Just a Little More Ecstasy

Well, damn.  Here's a post I wasn't planning to make.  But if you haven't heard, we've just lost Ecstasy of Whodini.  And in thinking about what exactly to post about for this, I kinda figured everybody pretty much has all of their albums, at least us older heads.  So what is there from Ecstasy outside of a complete Whodini collection?  There's actually only a couple.  There's that weird Paul Schaffer record he was a part of with The Fresh Prince.  And besides that and full Whodini tracks, there's really only these two.

First up is Midnight Star's "Don't Rock the Boat" from 1988 on Solar Records.  They were a sort of post-disco R&B/ funk group, and this was one of their last successful singles after a pretty strong run through the 80s.  I can still remember this video airing on BET all the time, and probably even MTV, with the whole band in boats and there's a shark fin in the water.  These guys didn't usually mess with rappers.  In fact, I think the only other time they dabbled was a couple years later in '90-'91 when one of the guys did their own rapping.  But they got Ecstasy to be on this one, and yeah, he was in the video with his own boat and everything.

On the album, the song was already pretty long, over six minutes.  But the 12" offers an extended mix, adding another minute.  Midnight Star's style at this time was already pretty close to Whodini's wheelhouse, so with Ecstasy's involvement, this plays almost like a proper Whodini record with an extended R&B hook.  It could play right alongside "Yours For the Night," except it's even funkier.  Ecstasy doesn't just have one of those quick, perfunctory raps on an R&B record; he has three verses (though the last one's a reprisal), and he pipes in a bit through the other parts, so he's a consistent part of the song.  Ecstasy provides nearly all the lyrical content of the song, starting with a narrative "about a girl and a guy," which he later extrapolates into a general message about how if your relationship is working as-is, don't make any changes.  There is a nice part where Belinda finally joins in, taking the vocals to another level as they pledge devotion to each other.  The extended version has extended break beats and stutters his line "don't do it," so it feels a little more Hip-Hop.  It comes in a sticker cover and throws in a shorter radio edit and a couple dubs.  I'd actually say this is a better Whodini single than the actual singles Whodini was releasing that year.

Then the other one is actually an example of the perfunctory quick rap verse on an R&B record, but fortunately, it's a pretty funky R&B record in its own right.  1990's "Paradise" is the title cut and lead single off of Ruby Turner's third album, though as the picture cover tells us, this was originally recorded for the Dancin' Thru the Dark soundtrack.  Boy, do I not remember that movie, even in the slightest.

Anyway, Turner and Whodini were label-mates on Jive, which probably explains this team-up.  Like "Don't Rock the Boat," this 12" gives us an exclusive extended mix, this time adding a whopping extra two and a half minutes.  A lot of the heavy lifting on this song is actually carried by some uncredited male vocalists who do a funky "Oh! Oh! Ooh, oh, ooo oh, ooh oh ooo" behind the bulk of the song.  Loris Holland and Jolyon Skinner are the producers, who cook up a surprisingly catchy mix of keyboard and guitar grooves.  And Turner's actually a pretty great singer.  So yeah, I was already digging this song on its own merits.  But then, about halfway through, Ecstasy jumps in and totally electrifies the song.  The beat breaks down a bit for him and his unique style of enunciation steals the show, "Paradise, can it be true? Or just a state of mind induced by you?"

Again, the extended version makes better use of the breaks, giving it more of a proper Hip-Hop vibe.  On the album, Ecstasy feels like a quick injection into a big chunk of R&B.  Here, even though he doesn't actually rap any more on the song, it comes across as more of a collaboration between him and Turner.  Although they're also both overshadowed by the "oh oh ooo oh" guys.

There's a B-side, "I'm Livin' a Life Of Love," which is okay, but a bit limp and more placid.  It's got a boppy beat, some fresh keyboard riffs and a fun little sax solo towards the end.  But it never fully comes to life like "Paradise."  Plus, of course, Ecstasy's not on it.  The 12" also has a Radio Edit and Instrumental mix of "Paradise;" and as you see, it comes in an attractive picture cover.

