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Pop Rock Nation

Author: Money Mike

  • Infatueighties: #77: “Break 4 Love” by Raze

    House music began at some point in the mid-Eighties in Chicago. The bridge between disco and techno (with a little hip-hop thrown in), the genre reached widespread fame in the early Nineties via acts like C&C Music Factory, Technotronic and Madonna-one of the first mainstream proponents of the genre.

    That said, the genre’s best songs are the earliest, more underground songs, the ones that were made before house began floating with pop. Along with Marshall Jefferson’s “Jack Your Body (House Music Anthem)” and The Jungle Brothers’ “I’ll House You”, Raze’s “Break 4 Love” is one of the earliest examples of house music at its’ finest.

    Along with making you wanna dance, this song oozes pure sex, something I noticed even when I first heard this song at age 11. Of course, then, the pounding beats, the smooth male voice and the alarmingly pornographic moaning elicited giggles. Now? A whole different story. Those of you who thoughtfully consider your sex (or are world class pervs like yours truly) are well aware of what I mean.

    Raze was the brainchild of producer/musician Vaughn Mason, of “Bounce, Roll, Skate, Rock” fame. He is also the guy that appears in the video, although if you are to believe the comments in this YouTube clip, the actual vocalist goes by the name of Keith Thompson and had nothing to do with the video (and this is yet another song for which I had no clue a video actually existed). Who did the moaning? Who knows? Who cares?

    This was one of those regional hits…people went crazy for this in New York, but I had no idea anyone outside of the tri-state area (and maybe Chicago) had any idea what this song was until I found it on the “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” soundtrack a few years back. As far as I know, that’s the only way you can get this song. But it’s worth it.

  • R.I.P. Levi Stubbs

    One of the greatest voices in American music history has been silenced. Levi Stubbs, lead singer of The Four Tops, passed away today at the age of 72.

    While folks of a certain age might only know Stubbs as the voice of Audrey the man-eating plant in The Little Shop of Horrors and even younger fans might only know Levi’s voice from the song Are You Man Enough, which was featured in the film Superbad, most music lovers know him as one of the most powerful singers Motown ever produced.

  • Friday Throwback: All in Love is Fair

    I had no clue what I was going to use when I told GG I would take care of the Friday throwback in his absence. Hell, I was absolutely stunned to actually see this You Tube performance footage.

    I go back and forth between Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions and Prince’s Sign O’ the Times as my favorite album of all time.

    Innervisions was one of the first albums-maybe even THE first-that I ever owned. I played the grooves off of that record, even though I wasn’t able to appreciate the poetry of the songs-everything from Higher Ground to Golden Lady -until I was much older.

    All in Love is Fair is by far my favorite song on Innervisions, and is one of the best written love songs in history.   I was stunned to see video footage of Stevie singing this that wasn’t taken from a recent concert or television performance. In the thirty-five years since Innervisions’ release, the song has become a standard, rerecorded by everyone from Cher to Streisand. I believe Sinatra may have taken a crack at it too. Still, no one tops the original.