The Raw Addict 5.17.09: Friends…or at Least Bandmates
Posted by Phil Watts, Jr on 05.17.2009
The second half of my look at SHALAMAR. Plus, The Sylvers’ short stay at Solar Records…and which one is Micki Free again?!
LIVE AT THE GARDEN: A Shalamar Retrospective…Part 2
Things were going gangbusters at Solar Records. Shalamar's BIG FUN and THREE FOR LOVE were such big hits that other artists on the label wanted a piece of the sound. Leon Sylvers III's contributions to The Whispers' Solar recordings had just as much of an impact for them as it did for Shalamar. He would also work closely with (and later join) another trio called Dynasty (consisting of Kevin Spencer, Linda Carierre, and Nidra Beard, the latter who would become Mrs. Leon III for a few years). He would even bring his brothers and sisters in…
The reaction of many R&B fans was pretty much, "WHAT?! FIRST THEY RIP OFF THE JACKSONS, NOW THEY WANT TO RIP OFF THE SOLAR SOUND?! WHO ARE THEY GONNA COPY NEXT!?" It's sad that most people only thought of "Boogie Fever" and "Cotton Candy" when they thought of this group. This is the accumulation of record companies spending years refusing to let them grow and develop into their own. After this, they would jump to Geffen records, where they would go the synthed-out route, and get made over to look like the Black Flock Of Seagulls. Unsurprisingliy, no one cared for that either.
And that's all she wrote.
It's a real sad story. If I had all the Sylvers' material, I would do a whole feature of them in a heartbeat. However, I decided to include some of their story with Shalamar because it would be the sound that they created that many in the Solar family would benefit from.
In the meantime, let's get back to the program---
GO FOR IT (1981)
There was a bit of a shakeup at Solar Records during this period, as they were about to change distributors, leaving RCA Records and jumping to WEA (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic…which would become Time/Warner decades later). Because of this, everybody was in a mad rush to fulfill their contractual obligations with RCA. And you know what that means---RUSHED PRODUCT! YAAAAY!
GO FOR IT was Shalamar's last album under RCA, and because of the shift, the album wasn't close to either BIG FUN or THREE FOR LOVE…but that doesn't mean the record was bad. Not entirely, anyway. One thing that has to be said is that despite the rush and the weak material, Leon III and his army of musicians still made sure that the album at least sounded good.
Jeff Daniel had a hand in writing half of the songs on this album, and as a songwriter…well…he can dance his ass off! "Go For It" was Jeff's attempt at a message record which winds up sounding like something out of a self-help pamphlet or a bad motivational speech ("Show the world who you AAAAAARE--It's time to GO FOR IT!!!") The Jody-centered "Appeal" was his attempt at SEXY, but came off weak. You could just hear the lack of motivation on Jody‘s voice! "Rocker" was his attempt at an inspirational song which turns out completely lame (GOD is the master ROCKER? Put it down, Jeff. Put it down.) And the ultimate coup de grace is "Final Analysis", his sappy serenade to his wifey, Stephanie Mills. Yes, the same Stephanie Mills who had a long string of hits with the producer/songwriter team of Reggie Lucas & James "Juicy Fruit" Mtume. Jeff felt the need to use up album space to sing about how much he luv huh. Hearing this again reminded me of some other pathetic attempts at serenades, like when Jenny Lopez made a similarly sappy song about her man Ben Affleck, or Billy Bob singing about his love for some Angelina! You know what all three of these have in common? No soon after these three songs came out, THEY ALL WENT SPLITSVILLE!
I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere…
GO FOR IT's best moments all have Howard front and center. Quincy Jones protégé James Ingram stops by to pen the string-driven "Running", and while he‘s no Rod Temperton, this is still a decent enough song to salvage the album. "Talk To Me", despite being lyrically repetitive, is still a nice Shalamar dance number. "Sweeter As The Days Go By" is your typical mid-tempo number in which Howard displays his charm and salvages lyrics like "You can spend up money/but it ain't nothing' without that honey!" "Good Feelings" also follows that formula and sounds like just the type of song you'd expect from a Shalamar record.
