Mistress of style: Grace Jones

by Ishmael

'Grace Jones? Isn't that the woman who does cover versions?' a pouty gay boy once said to me. "Honey, Grace Jones doesn't just do cover versions. She obliterates the originals. You never think of them again!" I responded imperiously dismissing his ignorance. Today, over a decade later, listening to her new 2-CD compilation, "Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions", I realise just how accurate my off-the-cuff remark was.

Who now thinks of Vanda and Young when listening to that wall-to-wall sonic paean of night-time eroticism, "Walking In The Rain"? Who recalls Tom Petty when Grace's voice comes growling and thundering through the crashing cymbals of "Warm Leatherette"? Chrissie Hynde was so thrilled with Grace's hallucinatory interpretation of "Private Life" that when she first heard it in a German club she reportedly said, 'Now that's how it's supposed to sound.'

Grace Jones is the Billie Holiday of contemporary music. Few interpret a song the way she does. And even fewer bring the depth, tone, subtlety, daring and originality she is capable of. Listening to "She's Lost Control" you realise just how in control she actually is. Like Edith Piaf and opera diva, Maria Callas, Grace Jones has the idiosyncratic style of someone who learned her art on the run, dashing from penthouse to disco, from make-up studio to seedy street hang-out. She makes today's whiny grungy little bands seem trivial and inconsequential. In fact, she's such an original that no one has tried to copy her distinctive style. Like David Lynch's "Twin Peaks", Grace Jones remains a one off.

In her concerts and ground-breaking videos, styled in conjunction with, and directed by her one-time lover, Jean-Paul Goude, Grace Jones gave birth to some of the most startling images ever put to music video. Their power and originality almost overwhelmed the music. But she didn't mind. To this day she appears to have a cavalier attitude to her music, placing the emphasis squarely onto the visual. Like Sharon Stone and Madonna, she knows her power resides in her European sensibility and sophisticated iconic representations -- a hypnotic tableau that lift her rich-chocolaty voice on to a plane of almost meditative contemplation. Watching her strut her stuff through the videos of "Demolition Man" and "My Jamaican Guy" you know she is aware of every move and gesture. Everything is calculated down to the last detail for maximum impact. And then, right at the very end, come her apocalyptic close-ups. 'I'm ready for my close-up now, Mr de Mille,' you can almost hear her saying. Then thunder and lightning conspire to illuminate her jagged cheek-bones, luscious red lips and cat-like eyes: an African mask.

Grace Jones really came into her own when she dropped disco producer Tom Moulton and moved across to the formidable team of Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin. Working with them at the time were the revolutionary reggae team of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, who were quickly recruited to provide a new soundscape for the Grace Jones project. It is to the credit of these musical giants that not one of the songs in this compilation sounds dated. If anything they are still as vital and fresh as when first released. You realise how gutsy and forward looking their musical aesthetic was and how influential.

With the exception of the "Hot Blooded Version" of "Slave To The Rhythm", all the songs in this 26-song compact disc were recorded at Compass Point Studios, between the period that saw the flourishing of the "Warm Leatherette", "Night Clubbing" and "Living My Life" albums. Here for the first time are the previously unreleased reggae-inspired tracks "Ring Of Fire" and "Man Around The House". The latter is priceless Grace Jones that should never have been hidden for so long. The classic "Living My Life" appears here for the first time on compact disc. The previously unreleased versions of "Private Life", "Pars", "Use Me", and Joy Division's "She's Lost Control" alone are worth the price of purchase.

Hearing the ululating, tremulous "Unlimited Capacity For Love" again, you realise what range and warmth Grace Jones is capable of, and how wrong her detractors were when they said she talk-sings because she doesn't have a singing voice. In point of fact, talk-singing is a sophisticated vocal device, with a long history in European and Middle-Eastern nations, where the speaking voice is used as a dramatic tool to enhance and complement a song and the musical accompaniment. By using this device in songs such as "The Apple Stretching", Grace Jones not only contributed to this revered tradition, but helped bring it into the 20th century.

"Grace Jones Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions" (2-CD compilation), Island, 1998, AUS$47.85.