Who Can Define Infinity?

A belated happy birthday to Grace Jones for 19th May who, depending on varying sources, celebrated her 71st, 73rd or 75th year on this planet. Really, who cares? The fact that she's here is all that matters.

I'm of an age where I can't be certain if my first encounter with Grace Jones was her music or the infamous chat show appearance with Russell Harty in 1980, but it's almost certainly the latter. 

 

The song that I really remember making an impression on me was Living My Life, which was included on an Island Records promo cassette, free with Record Mirror circa 1982. I don't remember much about the specific magazine but I guess that it was around this time I would also have seen some of the striking imagery inextricably linked with Grace, not least her album artwork. I also recall seeing the lyrics to her cover version of The Apple Stretching in Smash Hits. The first record that I bought by Grace was the 12" single of Slave To The Rhythm, with it's unforgettable cut-up photo by Jean-Paul Goude and 12" mix by Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson, introduced by actor Ian McShane.

Only the first of these makes it onto today's random selection and even then in a dub version (although with vocals intact). And just the one cover version, not the aforementioned Melvin Van Peebles nor Joy Division nor Iggy Pop but Gordon Sumner's old band (although still very much a going concern in 1981). 

 

The eight songs don't stretch back into disco-era Miss Jones, but there are a few selections from the early 1980s, a couple of oddities from the late 1980s and 1990s and two remixes following her spectacular comeback (and to date most recent album) in 2008...as if Grace Jones ever really went away.

Still a force of nature to be cherished and never underestimated, Grace has a fair few UK festival appearances lined up in June and July, having curated last year's (pandemic delayed) Meltdown Festival. As I enthused last March, any live performance is unlikely to be anything less than spectacular.

 

1) Demolition Man (Long Version By Alex Sadkin & Chris Blackwell) (Cover of The Police) (1981)

2) Victor Should Have Been A Jazz Musician (The Jazzclubmillionminutemix By Ben Liebrand) (1987)

3) Love You To Life (Cagedbaby & Guy Williams Paradise 45 Rework) (2010)

4) Cry Now, Laugh Later (Vocal) (Remix By Steven Stanley) (1983)

5) Corporate Cannibal (Dan Donovan Remix) (2009)

6) Living My Life (Dub Version By Stephen Street) (1983)

7) Love Bites (7" Deep Into The Night Mix By The P.O.D.) (1996)

8) Nipple To The Bottle (Album Version By Alex Sadkin & Chris Blackwell) (1982)

 

Who Can Define Infinity? (44:55) (Box) (Mega)

The Stuff That Cured A Nation

I've been listening to Big Audio Dynamite again recently, the full run of albums, including the reboots as Big Audio Dynamite II and Big Audio, before reverting to the original name once more in the mid-1990s.

Of course, the one constant has been Mick Jones and much as I love The Clash, I was a little too young to fully appreciate them at the height of their powers and Big Audio Dynamite landed at just the right time, in my early teens. It's fair to say that Jones' creativity, thirst for mixing up guitars with beats and samples and his lyrical dexterity never faltered.

A Big Audio Dynamite selection is well overdue: I posted the first side of the Bad Attitude cassette compilation of 12" mixes a year ago yesterday; the flip side followed a few months later (links to Side 1 and Side 2). 

 

In the meantime, here's a selection of videos covering each of their albums from debut This Is Big Audio Dynamite in 1985 through to 1997's final album Entering A New Ride, self-released online after then-label Radioactive rejected it. 

I've opted for Medicine Show and C'mon Every Beatbox, not just because they're brilliant songs, but as they also feature the truly magnificent Neneh Cherry. I couldn't find a video for Other 99 so I've used a live performance from BAD's 2011 reunion tour with the original line up, which is great. No official videos from mini-album Kool-Aid by Big Audio Dynamite II as far as I can tell, but I've found what looks to these rheumy eyes like a fan-made clip . Likewise, there were no videos for any of the tracks from Entering A New Ride, but Nice And Easy features Ranking Roger, so it deserves an airing even as an audio-only clip.

