Jesse Johnson

Jesse Johnson turned 49 on May 29. He shares a birthday with my mother. Happy belated, you two.

We know Jesse from the brilliant Prince puppet funk band The Time. (He was the guitarist living in Morris Day's shadow.) After the band disintegrated largely due to Prince's tyrannical insanity, Jesse broke out with some chart hits from his first album-- "Be Your Man," "Can You Help Me," "I Want My Girl," etc. I call this the "pre-Mariachi hat" period.

His second album, 1986's "Shockadelica," brought the fucking fabulous "Crazay" and the interesting "Black in America," which predictably did not chart. And this is when Jesse entered the Era of the Mariachi Hat. Peep this video if you don't know what I'm talking about, seriously.

So anyway, I like all these singles, but the other day I listened to some of his early singles' B sides, and I concluded thusly: my ultimate jam is "Fast Girls," B side to "I Want My Girl," and a very minor hit for Janet Jackson. My second ultimate jam-- ney, my first and a HALF ultimate jam-- is "Free World," a.k.a. the back of "Can You Help Me." Both of these B sides are undeniable bangers.

Jesse Johnson "Fast Girls" (this is different from Janet Jackson's version; he released it only as a B side one year after Janet released it on "Dream Street")

Jesse Johnson "Free World" (sorry, no good rip-- gotta listen to it on YouTube. It's totally worth it though.)