RSSPlayboy Music
Fishbone (Columbia): Sometimes youcan judge a record byits cover, which is why I played Fishbone's 26-minute debut EP themoment I got it. Six black teenagers from L.A. whose jacket-photodress and deportment suggest postmodern vaudevillians who've justadmitted themselves to a mental hospital, they sound like . . . apolka band that doesn't yearn for the old country? I don't know, andneither do they yet, probably--the basic approach is akin toSpecials-styleska. But, like most black teenagers, theFishbone teens dig heavy guitar and know their Devo and GeorgeClinton; and, like some other black teenagers, they think bebop was agreat attitude. The EP is full of life, if a little all over theplace. Worth the chance, I'd say.
Ready for the World (MCA): In the world of Prince clones, atawdry place dominated by disaffected allies and guys who think it'scommercial to wear purple, Ready for the World's Melvin Riley, Jr.,has his own line. Harking back to such classic falsetto love men asthe Chi-Lites' Eugene Record, Riley is above all sincere, but, likePrince, he's sincerely lubricious: The glorious "I even want yourtongue, love" (from the first LP,Tonight) ranks with themaster's "I want to come inside you," a real score from back whennobody knew who Prince was except for a few hundred thousand hornyblack girls. After breakingTonight in its home town ofDetroit, an early hotbed of Princemania, Ready for the World did thisalbum for MCA. It includes several dance tracks that indicate thatGordon Strozier also studies up, and two more slow sizzlers that soundvery much like--how about that?--Tonight. I like them anywayand only hope that next year we get a Madonna clone who's sexier thanthe original.
Playboy, Nov. 1985
 | Oct. 1985 | Dec. 1985 |  |