Rumor has it that it was around this time when Howard started letting his ego swell up a bit, seeing himself as the savior of the group. If the rumor is true, it's to be expected. After all, he did help save GO FOR IT. But still, such attitudes are never a good thing when you're in a group. Jeff's tumultuous relationship with Stephanie Mills didn't exactly help (rumor has it that he kinda treated her cold.)
FRIENDS (1982)
Solar Records had finally made the move to the WEA conglomerate. They even got themselves a snazzy new logo (replacing the old Soul Train-style logo…which they would return to years later) and a subsidiary label called Constellation Records.
After the mess that was GO FOR IT, the group seems reinvigorated under the new management, as they turned in one of their best albums yet. Leon III continues to successfully walk the line between crossover and R&B appeal with his trademark sound. By the way, take one good look at the cover…because that is the last time you will be seeing Jeff with his massive afro from this point on.
The album starts with one of two classic Jody/Howard duets: "A Night To Remember" 1) Any BEST OF Shalamar compilation that does not include this song is a waste of plastic and shelf space. 2) UGH! The toaster effects in this video make my eyes bleed! Yeah, this was STATE OF THE ART when it came out in 1982, but now it's just shit! Jeff's pop-lockin' waiter routine would've been so much better without it.
"Don't Try To Change Me": JODY GETS FIESTY! This is another one of those songs where the girl tells her to either RESPECT ME or I'm LEAVING!
"HELP ME": Howard may be doing lead duties in this slow angst number, but to me, Leon III's bassline definitely makes this song.
"I Don't Wanna Be The Last To Know": The second classic Jody/Howard duet…and one of my all-time favorite songs from them. Anybody who's been in a rocky relationship can relate to this. The Dynasty trio (Spencer, Carierre, and Mrs. Leon III) all outdid themselves when they wrote this one.
"Friends": This is all about the value of FRIENDSHIP…which is a little ironic, considering the drama going on behind the scenes. Thankfully, there was no internet at the time so most people wouldn't know about any of that.
"Playing To Win": This is a Jeff solo number (co-written by Jody), in which he sings at a lower register than he usually does (he's usually the falsetto-man). Here, he's doing his solo tour in the UK show, TOP OF THE POPS, a show in which the group made frequent visits, to promote the album. Jeff actually made a huge impact with these tours, as he helped bring the world of pop-lockin' to the UK. And of course, he also gave Michael Jackson a few pointers during these tours.
"There It Is": Another mid-tempo Shalamar classic. Here, they make another stop at one of the lip-sync shows, with Jeff being the best damn guitar-holder he could possibly be. See back then, people didn't mind the fact that they went on lip-sync shows and mouth the words to their hit songs…just as long as they really brought it in concert. That was until Milli Vanilli killed it all. By the way, those of you who are mad at the bad sound quality, here's the record.
"I Can Make You Feel Good": Here's the album closer, which was co-written by Howard. There were a few other songs (that I couldn't find on the ‘tube), like "On Top Of The World" (which would've been a big hit on the dance floor), and the drum-machine-driven ballad, "I Just Stopped By Because I Had To" (which is not as bad as the idea implies).
FRIENDS was a big hit, as it helped them recover from the so-so GO FOR IT, and showed the group at its absolute best. With an album like this, people thought that their run of big hits would NEVER STOP.
Unfortunately, thinking that the good times will never end is like thinking bad times can't get any worse…one way or another, you're always proven WRONG…
THE LOOK (1993)
Ugh. And I'm not just talking about the 80's fashions they're sporting on the cover, either (not to mention Jeff's new…whatever the fuck he did to his hair.) Unfortunately, the shitty 80's fashion sense is the LEAST we have to worry about as far as this album is concerned.
It was around this period when R&B music as a whole was taking a turn for the absolute worst (and after over 20 years, R&B has still yet to fully recover). It was around this time when labels were cutting corners. With the synthesizer sound being considered HOT-HOT-HOT at the time, every label was trying to conform to that trend to stay RELEVANT (I am beginning to HATE that word) and having everybody singing over shit that sounds like 16-bit videogame music. So they went to all those people who worked the horn and string sections in all those past albums, handed them their pink slips and complimentary watches, and told them GET TO STEPPIN'! Sadly, Solar Records followed suit.