I'll try not to leave it a year before the next Big Audio Dynamite post...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Medicine Show: Big Audio Dynamite (from This Is Big Audio Dynamite, 1985)

C'mon Every Beatbox: Big Audio Dynamite (from No. 10, Upping St., 1986)

Other 99 (Live @ The Roxy, Los Angeles, 14th April 2011): Big Audio Dynamite (from Tighten Up Vol. '88, 1988)

James Brown: Big Audio Dynamite (from Megatop Phoenix, 1989)

Kool-Aid: Big Audio Dynamite II (from Kool-Aid, 1990)

Rush: Big Audio Dynamite II (from The Globe, 1991)

Looking For A Song: Big Audio (from Higher Power, 1994)

I Turned Out A Punk: Big Audio Dynamite (from F-Punk, 1995)

Nice & Easy (Remix): Big Audio Dynamite ft. Ranking Roger (from Entering A New Ride, 1997)

(More) Bad Attitude

Side 2 of a mixtape, originally recorded 13th February 2002, featuring Big Audio Dynamite. Although the cassette sleeve is sub-titled "1985-1989", the truth is that I dipped out after V. Thirteen and missed third album Tighten Up Vol. '88 and it's accompanying singles altogether. The same was true of follow up album Megatop Phoenix, though I did buy the 12" of Contact, which I loved, and the Australian 12" of James Brown whilst in - you guessed it - Australia. I'm not sure why I seem to have temporarily fallen out of love with Big Audio Dynamite as, in retrospect, the 1988-89 songs are great. It was probably down to a limited budget for buying new music, considering I spent two years working and saving to travel, so any spare money was going on gigs, substances, clothes, running a car and my then-new obsession with Pixies. 

Betraying my limited B.A.D. vinyl - I only had the first album and an assortment of singles, with No. 10, Upping St. on a badly dubbed cassette, so unusable for my own mixtape - the original featured Medicine Show twice, album version on Side 1, 12" version on Side 2. For this update, I've swapped out the latter with Albert Einstein Meets The Human Beatbox, which originally appeared on the Medicine Show limited double pack 12" single and uses the E=MC² backing track. This also freed up space to include the 12" mix of Contact, which was inexplicably missing from the original track listing. Never mind the sequencing, feel the quality.

 

1) A Party (Dub) (Remix By Paul 'Groucho' Smykle) (Full Length) (1985)

2) James Brown (Remix Edit By Mick Jones & Bill Price) (1989)

3) C'mon Every Beatbox (Beatbox's At Dawn) (Remix By Sam Sever) (1986)

4) Hollywood Boulevard (Dub Mix By Sam Sever) (1986)

5) Contact (12" Mix By Judge Jules & Roy The Roach) (1989)

6) Albert Einstein Meets The Human Beatbox (ft. Sipho & Clement) (1986)

7) Sony (Album Version By Mick Jones) (1985)

8) BAD (12" Version By Mick Jones) (1985)

 

Side Two (46:47)

Find Side One here
 

Bad Attitude

Side 1 of a mixtape, originally recorded 13th February 2002. I was too young for The Clash to be 'my' band at school, but Big Audio Dynamite were a different proposition. This Is Big Audio Dynamite is an incredible album and the 12" mixes were equally thrilling, chock-full with samples, beats and incisive lyrics. The original BAD line up - Mick Jones, Don Letts, Leo Williams, Dan Donovan and Greg Roberts - was unbeatable, but there was an added thrill when Joe Strummer reunited with Mick Jones to co-write and co-produce second album No. 10, Upping St. I never tire of listening to these records.

 

1) This Is Big Audio Dynamite (12" Mix By Mick Jones & Paul 'Groucho' Smykle) (1985)

2) Stone Thames (Album Version By Mick Jones) (1985)

3) V. Thirteen (Extended Remix By Mick Jones & Alan Moulder) (1986) 

4) Medicine Show (Album Version By Mick Jones) (1985)

5) The Bottom Line (12" Version By Mick Jones) (1985)

6) Sudden Impact! (Album Version By Mick Jones) (1985)

7) E=MC² (Extended Remix By Mick Jones & Paul 'Groucho' Smykle) (1985)

Side One (45:53)