Don_Krider's Full Review: The Best of Cameo by Cameo
Cameo lead singer Larry Blackmon, creator of the "fire-red codpiece" that accents part of his anatomy in live performances (and in this album's back cover photo), led the group to the U. S. Billboard Top 10 in 1986 with a trademark "yowl" as he sang the hit "Word Up."
Ronald Reagan may have been president of the United States of America, but the president of the funk grooves shaking speakers across the nation in 1986 with the single "Word Up" was Blackmon, dressed in tight leather and with a punk-cut, mile-high hairstyle.
Cameo, the early days:
Back in 1976, Blackmon, a former student at Juilliard, formed the group under the name of The New York City Players. The group at first had 13 members, but by 1986 they had been trimmed down to the three main members (Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins and Nathan Leftenant) surrounded by numerous "guest" players.
Inspired by funk music legends Sly Stone, George Clinton, Parliament, The Ohio Players and Earth, Wind & Fire, the band renamed themselves as Cameo "after a proud black silhouette," according to band biographer Richard Torres, author of the CD booklet's liner notes.
A new sound:
Funk music played with a deep, throbbing bass underneath multi-layered vocal arrangements, rich rhythms and a sense of playful sexual humor, a band clad in colorful leather outfits, all propelled along by the energetic charisma of front-man Larry Blackmon quickly won Cameo legions of followers.
Blackmon was a multi-talented individual, providing lead and backing vocals, drums, percussion and bass guitar to the recordings (while often leaving those chores to others on stage). His drum machine programming continues to influence many of today's top acts.
On this recording, "The Best Of Cameo," Blackmon wrote or co-wrote all 14 tunes --- obviously, he's one talented musician.
Success:
Though Hot 100 Pop chart success eluded the band for its first decade as an act, the group scored with rhythm and blues (R&B) fans with their debut album, "Cardiac Arrest," which gave the group its first R&B hit with "Rigor Mortis."
"Rigor Mortis" (which peaked in the "bubbling under the Hot 100" notes in Billboard at # 103) rose to # 33 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1977.
Blackmon claims that the first time he heard his song played on New York City radio he was working in a tailor's shop as a day job. At the time, he was marking a customer's cuffs, the story goes, but he threw his chalk away and walked out the door, "never to return," when he heard his song on the radio.
Hit-makers:
Including "Rigor Mortis," Cameo scored 14 R&B hits (11 of which hit the R&B Top 10), including the million-seller "I Just Want To Be," and three Hot 100 Pop chart singles by 1987.
The band also notched, by 2003, sales of 10 million albums worldwide.
Beginning with the Gold Record certification of their fourth album, "Secret Omen" in 1979, all of the group's later albums have gone Gold (500,000 units sold) or Platinum (one million units sold).
The "Word Up" album not only went Platinum in 1986, it also earned the group a Grammy nomination for "Record Of The Year." The long player was named "Album Of The Year" at the "Soul Train Music Awards" in 1987
Larry Blackmon:
Blackmon is credited as one of the first people to realize the importance of "theme-based videos" in the early days of music television (post MTV's arrival on cable television in 1980). He used actors such as Laurence Fishburne and Debbie Morgan, among others, to make video interpretations of Cameo's songs, which helped gain the act MTV airplay in the mid-1980s.
Blackmon has worked with artists as diverse as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eddie Murphy, Chaka Kahn, The Brecker Brothers, Miles Davis (they co-wrote a tune called "In The Night," which does not appear in this collection) and Bobby Brown.
He also was one of the first black entertainers to form his own record label. He founded Atlanta Artists after moving the band to Atlanta from New York in 1982 (a check of demographics had found that most of the band's fans were from the deep South of the United States. Others, such as L. A. reid & Baby Face, Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat and Arrested Development also set up record labels there in the 1990s, but Blackmon was the first to do so.
Continuing influence:
Continuing to tour and perform, Cameo's music has been covered and/or sampled by artists such as Melanie B, Will Smith, Snoop Dogg, Boys II Men, Tupac Shakur and others.
Recently, Mariah Carey used Blackmon and Tomi Jenkins from Cameo for the recording of (and the video for) her Top 10 hit "Loverboy."
This CD:
Released in 1993, as part of Mercury Records' "Funk Essentials" series, "The Best Of cameo" features 14 tracks on a single CD.
The CD booklet:
Written by Billboard magazine writer Richard Torres, the 12-page CD booklet is heavily illustrated. It's also very informative, with songwriter and chart information included. It does not include a discography, unfortunately.
The tracks:
"Word Up," "Single Life," "Candy," "Shake Your Pants," "Rigor Mortis," "Attack Me With Your Love," "Talkin' Out The Side Of Your Neck" and "Sparkle."
Also, "Back And Forth" (the non-album version), "Flirt," "She's Strange" (12" "rap version"), "I Just Want To Be," "Skin I'm In" and "It's Over."
The best tracks:
"Word Up":
It's no wonder that following the monster success of this 1986 single that the group won the "Best Single/Group Award" from the "Soul Train Music Awards" and was named "Favorite Group/Soul, R&B" in "The American Music Awards" in 1987.
"Word Up" was a monster --- climbing to # 6 on the U. S. and straight to # 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. It's popularity was reaffirmed by its use in the soundtrack to the second "Austin Powers" film.
The term is pretty much part of the vocabulary now (often shortened to "Word!" these days), but it was pretty new to the American culture as a whole at the time.
