This week’s two-fer is inspired by a bit that Fred Armisen did on The Tonight Show, where he plays the drummer for Diana Ross’s “I’m Coming Out.” As the song starts, he’s looking for direction from Ms Ross and can’t understand how everybody else in the band knows the song but him.
The opening is pretty fantastic, and it makes it one of my favorite pop songs. (“Upside Down” holds up, too). I’ve only started to really appreciate it over the last few years, though; at the time, it got so much airplay that I just dismissed it as inconsequential pop music. “The comeback album from that lady who used to be famous because she was in The Supremes?” was my take as a dumb kid.
That distinctive Nile Rodgers groove, the horn section jumping in and getting a little bit more complex each time, and those completely unpredictable drums, all made it feel like it was building up to something awesome… even though it’s honestly just a fairly solid early-80s pop song once it gets going.
Which is kind of like another song that starts out with a fantastic opening, laying down a great riff and then gradually building up instruments: the theme from Shaft by Isaac Hayes. Okay, that’s kind of cheating, since it was composed for a movie (the movie was Shaft), but it maps out to a pretty similar curve as “I’m Comin’ Out:” hey what’s this, I’m digging it, yes this is good, more please, uh huh, yes this is getting really good, can’t wait to hear where this is going… oh, okay, I guess.
Extra-special bonus: I don’t think I ever heard the song “Eaten Alive” by Diana Ross before, and honestly it’s pretty unremarkable, but I’m kind of obsessed now with its bizarre Island of Dr. Moreau-inspired video.