I hobnobbed with Boy George and Mick Jones. Well, they were in the same room. But I remember the club was absolutely heaving with people that night, it was obviously the hot new place. I went to Special Branch a few times too, I think Gilles Peterson played there as well.
Yes I remember Gilles Peterson playing the Special Branch too (very likely saw him on one of the coach trips from my local we had to Tooley Street around then)this venue probably had more connections with the London Acid ‘Class of ’88′ than any other club – as besides Rampling I think Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker* (whom I also saw regularly doing Fridays at the East Arms, Hurley around this time) played there too.Maybe even Phil Perry from the aforementioned Full Circle had connections there too.
*the member of the 1987 Ibiza posse who supposedly invented the acid dance (you know moving your hands in front of your face etc) not the IMO very cool (ie he was the nearest thing you could have to an embodiment of the 70′s West Coast Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers lovin’ mellow guy that could exist and still be in Britain) 70′s Radio One DJ!His autobiography didn’t disabuse me of that notion in the slightest too – well worth a look.
lex @ 82: A long way from the “vertical expression of a horizontal desire” then. When did partner dancing become “uncool”?
The Twist?
#86:
The reason I asked the question I asked in post #52 was that your posts generally come across as somewhat aggressive and not a little defensive, as though bearing a long-term grudge against people or things or times unknown.
Forgive me for any presumption but there is a sense of some bitterness and perhaps resentment in what you write here.
I therefore suggested that you might perhaps like to offload whatever it is that’s been tearing your mind apart and hence (a) find some peace in yourself and (b) contribute to these discussions in an appropriate fashion. I fail to see how this constitutes “personal insults,” even (a) though the latter term is quite frequently shorthand for “things you don’t want to be told even though they may be true” and (b) you seem to feel quite free to bandy about personal insults, as per the two unfounded ones you include in your most recent post.
What you have to say historically would be quite interesting and indeed even fascinating were it delivered in a more considered tone.
X0099-45 ABEND POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK ERROR IN POST 00000093
;)
Please acquaint yourself with post #28 on this thread.
I’ve done what Andy’s done enough times to recognise when somebody else is doing it.
Not the most helpful of interventions there Rosie!
I think we’re at “take it to email” on this argument – future posts by Andypandy and DJ P about each other will be deleted.
Future posts about the secret origin of house music entirely welcome of course!
It all started the day Marshall Jefferson played ‘Mouldy Old Dough’ at 78rpm by mistake…
…or was it Winifred Atwell at 33? (thinks – must try this out).
Prepared piano, varispeeds, unexpected other instruments wandering in and out at random through her records – Winnie helped invent John Cage.
I’m sure someone posted about the Year Of Mixtapes blog on here, but I can’t find it now. Anyway he’s just posted a rather nice ‘early Chicago house’ mix for anyone who wants to check out more of this stuff (although Jack Your Body isn’t on it)
http://yearofmixtapes.blogspot.com/2010/02/week-38-chicago-house.html
Keeping with the theme of people playing things at the wrong speed, the next mix is New Beat. Thanks to whoever originally posted about the blog, there’s some great stuff on there.
When I first heard Jungle I thought it was being played at the wrong speed.
When I played the first 12″ singles I bought I thought they were being played at the wrong speed. And indeed they were.
A bit late to this one, I knew it would generate plenty of comment.
This is the first time I’ve seen this sleeve. My 12″ has orange instead of pink and ‘Jack Attack’ in the bottom right corner. It also has a sticker which informs me that it was named Import of the Year 86 at the Record Mirror Hammy awards. So there.
According to Pete Tong, who licensed this and many other house tracks, the video footage was used because of the difficulty of finding the Chicago house artists at short notice, and this video was re-edited to promote several subsequent singles by other artists. In this particular case, Hurley refused to promote the release because the track was two years old by the time it reached number one here. I daresay its chart success probably caught the label by surprise as well, and it was they who had to knock a video together in short order. The fact that this music was ‘faceless techno bollocks’ may also have contributed, although that term was several years away from being coined.
As Tom says, a fuller, more traditionally ‘songful’ house track might have been expected to be the first to go all the way. However, it’s often been the case that the rawer, more obviously machine-driven ‘trackhead’ house/rave/garage records have been the ones that have done the business in the charts. The Trax label was so named because that was what it released, that so few of its records were ‘songs’ in any traditional sense. These tunes have been the ones that really make the dancers cut loose and go crazy on the floor, so it’s understandable that there would be more demand for them, and that this would be reflected in a sales-based chart. At this time, I doubt that house records of any type were getting much airplay or promotion, so any chart successes would have come about almost entirely from dancefloor demand.
As raw as the tune is, those grunts and synth surges give it a surprisingly sensual edge, but it’s a dark sexuality, not the bedroom seduction of a track like Raze’s Break 4 Love. Perfect for jacking to I guess.
Despite its status as the first house No1, this never seems to turn up on compilations, either of acid house or Now-type pop compilations. I wonder why this is?
Wasn’t this the last time that TOTP had to make up their own video as it was shown in the night club I went to the next night when they had videotaped the show as by the August they didn’t include the MJ number one then as there was no video to go with it as I recall Peter Powell telling us, the show had reached a low point by then which I don’t think it got back to or was I just getting older, only the show used lots of videoclips which weren’t played in full of acts famous for fifteen minutes.
Put Your Hands Up For Detroit!
Way back at the start of this thread someone said they couldn’t see the link between this and disco…
Well, the bassline is nicked from First Choice’s Let No Man Put Asunder (Probably) the most sampled track ever …
Bassline is at 3″38 on this version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLrCbkpKZ4Q
Jack Your Body Is still a monster tune and gets em goin’ on the dancefloor to this day -
And give things like Slick’s “Space Bass” and some of Cerrone or Patrick Cowley’s better stuff a bit of tweaking and the dividing line between full on disco from the disco era and early house becomes very blurred and that’s before you add in the missing-link of 3 or 4 years of electro to the equation…