TERENCE TRENT D’ARBY
Terence Trent D’Arby (born Terence Trent Howard; March 15, 1962), now known as Sananda Francesco Maitreya, is an American singer and songwriter who came to fame with his debut studio album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby, released in July 1987, which included the singles “If You Let Me Stay”, “Wishing Well”, “Dance Little Sister”, and “Sign Your Name”. (More from Wikipedia)
Still, buying a box of albums even at a good price is something that I rarely do. I like to see what I am buying and make individual decisions. I was once at a flea market down here years ago where a guy was about to close down his stand. I had picked out a handful of CD’s already – two by the Cruzados, Terence Trent d’Arby, Shakespear’s Sister, Blues Traveler, David Cassidy (I had heard that this teen idol used to sing R&B songs during breaks in the filming of The Partridge Family, so I was going to see if any of that made it to disc) – when the man said, “I’ll sell you the whole rack for $35”. I figure that I had already picked out over $20 worth, so I said yes.
This was quite a while back – pre-Katrina for sure, and probably close to 15 years ago – but I mail-order most of the CD’s that I buy (usually it is vinyl all the way when I am in record stores), so I can still pick out with some degree of certainty which CD’s I got in that box. I might be wrong about some of them (Terence Trent d’Arby and Blues Traveler might have been different purchases), but it still makes a good story with the CD’s that I have laid out in the following sections. Maybe some of my readers will be less afraid to take a chance on a purchase also after seeing what I found that day.
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Terence Trent d’Arby, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent d’Arby – I remember there being a huge amount of hype associated with this album; the title alone promises more than almost anyone would be able to deliver. There was a lot of that going around in the 1980’s, and VH1 mocked the era’s self-importance by naming one of their oldies shows The Big 80’s. Allmusic reminded me of a quote from d’Arby himself that his was the most important album since Sgt. Pepper. There were two hit singles from the album in the US called “Wishing Well” and “Sign Your Name”, both excellent (so were the music videos for these songs); and US album sales hit two million. Another song from the album, “If You Let Me Stay” was a major Top 10 hit in the UK that stayed in the top half of the charts for over a year.
Allmusic tells what happened next: “All of the success – both commercial and critical – had d’Arby poised as a major act, artistically and popularly. D’Arby’s mix of soul, rock, pop, and R&B recalled Prince in its scope and sound, yet his sensibility was grittier and earthier. At least they were at first. By the time of his second album, 1989’s Neither Fish nor Flesh, his ambitions were more nakedly pretentious. The record carried the weighty subtitle ‘A Soundtrack of Love, Faith, Hope & Destruction’ and attacked many self-consciously important themes, including homophobia and environmental destruction. In addition to the self import of the lyrics, the music added a variety of new textures, from Indian drones to straight-ahead ’50s R&B. All of the added baggage was too much for his audience, and Neither Fish nor Flesh dropped off the charts quickly, without so much as one hit single. It took d’Arby a full four years to record a new album.” Terence Trent d’Arby has released several more good albums and has carved out a niche as a cult act, but it wasn’t what might have been.
(December 2015)
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Since I am down to a quarterly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, my annual list is a lot shorter, so I will try listing all of the people that I have discussed in some depth rather than just the Under Appreciated Rock Band and the Story of the Month. They are all punk rock bands of one kind or another this year (2015-2016), and the most recent post includes my overview of the early rap/hip hop scene that an old friend, George Konstantinow challenged me to write – probably so long ago that he might have forgotten.
December 2015 – 1990’s pop/punk band AMANDA JONES; Story of the Month on the early American singles by the Beatles; also, Rochelle Harper, Lisa Loeb, 3 Doors Down, Level with the Ground, Chris Stamey with Yo La Tengo, Meri Wilson, Bobby Brown, the Cruzados / the Plugz, Terence Trent d’Arby, An Emotional Fish, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Hunters & Collectors, Looters, Shakespear’s Sister, Robert Tepper, Y Kant Tori Read / Tori Amos, Ugly Kid Joe, Paul Young, the Rolling Stones, Mandy Brix, the Joneses.
(Year 7 Review)
