CAMEO Appreciation Post
batmon
27,574 Posts
These dudes kept it live during the early 80's while Hip Hop started to take over the radio waves in NYC. Disco was dyin, Slow jams were bubblin, and these cats stayed relevant through the changes in Black music.Slow Jams...checkSweat box funk...checkRadio hits...check...Progresive R&B...checkNew Wave/Punk Funk/Rick James steez....checkDerivative/minimilized P-Funk w/out the codes...checkCostumes...checkSex appeal...checkmid 70's to Skin Im In...
Word Up doesnt even do them justice, even though they were referencin Rapp.
Comments
Strangely, I found the earlier work cheesier than the later "Codpiece" era, which had hella cheese (no citation needed).
"She's Strange" which is my fave cut by the band, is of this time, but that's the sound I like - they have that funk riff thing going on under it, but it's kinda stripped-down with less obvious chords over the top. Keeps it interesting.
I accept Clown for these remarks in all currencies, but y'know, I will ride hard / like the wind for this track always.
Larry Blackmon is kind of slept-on as a progressive creative force in 80s black music. I'd even go as far to say he was second only to Prince during that period, yet it seems he's remembered by most people as the guy with the high-top fade and the codpiece.
I have also been known to ride for "It's serious."
TO GET THE WRONG IDEA BOUT MAY
I AINT GOT NOTHIN TO HIDE
I WANT THE WORLD TO SEEE
SINGLE SINGLE SINGLE SINGLE
LIFE
Love them dudes
so insanely good.
When I was a freshman in high school, I made friends with a senior stoner dude in my art class who was crazy into them and even had a hand-me-down Cameo T-shirt. I was already pretty into a lot of disco and funk, but for some reason I wasn't sold yet on Cameo from listening to them through his headphones. Looking back now, it's hard to make sense of that.
Anyone heard the L.A. Connection album Larry Blackmon produced? I found it recently, which is what got me pulling out the Cameo records again.
Shit yeah. I remember getting this on a Now! album in, I think, 85 and playing it to death. After that couldn't get enough of the band.
Probably still got my plastic sleeve You Make Me Work 12" floating around somewhere as well.
my top 5:
back & forth
rigormortis
two of us
she's strange
hangin' downtown (thanks, primo)
hate to leave off a lot of stuff like the early slow jams (sparkle, why have i lost you) and the early jams (shake your pants, i just want to be, etc... that stuff was
Especially this...
That video is crazy! Definitely one of my favorite groups period. They were one of the only groups to stay consistently good from the late 70's funk era to the stripped down mid 80's computer stuff. I probably like they're slow songs best. I know they are from the east coast but I always with them having West Coast music.
TOP 10
Why Have I Lost You
We're Goin Out Tonight
Two of Us
Sparkle
Single Life
Back and Forth
Hangin Downtown
Flirt
Candy
Shake Your Pants (my neighbors used to blap this song everyday one summer bitd)
Ironically, "Single Life" always makes me think of my wife, for two reasons:
1) She used to always play that record, then when the hook came in, mix in "Rumors" by Timex Social Club. That mix sounds soooo good and works incredibly well.
2) She also plays the hell out of out Bad Azz "Wrong Idea" which is based on "Single Life." That record kills in the Bay.
(And yo, when is one of you remixer dudes gonna get off the bullshit and lace us grown folks with ???Shake Your Slacks???? You know: slow it down, stretch it out, maybe add a little flute, some slightly-behind-the-beat snapping. Cameo is dope and all, but I???m not tryna sweat out my good shirt. I need that Electraglide in Zinfandel type material.)
I dont know bout that. All their singles before Word Up got major Local Black Exp radio play and the videos were all over NY HotTrax. Word Up was a step up but not by that much. They were able to minimize,concetrate & package all the quirky Funk they made previously. Plus the quasi-Hip Hop flavor was injected by 1986.
Larry was clearly "Rappin".
I think you might be reading me wrong. The first part of the line you've quoted is "unlike [the] alien undeground shit..."
my bad
2)she's strange
3)candy
4)single life
5)back and forth
6)rigor mortis
7)flirt
8)feel me
9)please you
10)smile
10b)we're going out tonight
"even gucci would be proud"
YEAH, but "Word Up" was the first to get major White Experience play, where it probably stood out even more next to, say, Huey Lewis...
funk funk
Now that's a show!
Do you guys dance to yourselves when you hear Cameo? I know I do...
this group had it all...modern soul cuts with amazing horns..slow jams, boogie, disco, and the later part of the 80s...shes strange is timeless, especially at the end when they go into the latin groove.
Is Cameosis their best album? i fucks with it heavy.
They are thinking out of the box for rhyming. Check this from "She's Strange" (the Room 123 12" mix, natch):
"Her mini skirt, it fit so nicely,
you can't look once, you have to look twicely"
[imaginary picture of Shakespeare giving the thumbs-up]
'shes strange' is serious
Yes Cameosis is essential ...best imo........My uncles and aunts played "shake your pants" so much i asked moms to buy me the record when i was in the 2nd grade .......