Former J.B.s drummer Tony Cook is getting the Stones Throw red carpet resurrection treatment with an anthology release of rare and unreleased recordings from 1982-86, as well as a collaboration with Dam-Funk.
Tony Cook is most known for “On The Floor (Rock-It),” which is often referred to as the Grandaddy of all House Records. Composed in 1984, “On The Floor” was meant to be a rap record, but as Cook recollects it really took shape when WBLS-FM DJs Timmy Regisford and Boyd Jarvis began tinkering with the sound. “Regisford and Jarvis took the master and re-recorded a few things,
added a few things,” Cook said. “Then, we didn’t know what to call it, but it
definitely wasn’t a rap record anymore. It had more of a dance kind of
thing going through it. And it had a little bit of techno to it. When we
released it in 1984, the phrase ‘garage’ came out, then ‘house’ came
out.”
Like these stories always go, Peanut Butter Wolf has been dropping the needle on “On The Floor” for years and one day got a wild hair to call up Tony Cook and raid his closet for unreleased material. The result is Back To Reality, a collection of music recorded during Cook's time with Halfmoon Label in London. Although something tells me, “What's On Your Mind” was not recorded between the same six years of Eighties bright lights and white drugs, even if Dam-Funk is a master of recreating those vibes.
Back To Reality is out January 25 on Stones Throw.
