Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Tighten Up

Well, Yellow Magic Orchestra has done tributes to surf music, exotica and even The Beatles. So why not early funk? I have to admit, though, when I first heard YMO's cover of Archie Bell & The Drells' "Tighten Up" on that 1982 BEST audiotape, I was kinda like, "What the funk?" It sounded like computers had raided an old R&B tune. With all those scintillating, crystalline hits such as "Rydeen" and "Behind the Mask", it seemed as if Sakamoto and the guys went for a bit of humour, especially with the fellow or fellows trying to emulate Bell's voiceover.

"Tighten Up" originally came out as YMO's 3rd single in December 1980 after "Technopolis" and the aforementioned "Rydeen". It didn't do quite as well as the first two singles did, just peaking at No. 43, but I can't say that I'm too surprised since it probably sounded as weird to the first listeners as it did to me. But over time, I learned to love the funk....especially Papa Hosono's bass and that Prophet 5 jamming in there.

The above is an extended version where the overcaffeinated Bell replacement gives shoutouts to Bowie, Elvis and Elton John. Now, I'm not quite sure whether "Tighten Up" had gotten its genesis from YMO's early concert tour in the US or if it had already been in the minds of the boys to pay tribute to it, but according to the liner notes in their other BEST album, "YMO GO HOME", one of the guys pointed out that the American audiences had enjoyed the supposedly bawdy comic sequences before and after the song, along with the song itself....especially with the line "Japanese gentlemen, stand up please!" The story went that it had been "well-known" that Japanese guys didn't exactly have the largest....junk....(something that became a plot point in an episode of "South Park"), so the band decided to put a bit of that self-deprecating running gag into the performance. And the line has become the (official or not) subtitle for their version of "Tighten Up". I think having the guy screeching the line out helps make it work. In any case, the song is also a track on Yellow Magic Orchestra's 4th album, "X Multiplies" released in June 1980.

This is the original 1968 "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and The Drells. Billie Butler and Archie Bell were behind the creation of the song.