   #copyright

Whitney Joins The JAMs

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   "Whitney Joins The JAMs"
   "Whitney Joins The JAMs" cover
   Single by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu
   Released 7 September 1987
   Format One-sided 12"
   Genre Funky house
   Length 7:03
   Label KLF Communications (UK)
   Drummond & Cauty singles chronology
   "All You Need Is Love"
   (1987) "Whitney Joins The JAMs"
   (1987) " 1987 (The JAMs 45 Edits)"
   (1987)

   "Whitney Joins The JAMs" is a song and 1987 single by The Justified
   Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs). The song, released on The JAMs'
   independent label KLF Communications, is built around plagiarised
   samples of Whitney Houston in which - thanks to studio technology - she
   "joins The JAMs".

   "Whitney Joins The JAMs" was given a low-key, uncommercial release in
   the UK, as a one-sided 12" in a generic monochrome KLF Communications
   sleeve. The single did not enter the UK Singles Chart.

Origins

   Early in 1987, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty formed The Justified
   Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), grafting plagiarised samples from the
   history of popular music with beatbox rhythms and Drummond's often
   political raps. The JAMs' small-budget debut single "All You Need Is
   Love" and album 1987 both attracted the attentions of the UK music
   press, who praised The JAMs' innovation and social commentary, and the
   Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, who demanded the immediate
   withdrawal and destruction of all copies of 1987 in response to an
   objection from ABBA.

   Despite the potential legal and financial risks that their composition
   methods entailed, The JAMs next created "Whitney Joins The JAMs", a
   house mash-up built around samples of Whitney Houston, Isaac Hayes,
   Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme tune, and (according to later
   sleevenotes) Westworld. The lyrical theme of the piece is the satirical
   false premise that Whitney Houston had been begged and persuaded to
   collaborate with The JAMs; Drummond's jubilant lyrics suggest that
   extensive sampling of Houston's 1987 # 1 single " I Wanna Dance with
   Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is evidence of Whitney's dedication to the
   project.

   According to Drummond, The JAMs had originally planned to produce a
   house record around Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft". However:


   Whitney Joins The JAMs

   We booked the studio for five days.... I went around to the record shop
    near the studio to get hold of Shaft.... and in the window was ... a
      big cut-out of Whitney Houston.... I love that track, and I loved
     Whitney Houston then, and I just said 'Wow', and bought the album [
   Whitney].... We just played that track over and over again, and we just
   thought: ..."no point us making records when such fantastic records as
       this have been made". And that's how that track ... grew into a
                       celebration of Whitney Houston.


   Whitney Joins The JAMs

   "Whitney Joins The JAMs" was given a low-key release in the UK,
   initially as a run of 500 one-sided 12-inch singles in generic
   monochrome KLF Communications sleeves. The vinyl labels contained only
   the title and "120 bpm". Two repressings followed in 1987, both having
   a test tone groove B-side, with copies supplied in either a generic KLF
   Communications sleeve or a plain black sleeve. The single did not enter
   the UK Singles Chart, but it reached # 3 in the UK independent chart,
   prompting the UK television programme " The Chart Show" to request a
   music video. The JAMs obliged, hiring a video camera and getting a
   friend to film them driving to "The Chart Show" studio in Cauty's
   repainted Ford Galaxie American police car. According to Drummond,
   "When we got there, we took out the cassette, handed it in at the gate
   and said 'that's your video'! The next day it was on national TV. It
   cost us £19.96". Flippantly, he concluded "Most record companies spend
   up to 100 grand on their vids and almost as much on lunches trying to
   get people to screen them." The video was remembered in 1991 by NME,
   who thought that The KLF's VHS compilation The Stadium House Trilogy
   would have benefitted from the inclusion of the "pre-megastardom"
   video.

   The song features on neither of The JAMs' studio albums, but is
   included on the duo's 1988 compilation and remix album Shag Times,
   where co-authorship credit is given to composers of works sampled in
   the track. Shag Times also contains an instrumental remix of the song,
   credited to The KLF.

