RIP: James Chance

There are many times in our life where we hear a song that blows us away. While it may be less over the years, one still runs into them, and definitely one of those songs for me is “Contort Yourself” by James Chance.

I must have of him before I heard him. Like Glenn Branca or John Zorn, it’s almost impossible not to have heard the name. Famously, Chance was part of the 1978 Brian Eno curated compilation No New York which also introduced Arto Lindsay and Lydia Lunch.

Although I don’t know that I am a huge fan of the scene that became called No Wave- as opposed to New Wave- this post punk rock imagining of funk, jazz and disco, I do find the idea intriguing. And as an alternative rock fan of the 80s, its legacy was being carried out by the Swans, Sonic Youth and others.

I never fully jumped into a Chance deep dive but I always found “Contort Yourself” an amazing song. By the time I had gotten to it, it shouldn’t have seemed so revolutionary. There’s definitely a straight line to bands like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion that loves James Brown and gritty rock equally. I had found fringe bands like Chrome and Dog Faced Hermans whose stretching of boundaries really appealed to me. Even the post punk sounds of PiL and Pere Ubu were taking us there.

And yet, knowing all this still, it smacks a wallop. Even if you never heard the music, album covers like Off White by Chance’s alter ego band James White and the Blacks is pure cool- Chance with greased pompadour and sax.

In the modern day of social media, I learned of Chance’s failing health and though he truly was a great rock character, he still needed a GoFundMe. It is sad that someone of such a legacy would need that kind of assistance. His music will live on