BLACK RANDY & THE METROSQUAD “(SAY IT LOUD) I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD, PART 1”(1979)
originally recorded by James Brown (1968)
cover version available on Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie (Dangerhouse, 1979)
Hilariously blasphemous rendition of James Brown’s black power funk classic. Absolute lyrical wildness, to borrow parlance from another blog I contribute to.
This version was recorded by LA clown prince Black Randy (Jon Morris) in 1979. The record Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie is required listening for any collector of incendiary music and fans of mutated covers (features another James Brown song “Give It Up or Turnit A Loose” and a less intriguing send-up of “Theme from Shaft”).
This song has less to do with black pride (as some of the record’s lyrics would suggest—tongue-in-cheek tributes to dictator Idi Amin, epithets sprinkled throughout other songs) and more to do with ham-fisted disses of James Chance, among other post-punk icons.
Black Randy and his Elegant Metropolitan Squad have a climactic cameo in the film, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains performing their single “I Slept in an Arcade”. (see below).
Rumor has it that Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Gos occasionally sang back-up for the group.
The group dissolved long before Morris’ death in 1988. Reissues of Bowie are available through Sympathy for the Record Industry (1994), with an upcoming double vinyl reissue of the entire discography by Vinyl Countdown.
Blogload: Pass the Dust, I Think I’m Bowie on LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH, an excellent resource for punk oddities.
