The Number Fortys: The Pointer Sisters - "Automatic"

In The Number Fortys, we review every song that was sitting at #40 on the Billboard chats, starting in the first week of January 1984, right around the time this writer became cognizant/obsessive about music. The seeds for the idea came from Tom Breihan's Number Ones column over at Stereogum. However, we here at k-postpunk believe that the bottom is more interesting than the top (and obscurity is more interesting than either).

Easily the best song since we started this endeavor for our own personal amusement. "Automatic" combines a Roland drum machine and calliope synths with a voice that transcended traditional notions of gender, to the point where when I saw Prince's 1999 album had a song on it called Automatic, I wondered if maybe it was this one.

The Pointer Sisters were also the Pointer sisters, that is to say they were actual sisters with the last name of Pointer. Ruth Pointer sang the low parts. On Automatic, she got to sing lead, and she sang it in the lowest part of the register. Most people assumed it was a guy singing it. The following year the sisters dressed as men and got in the fucking ring.

We're what, six installments in so far? Every single video I've posted has had comments underneath proclaiming this was the best time for music while also shitting on artists today. Most of these comments are stupid, and barely conceal their racism, sexism, etc. But man, The Pointer Sisters' run of top 10 singles in the middle of the 80s was fantastic, and every one of them still holds up today. They were the missing link between the Supremes and Destiny's Child, and aren't nearly appreciated as either one of those groups. Automatic is pure unfettered joy with so much to love--the key change for the solo around the 2:30 mark, the little syncopated keyboard run after each line of the verse, lyrical phrases like "stream of absurdity" that gets rhymed with "circuitry." This went all the way to #5.

Score: 9.

THE NUMBER ONE

Two weeks in a row for Culture Club.