Jukebox Junior: Playing records to a girl called Junior
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Singles Of The Year 1977
[1] David Bowie, 'Heroes'
Pop facts, pop apocrypha: the quote marks* in the title are ‘ironic’, about what I don’t know, maybe heroism; the song was inspired by two lovers indulging in a spot of tongue-bashing by the Berlin Wall, although this is apparently a cover story for producer Tony Visconti locking adulterous lips with a backing singer; the vibrating, howling, encircling and embracing guitar figure was recorded in a day by King Crimson’s Robert Fripp. He later married Toyah. Dunno what he’s most proud of.
Bowie’s lyrics here have taken a bit of a hammering. Accused of mawkishness and banality- ‘wish you could swim, like dolphins, like dolphins can swim’, ‘I will be king, and you, you will be queen’- but I don’t find that. It’s impassioned, somewhat rare for the Dame, and soul-baring and empathetic. For this one day, we can beat them forever and ever. And the record just sounds like one of the finest noises you’ll ever hear, and you’ll never stop hearing it, the guitar always whistling and winding through your head like a mantra.
And it grows ever more urgent.
It’s greeted like a lost friend by Junior, ecstatically bobbing from foot to foot from the off. I think she wants to act out elements- maybe be a “hero” just for six minutes and two seconds- coming to kiss me, then pretending to sleep on the floor, then dashing off again at a glimpse of her jacket, leaving the room and haring back, and dancing some more. She senses boundless possibilities.
*This warmly inclusive platform won’t allow quote marks in the title. The death of artistry. Dave and I are trying to call it “Heroes”.
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[2] Stevie Wonder, 'Sir Duke'
The happiest song ever recorded. I’ll take alternatives, though- anything to kickstart this old girl again.
The Wonder boy must be our most prolific artist here at JJ HQ. In fact, that might even be our most prolific remark. My memory’s shot. This song’s special. Your toes are tapping, head nodding, lips humming, air trumpet blowing at the very thought of it. I will never tire of ‘Sir Duke’.
We dance to it together, Junior and I- that’s always side-splittingly funny for her. She picks up the joy in the record, it’s unavoidable and all-pervading. And perhaps its release upset a delicate balance in Stevie’s soul. He’d never hit those heights again.
Who bloody would?
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[3] Donna Summer, 'I Feel Love'
It gets difficult now. As will become blindingly obvious, the best three singles of 1977 are three of the very greatest records of all time. Specifying 1, 2, 3 is a disservice.
So let’s get on with it.
‘I Feel Love’ is a seminal record, in any true meaning of the word. If you like. It must’ve had the ordinary punter battening down the hatches in 1977, this alien pulsating noise, this utterly synthesised music, beamed in from Planet Lust.
Or maybe not. It was a No.1 single, for crying out loud, so Johnny Public was ready. The important thing is, you can remix it every five years, freshened up for the contemporary market, but the original version will stand on its own merits nearly 30 years later. 30 years. Giorgio Moroder was a visionary, even before ‘Together In Electric Dreams’. Within ten years, Donna Summer was hooked up with Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
Junior judges each record without historical context. Her fresh feet quickstep around the living room to the nagging, swooping grooves. She’s holding PiL’s ‘Metal Box’. No baby has ever looked more hip.
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GUEST REVIEW by Voxpox
[4] Peter Gabriel, ‘Solsbury Hill’
As pop legend would have it, young Gabriel took a walk up this ancient hill fort to contemplate a while. While he was up there, looking out over Bath by night, he was approached by an eagle who told him to leave Genesis and all its prog-rockery. And so he did. A little later Mike Rutherford was, by coincidence, approached by a rather less impressive bird, a cockney sparrow, who said that he reckoned that not only could he drum, but also sing at the same time. The rest is history.
So this was Gabriel's first solo hit having "walked right out of the machinery" and back to nature, to meditate and grow vegetables. This earthy tune begins with simple, distinctive acoustic guitar and shaker. In comes the rumbling drum beat and the soothing flute. By the time the tune finishes, this simplicity has built to a chaotic crescendo complete with lots of percussion, electric guitar and whooping, screeching, and blurting from Gabriel that's worthy of Tourette's boy Pete.
Undoubtedly one of his very best tunes, deserving of its place above the punk and funk of 1977, for some it is also a truly inspirational song, encouraging them to take stock of their life and take a leap of faith, like Gabriel, into the unknown. Junior however, was less inspired (I understand) and virtually ignored it throughout, preferring to take her life lessons from reading 'Each Peach Pear Plum'.
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[5] David Bowie, 'Sound And Vision'
It’s barely even a song.
But it’s way cool, with a riff both rock and electronic, and Junior, her mum and I all agree it rules. That puts Dave right up there with Lily Allen.
Anything else?
No.4 will be a guest review.
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[6] Elvis Costello, 'Alison'
As one Elvis died, another one came to, erm, take his place. Ol’ Declan’s never really mastered the burger-fuelled rock ‘n’ roll hunk thing, has he? Sure, he’s put on a few pounds as the decades have rolled by, but he’s been rubbish at attracting the screaming girls and the copious No.1 singles. In fact, he’s a fraud.
And he’s not attracting the screaming girl in my house either. Junior spends the song pottering around the living room, I’m afraid. She stops for a bit, to watch me singing along with an expression of wonder mingled with horror, but it’s not a hit. It’s a pity. ‘Alison’ is a beauty, perhaps the best thing he did, although I must confess that I have none of his acknowledged classic albums from the first half of the 80s. And he was prolific.
These days, he’s lucking out by marrying Diane Krall. The singer of ‘Alison’ isn’t so jammy, wanting the ground to swallow him up as he sees his ex with a new man. A sweetly turned lyric- ‘’Cos I don’t know if you’re loving somebody, I only know it isn’t mine’- lullaby guitars and a song played with huge soul.
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[7] The Emotions, 'Best Of My Love'
‘OW!’
You have to love the ‘ow’s, particularly the one which punctuates the gap between bridge and second chorus. It’s as if the peaks scaled by the Emotions can reach no higher and all they can say is ‘ow!’.
I bet that’s exactly what happened. I’m going to wing this a bit, but I think they started off on a jazzy soul tip on Stax, before getting the disco treatment from huge foreheaded Earth, Wind & Fire bandleader Maurice White. He wrote this, and they recorded other singles with the incomparably cheesy yet unimpeachably funky EW&F. I can’t think of any of them offhand.
Anyway, you know ‘Best Of My Love’. You know you have to strut your still funk-ridden stuff, whenever and wherever you hear it. It’s even instinctive for Junior who, in raptures, boogies on down with her dad on the white rug that’s not so white now because they were both wearing trainers. Her mum doesn’t read this, does she?
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