Rocktrospectiva: The Exotic "Slave To The Rhythm" Turns 40

Released on 28 October 1985 "Slave To The Rhythm" was the 7th., studio album by Jamaican singer and songwrite Grace Jones. Slave to the Rhythm was a concept album, produced by ZTT Records founder and producer Trevor Horn, that went on to become one of Jones' most commercially successful albums and spawned her biggest hit, "Slave to the Rhythm" another single was released "Jones The Rhythm" but didn't cause a stir and was overshadowed by the popularity of the first single.

After finishing sessions at Compass Point for her Living My Life album in late 1982, Jones took a break from recording music and focused on an acting career. Within two years, she made her debut as an actress in the 1984 film Conan the Destroyer, where she played alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. She later appeared in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (1985) as the villain May Day. After finishing filming in late 1984 she returned to the studio to work on a follow-up, ending an almost three-year-long hiatus.

Both the title song and album, was written by Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow, Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn and was produced by Trevor Horn, who was assisted by Lipson. Slave to the Rhythm was a concept album that featured several, radical interpretations of one title track. The project was originally intended for Frankie Goes to Hollywood as a follow-up to their hit "Relax", but was finally given to Jones. The recording process featured Horn, Lipson and Jones creating a new version of the song every week or so, ballooning the budget for a single song to nearly $385,000. As such, several versions were collected and released as the album proper.

Musically, Slave to the Rhythm was a R&B album, that incorporates elements of funk and features go-go beats throughout the album. All eight tracks are interspersed with excerpts from conversations with Jones about her life, conducted by journalists Paul Morley and Paul Cooke. The album also contains voice-overs from actor Ian McShane reciting passages from Jean-Paul Goude's biography Jungle Fever. Though recording dates of each version of the song are unknown, "Operattack" was created with vocal samples from "Jones the Rhythm"; while "Don't Cry - It's Only the Rhythm" is a variation of the bridge that appears on "Slave to the Rhythm." "The Fashion Show" could be an early version of "Ladies and Gentlemen: Miss Grace Jones". Then "Ladies and Gentlemen" was released as a single, under the title of "Slave to the Rhythm".

Slave to the Rhythm was one of the most commercially successful of Jones' albums. It performed best in German-speaking Europe and the Netherlands, where it secured top 10 placings. It reached number 12 on the UK Albums Chart in November 1985. The album remains the second highest-charting album of Jones' on the US Billboard 200 (after Nightclubbing) and was her only entry on the Canadian Albums Chart. 

Designed by Jean-Paul Goude, Jones' partner at that time, the cover picture is a montage of several copies of a single photograph of Jones, that makes her hair look "extended" and her mouth "stretched". The process of its creation is illustrated in the title song's music video. The artwork has its roots in an earlier design of Goude's, the cover of Cristina's 1984 album Sleep It Off. 

 

Slave To The Rhythm Track List: 

 

1. Jones The Rhythm

2. The Fashuon Show

3. The Frog And The Princess

4. Operattack

5. Slave To The Rhythm

6. The Crossing (oohh the action...)

7. Don't Cry

8. Ladies And Gentleman: Miss Grace Jones