24 January 2008

"romantic" || jo joe || 1987


This may be the second-most mysterious artist I've encountered in all my musical journeys (Q. Lazzarus is still tops).

I've been unable to track down any information about Ms. Joe. I bought the 7" single of this song from a record store in Germany, and was pleasantly surprised to open the package and find a picture sleeve with a little picture of her glaring right back up at me. She looks young, probably not over 25. I can't tell her nationality from her voice on the song. She was new to Discogs when I submitted the Prime Cuts single on which she appears.

The only lead I have on this chick (and it's a pretty crappy one) is that the people who produced her song also produced this record, which has a suspiciously similar title. Unfortunately, I can't track down a clip of it to hear exactly how similar the songs are, and really, even if I did, it wouldn't tell me anything about Jo Joe.

She'll just remain a mystery in this blog for now.

As far as the song, it's absolutely fantastic. It's downtempo and it's funky as hell, the kind of song that makes your ass move completely independently from the rest of your person. The song is also very defiant. It's sung by someone who is tired of being trapped in a failed relationship, and I'd venture to say that you can hear the grating irritation in her voice (even though she didn't write it). Hey, if nothing else, she's a good actress; she carries the pain of the songwriter well, without distracting our dancing.

Maybe that's what she's up to now.

Listen to it here.

2 comments:

Nasty G said...

You're right! It IS the same track as Shirley Lewis! I never noticed this on your blog before!!

Anonymous said...

Wikipedia : #

Innocence was a British R&B band fronted by Gee Morris, that achieved some success in the UK in the early 1990s.

Masterminded by the production team of Anna Jolley, Mark Jolley and Brian Harris, Innocence's sound was similar to then-popular group Soul II Soul, but also addied elements of downtempo and chillout music. Signed to Cooltempo Records, the group's debut single, "Natural Thing", became their biggest UK hit in 1990, peaking at #16.[1] The 12" version of the song featured the complete introduction and guitar solo by David Gilmour, from the Pink Floyd song, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

That same year they released their debut album, Belief, which was a Top 30 hit in the UK Albums Chart.[1] The album spawned four further singles, all but one charting inside the UK Top 40.[1] Belief was released in the US the following year, adding a cover version of "Riders on the Storm", originally by The Doors, which was not available in the UK edition. The album and its singles only found modest succes in the US Billboard R&B chart.

In 1992, they released their second album, Build. Never released in the US, it was less successful than their debut, although two of its singles became Top 40 hits in the UK. After this album, the group disbanded. Gee Morris later released an unsuccessful self-titled solo album in 1994.

Anna Jolley is the one you are looking for :) I hope it helps !