Today I was listening to the film podcast The Projection Booth's episode on The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it reminded me that Tim Curry had a now-forgotten pop singing career. (They used to show music videos for his songs as a warm-up for screenings of Rocky.) "I Do The Rock" was probably his biggest song, just barely edging into the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979.
"I Do The Rock" was thus hardly a smash hit, and a little bit of a novelty record, but I still love it. This is partly because I love Tim Curry, but also because this song distills a lot of elements of mainstream late 70s pop music that I still enjoy. It starts with David Sanborn's blaring sax, has a big funky dance beat behind it, driving piano, and bright, effects-laden guitars. You can practically hear the sound of cocaine being snorted when you listen to it.
Much of the song involves Curry name checking celebrities of the time who have, shall we say, dimmed in importance (Farrah Fawcett, Liza Minelli, etc,) so I love it as a time capsule of 1979, the first year I really became aware of popular culture. Much of this involved getting frightened when Bruce Banner turned into the Hulk and not getting the jokes on Three's Company. I had no clue about this song at the time, but it reminds me of dusty recollections of poop-brown carpets, console televisions, and my parents' old electric green-colored beast of a Chevy.
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