Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Been indulging in a little queeny R&B luv...this is some fierce 1980s Luther: the 1988 NAACP Image awards, when "A House Is Not a Home" was well-established in his career (live/recorded) but still newish. Like early skinny Luther new, singin with a recorded track and on a sorta shitty mic, right at Dionne Warwick. It's amazing, even if he does stuff like leaning on opening riffs in the "pretty little darling" verse too much and squidges the endingending which is so much better when it fades. (The genius thing about this song? The way the music and harmonies start all brave and inspired, but then when they get to the end after the caesura...fall apart sadly. Just genius. Is that more Luther/Bacharach or Bacharach? Suddenly shows you that that's all more unreal than you think. It's also just one of the all-time great beggin' songs, down to the metre in the "I'm not meant to live alone" line. Heartbreaking.) Interesting to contrast with this version, which is about three times as slow, with the Luther of the more glitter and and stardom and a little hoarser and stuff, and maybe more musically indulgent, but...maybe a little more masterful in some parts, if not that impossibly smooth young Luther tone that you can't believe is coming out of a human. (Boy, I would love to see footage of him with David Bowie.) I also found a great live version of Lalah Hathaway singing "Forever, For Always, For Love" which I'm startin to like more than the Luther version, I swear. Well, maybe not more, but for the same reasons. The spareness and quietness and control. She has a great voice. Both these singers...you listen to them and there's just not one thing Wrong. So good.

a chair is still a chair
a chair is not a house
a house is not a home
a man's home is his castle
sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
a rose is a rose is a rose
a horse is a horse
a dream is a wish your heart makes
every day is a winding road
the heart is a lonely hunter
the moon is a harsh mistress
love is a battlefield
love is a four-letter word
love is a many-splendored thing
god is a DJ
god is a woman
life is a banquet
life is a cabaret
life is a highway
happiness is a warm gun

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