i made a thread a few months ago about the best original r&b ballads of the 90's.
i inducted men at large's so alone and i have been re-visited the last few days.
this song is really really special to me.
it's not the most tender or emotional song as far as the notes and keys that are played and sung.
it easily could have content-wise gone in a "baby i love you" or a "please take me back baby" direction over the one it took,
but they opted to make a song vaguely about losing friendship.
not explicitly or necessarily about death - just having a friend that's no longer around.
and it's just so vulnerable it's disarming.
r&b in the 90's generally was so female/love/freakin-off oriented that i think we forgot that there are other directions that songwriting can go when being matched to music that still have emotional weight.
and in this song's particular case, very heavy emotional weight.
it reminds me in some ways of drs "gangsta lean" meets gc camerons "its so hard..." albeit it's not as good a song as the latter, but emotionally it plucks similar strings if you're willing to commit to it.
this song is just so disarmingly vulnerable that it makes me cry maybe because it reminds me so much of the early 90's i dunno but i'm not even thinking about anyone i know that's died or i'm not friends with in particular - just the sentiment.
and imo, that is the ultimate purpose of songwriting/music.

DRS. How they dressed up a rather melancholy song about the death of loved ones in '90s flannel gangsta rap-isms, that it almost seems parody...seems still bizarre today.

The song underneath is undeniably weighty. I ran that and the Juelz Santana song that sampled it a few times the other night... I don't think I've heard a song like "Gangsta Lean" ever since.

>DRS and how they dressed up a rather melancholy song about
>the death of loved ones in '90s flannel gangsta rap-isms, that
>it almost seems parody... but the song underneath is
>undeniably weighty. I ran that and the Juelz Santana song that
>sampled it a few times the other night... I don't think I've
>heard a song like "Gangsta Lean" ever seat

so alone is like the same song as "gangsta lean" without any of that.

and you're right about this. man.

>and you're right about this. man.

like just having the balls to say in a song, "i miss you, i'm so alone right now" to a friend is just devastatingly honest to me.
it's disarming.
i think in the 90's r&b got so caught up in the front of baby this baby that and slow jams that doing something in such a vulnerable direction got lost.
and considering music is entirely emotion/energy oriented - it cheats the listener of other musical experiences that relate to other emotions and energies we all experience at some point.

was it a huge hit? - yes.
but was it about a subject matter that is so scarcely touched on in contemporary r&b it is almost bordering on taboo? yes.
like even if the weight this song holds isn't very heavy to YOU.
even if it isn't very emotionally honest it overwhelms YOU.
i think the fact they had the balls to make a song like this in the late 90's/early 00's was a vulnerable move and refreshing.

>was it a huge hit? - yes.
>but was it about a subject matter that is so scarcely touched
>on in contemporary r&b it is almost bordering on taboo? yes.
>like even if the weight this song holds isn't very heavy to
>YOU.
>even if it isn't very emotionally honest it overwhelms YOU.
>i think the fact they had the balls to make a song like this
>in the late 90's/early 00's was a vulnerable move and
>refreshing.

I'm DQ'd on this, because me and my mama had jokes on the 'we ain't getting no younger' part. It was like 'I'm taking this showcase, Bob. It don't have a new car, but I ain't getting no younger!'.

Otherwise, yeah...JE did their thing with the verses in general.

Jimaveli

...ain't nothin vulnerable bout that song....it's a wack song that got alotta people to get married b4 they were ready listen to them lyrics....

has more serious problems in their life.

this used to be my joint, man...I swear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxm-PUxHQ8Y

man's crouched outside an old flame's window, trying to see if she's sleeping with somebody else. he's suspected it for some time but has blinded himself to it, and he wishes she'd have just let him know rather than hide it from him. his suspicions are confirmed and he still feels blindsided and overcome with emotion, turning and sprinting toward a nearby beach wondering why she isn't chasing after him to make him feel better. staring at the moon, he concludes that he will never have children because he'll never figure out how to love another woman like he loves her, and is overwhelmed with the reality their lives together are over.


but it sounds so pretty, though.



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas

http://www.last.fm/user/NodimaChee
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
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just the vulnerability and emotional honesty.
not necessarily, god or religion.
although that is what usually gets credit.
but the emotional sentiment is so powerful it overwhelms and disarms you.
songs about putting yourself in a position where you are not the most important thing in this world.
surviving hardships through the power and grace of something greater than you.
paying tribute to something greater than yourself through love & happiness & positivity.
that is basically what every marvin sapp or donald lawrence or any other contemporary gospel acts song is about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-UAP_LMpqc

who diss gospel music.

