Grace Jones is simultaneously an icon and under-appreciated. It’s been well documented how everyone from Gaga to Rihanna is indebted to her, but she still doesn’t get her due. While it’s absolutely true that David Bowie was peerless, Jones is actually one of the few music artists (emphasis on the word artist) who genuinely comes close to his daring and accomplishment in terms of obliterating gender lines, creating substantive lasting work, and just being an all-around bad ass.
Grace Jones. Photo by Jean-Paul Goude
Last night her One Man Show concert video (only ever available on long-out-of-print VHS copies) screened at The Kitchen in New York. Tonight it’s screening at the Standard Downtown in LA. Directed by her longtime lover and collaborator Jean-Paul Goude, it’s one of the couple’s strongest artistic statements. From the opening moments in which she commands the stage in a gorilla outfit (homage to Marlene Dietrich’s jaw-dropping musical number in the 1932 film Blonde Venus) to her fierce glower as she sings onstage, it’s impossible to take your eyes off her.
For those who missed the New York screening or can’t make the one in LA, here’s the full concert, below.
