“At times, as on the title track, this album sounds remarkably like Sade with more cluttered production.”

- Salon’s Audiofile



Dear Salon and All Other Journalists -

I read this comparison often. So-and-So sounds like Sade, So-and-So has a Sade quality. Let me take this opportunity to make one thing clear : So-and-So doesn’t sound anything like Sade. So-and-So may be a woman and So-and-So may have a vaguely jazz oriented beat behind them, but that does not Sade make.

Let me walk you through this.

Way back when, in the (*shudder*) early 80’s, I was at a disco in New York City called The Saint. It was probably the Best Disco Ever, something I can only state backed by the lame “you had to be there” excuse. The Saint was three floors of men surrounding a dance floor situated under a huge planetarium dome. IMHO, The Saint was the BDE due to the Perfect Time/Perfect Place thing. It existed before AIDS decimated the Gay Community, it came at the end of a dance-fueled music scene and it marked one of the last All Gay Male enclaves. You had to either be a Member of The Saint or be the Guest of a Member to get in. Anyhoo, I was at the Saint in 1984 but I wasn’t dancing. I was having sex with a hot man up in the third floor balcony which is one of the things one did at The Saint.

Suddenly, the Sade song “Hang On To Your Love” began to play and I bolted for the dance floor, leaving my potential partner behind. Why?

“Hang On To Your Love” was something remarkably different. It was a mid-tempo song in a sea of speed driven beats. More importantly, it was almost blasé in it’s message. Sade’s voice was banal, almost atonal, in it’s advice. With her offhanded laissez-faire, Sade was outstanding in a world increasingly driven by materialism and freneticism. In a word, Sade was cool.

Sade made you think of smoke filled rooms filled with laid back people. Sade connected to Billy Holiday and nightclubs where you gained authority by your mere presence. Sade was exotic and spoke to those of us who were looking for a way to be exotic in an average world. Sade’s music took us out of our reality and placed us someplace where people didn’t walk, they glided, and life was enchanting.

Three years later at another Disco Of The Ages, Area, I met Sade. I was as nervous and excited as if she was Elvis Presley. I was meeting not just someone who I considered a Great Musician, but someone who colored an entire period of my life. She was the source of my Internal Soundtrack for much of my formative years. I’d meet her again years later but that first time at Area, I was speechless.

So, getting back to the point, while you may think So-and So sounds similar they’re not the same thing. Sade marked an era of modern life we can not replace. Even now, when I hear “Sweetest Taboo”, I am frozen in time. I recall a part of my youth I will never get back. I think of people and places which no longer exist (and no longer will) despite how much influence they have over today’s music and fashion and Scene. Sade was a trailblazer and that’s something none of the So-and-Sos you compare to her will be. Sorry, it’s just not the same. I listen to the Sade-Wannabes and hope for the best but have yet to be rewarded.

Yes, you’re younger than I am and things are different. It might just be me, but no one else is a “Smooth Operator”. I just don’t hear it. Please stop making me hope for what will never exist again.

Regards -

SRO

7:08:48 PM    sro home /