THE PLANET ROCK GROOVE Excerpt from the book Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 Author: Tim Lawrence Copyright Duke University Press 2016 Tim Lawrence is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of East London and the author of Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970–1979 and Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973–1992, both also published by Duke University Press. Here is an excerpt of chapter 23 from his new book: Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983: The Planet Rock Groove Tom Silverman hired an office hand to to get the concept; we was trying diffe- help him build Tommy Boy and mana- rent grooves.” Kraftwerk were the major ge Dance Music Report toward the end influence. “I wanted to create the first of 1981. “I interviewed with Tom two or black electronic group,” adds Bambaat- three times,” says Monica Lynch, who got aa. “I always was into ‘Trans- Europe Ex- the job. “I didn’t have any formal back- press’ and after Kraftwerk put ‘Numbers’ ground in music but Tom provided me out I said, ‘I wonder if I can combine them with an opportunity. to make something real funky with a hard He was going out to Long Island City bass and beat.’ ” Downtown sensibilities and Queens to pick up the new Tommy also shaped the sound of the track. “I got Boy release, which was ‘Jazzy Sensation,’ the idea from playing in a lot of punk rock and he asked me if I wanted to come.” clubs,” he revealed in another interview Lynch was confronted with the heavy- published in the East Village Eye, this one duty currency of the dance economy: a conducted by Steven Hager, who got mini- mountain of fift y- count boxes pac- hold of the Bronx dj’s phone number from ked with twelve- inch vinyl. “ These guys Fred Brathwaite at the Beyond Words brought them out to the curb and I star- opening. “The punkers were getting off ted slinging them into the back of Tom’s on our kind of music so I decided to make hatchback car,” she recounts. “At that a record that would appeal to the white point I think Tom thought it could work crowd and still keep the sound that would out. I was bright enough and would work appeal to the hip hoppers. So I combined like a mule. The money was so low I had to the two elements.” Asked to work on the continue waiting tables at night for quite project, Arthur Baker was immediately some time.” drawn to the Kraftwerk elements, having The boxes piled higher after Silverman considered making a record using “Num- teamed up with Bambaataa to map out bers” and “Trans- Europe Express” himself, an eight- track demo that included secti- he claims. “From the start I was thinking, ons of Babe Ruth’s “The Mexican,” B.T. Ex- ‘I want to make it so they can play it at East Village Eye front cover featuring “Planet Rock,” June 1982. “The gulf between the press’s “Do You Like It,” Captain Sky’s “Su- Danceteria and they can play it at the white and black worlds was still so wide that we could get away with using a cover per Sporm,” Rick James’s “Give It to Me Garage and it will also be a rap record,’ that had nothing directly to do with Afrika Bambaataa, but was simply a cool- looking Baby,” and Kraft werk’s “Numbers” and ” comments the producer. “I wanted it to image of a young black man that our art director, Glenn Miller, had in his portfolio,” “Trans- Europe Express.” be able to cross all those boundaries.” says Leonard Abrams. “In our defense, our time and resources were so limited then that “Me and Tom did the demo together in The producer streamlined the demo by we couldn’t send someone to the South Bronx to take his picture. But I wish we had’ve.” a studio, upstate New York,” recounts removing the B.T. Express and Rick James the dj. “We was going through records elements, after which he tracked down Courtesy of Leonard Abrams. 43 44 every one sounding the same, and lyrics by Baker to break with the habit of play- that were nonsensical and generally in- ing the synthesizer like a conventional fantile.” Robie particularly resented the instrument, Robie used a Multimoog to way the 1970s dance sound required re- create the melodic lines from “Trans- great musicians to play below their skill Europe Express” and “The Mexican” plus level in order to create a hypnotic trance. orchestra hits, and he employed a Fair- “From the point of view of someone who light to generate a quivering orchestral had started out as a die- hard rock musi- string- line for the break (on the condition cian, it was a death knell,” he continues. he receive a co writer’s credit). Engineer “The producer’s job was to make sure Jay Burnett “contributed greatly to the everybody played like a robot. It was as if record” through his inventive use of sig- we went from Bob Dylan to ‘Let’s rollerska- nal processing, which resulted in the 808 te!’ ” It got to the point where Robie and sounding “quite different than it would his friends would walk away if they went have in its unprocessed, ‘natural’ state,” into a restaurant and heard disco play- maintains the instrumentalist. Later that ing. “It was everywhere; it was like a virus,” night Baker played the result to his wife he concludes. “And it all sounded exactly and declared, “We’ve made musical his- the same.” Robie got to meet Bambaat- tory.” “This was before the rap was on,” aa after he laid down four Moroder/ adds the producer. “The track was so fuc- Kraftwerkstyle synthesizer pieces in real king different.” time, released one of them with Capitol For the vocals, Bambaataa spoke in Belgium, and, following a tip- off , took through an electronic mic because vo- the others to “this guy who lives in Co-op coder technology failed to provide the City in the Bronx.” Bambaataa’s mother precise robotic effect the production was watching Wheel of Fortune when Ro- team wanted. Globe, Mr. Biggs, and Pow bie made his visit. “I played the tracks to Wow of the Soul Sonic Force fashioned a Bam and he said I should choose ‘Vena new, conversational mode of rapping be- Cava,’ ” recalls the instrumentalist, “so I cause the track’s 130- beat- per- minute borrowed $1,200 from a friend and went tempo ran significantly faster than most to a small recording studio to make the funk and rap recordings, making the record.” When the subscriber service Dis- ubiquitous hippety- hop rhyming style conet featured the track as its record of difficult to deliver. Baker claims he came the month, Bambaataa called Silverman up with the idea to introduce the crowd to say, “I got this keyboard player who is cheering and chanting that accompa- as funky as Kraftwerk — check him out!” nies Bambaataa’s opening lines as well The publisher contacted Robie within the as the ensuing “Rock, rock to the planet hour and arranged for him to meet Baker rock, don’t stop,” which he grabbed from in Tommy Boy’s tiny Upper East Side office. the “Rock, rock, to the disco rock/Give it “Nobody could have seen all these dis- all you got” intro of “Body Music” by the parate elements coming together,”posits Strikers, although Bambaataa went on to Robie. “The unlikely mix of talents was as tell Hager that those lines came about much a phenomenon as the record itself. because the studio gathering started tal- People from totally different backgrounds king about every planet having its own with completely dissimilar tastes and sty- way of rocking. Burnett suggested the les somehow came together to do this. rappers shout out the places where the At the time I remember it feeling pretty planetary party was about to unfold, just the equipment he needed to re- create played ‘Super Sporm’ and he said, ‘I want bizarre.” like James Brown would call out to audi- the beats of “Numbers” by searching the that for the break.’ ” A guitarist and syn- Baker, Bambaataa, and Robie headed ence members from different cities while ad section in the Village Voice. The “man thesizer player who loathed disco, John into the studio soon aft er the release of onstage. In the final contribution, David with drum machine” turned out to be the Robie added synthesizer parts. “I came “ Don’t Make Me Wait.” “I was definitely Azarch and the band members of Animal owner of a Roland tr-808, the successor to from an era when artists couldn’t get a re- influenced by that, so ‘Planet Rock’ had Luxury recorded the “Rock it don’t stop the tr-33, tr-55, and tr-77 (which contain- cord dealunless they or one of their band a drop- down to the bass and then the it” line when Bambaataa hauled them ed presets), and the cr-78 (which was pro- members had some incredible talent or claps,” notes Baker. “I was a dance pro- in from the studio’s waiting room. “Bam grammable). “Basically, we played him quality, and disco basically put an end to ducer so I was like, ‘I want it to be dan- comes out, we recognize each other, ex- ‘Numbers’ and we said, ‘Get that beat that,” he notes of his anti- disco position.