DEBARGE: CLASSIC OR DUD POLL

Classic, if for In a Special Way alone!

Chuck and Kevin to thread.

they are classic you dickcheese

Fuck a dud button!

Fuck a Good Lord Do You Think I Care button, too.

Check this out for the audio only, obviously:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcC0T6tb3sI&mode=related&search=

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i do kind of hate that el debarge song for short circuit tho

Don't hate something just because you don't understand it.

haha please i'm a fan of camp lo!

If you didn't know the movie, you'd swear "Who's Johnny?" was about a guy who's delighted to learn that his girl's fucking a guy named Johnny.

I'm a big fan of Weird Al's "Here's Johnny." And of In a Special Way of course.

"he smiled IN THAT SPECIAL WAY," har har.

I am sort of looking for El DeBarge's solo debut, but it doesn't seem very easy to track down. Lots of great songs in there.

Fucking biggest dud ever.

First album I bought.
Just after my 13th birthday I was in the local recordstore with my best friend, ready and psyched up to buy my first LP. First I'd checked Songs from the Big Chair, then I briefly pulled this one out. Best friend said "I know which one you're going to buy - Tears for Fears". Contrarian me took another brief look at the horrible cover of the LP I was holding, stepped up towards the counter and pulled out my birthday money to buy Rhythm of the Night. Great way to start a record collection...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

In A Special Way is the second greatest album of all-time (after Low-Life). The last song on In A Special Way is Bunny DeBarge's "A Dream." It is the second most beautiful song in the English language (after "Good Kids Make Bad Grownups").

Once when I was ten, my family and I went to a Greek restaurant. Someone jerk ordered this horrifying cheese that just burns forever. It filled the entire space with a hideous, nostril-raping stench. Totally offensive and anti-social (order something else, fucker!). I tried holding my breath for long stretches of time so as to repel the invasion. But it gave me a bloody nose. One of THE worst restaurant experiences of my life.

THAT was nauseatingly cheesy, Bimble. DeBarge is not.

Other points:

We all know the greatness of their ballads has no parallel. But let's not discount how terrific they were in fast mode: "Dance The Night Away," "Hesitated," "Strange Romance," "Be My Lady," "I Give Up On You," "Rhythm of the Night," "The Walls (Came Tumbling Down)," etc.

Best El solo song: "I'll Be There"

I first thought Bunny was flipping us off on the back cover of In A Special Way. Instead, she's just snapping.

I'm extremely embarrassed to admit that I've never heard Bunny's solo album In Love (although there may be more than one). Anyone know it?

I'm not embarrassed to admit that I haven't yet read that mammoth story on their woes in Vibe (right?). Too painful. Someone inform Eldra (can I get a Bunny?) he's a genius before it's too late.

If you're too lazy to pull out your vinyl promo copy of In A Special Way that you bought for fifty cents at some college town in Illinois, check out "A Dream" here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZsaF3Ecmu4&mode=related&search=

My favorite moment in all of music comes at 3:59 (in that youtube video) where the main hook gets doomed up. Even though it creeps along at a snail's pace, it's as kinetic as any punk I know.

Oh god I can barely stand how great this song is!

the Vibe story isn't that mammoth; it reads very quickly and I wish it had gone into greater detail, which seems like a function of the word count more than anything (that and there's not enough emphasis on what they did as opposed to what they became).

Serious question: Kevin, when are you gonna write the great early '80s post-disco R&B/whatever-ya-wanna-call-it book?

Btw, sorry to hear about your traumatic saganaki (flaming Greek cheese) experience. I always kinda liked it myself, and I'm no real fan of any type of cheese. Nevertheless, I do apologize on behalf of my peoples and myself.

If you didn't know the movie, you'd swear "Who's Johnny?" was about a guy who's delighted to learn that his girl's fucking a guy named Johnny.

Except that it's the girl who's asking him, "Who's Johnny?"... At first, when I didn't realize the Johnny in question is Johnny 5, I thought the song was about El DeBarge's secret gay lover. Which would've been cool.

Was there an album called "In a Special Way"? I thought that was a quote from "Who's Johnny", which was included on El DeBarge's very eponymous solo debut.

http://www.amazon.com/Special-Way-DeBarge/dp/B000001AHP/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-6543344-3444458?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1190984986&sr=1-1

Was there an album called "In a Special Way"?

Gets apoplexy. Dies.

Then brought back to life by:

Serious question: Kevin, when are you gonna write the great early '80s post-disco R&B/whatever-ya-wanna-call-it book?

Andy K could probably write a better one. Right now, I'm trying to finish my dissertation on pop music in Hollywood cinema 1980-present. But I have at least an essay in me about American romantic notions about the death of disco in the late 1970s and the post-disco move underground in the early 1980s vs. Canadian ironic notions of same.

Btw, sorry to hear about your traumatic saganaki (flaming Greek cheese) experience. I always kinda liked it myself, and I'm no real fan of any type of cheese. Nevertheless, I do apologize on behalf of my peoples and myself.

Ya know, I'm not 100% certain it was saganaki because I've been in the same room with saganaki since and it didn't bother me. So either it was something else or they really fucked it up. Or I was just being a big baby (I was about ten years old, after all). In any case, no apologies necessary. HUGE fan of Greek food here.

Ha! I've had one or two traumatic experiences involving parents and Greek-American restaurants myself, so I can certainly sympathize. However, yer probably right--whatever that shit was that they brought out that one fateful day, they no doubt seriously fucked it up.

Also: dammit, somebody's gotta write that there post-disco book one of these days; I need a handy buyer's guide for that pre-house/techno period. *Sobs*

I have at least an essay in me about American romantic notions about the death of disco in the late 1970s and the post-disco move underground in the early 1980s vs. Canadian ironic notions of same.

