It was the year 1979, and what a year it was. Charles and I were the best of friends. We would be graduating from high school next year, then possibly going our separate ways.

But definitely keeping the funk alive.

Charles was a tall, athletic and light skinned. All the girls thought he was “fine” and he thought he was ”fine” to. During high school he did some modeling for black fashion.  

We we’re getting ready for the Hanna end of school-beginning of summer party, in which T. Hanna was dj’ing. 'T' was everybody’s party dj, because he had all the funk. Big T really showed his stuff at the roller rink on Saturday night. It was a 'right on' funky good time. But there was one album that T did not have for Saturday night.

It was The Adventures of Captain Sky. An album so funky, we we’re scared to take it to the rink! So we tested it out Friday night at T's party.

Charles came to pick me up in a 1978 AMC Pacer that his dad bought him because he got a scholarship to U.C.L.A. to play basketball.

Charles’ Car was like this. It was electric blue. It came with everything, even a cassette deck. Charles stepped out in a black and white polka dotted shirt with the Aladdin sleeves and windowpane bellbottom jeans, with black, 2 inch platform shoes. (don’t think he didn’t have a white pair in the trunk). I myself had the black one-piece bellbottom jumpsuit and white 3 inch platform shoes (Just to feel as tall as Charles). I came out with the funkiest tape to hit the streets. We put it on & on our way to the Hanna party, it was solid, the first song on side one was “Wonderworm”, 12 minutes of bass thumping, head nodding funk. The bassline just snaked through the song. By the time we got to Wilshire blvd, we we’re still thumping to the first song.

Captain Sky a.k.a Daryl Cameron from Chicago Ill. was a Chicago based bass player who assembled musicians throughout Chicago and embarked on a recording career. Daryl’s persona was that of a parliament-funkadelic style, even though his music was along that vein, but it was mostly called pre-historic electrofunk, and raw sticky disco. Captain Sky, at one time, might have been a little ahead of his time. In fact Prince was getting ready to release his debut album “For You” the same year he released “The Adventures of Captain Sky”.

The two main songs on this album is "Wonderworm" and "Supersporm", which took up one side of the album. Most of us never made it to side two. Supersporm was just as funky as Wonderworm. Due to the fact that Captain Sky only released 4 albums, his last in 1988, he let the funk ride for ten good years and like most artists of the old school era, got lost in the disco craze. Some tried and failed, some made it and new groups emerged and then failed when the new jack swing came in.

On the way to the party, Charles spotted a couple of girls that looked like Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson, turned around and threw his mack on. They asked 'where we were going?'. We said “a party, wanna go?”, they replied “not in a pacer!” Charles said two words and the rest was history. He said, “T's party!" It was solid at that time.

We got to the party about 10:30 pm after hitting the Fattburger joint, cause there is no food served at T's party. We stepped out and the party was jumping. T was playing the Isley Brothers and mixed in Young and Company and we hit the floor, before you know it we were doing the soul train line to Heatwave’s “Grooveline”. I told my friend I would be right back, went up to T and told him to check this out. He listened to it and said “This is the joint!”, I’ll put it on after Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Lover’s Holiday!

T started the last set of the night with Slave’s “Slide” and mixed in Supersporm and crowd went nuts. The girls that we were with told us that we were the only guys to ever take them to T's party and we hung out for the rest of the night. We cruised Sunset Blvd and then headed to the Santa Monica Pier where some things happen that I can’t mention in this review.

After graduation, everybody went to the last Big T's party, a special party, at the roller-rink.  He played songs from 1975 to 1979, four years of funk, in one night.

Charles bought a 1979 Cutlass Supreme for college, says the pacer was for high school. My dad bought me the same car but I had swivel seats and t-tops (Charles was mad). The girls they went off to college out of state, last I heard one was living in Atlanta. I saw Charles one day on school break and he looked different, his hair was different, I said, “Charles your hair is fresh, what’s it called” he said "Jheri curl",  Charles was always the first to set a fashion trend.  Who’d thought every black person in America would have one, (and there are still some out there that still have them, cause your local supermarket still sells the activator).

Well years later, Charles and myself are back together as staffwriters for www.TheUrbanMusicScene.com  and hope if Captain Sky is still out there somewhere, it’s time for a comeback. Here a Video of Captain Sky on Soul Train!



Marv D
The Urban Music Scene.

P.S.: Wondering what happened to the Pacer? Charles still has it.