Shirley & Company: Shame Shame Shame (Vibration)
Purchased at Jerry's Records
When I was briefly doing my Nurse With Wound deep dive, I read Steven Stapleton's comments about being a young, obsessive collector of weird records. Among the criteria: the cover art. In his case he sought out psychedelic and surrealist imagery.
There was a time, in my young adulthood, I could look at the cover art or recognize an artist name, and I knew if the record was likely going to be for me. That's not that case any longer. There are a number of reasons. These would include my inability and disinterest in keeping close tabs on current indie and underground trends and artists, and the absolutely glut of product available in a current record store. I'm still willing to drop a few dollars on a gamble if it looks, for lack of a better term "experimental" enough, but I have my limits if I don't know the names involved. Which is most of what I find currently.
It's by happenstance that this record was sitting on the racks of Jerry's Records with the front cover on full display. The image is posted below. It's not the weirdness favored by Steven Stapleton, or the the grimness of early industrial noise LPs I might have sought in my early 20s. But I ask you, how was I to turn up an album with a primitive image drawn in magic marker, depicting (presumably) Shirley next to Richard Nixon, with the title Shame Shame Shame? And for $5? Sold!
The back cover proudly announces "disco dynamite!". Mmmm, maybe, maybe not. This dates to 1975, and disco broke out into mainstream mania in 1977 with the release of Saturday Night Fever. That's not to say disco didn't exist before that year, but this doesn't strike me as a down-the-line disco album. More poppy, funky r-n-b verging on a disco feel. When I think of disco, it's all very close to the same tempo with consistent (or incessant) hits on the snare on two and four.
Do I recognize the opening title track? I'm not certain. Possibly. As a program I wouldn't have followed the vocal version directly with the instrumental; I would have put them on different sides. Likewise "Cry Cry Cry". Once again, have I heard this before? I remain unsure.
While not as flat and low-quality as the vinyl release of Sex World from my previous blog post, this lacks the high end lush production and arrangements of better known disco albums. It doesn't sound bad, if anything I prefer it less polished.
There are occasional contribution of people playing trombone and soprano saxophone, rather sharp. I'm just as guilty, it's a struggle in my own playing to this day.
The program is pretty good in general. I doubt anyone will claim this is a stone cold classic, but it's a fun listen and end with a strong funky closer in "Keep On Rolling On" with the largest horn section of the album. Shirley, whoever she is or was, has a light but well defined voice. It's been an entertaining listen, and that's not so bad.
$5 well spent, all based on a cover image.
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