They’ll often pick influential tracks from the Electro continuum such as Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” (1977) and “Numbers” (1981), Yellow Magic Orchestra “Firecracker” (1978), Gary Numan's “Cars” (1979), Ryuichi Sakamoto “Riot In Lagos” (1980), D-Train “You’re The One For Me” (1982), Warp 9 “Nunk” (1982), Man Parrish “Hip Hop Be Bop” (1982), Thomas Dolby “She Blinded Me With Science” (1982) then Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force “Planet Rock” (1982) but they all tend to leave out an essential element to the timeline of the creation of Electro — the influence of Boston Funk/Space Funk on the genre.
While Arthur Baker and John Robie are usually credited as innovators in the sound of Electro and cited as major reasons for its growth, Arthur Baker’s role as a member of the Boston Funk All-Stars and his regular Boston collaborators and associates contributions to Electro are often wholesale erased. Considering that Jonzun Crew were also serving as in-house producers for Tommy Boy at the same time as Arthur Baker, I find that odd. Arthur Baker either collaborated with or mentored everyone from Shep Pettibone and Jellybean Benitez to the Latin Rascals.
Fact of the matter is, Jonzun Crew’s 1982 production “Pak Man (Look Out For The OVC)” — renamed “Pak Jam (Look Out For The OVC)” when re-released on Tommy Boy in 1983 — should be cited in that same timeline of songs influential to Electro amongst other Boston Funk productions. While the contributions of producers from Tokyo, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Sheffield, London, New York, New Jersey, Miami, Detroit, Los Angeles etc. are oft brought up when Electro, Latin Hip Hop/Freestyle and Techno/House are discussed, Boston is rarely mentioned among them, if ever.
When Arthur Baker began his music production career, he transitioned from being a DJ and a music journalist at New Music Report and John Luongo’s Boston publication Nightfall to making records. He first encountered Boston’s most prominent Funk musicians and producers while working on Tom Moulton’s 1979 Boogie Funk/Disco Casablanca album “TJM” — which was actually Baker’s album that Moulton took credit for. Baker worked with prominent Boston musicians and producers like Tony Carbone, Russell Presto, John Luongo, Michael Jonzun and Maurice Starr of The Johnsons, later Jonzun Crew.