Posted on 01/30/2010 11:05:54 PM PST by pissant
Sade is so very private, so extremely wary of the press that her friends - all of whom are bound to silence - have nicknamed her Howie, after Howard Hughes. The most reclusive British singer of the 1980s has kept such a low profile since her Smooth Operator days - one tour in 14 years - that, when we meet at the London office of her record label to hear the songs from her new album, Soldier of Love, I am the only person in the room who has met her before.
It’s 10 years since her last album release, the 2000 offering, Lovers Rock. Despite or maybe because of that, the reverence she commands is palpable. She is the most successful solo female artist Britain has ever produced: she has sold more than 50m albums in a career that stretches back 27 years. And more than half of those albums were sold from the mid-1990s onwards, when Sade all but disappeared from view. Since then, she has only surfaced a few times — and this is the only face-to-face interview she will consent to now.
Paradoxically, in person she is open, friendly and relaxed - she’s happy to let me into her spacious Georgian house in leafy north London - and willing to laugh at herself. Unlike her songs, which are often freighted with introspective sadness and regret, her conversation is punctuated with a lively and very English self-mockery. She tells me about a graffitied poster of herself that her guitarist Stuart Matthewman spotted in New York. Above her glamorous image, some wag had sprayed the observation: “This bitch sings when she wants to.” Sade thinks this hilarious. It sums up her career pretty well. She makes music on her own terms.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
Damn straight...Sade is my favorite of all time...saw her on Sept. 1st, 2001...great show...she is very reclusive because she knows what is important in this life.
Absolutely beautiful post...you wrote what was in my mind but i can’t express.
“she might be the reason blue jeans were put on earth”
yeah...the “sweetest taboo” video with her in jeans...oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :P
In the circles I move in, I often lose one to three aquaintences to bulemia or anorexia in a given year.
You appear to be an expert on the topic of ugliness.
Check out a preview from her new album....
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/2010/01/an_exclusive_worldwide_premier.php
That’s cold, sis.
I contrast that with Phil Collins, whose music is mediocre, dull, whiny, feel-sorry-for-myself, wimpy, white-bread boring candy-ass metro-sexual stuff ... and I wonder why a ho-hum "talent" like that is even on fame's radar. Oh well.
Aw gee .... thanks. It is SO SO SO nice to see that there are others “nearby” who feel that way about folks like Sade. I’m in comfy company with FReepers.
Yeah, well, women can be cold and ugly. Might have something to do with the fact that I never liked her music, either. Lots of people think Madonna is ugly,too, but I did like some of her music.
Big difference between ugliness and skankiness.
Well, you could’ve just said you don’t like her music or not say anything at all. It was a bit gratuitously catty to just utter the “ugly” comment when it’s pretty clear she’s not. That’s a bit beneath you.
Jazz has a tons in common with bluegrass. Ever heard Bela Fleck?
“Big Country”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q50xzhDO9lI&feature=related
No, you remember correctly. Artists back then saw what (the original) MTV was doing and they took their video-making very seriously. Getting your video into the MTV rotation meant everything. To this day I can still play many of those memorable videos in my head, such as those by the Eurythmics, and Peter gabriel, and The Police... Thriller was incredible!
MTV was a joy in those days. We would leave the TV on all day in place of the radio, even as we went about our normal house chores. It was just one great song (with video) after another, and "VJs" took the place of DJs. No "hip hop" or rap - - just great '80s music. It's a shame that kind of format no longer exists. I checked out MTV (and its spinoffs) a couple of times during the '90s and early '00s and saw nothing but badly produced, childish garbage. It was a waste; I found it ironic that "Music Television" no longer had music videos.
Oh well.. I shall remember those days fondly.
FRegards,
LH
Maybe, but that’s what I think. If a guy said it, he probably wouldn’t be criticized.
Apologies to the original poster for the thread hijack.
“Time After Time” = great tune. The words could just as easily come out of Bob Dylan or Willie Nelson. Didn’t know Miles Davis covered it. I’ll have to check it out. She buried it under alot of kitsch at first, but there’s definitely alot of personal strength to Cyndi’s music.
Some very good ballads in the early ‘80’s. Benetar didn’t write “We Belong”, but still a powerful song.
Phil Collins = dim bulb on the marquis of life. Just not entertaining.
Yep, ol' Miles came out with a version of "Time After Time" back in about '87 or '88, thereabout. Absolutely the most beautiful version -- gives me goose bumps everytime I hear it. A lot of the Old Guard jazz old farts never forgave Miles for going "fusion," but tough beans. Miles was always ahead of his time and always musically courageous, always trying new things. One of the most amazing times I ever saw him in concert was when he had the absolute KILLER guitarist Robben Ford as part of the band. Ford had put out some smokin' hot stuff with the Yellow Jackets. Miles was nearly old enough to be his grandpa, but there was no generation gap in the music. Robben took a solo and Miles, wandering around the stage as was his habit, was always in close but quiet physical proximity to Ford, and at a few points I think their backs were even touching, Robben facing the audience and Miles (as he often played) with his back to the audience, and he'd just play a soft, quiet note on the trumpet, and it was as if he was musically, gently nudging Ford into playing better and better. I got choked up. Miles was colorblind when it came to music, and instrument blind, too -- he wasn't married to "all acoustic, no electric" purism like the bebop straight-ahead old guard that has stubbornly killed much of American jazz (Wynton, are you reading? You prick!). Miles must have mentored a lot of young musicians into being monster musicians. I became a great admirer of Miles' ways over the years.
And to get back on topic, I'm glad Sade has a new album. Her musical instincts are, I think, impeccable.
Touche! Sade is the antithesis of Skank.
That said, Madonna (who doesn't have one tenth the class of Sade, IMO) has been a real survivor and has put out some pretty good tunes.
Another 80s singer I really liked back then was Basia, and she just came out with a new album last year and sounds as great as ever.
And if you're in the mood for electric fusion, if you haven't heard of Steps Ahead, and Michael Brecker (he's gone now, died too young) on the EWI (electronic wind instrument), check it out. Beautiful, wonderful fusion the way God meant fusion to be! The Steps Ahead album "Magnetic" has the most amazing, gorgeous, heart-swelling version of "In a Sentimental Mood" .... think Blade Runner romance. It is just a stunning tune.
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