"Monica
told me to take a couple of heavy canvas U.S. postal
service mailbags," he says, "that are almost
three feet long.
Arriving at Shakedown, either Albert or Tony from the
Latin Rascals brought out at least two dozen tapes of
'Frantic Situation'. Memory says that there were three,
maybe four, two inch reels, several ten inch reels,
and many small, five inch tape boxes. For one song!
With both sacks filled to the top, I literally dragged
both bags down 37th street at rush hour. Getting a cab
in the garment district at rush hour is a feat in itself.
I looked like a crazed Manson family member with what
looked like two bodies crammed into mailbags trying
to get a cab."
Even though "Looking For the Perfect Beat"
was a glorious peak, the Funhouse sound was moving on.
By the beginning of 1984 it was possible to hear Soul
Sonic Force played back to back with Run-D.M.C.'s hard-edged,
more minimal style. Change was in the air. "After
the electro stuff came to an end we really were having
big trouble," Silverman admits. "We had all
of those distribution bankruptcies and we weren't having
any new hits. I tried starting a more rock oriented
label - Body Rock - that wasn't really well thought
out and it was unsuccessful. We weren't finding anything
new that was really hitting until the Force M.D.'s came
out. That did really well."
One of the radio Djs who played a part in Tommy Boy's
early success was Mr. Magic. His hip-hop show - Mr.
Magic's Rap Attack - had hit the airwaves in 1979 on
a small New Jersey station called WHBI. Magic had helped
to break "Jazzy Sensation" and his talent
contests unearthed two important acts for the label.
The first was Dr. Rock and the Force M.C.'s, a Staten
Island group of singers, MCs and DJs who sang on the
Staten Island ferry and reworked old television theme
tunes like F Troop into raps and vocal routines at the
Zulu Nation anniversary parties.
With a name change to The Force M.D.'s, the six members
of the group - TCD, Trisco, Stevie D., Mercury, Doctor
Rock and Jesse D. - signed to Tommy Boy in 1983. Tom
saw them as a reincarnation of Fifties doo-woppers Frankie
Lymon and The Teenagers. Dressing them in letter-sweaters
with an F on the front, he conceived their music as
doo-wop-hip-hop, a retronuevo fusion of two eras of
youthful street music that shared a lot of common characteristics.
Released in 1984, their first single, "Let Me Love
You", used the thundering DMX drum machine programming
of Keith LeBlanc (drummer for the Sugarhill label's
house band, later known as Tackhead), as a bedrock for
the group's sweet vocal harmonies and TCD's beautiful
falsetto lead.
In the space of two years, The Force M.D.'s shot from
a life of entertaining travellers on the Staten Island
ferry to a string of giant hit singles. Produced by
Silverman and Robin Halpin for their first album, "Tears"
established them as great ballad singers. "We recorded
'Tears' at Unique," Silverman says. "We brought
roses in and lit a candle. TC brought in an article
from the newspaper to inspire him, about some girl who's
boyfriend died. I forget what the story was but it was
something in the Daily News that made him sad. We made
it totally dark, just lit by candlelight and the light
of the board."
In 1985, Monica Lynch had been trying to squeeze The
Force M.D.'s on to the soundtrack of Krush Groove, the
latest in a sequence of rap motion pictures that had
begun the previous year with Beat Street and Breakin'.
Finally, she took a Sunday afternoon call, asking if
she could get The Force M.D.'s from Staten Island to
Minneapolis the following morning to record the big
ballad of the film with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis at
Flyte Tyme. The result was "Tender Love",
the first Top 10 pop hit not only for Tommy Boy but
also for Jam and Lewis. Although the group suffered
upheavals, including the premature deaths of TC and
Mercury in recent years, exquisite tracks like "Tears",
"Tender Love" and "Here I Go Again"
proved that great talent doesn't have to start out as
a slick package.
"Krush Groove came out but we still weren't doing
really well," Silverman concedes. "I started
shopping a label deal because I was about half a million
dollars in debt. Mostly to pressing plants.
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