Now you had Leon III using more and more synths (and less and less of his trademark bass) while cranking out shit that sounds like aerobics music. Nothing displays this better than "Dead Giveaway" and "Disappearing Act" (I could almost picture Jody rocking LEG-WARMERS while performing that mess), and "No Limits (The NOW Club)". Then there are songs that could've easily been classic Shalamar recordings if they'd have had full musical backing like in past albums, like "Over & Over", "Right Here", and "You're The One For Me", the latter which sounds like a fully synthed-out version of "Help Me".
As if the changes in R&B music as a whole wasn't enough to throw a monkey wrench in the works, you had the increased tension within the group. Whether it was Howard turning Ruffin on us, claiming that Jody & Jeff ain‘t pulling their weight,, or Jody getting fed up with all the male egos, or both Jody & Jeff begging for more creative control, it's obvious that things were not looking bright for them. THE LOOK is a case where everything just went completely wrong behind the scenes…and it showed in the music.
While on tour, both Jody & Jeff, both fed up with the bullshit, decided that enough was enough and decided to wait out the rest of their Solar contracts in Europe…which left Howard by himself to REALLY carry Shalamar on his back…and thus, the hitmaking trio is no more.
Howard actually toured solo under the name SHALAMAR after Jody & Jeff split, while labelhead Dick Griffey sent out an APB for two new members. Griffey settled on guitarist Micki Free to fill Jeff Daniel's spot. With the world going synth-raving mad, Griffey felt that Free, a Prince-enthusiast, would be a perfect fit to meet the challenges of the synthed-out era. Griff would also get Delisa Davis to fill Jody Watley's spot. The Howard/Micki/Delisa lineup would give us the HEARTBREAK album, which survived solely on Howard's presence. That was enough to garner a spot on a few soundtracks ("Dancing In The Sheets" for FOOTLOOSE, "Don't Get Stopped In Beverly Hills" for BEVERLY HILLS COP, and the theme to the "Damn, he's got some nice titties" flick, JUST ONE OF THE GUYS)
Few years later, Howard jetted out, too…leaving Griffey to fill ANOTHER spot. This time he chose Sydney Justin, who originally auditioned for the spot after Gerald Brown's departure before it finally went to Howard. The Micki/Delisa/Syd lineup gave us CIRCUMSTANCIAL EVIDENCE, which survived solely on Babyface (then a Solar Records labelmate, as a member of the group, The Deele) and his production. But soon, that wasn't enough to offset the fact that there's no Howard, Jeff, or Jody anywhere in this Shalamar group…or the fact that their song "Games" sounds just like Cameo's "She's Strange".
…and the less said about their follow-up, WAKE UP, the better.
**************
So…WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Howard Hewitt went the adult contemporary route, with songs like "Show Me" and "Stay". He's also dabbled into Gospel with "Say Amen", which became a surprise hit. Meanwhile, Jeffery Daniel would make many attempts at a solo career which never went anywhere…all while continuing to work with Michael Jackson, doing choreography for both "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal". Jody Watley would be competing with Madonna as the "IT" girl of the 80's, with hits like "Looking For A New Love", "Real Love", and "You Are My Everything". She even got to work with THIS GUY a few times! While all of them are no longer considered …RELEVENT here (UGH!), they do get a lot of overseas love, and that's good enough for them.
"You can't always go back. Some things that were magical at the time were magical FOR THAT TIME. But you can't make it magical for another time. Life is just like that…Shalamar was a great foundation for Solar records and all the people who have come out of that. For a time, I really had problems talking about Shalamar after I left. It was very difficult for me in a lot of ways going through the whole [break-up]. There was a lot of trauma and drama going on, and it will make a great story. I'm going to write the story of my life and it will start from the churches in Chicago to Soul Train to Shalamar and going through my solo career. When you become a solo artist and you're trying to establish who you are as an individual, it gets tiresome--ON YOUR NERVES--when people say, "I LOVED YOU IN SHALAMAR!!". But in time, as I grew more, I learned to accept Shalamar as my start--my beginnings as a professional singer, writer, and artist. Not many people who were part of a group make it as solo performers. And many people who were making music at the time I was Shalamar aren't making music anymore. So I can apreciate it on a lot of different levels now that I didn't before. It was a good thing…and now, a part of my history." (from an interview in Urban Network Magazine)
…and she hasn't looked back since.
…well except for that one time she contributed to THIS. It's sad that this would be the final song that the trio would ever appear in.
