Artist: June
Pointer
Album: Baby Sister
From: Vintage Vinyl
Year: 1983
Label: Planet Records
What it sounds like: The youngest Pointer sister takes a turn as a nymphomaniacal disco diva.
Best Track: "Ready For Some Action." At first, this song sounds like the spooky part in some disco b-movie mystery, with its brooding ambient string arrangement and some whirring synthesizers. It opens with a line that sets the tone for the record's corny-but-horny theme, "I was raised a lot like Cinderella/Momma and Poppa never let me near the fellas."
After that it bursts into Huey Lewis and the News-like classic 80's rock rhythm with finger snaps and foot-tapping drums. Then Pointer gets to the point: She wants to get laid. Bad.
Lyrics include these gems: "I wish Prince Charming would come along/cause I'm ready to get it on" "I'm gonna make a stop at every disco in town/find a partner and get on down," and finally the immortal chorus, "I'm ready for some action, action! Need some satisfaction, faction! I've been cooped up much too long/and I'm ready and willing to get it on."
Worst Track: "To You, My Love." The album's slooooow jam, this song has lots of mellow synthesizers and keyboards, a boring ambient string arrangement, and other assorted over-production.
The only interesting lyrics are a weird calling out of her famous "Family, when you're the youngest/ you don't grow up easily/into a lady" and "Nobody's tasted, nobody's wasted/all my time/ and left me lonely/sheltered and guarded/I was never discarded by love/ripened on the vine."
Her parents were devoutly religious and her father was an ordained minister. That may explain why this album has songs titled, "Ready For Some Action" "I'm Ready For Love" and "You Can Do It."
Who you can thank for the amazing cover art: Photography: Dick Zimmerman. Art Direction: Kosh. Those teeth...
The Facts: June was the youngest of the six Pointer Sisters, who were famous for pop singles in the '70's and '80s such as "Slow Hand," "Yes We Can Can," "Fire," "He's So Shy" "and "Jump (For My Love)." June was the lead singer on the latter two. She was one of the first sisters to form the group in 1969 with Bonnie under the title of "The Pointers -- A Pair."
Baby Sister was the first of two solo albums, neither of which was particularly successful. Her song "Little Sweet Boy" was on the soundtrack for National Lampoon's Vacation. She also sang a duet with Bruce Willis a.k.a. Bruno (seriously, watch the video), which was a cover of the Staples Singers' "Respect Yourself."
She was the black sheep of the family, posing for Playboy and getting arrested for possession of cocaine and a crack pipe in 2004.
She died in 2006 at age 52 from lung cancer. Controversy surrounded her funeral when Bonnie Pointer, bitter at being kept out of the musical group, claimed that the other sisters disregarded June's burial wishes and had her cremated.
Info from: Wikipedia, The Pointer Sisters Fans, and her USA Today Obituary.
