Places 📍| 3 to 5 BOPS

Places 📍: 3 to 5 BOPS No. 19 (2023), features musical BOPS courtesy of Joesef, The Jones Girls, Pharrell Williams, Village People, and Weezer.

Ah, you know what time it is! It’s 3 to 5 BOPS time – WOO! On 3 to 5 BOPS, it’s all about brevity and sweetness… for the most part! There’s a theme/topic, 3, 4, or 5 songs, and a blurb – two paragraphs or less.  3 to 5 BOPS, hence, is a mini playlist that shouldn’t take much time to consume.  In the 19^th edition of 3 to 5 BOPS (2023), we select songs that are associated with PLACES 📍 in some form or fashion. The BOPS arrive courtesy of 🎙 Joesef, 🎙 The Jones Girls, 🎙 Pharrell Williams, 🎙 Village People, and 🎙 Weezer. Okay, let’s get into it!

1. Village People, “Fire Island”

💿 Village People (EP) • 🏷 The Island Def Jam Music Group • 🗓 1977

“Fire Island – it’s a funky weekend, a funky, funky weekend.”  Well, that seems to be the case, 🎙 Village People. The iconic disco collective was created by music producers 🎛 Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo to target the gay disco scene. Village People, designed as a niche group, exemplified gay vibes, while also earning success with heterosexual audiences. 🎵 “Fire Island”, which appears on 💿 Village People (EP) from 1977, didn’t chart but holds significance as a gay gem, highlighting Fire Island (in New York), which is described by ✍ Jack Parlett as A gay paradise of sex and liberation.

Lyrically, there are a number of moments that embrace gay fun and joy without being explicitly gay. Lead vocalist 🎙 Victor Willis, who is NOT gay, sings, “You never know just who you meet, maybe someone out of your wildest fantasies.”  Willis cites specific venues at one point on this bright, ornately produced number: “Groove at the 📍 Ice Palace (get on down at the Monster) / Been there, been there (been there at the Blue Whale) / Peckin’, I’m peckin’ (peckin’ at 📍 The Sandpiper) / Pumpin’, I’m pumpin’ (pumpin’ at the Botel).” Can you reference Fire Island sans gayness? Highly doubtful.

Appears in 🔻:

• Village People, “Fire Island”: LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 33 (2022)

2. Pharrell Williams & Travis Scott, “Down In Atlanta”

🎵 “Down In Atlanta” • 🏷 Columbia • 🗓 2022

“Watch ‘em fly from the sky, while we line up the wall / Like confetti, how it falls, let ‘em leave with it all…” Woo! 🎙 Pharrell Williams is at it again! He enlists the services of 🎙 Travis Scott for another intriguing 2022 single, 🎵 “Down In Atlanta”. “Down In Atlanta” commences with that signature Pharrell Williams intro – the four-count! Notably, the listener only hears three out of four beats accented with the kick drum. Following the intro, the record establishes itself in a 6/8 (possibly 12/8) meter.  Travis Scott rides the beat and backdrop well, dropping his melodic rap flow drenched in vocal effects. Beyond the vibe Scott serves up, what about Pharrell on the production end of things? Williams puts in work with the beat as well as the synths. Even so many years into the game, Williams still manages to concoct forward-thinking bops. “Down In Atlanta” isn’t the second coming, but Scott and Williams make a formidable team.  It’s a vibe!

3. Joesef, “East End Coast”

💿 Permanent Damage • 🏷 Bold Cut / AWAL Recordings Ltd • 📅 2023

Queer Scottish, soul-pop musician 🎙 Joesef is on an emotional rollercoaster on most of his 2023 debut album, 💿 Permanent Damage. That includes the third track, single, 🎵 “East End Coast.” “East End Coast” encompasses a tempestuous relationship (his words) and moving from his hometown, Glasgow, to London. The songwriting is honest and incredibly poetic.  “Separately comatose / Smoking green and doing blow,” he sings in the first verse, continuing, “We broke into the stately home / But I wish you would take me home.” Throughout, there is emphasis placed on an unbreakable bond despite the wild relationship, highlighted brilliantly in the second verse (“Kiss me as the casket’s closed”).  Admittedly, the singer is homesick, which he reveals during the bridge, also asserting that he feels “permanently on my own.” Joe’s pain = our listening pleasure! 

4. Weezer, “Beverly Hills”

💿 Make Believe • 🏷 Geffen • 📅 2005

“Beverly Hills, that’s where I want to be / … Livin’ in Beverly Hills.”  Woo! So, what was the best moment of  💿 Make Believe, the 2005 album by 🎙 Weezer? Why it’s none other than the collective’s pop hit, 🎵 “Beverly Hills.” It’s safe to say that 🎙 Rivers Cuomo was ‘on’ on this no. 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100,the highest peak the band has ever achieved on the pop charts.

“Where I come from isn’t all that great

My automobile is a piece of crap

My fashion sense is a little whack

And all my friends are just as screwed as me.”

Well, those lyrics are just as charming as albeit, aren’t they? Later, Rivers sings in the second verse, “Look at all those movie stars / They’re all so beautiful and clean / When the housemaids scrub the floors / They get the spaces in between.” Intriguing to say the least.  “Beverly Hills” was so successful because it’s incredibly fun! While thought to be a sarcastic song pointed at celebrity life and affluent living in Beverly Hills, Cuomo debunks this.  Interesting! Not only are the lyrics fun, but so are Cuomo’s vocals,  which are playful. Of course, given the way he sings, it make “Beverly Hills” sound somewhat cynical and sarcastic.

Appears in 🔻:

• 15 Songs Where There are Hills to Climb (2022)

5. The Jones Girls, “Nights Over Egypt”

💿 Get As Much Love as You Can • 🏷 Sony Music Entertainment • 🗓 1981

“There’s a sky in the east / Over pyramids at Giza / There once lived a girl / She ruled the world,” 🎙 The Jones Girls assert on the R&B classic, 🎵 “Nights Over Egypt”.  They add, in the first verse, “Then down the Nile / He came with a smile / He was the king / She was the queen / Under the moonlight.” Ah! Egypt, love, and a four-decade-old R&B song. What more could you ask for? “Nights Over Egypt” appears as the third track on the trio’s (🎙 Brenda, Shirley, and Valorie Jones) 1981 album, 💿 Get as Much Love as You Can.  While “Nights Over Egypt” charted on R&B songs chart, it failed to make the cut on the Billboard Hot 100 – bummer!  Nonetheless, this record has been a popular sampling source. Why? It is the electrifying production, courtesy of talented musician, 🎛 Dexter Wansel.  Philadelphia soul remains alive and well, with the picturesque keys, strings, a robust bass line – it’s the whole shebang. Throw in an Egyptian sound, and you can’t beat this gem!

Lyrically, The Jones Girls paint a picture of the country, and African, in all its glory.  The second verse in particular captures Africa superbly: “Saharan façade / Is just a mirage / Oasis in the sand.” Beyond the verses, the pre-chorus emphasizes an almost unbelievable portrait of those “Nights over Egypt” that the chorus touts.  Listening to 🎵 “Nights Over Egypt” more than 40 years after it arrived, it is shocking this surefire, rhythmic vibe didn’t perform better well on the pop charts. This is a classic that remains a fresh as it did the year it first arrived.  The Jones Girls struck gold with this one – I don’t care what the Billboard Hot 100 says!

Appears in 🔻:

• The Jones Girls, “Nights Over Egypt”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 37 (2023)

Places 📍: 3 to 5 BOPS No. 19 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Bold Cut / AWAL Recordings Ltd, Columbia, Geffen, The Island Def Jam Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment; Pixabay]