I am forever intrigued by the extremely rare circumstance that I come across another person, especially a black one, who thinks outside the box and refuses to conform to the status quo. Our dire need to be accepted certainly costs us the price of a better life. I also say this because I have always been that person myself and I can absolutely say it not only takes a lot of courage, you are often punished for it in the black community
. To be misunderstood means you are relegated to the “abnormal” category because black folks like things plain and simple, not complicated and thought-provoking. We like to categorize and stigmatize instead of empathize and realize and that’s most unfortunate.
I’ve met hundreds of celebrities and successful people but have been impressed with few except those who took a bold, daring and unaligned approached to follow their gut instinct no matter what the cost.
People like Berry Gordy, Frankie Crocker, TD Jakes, Oprah Winfrey, Prince, Al Sharpton, Vanessa Williams, russell simmons and few others have all created legacies based on thinking outside the box and being dedicated to what they wanted to do instead of what they should have done at all costs. None of them, however, like Grace Jones.
(Photo courtesy of Darnell Gamble)
DEFINING “NORMAL”
What is “normal” besides mere conformity to narrow and limited perspectives? Being what and who everybody else thinks you should be and fits inside their limited and unexplored, uneducated and filtered comfort zone? Is that “normal” or is it stupid? It took me MANY years to understand that most of that criticism is never about YOU it is ALWAYS about THEM.
grace jones has a new book coming this week “I’ll Never Write My Memoirs” and in it she explains being ostracized, laughed at and disconnected but oddly enough it is also the driving force behind her enigmatic persona. MOST women would be insulted if they were told they looked like a man but Grace not only embraced it, she enhanced it and owned it.
Always extreme, Grace had to have a lot of fun reversing the roles and making the same people who made her uncomfortable, uncomfortable themselves. At the end of the day, that’s really the issue. It’s not that a person is “abnormal” in as much as their presence makes OTHERS feel “abnormal.”
Her ability to take the things about her that people attacked then formulate celebrity as a result from it, is nothing less than brilliant. What is left for those same detractors but to vanish or worse yet…respect you.
(grace jones circa 1981 “Nightclubbing” album cover) I remember being in my freshman year of college and a group of friends and I were at Cavages records in Buffalo, New York and we were looking at album covers and when I came across “Nightclubbing” I literally was paralyzed in my fascination of that image
I had never seen afrocentric artistry like that coming from the ghetto: an image of a person whose sex was indescribable yet the result was still captivating and stunning at the same time. Going against all grains of the white perception of beauty AND the black perception as well. She was not only dark skinned, she was BLUE black, no long stylish weave but a nappy, razor-sharp, angular and perfect flattop.
No make up, just lipstick? It has always been hard for me to palate that black people think Grace is ugly but then again. Urban radio was not ready for Grace, EXCEPT the late great non-conformist Frankie Crocker who played Grace’s songs on WBLS before any other Radio Station did. To Urban radio’s defense and I rarely defend urban radio, Grace did not have a lot of radio material either.
Grace’s image was unheard of and once again garnered her nondescript and for close minded people this is an auto write off. Grace may never win an award for the best singer but it’s no surprise that in over 35 years since she got started in the industry she is a bigger star today than she was in 1981 when that cover came out.
Hollywood Bowl:
The sold out audience at the concert was the most varied I have ever seen, which was evidence to her appeal. I saw older conservative white people, black church women, rock stars, popular actors, other singers, models, teenagers, Latinos, gays, drag queens and even seniors.
Grace worked with some of the best producers back in the 80s like Sly and Robbie and Trevor Horn and she has even done some collaborative work with Prince protegé’s Wendy and Lisa. Her band is impeccable. She performed a lot of her older songs and her most recent but the crowd went nuts when she did “Pull Up to The Bumper” and “My Jamaican Guy.”
Both songs have been re-recorded or have had segments used in many other songs. It was about an hour and a half of continuous music and costume changes when a bare-breasted Grace seemed completely in her comfort zone with her son Paulo playing drums (He’s about 35) and her mother and brother Bishop Noel Jones sitting in the front row.
She even called Bishop Noel Jones up while she was singing and said “I told you I was going to be naked!” Grace just doesn’t give a shit about what people think of her and I’m sure it took her a long time to get there (or perhaps it didn’t) and there is something to be said about that. I didn’t get a chance to go backstage and meet her but look forward to reading her book.
Grace doesn’t tour much in the states as much as overseas but when she does, she usually only hits the major markets.
Out of 10, 9 stars.