Composition

   The 7-minute song is progressive, funky house, and an early example of
   a mash-up. It opens with quiet synthesiser drones and cymbal percussion
   which are soon joined by the markedly louder Mission: Impossible theme.
   Drummond says "'Mission impossible' we were told, she'll never join The
   JAMs", a point answered by power chords sampled from Whitney's "I Wanna
   Dance with Somebody". Drummond then begs and pleads to Whitney for
   around ninety seconds before the first strains of her voice can be
   heard. Drummond sounds ecstatic, proclaiming "Whitney Houston joins The
   JAMs!" and "I'm yours!".

   The song develops to sample full sections of Whitney's chorus,
   alternating these with increasingly pronounced guitar work taken from
   Hayes' distinctive Shaft theme and portions of the Mission: Impossible
   theme complemented by piano work. Ultimately the track descends into an
   unrhythmic cacophone of samples.

Reviews

   NME noted that "Whitney Joins The JAMs" exhibited a slicker blending of
   samples than the duo's previous recordings, with The JAMs moving from
   "crash collision" to "the art of super selective theft". "Whitney" is a
   "disco gun-down that is so beat-packed it will keep your boogie box
   high and gasping for days.", the paper wrote. "If this doesn't prove to
   you that dance music is moving with more energy and vitality than
   traditional rock then nothing will." Comparing "Whitney Joins The JAMs"
   to the duo's two other singles of 1987, NME also recognised that the
   track is "a tale of simple sample fantasy", whereas the lyrics of "All
   You Need Is Love" and " Down Town", "question the inadequacies and
   inconsistencies of society".

   The All Music Guide called "Whitney Joins The JAMs" "hilarious".

Themes

   The upbeat and apolitical tone of "Whitney Joins The JAMs" was
   similarly accented by Drummond and Cauty's subsequent work as The
   Timelords and The KLF. The song's self-referential nature—in this case
   concerning its own production—is also typical of much of the duo's
   output.

   Ironically, Drummond claimed that in 1991 The KLF were offered the job
   of producing or remixing a new Whitney Houston album, as an inducement
   from the boss of her record label ( Clive Davis of Arista Records) to
   sign with them. The KLF did not accept the offer, but nonetheless they
   signed to be distributed by Arista in the US. Drummond said, "They sent
   us a copy of her current album and said: '[are] there any tracks in
   this album you wanna redo? We'll send her over [to] do photo sessions
   with you. We'll have her with a KLF T-shirt on the next video.' We got
   the album: complete rubbish.... But the whole concept! And suddenly
   we're being offered Whitney on a plate.... 'My God!'"

   Davis' offer reflected the upturn in Drummond and Cauty's fortunes
   brought about by their decision to produce commercial music as The
   Timelords and The KLF. Whereas The JAMs' recordings of 1987 were at the
   legal mercy of the artists sampled therein, Drummond and Cauty later
   became able to commission the services of established performers. The
   Timelords' "Gary Joins The JAMs" (a version of their UK # 1 novelty
   single " Doctorin' the Tardis", which sampled Gary Glitter) featured
   new vocals by Glitter, and he also appeared with the duo on Top of the
   Pops. The KLF used Tammy Wynette's vocals on " Justified and Ancient",
   and " America: What Time Is Love?" featured Glenn Hughes, prompting
   other established vocalists to send requests for collaborations.

   In 1995, Drummond and Cauty unsuccessfully attempted to recruit Robbie
   Williams to sing on a track they were donating to The Help Album;
   Williams was on holiday and unavailable. Drummond outlined their
   idea—which mirrors "Whitney Joins The JAMs"—in a chapter of his book 45
   entitled "Robbie Joins The Jams": "Over a mug of tea Jimmy [Cauty] and
   I got it all worked out. We would record our version of ' The
   Magnificent Seven', renamed 'The Magnificent One', through Sunday
   night. Over the track I would beseech Robbie Williams to join The Jams,
   and then Robbie would in fact turn up at the studio in the early hours
   of Monday morning and make his creative contribution to the record."

   In 1997, the sample of Hayes' guitar line used in "Whitney Joins The
   JAMs" was reused in Drummond and Cauty's highly self-referential 'tenth
   anniversary' single, " Fuck the Millennium".
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Joins_The_JAMs"
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