Complete with a body-moving percussion opening, some "Good, Bad & The Ugly" whistles (something of a trademark of their's that appears in at least three of their songs) and bass grooves played deep and dirty, along comes the raspy-voiced Blackmon singing some of the most inspired lyrics of the 1980s:
"...now all you sucker DJs who think you're fly / there's got to be a reason and we know the reason why / why you put on airs and you act real cool / but you got to realise that you're acting like fools / if there's music we can use it / we're free to dance / we don't have no time for psychological romance / no romance, no romance, no romance for me mama / come on baby tell me what's the word / word up, everybody says / word up, it's the code word / word up..."
I challenge you to listen to the bass and percussion on this tune and not be moved (dead people are exempt from this challenge, of course). They also proved their claim to be "the bad boys of black rock & roll" on this tune.
It also shows you what a great songwriting team Blackmon and Jenkins are. You have to love any songwriting duo that can create a line like "we don't have no time for psychological romance."
"Single Life":
The ballad "Single Life" took the band to # 2 on the R&B chart in 1985. Also written by Blackmon and Jenkins, the tune explores the life of a single gentleman not looking for any long-term ties.
The tune, which opens with the same deep bass and "Good, Bad & The Ugly" whistle that accents the opening of "Word Up," is filled with a vocal that is sweet while still sounding short and aggressive at times. The band was trying to achieve what it called "skittish danceability" with the track.
The bass-heavy track features an interesting mix of keyboards, strings and percussion. The vocals are at times New Wave, while at other times sounding like The Stylistics trying to be Pink Floyd.
The lyrics are about a single guy who loves "a good time":
"...just like a car I'll drive you / out of your mind / it's always the first step / in us having a good time..."
The tune shouldn't be considered an endorsement of that lifestyle, however, because they sing the track with such loneliness and despair in their voices that it's obvious they aren't endorsing "free love" in the age of AIDS.
"Candy":
In 1986, the band took "Candy" to # 1 on the R&B chart. While the track features their trademark deep bass, there's more emphasis on some heavy lead guitar work here than in most of their songs (the spirit of Jimi Hendrix is alive and well) mixed with some stunning jazz saxophone.
Again written by Blackmon and Jenkins, "Candy" is a lyrical showcase of metaphors about sex:
"It's like candy / I can feel it when you talk / it takes me over / you're so dandy / I wanna know / can you feel it too / just like I do / this stuff is starting now / it's the same feeling / I always seem to get around you / there's no mistaking / I'm clearly taken / by the simple mere thought of you..."
"Sparkle":
Written by Blackmon and guitarist Anthony Lockett, 1979's "Sparkle" hit # 10 on the R&B chart. It's amazing this didn't hit the Billboard Hot 100 because it has everything going for it --- a classic R&B ballad in the mold of The Chi-Lites ("Oh Girl") and The Commodores ("Easy"), rich in rhythm guitar, horns, trumpets and featuring a lush orchestration.
It shows another side of the band, a more traditional Motown-type of sound, at once more romantic and sweet:
"When I first saw you / you had a sparkle in your eye / like the stars at night / high in the sky / how I wish / that you were mine / 'cause to me / you're one of a kind..."
"Skin I'm In":
Larry Blackmon composed "Skin I'm In," which hit # 5 on the R&B chart in 1987.The song is an intelligent social commentary about life as an African-American, sung over jazz-rock rhythms that meld with a hip-hop sound, spoken by a man feeling oppressed by society and ready to explode with rage, a person wondering if the injustice he feels is real or just a false perception:
"There's a face in the mirror that I see / sometimes confused by the double-standards of society / and maybe I'm wrong about the way I feel / but then will somebody tell me what is really real / now I respect myself / I respect you too / but in the end it's got to be / do unto me and I'll do unto you..."
Thoughtful lyrics carried along by a catchy rhythm is an impressive thing to behold. This may be Blackmon's ultimate triumph as a songwriter. It's a real shame that this didn't hit the Billboard pop charts --- it's miles ahead of Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's pop hit "Ebony and Ivory" in the intelligence of its lyrics (I admire McCartney and Wonder as gifted performers, but this is the way I feel about this song).
Recommendation:
This is a hit-driven collection, though the biggest hits were on the rhythm and blues' charts rather than on the better-known pop charts. I admit to buying this because I loved "Word Up" alone and that I was largely unfamiliar with most of Cameo's tunes when I bought the album.
That said, I do recommend this album highly. It won't appeal to everyone --- some may be offended by the lyrics and Blackmon's honesty.
To me, it's a fun, often humorous musical romp amid a mixture of styles, from funk to jazz to rock to r&b, a little something for everyone. I grew up on the mix that was '60s/'70s Top 40 radio, which was a little bit of every kind of sound that hit the pop charts (be it The Supremes or be it Herman's Hermits or be it Johnny Cash or be it Blood, Sweat & Tears) during those years --- so a blending of styles is nothing new to my ears.
I also like being socked in the mouth with an intelligent social commentary, which I got with "Skin I'm In." It's a song that makes you think, which is a good thing.
Then there's "Word Up," when you don't want to think so much and just want to have fun, which is also a good thing.
Fans of Blood, Sweat & Tears; Earth, Wind & Fire; The Ohio Players ("Love Rollercoaster" and some really interesting album covers in the '70s), Rick James and The Red Hot Chili Peppers will enjoy this.
On the web:
The official Cameo website: http://www.cameo2002.com/site.htm (very well-done, by the way, if still under construction in some areas as the band prepares for a new album release in 2003)
To view the other writers involved in this special project, please visit Cletta1201's page (the link appears above) where you can find links to the other reviews submitted for this noteworthy event.
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