I guess Rufus Thomas told us to 'Do the Funky Chicken' and he had a successful career otherwise, so maybe my concerns are baseless.Īnyway, you probably want me to talk about the actual song. The thing that he probably didn't realise, is that can you name an artist/band that did actually have a song about a dance move that ushered in a new dance, but the artist was famous for something else? Chubby Checker gave us 'The Twist', and 'Let's Twist Again', Richard O'Brien from the Rocky Horror Picture Show gave us the 'Time Warp'. I honestly think he wanted one of his songs to be this out of control show stopper that would have the whole crowd moving to the pre-determined dance moves. Shut the thread, last one switch the lights off before you close the door.īut the other question, is why would you want to invent a dance? For him to return to the idea again and again with varying levels of success (talking about the song only) suggests that he actually may have wanted to do what I joke about. That's it - code's cracked, we can all go home. I just think he wanted to invent a dance, simple as that. So we all think that Prince wanted to be the best musician possible, the best songwriter, the best producer, the best singer. what's with Prince's obsession about coming up with new dances and writing a song about everyone doing something that no one knows about? I mean, somebody's got to ask the question. If anything it started with pub rock groups of the UK mid-seventies, I guess or even with proto-punk bands like Modern Lovers or something. However Prince was part of a general trend that dipped into older, fifties based styles, it didn't start with him, with the Stray Cats or even Queen, it was common in many New Wave/Punk/Alternative bands and remained so at least until the mid-80s. But I wasnt implying that Prince jumped on some general Stray Cats bandwagon. The Stray Cats were just part of that trend, (and Queen also hopped on it) and the Stray Cats were merely the most visible as they were MTV stars in the US. It is absolutely correct that rockabilly and other rootsy, 50s based styles were very much a part of the punk/New Wave/alternative thing throughout the late seventies and eighties. If you read my post carefully you will see i wrote alternative music. The Clash did rockabilly on London Calling. The Stray Cat’s first single was a good deal earlier than 1982, (1979)they broke late in the US. The chart in the US back then would be an especially inexact barometer of cultural trends with its ingrained, inherently corrupt system of de facto payola (independent record promoters) If you are not a QUEEN fan, skip this one.Click to expand.There is more music than what is on the charts.
Lyrics and predictability, it's quite a good groove. The last song worth mentioning is bass-driven "Dragon Attack". Vocals, and one chorus in good old-fashioned QUEEN style. Somewhat proggy, but don't expect too much. "Sail Away Sweet Sister" is lovely Brian's acoustic ballad, and only thing that is Just a weak attempt of 70's rock dinosaurs to play new, trendy music (like mentioned "Coming Soon"), it works really well, actually. "Rock It" is very good punk/new-wave with Roger on vocals. "Don't Try Suicide" have some good lyrics, but that's not enough to save "Don't Try Suicide", "Need Your Loving Tonight" and "Coming Soon" are just fillers, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is rockabilly (retro-rockabilly was trend in theĮarly 80s) somewhat reminding of THE STRAY CATS. The same goes for "Save Me" (very pleasant ballad though). "Play The Game" is lovelyīallad in QUEEN style, but note very challenging. There is no single not played on a synth. The fact that actually all the special effects and strange sounds are made withīrian's guitar. "Another One Bites The Dust" was a huge hit. Than it's predecessors "News Of The World" and "Jazz". This record is much closer to the trendy punk and new Wave This one will be remembered because ofįirst use of a synthesizer (Oberheim OBX) on a QUEEN record. The QUEEN album from the transition period.