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Push, Push In The Bush
In the Summer of 1977, I remember
being on the highway and hearing "Shake Your Booty" for the first time.
I turned to my girlfriend and said,
"I don't believe they got away with that!" Here we
were way past the dawning of the aquarian age and Woodstock and free love,
yet it seemed that a big taboo was being broken. The 'line' had been crossed.
We songwriters still believed that suggestive lyric but not explicit lyric
was the order of the day. We spent endless hours crafting new ways of eluding
to sex without crossing that magic line. Suddenly the pressure was on to
test for a new 'magic line.' Between "DEEP THROAT" in the cinema and George
Carlins' "SEVEN WORDS YOU CAN'T SAY ON TELEVISION" the world was ready
for the test.
I did not sit down and invent the
phrase "Push Push In The Bush" in a moment of meditative genius. I was
in the recording studio looking for a chant to put on the chorus of this
last hot track for the Musique album. I was thinking out loud of my older
brother and his friends. Sometimes they would chant - "To the bush"
This was a reference to a dance club that they frequented. One of the background
singers jokingly said push because it rhymed. Now came the moment of revelation.
I left the room for a moment of solitude. For about ten minutes I struggled
over the consequences of what I was about to do. I have never been about
just 'gettin the dollar'. I immediately recognized that once I let this
'Genie' out of the bottle there would be no turning back. As I mentioned
elsewhere, this album was a giant release for me. I had felt blocked and
frustrated for three years. Why Not! I felt that as long as the song was
just an album cut it would be all right.
Another
aspect of the song is that it is actually a song about mutual respect and
desire. "I want to do the things you want to do, too."
The first time I played the album for everyone at
Prelude Records every face in the room was red with embarrassment. While
he fanned his face Marv Schlacther yelled, "Patrick, I CAN'T PUT THAT OUT!"
Everybody in the office had the same opinion. The record was really hot.
Maybe just a little too hot. After some serious discussion
it was decided that it would be included in the album but not promoted.
There is
an old saying in the record business. "You can't keep a hit record down."
Over the decades of recorded music, many hits found their audience through
juke box or turntable play. Word of mouth has also sold millions of records.
This is
one of those records that I paid little or no attention to when it was
released. I was already in the studio with Herbie Mann and then Narada
Michael Walden. One morning Marv called me and asked that I come around
the corner to his office. When I arrived he began to fill me in on the
strange phenomenon that was happening across the country.
In the midwest, suddenly stations like WIFE radio,
a conservative POP station, were playing "In The Bush". About three weeks
later, the cover story on BILLBOARD Magazine (They music industry bible)
was about 600 radio stations banning some naughty record called "Push Push
In The Bush!"
The height
of insanity for me was the US magazine interview.
When
the limelight shines for you, there is no hiding.
Within a six month period I went from the totally
depressed atmosphere of Harlem - taking care of my mother who slipped and
broke her ankle the day after my father died - To Fifty Sixth Street &
Broadway being one of the most in-demand producers in the world. Between
1978 and 1981 Patrick Adams and The P A System produced 22 album projects.
These days
when I here the unbridled, undisciplined rant and rave of Hip-Hop lyrics
I wonder just what my contribution was to the 'madness'. I have heard numerous
opinions from the varied likes of Minister Farakan, Gladys Knight and just
the girl next door who met her husband in a Disco dancing to 'Push'. I
hope it has brought no harm to anyone. It was made in fun and meant to
be enjoyed in that spirit.
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