| "Living My Life" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Grace Jones | ||||
| Released | 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1982 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 7:34 | |||
| Label | Island | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Grace Jones | |||
| Producer(s) | ||||
| Grace Jones singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Living My Life" on YouTube | ||||
"Living My Life" is a Grace Jones song released as a single in 1983 by Island Records. It was written by Jones with production handled by both Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin.
The track was originally recorded for the album of the same name, due to it's overall pop and R&B sound compared to the album's reggae direction, [1] it did not make the final cut. It received a scarce 1983 release as a UK white label single and was officially released only in Portugal. Jones, however, performed the track on several TV shows. A remixed version was released as the B-side to the UK reissue single of "Love Is the Drug" in 1986. The original and dub versions are yet to be reissued on CD.
The music video for the song was directed by Jean-Paul Goude and famously includes the "suicide" scene, with Grace blowing her brains out. [2] Excerpts from the "Living My Life" video were used in the "Slave to the Rhythm" clip. The music video for "Living My Life" was also included in Jones' concert film, A One Man Show .
Dub is a musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style. Generally, dub consists of remixes of existing recordings created by significantly manipulating the original, usually through the removal of vocal parts, emphasis of the rhythm section, the application of studio effects such as echo and reverb, and the occasional dubbing of vocal or instrumental snippets from the original version or other works.
Grace Beverly Jones is a Jamaican singer, songwriter, model and actress. Born in Jamaica, she and her family moved to Syracuse, New York, when she was a teenager. Jones began her modelling career in New York state, then in Paris, working for fashion houses such as Yves St. Laurent and Kenzo, and appearing on the covers of Elle and Vogue. She notably worked with photographers such as Jean-Paul Goude, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, and Hans Feurer, and became known for her distinctive androgynous appearance and bold features.
Signing Off is the debut album by British reggae band UB40, released in the UK on 29 August 1980 by Dudley-based independent label Graduate Records. It was an immediate success in their home country, reaching number 2 on the UK albums chart, and made UB40 one of the many popular reggae bands in Britain, several years before the band found international fame. The politically-concerned lyrics struck a chord in a country with widespread public divisions over high unemployment, the policies of the recently elected Conservative party under Margaret Thatcher, and the rise of the National Front party, while the record's dub-influenced rhythms reflected the late 1970s influence in British pop music of West Indian music introduced by immigrants from the Caribbean after the Second World War, particularly reggae and ska – this was typified by the 2 Tone movement, at that point at the height of its success and led by fellow West Midlands act The Specials, with whom UB40 drew comparisons due to their multiracial band line-up and socialist views.
Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separately in Jamaica as professional musicians. Shakespeare died in December 2021 following kidney surgery.
Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lovers rock, a subgenre of reggae. Bob Marley cited Brown as his favourite singer, dubbing him "The Crown Prince of Reggae", and Brown would prove influential on future generations of reggae singers.
Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Jamaican singer Grace Jones, released on 11 May 1981 by Island Records. Recorded at Compass Point Studios with producers Alex Sadkin and Island Records' president Chris Blackwell, as well as a team of session musicians rooted by rhythm section Sly and Robbie, the album marked her second foray into a new wave style that blends a variety of genres, including reggae, R&B, dub and funk. The album has cover versions of songs by Bill Withers, Iggy Pop, Astor Piazzolla, and others, and original songs, three of which were co-written by Jones.
"Loving the Alien" is a song written and recorded by David Bowie. It was the opening track to his sixteenth studio album Tonight. One of two tracks on the album written solely by Bowie, an edited version of the song was released as a single in May 1985, nine months after the release of lead single "Blue Jean" and eight months after the release of the album. "Loving the Alien" peaked at No. 19 in the UK Singles Chart. "Loving the Alien" inspired the title of Christopher Sandford's 1997 biography of Bowie and the 2018 Bowie box set release, Loving the Alien (1983–1988).
"Rio" is the seventh single by English rock band Duran Duran. It was first released as a single in Australia, in August 1982, followed by a UK release on 1 November 1982.
Warm Leatherette is the fourth studio album by Jamaican singer Grace Jones, released on 9 May 1980 by Island Records. The album features contributions from the reggae production duo Sly and Robbie and is a departure from Jones's earlier disco sound, moving towards a new wave-reggae direction.
"Love Is the Drug" is a song by the English rock band Roxy Music, from their fifth studio album, Siren (1975), released as a single in September 1975. Co-written by Bryan Ferry and Andy Mackay, the song originated as a slower, dreamier track until the band transformed its arrangement to become more dance-friendly and uptempo. Ferry's lyrics recount a man going out looking for action.
"Pull Up to the Bumper" is a 1981 song by Jamaican singer, songwriter, model and actress Grace Jones, released by Island Records as the third single from her fifth album, Nightclubbing (1981). Sonically, it is an uptempo electro-disco, post-punk, dance-pop and reggae-disco song with dub production, "pulsing drums and chic new-wave licks", as well as being described as a hybrid of funk and R&B. Its lyrics were written by Jones alone, while she, along with Kookoo Baya and Dana Manno, are credited as its composers. The song's instrumental part was originally recorded in 1980 during the Warm Leatherette sessions; however, it did not make the album as Chris Blackwell found its sound not fitting in the rest of the material. It was completed for the 1981 critically acclaimed Nightclubbing album and became its third single in June 1981. The song peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart and number 53 on the UK Singles Chart. When re-released in 1986, it peaked at number 12 in the UK. The track has come to be one of Jones' signature tunes and her first transatlantic hit.
Hurricane is the tenth studio album by singer Grace Jones, released in 2008, and her first album of new material in 19 years. The album includes a number of autobiographical songs, and the title track was first recorded as a 1997 collaboration with Tricky under the title "Cradle to the Grave". The album sold over 100,000 copies in Europe. Three years after the original release, Jones released a dub version of it: Hurricane – Dub came out on 5 September 2011.
"The Sound of the Crowd" is a song by the British synth-pop group The Human League. It became the band's commercial breakthrough, reaching #12 on the UK singles chart in May 1981.
"Private Life" is a 1980 song written by Chrissie Hynde, and released by both English band The Pretenders, and Jamaican singer Grace Jones in 1980.
"My Jamaican Guy" is a single by the Jamaican singer and actress Grace Jones, released in 1983.
"Party Girl" is a single by Grace Jones released in 1986.
"Nipple to the Bottle" is a single by the Jamaican singer, model and actress Grace Jones, released in 1982.
Assemblage is a compilation album by the British band Japan, released in September 1981 by Hansa Records.
"Watching" is a 1983 song by the British pop group Thompson Twins. It was released as the fourth and final single from the band's third studio album, Quick Step & Side Kick. The single peaked at number 33 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1983.
"The Freeze" is a song by the English new wave band Spandau Ballet, released on 12 January 1981 as the follow-up to their debut single, the number 5 UK hit "To Cut a Long Story Short". As was the case with that release, the 7-inch single of "The Freeze" featured a dub mix on its B-side, and the 12-inch single had two additional mixes of the song geared toward dance clubs. The cover art used for both formats of the single also repeated its predecessor in having a simple black-and-white classical motif. This design, however, was also seen on the sets of the music video for the song. Reviews of "The Freeze" were mixed. It reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart.
During the recording sessions for my album, "Living My Life", the label told me to remove the title track as having listened back to the song with other songs from the album, they felt its pop and R&B sound did not compliment the album's reggae vibe, so it became a stand alone single of such.
