I love this track in ways I cannot quite fathom - but it is very Friday night and very late August for me, probably because I first heard it courtesy of a characteristically cruel K-Tel edit on 'Cool Heat' ('The hottest. jazziest. coolest. funkiest hits' - sic) which I bought in my last summer in Devon before college. (I have made an mp3 of the entire album if you fancy it - no, really! - here).
Lonnie Liston Smith was a jazzer turned 'cosmic visionary' and is still a much-sampled funkmeister, but this is unashamedly (very classy) disco, LLS's long-standing penchant for all things extraterrestrial suddenly I guess looking marketable at a time when 'space princesses' were rather.......in vogue.
Still, this is a damn sight better than that bloody disco version of the Star Wars Theme (ahem, I'd bought that too).
Full length version here. Funky are you now.
Lonnie Liston Smith - 'Space Princess' (1978)
I just finished watching the original 3 Star Wars movies with my daughters (almost 5 and almost 9) - their first time. We thoroughly enjoyed them, and they are looking forward to Halloween costumes inspired by Leia. I am especially fond of the little outfit pictured...
ReplyDeleteAnd just to be clear, we need to separate the *Carrie Fisher* worn costume from the *5 year old person* version. I thank you.
ReplyDeleteLLS is very good, indeed.
ReplyDelete"Expansions"is the one that did it for me; and lest I give you the impression I've been into him for a goodly while, let me qualify that by revealing I was introduced to it through GTA...
Nice choice.
GTA?
ReplyDeleteYeah... "Grand Theft Auto". The video game ? I posted on this shit a while back. Hugely influential, in a very interesting way.
ReplyDeleteYou young people.
ReplyDeleteHa! I know, I know... of course, I could blame it all on my son; the long hours idled away stabbing at the PlayStation buttons long after he's gone to bed, but...
ReplyDeleteActually - all joking apart - it's probably been more of a contributing factor towards developing his excellent taste in vintage music than anything he's picked up from me.
Just checked the track list for 'Cool Heat' - very slip on shoes,stretch jeans and XR3s. I'm sure Herb Alpert had a track out around this time that could have been included on the comp.
ReplyDeleteLove the ''The Groove', and 'Jazz Carnival' too.
Have you heard K Tel's edit of 'Diamond Dogs'? There's one whole minute lopped off.
I'm in the Expansions camp too. I absolutely love that track. I heard it out in a club one night many years ago, and firstly couldn't believe how 'new' it sounded, and secondly couldn't get over how good it was. I'd completely forgotten about it. I'll have to dig it out when I get home.
ReplyDeleteAnd can anybody believe that Star Wars movie is 25 years old...
Damn
Yep add me to the LLS big up list.
ReplyDeleteSpace Princess & Expansions both equally fantabulous in my book (and Give Peace A Chance which is the b side of my Expansions 12).
(Just about to cue up the KTel Super Bad lp which set me back a whole 50p in the Animal Welfare Trust shop in Camborne yesterday!).
Dunno about the track, Davy, but thanks for the picture!!!
ReplyDeleteHey, you're welcome.
ReplyDeletei'll add this to my howard moon jazzercise workout tomorrow ... reach for the stars
ReplyDeletex
You'll put something out...x
ReplyDelete