Hurricane Season

I'd posted on my Facebook page about the impending release of a new album by Grace Jones entitled, "Hurricane". I've been a huge fan of Ms. Jones since the late '70s and had the pleasure of seeing her in concert during her heyday at a club in Miami many moons ago.

Actually, it's a great story....

My friends and I got tickets to see Grace Jones perform at the Parallel Bar in Miami Beach back in the late '80s. We were all pretty excited because we had followed her musical career dating back to college and enjoyed her gender-bending sound....we often wondered whether Ms. Jones was actually Mr. Jones. After enjoying dinner and a few drinks, we wandered over to the venue. There were lots of folks already on line so we took our place. It was about 11pm when we were finally allowed in and we found a spot as close to the stage as we could. She was supposed to come out at midnight. Tick-tock, tick-tock....time passes. Midnight comes and goes....1am comes and goes....the crowd is getting restless. Finally, around 2:15am, we get word that Ms. Jones is in the building....well, that's nice. She emerges around 2:45....there's still a decent crowd and we greet her as positively as one could after waiting almost 4 hours. She starts to perform one of her classic songs, "Slave to the Rhythm"....she seems preoccupied. Apparently, one fan, in her excitement to see Ms. Jones perform, gets on the shoulders of her boyfriend. Ms. Jones stops dead in her lyrical tracks and requests that the woman "get out of her light." She was blocking a spotlight pointed directly at Ms. Jones on stage. Well, Miss Fan didn't realize she was being spoken to....Ms. Jones stops the concert again. Only this time she wasn't quite so polite....she comes to the end of the stage, knocks the girl off of the shoulders of her man and yells, " I told you to get out of my f*cking light!!" Snap!! And that took care of that!

We were all a little stunned at the sequence of events, but not surprised. Ms. Jones has always been known as a cantankerous performer....we knew that. I suppose that's why we waited so long to see her.

Now that we have her long-awaited album of new music, I think back fondly on that event and our appreciation for her contribution to music and androgyny. Not even a chocolate version of her can diminish that.