Day 14: N.W.A. – Express Yourself

 

Today’s disc is the 1989 single Express Yourself by the band N.W.A. from their 1988 album Straight Outta Compton. Hip hop is not exactly my specialist subject* but this track was one of the few hip hop/rap tracks played in clubs I went to in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. Some of the others played were tracks by Young MC, Public Enemy, House of Pain, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Snoop Dogg, Run DMC, LL Cool J, Eric B and Rakim and Arrested Development, but absolutely not in that order. Listening to Express Yourself the other day I discovered I still know most of the lyrics (they are grrrreat). It goes a little something like this:

So, OK, they had a bit of a head start with this one – seeing as the base for it is the fantastic 1970 track of the same name written by Charles Wright and recorded by Charles Wright & the Watts 103^rd Street Rhythm Band. It’s worth reading the latter’s Wikipedia entry for the mention of, among others, Bill Cosby, Bobby Womack and Daryl Dragon (the guy who was the Captain from Captain and Tennille). Captain and Tennille’s 1972 hit Muskrat Love is more proof of how bloody weird the 1970s were by the way (and I remember it being played a lot on local commercial radio). I suppose it was the same year as Elton John’s Crocodile Rock so maybe animal-themed songs were all the rage. Captain and Tennille (a married couple for much of their careers) had another big hit with Love Will Keep Us Together written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield and the song that Toni Tennille herself wrote Do That To Me One More Time. But I digress (in a very MOR way). Here is the earlier Express Yourself :

This is not to be mixed up with the Express Yourself by Madonna (also 1989, video here), though I loved that too, and indeed still have a copy of the 12" single. It was acquired when the record shop I worked for bought a local DJ’s collection, after the collector in question had died if I remember rightly. He had played this record a lot, it is pretty tatty:

A lot of what I’m doing this month is wondering why I have kept the records I have – I rarely play most of the actual discs these days so why keep them? Is it sentimental? Or because some are worth a little money (though by this point I have no idea how much)? Many of them (like both of these Express Yourselfs) were bought a few years after their time anyway, when I was DJing in the mid 1990s, to have just in case they were needed. We did play at a bar in the centre of Leeds every Wednesday for years (the Courtyard, complete with alternative pub quiz) and we played all sorts of music there (no dancefloor, much freer) so it is probable I played both of these records there at some point or another.

Most often these days I listen to apps like Bandcamp, where I’ve bought albums direct from artists, or radio. I tend to have a few favourite radio shows and currently these are Roddy Hart on BBC Radio Scotland, Cerys Matthews on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2 Unwinds with Angela Griffin. I have to skip the odd track on the latter now and then when it goes a bit too far into pop for me (by which I mean Take That) but I understand, it is Radio 2, they have others to please and not just me. All this seems some distance, however, from N.W.A., a band perhaps best known for a track called Fuck Tha Police (not one ever attempted by Take That, that I’m aware of). There is also a track on the B side of their Express Yourself called A Bitch Iz a Bitch. I’ve never listened to it (not once). Some things you can live without.

Anyway, back tomorrow with some heavy breathing.

 

 

*By the way you can still watch Chuck D’s 4-part documentary series Fight the Power – How Hip Hop Changed the World. N.W.A. come in towards the end of the second episode but the whole series is great (watch it here).

For the first intro post to this series go here.