That sounds genius.

yeah, you gonna write about house?

Ugh one day...

And thanx, dad a.

has anybody heard his album In the Storm from 1992? iTunes description & samples make it sound REALLY interesting and ambitious

well now i would have sworn if there was ever a reason to bump this thread it would be this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfvGmx5Z_PM

Still the worst fucking shit ever.

Worse than Starship circa 1985?

has anybody heard his album In the Storm from 1992?

It's hands down his very worst solo album. He was obviously trying to invoke Marvin Gaye when he should have been invoking his own genius which far outstripped Gaye's anyway (Rong thread irrelevants, don't waste your time). Fortunately, he did just that on his next, and best, solo outing, Heart, Mind and Soul. But if you're already digging the samples, go 4 it.

well now i would have sworn if there was ever a reason to bump this thread it would be this

Why on earth would we bump this thread for an undistinguished cover of "Time Will Reveal?"

Still the worst fucking shit ever.

Better than Killing Joke.

has anybody heard his album In the Storm from 1992? iTunes description & samples make it sound REALLY interesting and ambitious

I reviewed it for Rolling Stone when it came out! But I doubt the review is in their online archives. And yeah, "interesting and ambitious" sounds about right, though not exactly all that good, as I recall...Okay, what the fuck, I'll see if I can find it in the hall filing cabinet!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand....I found it! Gave it 3 stars (out of, what, 5, right?) Summarizing: Lots of collaborations a la Quincy Jones, "stoned haze" a la Tone Loc (both of whose albums he'd appeared on in recent years), "but El goes further, scooping up portions of Innversions, Sign O' The Times, Here My Dear, There's a Riot Goin' On, and America Eats Its Young. He samples Sly, George Clinton, the Beastie Boys and somebody cruising through Detroit tuned into Electrifying Mojo on WJLB. El sermonizes about souls sold to the devil, frets about 'the similarities between man and machine,' turns into Prince and say he wants to be your whore, then quotes Ecclesiastes. This is an album about sin -- mostly sex -- in ghetto crack dens, the fast lane, your neighborhood."

"It's a song cycle. And like most such animals, especially ones that rely on studio clutter, the music comes off a bit disjointed at first. But before long you surrender to the sheer wash of sound --meshes of high-pitched church voices, audacious 'interludes' of electric wah-wah funk, piano-boogie jazz and liquid salsa, extravagant strings dousing sax solos. The thread running through it all is El's falsetto, still God's gift, yet older and wiser. Can an angel get away with such stuff? Let's hope so."

Okay, so... maybe I should have kept my copy?

No Xgau review, strangely enough!:

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=el+debarge

Fwiw, "guests include Kool Moe Dee, Patti LaBelle and Maurice White." (So maybe not that many?)

man Chuck your review makes it sound pretty great! it's on iTunes, I might wind up getting it

Alex is back!

Asking whether Debarge are worse than Starship circa 1985 is a very good question. They're both plumbing the depths of crapdom, for sure.

DeBarge>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(insert about 50 more rows of those)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Killing Joke>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Cocktoe Twins>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Starship c. 1985

sigh

A sigh of worship for DeBarge no doubt.

sorry I revived the thread. I will avoid reviving threads that encourage people to take the "you don't like it? well it's heaps better than WHAT YOU LIKE!! WHAT YOU LIKE SUCKS!" tactic

Killing Joke had better beats.

kjb vs bimble, the most boring fake-authoritative argument about subjective taste ever

Oh gawd, J0hn. I expect heavy-handedness from deej but not you. I did all those >s as a light-hearted joke which obviously backfired. But I thought the sheer amount of them would convey that. Sheesh.

And fwiw, I never said Killing Joke sucks. I love them. I even dug Pandemonium.

How about DeBarge's late '70s/early '80s band Switch? Their slow jams can't be beat!

Man, Heart, Mind & Soul is FANTASTIC.

ignore this album at your peril smooth quiet storm lovers

hey everybody listen to this album it is fucking outstanding

not drunk...just grooving

i will definitely look into it. thread revive is timely b/c i heard the tale end of some previously-unknown-to-me debarge song on radio the other day and made mental note at the time to do some youtube research in that area

groove on

heard "rhythm of the night" on the radio today - obv not their best - Sounded great anyway/CLASSIC

http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/el-debarge-squanders-second-chance-with-latest-drug-relapse.php

:(

You Wear It Well sounds like the best song in the world to me today.

It's zippy fun

Man, Heart, Mind & Soul is FANTASTIC.

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Friday, August 20, 2010 6:28 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ignore this album at your peril smooth quiet storm lovers

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Friday, August 20, 2010 6:45 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey everybody listen to this album it is fucking outstanding

not drunk...just grooving

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Friday, August 20, 2010 6:53 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so otm

also holy shit his 2010 record

always hated the mastering on in a special way cd but the new japanese remaster sounds **cking fantastic!

also holy shit his 2010 record

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson),

It came out in December so I disregarded it until February of the following year and – well, holy shit. The title track and "The Other Side" are best-ever songs and performances.

I had some problems
But no one could seem to solve them

Assumed this dude was a two hit wonder; happy to discover these depths

He certainly had more than two hits!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4jvIoxM_Gc

i mean this is the most obvious comment ever but goddammit do i love hearing el debarge sing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9UMzNFJxhY

just found this tiny desk concert (!) el debarge performed earlier this year and it is completely insane how good he sounds at the age of 60

i don’t think i’ll ever get over how this sounds like its on wax but it’s a live recording. or the fact that he sounds even better 40 years later. like this is just silky pic.twitter.com/G9DDnvBywS

— gr☆cie (@hugetulip) July 6, 2024

i'm such a fangirl for debarge. he looks beautiful.

god that voice

yeah he sounds incredible.

A+