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Thursday 25 January 2018

Drop That Ghettoblaster


Something a bit more in your face and full on, full frontal even, than yesterday's ghostly Rootmasters song. This 1986 release by Karen Finley was sampled by S'Express (where this post's title was borrowed from and also the phrase 'suck me off', which somehow Mark Moore managed to disguise slightly by smudging the first vowel sound and then sneaking onto Radio 1 and Top of Of The Pops). Over a rapid fire drum machine and then some long keyboard chords Karen opens fire (Karen was a performance artist and poet and is currently a professor at New York University). She starts out with 'you don't own me bastard, you fucking asshole' and then crams in pretty much every insult, sexual reference and swear word she can think of, also taking time to include your Granny and Belgian waffles. It's a tour de force performance and was produced and co-written by Mark Kamins (who most famously worked with Madonna in the 80s).

It is still pretty jaw-dropping to hear and should probably only be played loudly/audibly if you are very confident in those who are around you. Most definitely Not Safe For Work.

Tales Of Taboo

Here, so you can place those vocal samples in context, and also because this is one of the greatest records of the 1980s (and of any decade in fact) are S'Express having a lot of fun on Top Of The Pops.

6 comments:

The Beard said...

Fantastic and filthy

mike said...

tales of taboo was a huge clubhit here, some time ago.
the fun was that people were singing parts of the lyrics without knowing what they mean. belgian waffles :)

Michael Doherty said...

There should be a Songs Sampled on the Theme from S-Express album. I'd buy it!

drew said...

Belgian waffles?

Swiss Adam said...

Take your pick Drew...

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Belgian+Waffles&utm_source=search-action

Echorich said...

I remember stopping dead in my tracks the first time I heard Karen Finley just break into Theme From S'Express. It's still one of the things that make it such an exciting song. For every 10 ridiculous sample happy tracks from the time, there is 1 that stands out as an example of how it should be done. Theme From S'Express might be the top of that list.