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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Respect Due

  • Respect Due: Teena Marie

    teena

    Of course blue-eyed soul existed before Teena Marie came onto the scene. After all, what the hell was Elvis other than a blue-eyed soul singer? That said, though, the singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist is one of the rare white artists to achieve near-constant R&B success while only making a couple of sporadic blips onto the pop chart (she’s hit the Top 40 twice in her career). Originally a protégé of Rick James, Teena has become a legend in her own right-and she just might have Diana Ross to thank for the kickoff to her career.

    Teena was signed to Motown in the late 1970s, but as legend has it, no one was able to come up with the right material for her. Rick heard her singing and playing piano in a Motown rehearsal room and immediately signed up to work with the young upstart. Rick had at the time been working on material for Diana Ross. When Miss Ross rejected the material (which was far more funky and risqué than Diana would ever allow her to be), Rick gave the material to Teena. “I’m a Sucker for Your Love” became a Top 10 R&B hit in 1978 and started a decade-long run of soul hits.

    Teena’s voice was alternately seductive and rambunctious. Over the next few years, she scored hit singles with disco jams (“Behind the Groove” and “I Need Your Lovin’”), proto rap (“Square Biz”), steamy slow jams (“Fire & Desire”, the classic duet with mentor/lover James), and even stuck a toe in genres ranging from Latin music (“Portuguese Love”) and rock (1981’s “Revolution”-inspired by the murder of John Lennon’s murder). The album featuring the latter two songs, “It Must Be Magic”, became the biggest of her career, soaring to #2 on the R&B albums chart and staying there (ironically, behind Rick’s “Street Songs” album) for 4 months.

    Unfortunately, trouble loomed right around the corner. After “It Must Be Magic”’s success, Teena started thinking her money was funny and sued Motown, an action that took her out of commission for 2 years. After returning on Epic Records with 1983’s “Robbery”, she spent the rest of the 80s as a near-constant on the R&B charts with hits like “Lovergirl” (her only Top 10 pop hit) and the #1 smash “Ooh La La La”. Marie also recorded the rock/funk classic “Emerald City”, an album that was unjustly ignored upon it’s release and is now looked on as sort of an unsung classic amongst folks who like their soul music to have a little bit of rock ‘n roll edge.

    Teena then faded from view, only releasing two albums in the Nineties (including the very rare “Passion Play”, released independently). However, anyone who counted her out was very wrong, as her comeback album, 2003’s “La Dona”, became the highest-charting album of her career, spawned two hit singles, earned a Grammy nomination, and went Gold, sticking Teena straight in the middle of a list of 70s and 80s soul icons who’d made some of the best music of their career long after they’d been counted out professionally (Chaka Khan is another example). She’s released one album since (and has another one scheduled for release this summer), and is climbing the charts again with a duet, “Can’t Last a Day”, featuring Faith Evans, one of many singers today who have been influenced by Marie’s dramatic vocals and musical adventurousness.

    Lady T deserves props just by virtue of her staying power. She’s part of that small club of female R&B/funk artists (Patti, Chaka), who has managed to stay relevant for thirty years now. Extra props are due for being one of the few female artists to write, produce and perform her own material. Mostly, though, props are due to Teena just for being one bad ass chick.

  • Respect Due: Terence Trent D’Arby

    Of all things, it took a Family Guy episode to remind me of how dope Terence Trent D’Arby was. Hearing the familiar instrumental sing-songy refrain of Wishing Well, I was immediately possessed by the urge to pop in Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby and groove to some of the Eighties’ best pop/soul.

    For a second, it seemed like D’Arby was destined for world domination. His raspy voice drew comparisons to the soul greats of old, he had killer dance moves to rival Prince and Michael Jackson, and he had this cool British air about him-never mind the fact that he was American. Introducing the Hardline went Platinum, Wishing Well hit #1, D’Arby delivered a knockout performance on the 1988 Grammys, and then won one for himself a year later.

    You know how Kanye West’s mouth is big? Well, TTD was the Kanye West of his day, making outlandish pronouncements and dripping in pretension. That pretension turned out to be his downfall, as his second album, Neither Nor Flesh, was a resounding flop despite tons of promotion-most of which came from D’Arby himself. Stretching himself topically and artistically (the album’s actually quite good), Flesh went way over the heads of the teenage girls who bought the Wishing Well single, and suddenly D’Arby was a nobody again.

    Those of you who thought D’Arby’s story ended there, though, would be wrong. He made two albums in the Nineties (Symphony or Damn, which is decent, and Vibrator, which is excellent) although neither made much noise. After severing ties with his label in the late Nineties, he moved to Europe, settling in Germany and then Italy. His last commercially released album was 2003’s TTD’s Wildcard, but he continues to make music and releases it now through his website. Oh yeah, and Terence Trent D’Arby is no longer Terence Trent D’Arby. In 2001, he legally changed his name to Sananda Maitreya.

    While he might be seen as a one-album wonder to most casual music fans, TTD’s music is some of the most challenging and eclectic pop/soul/rock of its’ time. From 1989’s Billy Don’t Fall (a song on which TTD supported a gay friend) to 1995’s Undeniably (which contains one of Branford Marsalis’s most batshit-crazy solos), he’s continually pushed the artistic envelope. Too bad most music fans didn’t hang around to see that Terence Trent D’Arby is almost as good as he thinks he is.