The good news is both of these singles are super easy to find, plentiful and cheap.  They're dollar bin records... although that's meaning less and less in this century, where there are fewer and fewer bins of any denomination.  But the point is they're there and easily accessible for anyone feeling the need right now for just a little more Ecstasy in their lives.

The Fresh Prince Meets Doo-Wop

Here's one that's probably for the hardcore collector's only, but it's kinda fun if you're willing to be seen walking out of the record store with this. "When the Radio Is On" is the single off of Paul Shaffer (yes, David Letterman's bandleader... that Paul Shaffer)'s debut album, Coast To Coast. It came out in 1989 and it's of interest because it features Ecstasy of Whodini and The Fresh Prince (who otherwise never dropped guest verses). The album was sort of a compilation, where Shaffer went around the world (or at least different parts of the US) and collaborated with all types of famous musicians; and because it was the 80's, of course his New York song had to be a rap song!

It's not that terrible, though, in a hodge-podge kind of way. It starts out like a doo-wop song, but Ecstasy quickly comes on to kick the first verse, and from then on it's a flat-out rap song with a sung chorus. The Fresh Prince rhymes second, and at first comes off as well as he was doing on his own records, but after a few lines the lyrics stop sounding like they were written by him (indeed, he doesn't get a writing credit; but then rappers often didn't get writing credit for their lyrics back in the 80's), when he says lines like, "my first romance, ooh we used to dance to the man with the blue suede shoes." So, a young Will Smith and his first girlfriend started out dancing to Carl Perkins is what you're asking us to believe? Perhaps that line was originally intended for Shaffer, who actually takes the final verse for himself. That he comes off as the weakest link should go without saying to anybody within a mile of this blog, especially since he shouts every single word of his verse, but at least he's energetic.

And the instrumental is listenable enough. It's co-produced by Whodini's producer Larry Smith, Shaffer of course (Smith and Shaffer both also play the keyboards here), and Russell Simmons. It's got a healthy dose of live instrumentation by genuinely talented musicians and vocalists like singer/songwriters Johnny Maestro, Jay Siegel, Dion, Carole King and Ellie Greenwich. And everyone just sounds so awfully damn enthusiastic singing about how much they enjoy listening to the radio.

Now, I'd actually been half-heartedly looking for this one for a while (not too hard, 'cause you know), but could never remember the title. I just remembered seeing this live on The David Letterman Show, when Paul Shaffer did a big production number to promote his new record (naturally), and it featured The Fresh Prince and Daddy-O of Stetsasonic. Daddy-O was performing because Ecstasy was unable to attend (I still remember Letterman joking that "Ecstasy is in agony"), and a couple of the other vocalists were swapped around, too. But I finally found this 12" in somebody's dollar stock (where it belongs), so I had to pick it up: "that's that's song!" Then, once I got it home and knew what the title was, I did an online search, and found the original Letterman clip is on Youtube (but minus the Ecstasy joke - I guess that came later in the episode).

Now, the 12" features five different mixes: The Big City Beat Mix, the Def & Dum Dub, The GoGo-A-GoGo Instrumental, Acappella and The Single. The one dubbed the single is the one from the album (I think it was also subtitled "The Single" there to showcase that it was, yaknow, the singlem which makes a little more sense). The Big City Beat Mix is an interesting alternative mix... it brings in some different musicians, most notably Jeff Lorber on keyboards (a lot of people with a lot of Grammys worked on this single!) , and goes for a less pop music-y vibe (though, of course, all variations of this song are inherently extremely poppy). The GoGo-A-GoGo instrumental is a bit different than the actual instrumentals to any of the other versions, but it's close to the Big City Beat Mix and features the same credits. The Acappella is self-explanatory.

Finally, there's the Def & Dum Dub, a version mixed by Larry Smith. Despite being called a dub version, it features full vocals; but most of the instruments are stripped away or turned into short sampled loops. This works to make it easily the most hip-hop sounding version of the song, though, in the case of a tune like this, I'm not sure if that's even preferable. Still, all told, the different mixes are varied enough that all five versions in a row hold together as an acceptable little listen when you're in the mood for something upbeat and goofy.