Like, I can dig that you don't feel Christian religious dogma in general... but if you can't put that aside and recognize that black gospel exudes a raw emotional and spiritual power that transcends belief in any particular faith... Well, that's just throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I think.

her version overwhelmed me b/c before this i'd only heard slow, mournful, dirge-like takes on the song rendered by the congregation at my family's Baptist church in rural Alabama. i barely knew the lyrics b/c they always draaaaag out all the words until they're nearly moaning and chanting. it's nice in it's own way. but i didn't know what a triumph lay in this song until i heard this version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcjP4LgW0Rw

and then Yolanda Adams bowled me over singing it last night in tribute to Whitney. it was too much. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WbZIjG_3sE

i'm not a Christian anymore, but i still love Gospel. i tend to favor the 'traditional' stuff like this. the songs i heard in churches and on road trips w/my family when i was a kid. it's what i miss most about church. i still want to find a Black church w/a large, tight choir and band that i can attend. and leave right before the sermons.

>her version overwhelmed me b/c before this i'd only heard
>slow, mournful, dirge-like takes on the song rendered by the
>congregation at my family's Baptist church in rural Alabama.
>i barely knew the lyrics b/c they always draaaaag out all the
>words until they're nearly moaning and chanting. it's nice in
>it's own way. but i didn't know what a triumph lay in this
>song until i heard this version.
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcjP4LgW0Rw
>
>and then Yolanda Adams bowled me over singing it last night in
>tribute to Whitney. it was too much. lol
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WbZIjG_3sE
>
>i'm not a Christian anymore, but i still love Gospel. i tend
>to favor the 'traditional' stuff like this. the songs i heard
>in churches and on road trips w/my family when i was a kid.
>it's what i miss most about church. i still want to find a
>Black church w/a large, tight choir and band that i can
>attend. and leave right before the sermons.

Coldplay - "Warning Sign"....shit, also "The Scientist". Chris Martin is a helluva songwriter, IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEDkZ02pmWo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU&ob=av2e

X&Y had a joint or two but it's been all downhill from there words-wise

at least it feels like it has.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas

http://www.last.fm/user/NodimaChee
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Nodima/run_that_shit__nodimas_hip_hop_handbook

I'll go with that completely. Viva la Vida was wack as shit, save for like 3 songs.

esp. in the years when Tony Lockett was still in the band.

it was weird, for a funk band, to be so wacky on one hand, to be so street on another, but lay it bare for the down-tempo numbers. that's what forever gave them real cred to me. they would sing on subjects you would not normally hear in a very personal way...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9k0RIaJrdS8

It's amazing how Ali tells his life through his songs... in some ways these songs are sequels. You can see his growth as a person... the evolution of his personal relationships and... life.


Picket Fence
http://youtu.be/xUuiDXI5OYI

Rain Water
http://youtu.be/cgJQJesMs9s

Walking Away
http://youtu.be/kT0uHleQ7-w

Edit:
I guess I should throw this song, Faheem, in there too. Listen in order, if you're unfamiliar

Faheem
http://youtu.be/OXIOS5dq0pM

when reading the thread title

n/m

~Austin

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Recorded off the top of the dome too. Lo fi as a muthafukka too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewKyeKdxGCY

A draining effort.

Whew, a lot on his chest there, methinks.

fit the bill IMO. two very deep personal reflective songs.

I honestly can't even listen to it anymore cause it makes me feel too uncomfortable, it's too raw for me.

This song is basically Sly realizing what he's doing to himself in a moment of clarity. Knowing that your going down the wrong road and feeling powerless to change your coarse is a very real and overwhelming feeling.

Another Song for a Blue Guitar, too.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas

http://www.last.fm/user/NodimaChee
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/Nodima/run_that_shit__nodimas_hip_hop_handbook

And seeing her smile when she sang it makes it hit even harder if you really get caught up in the character of it.

It's basically saying "I'm settling for being the side chick...and I'm cool with it. And I know it's ONLY gonna equate to one night. But instead of just fucking with no strings attached...I'm gonna put it ALL out there. Fuck any other guys out there who actually wanna take me serious, I'm saving ALLLL my luh.....for YOU!!!"

>It's basically saying "I'm settling for being the side
>chick...and I'm cool with it. And I know it's ONLY gonna
>equate to one night. But instead of just fucking with no
>strings attached...I'm gonna put it ALL out there. Fuck any
>other guys out there who actually wanna take me serious, I'm
>saving ALLLL my luh.....for YOU!!!"

I think it was Bomb who mentioned how wild it was that she brought a song about being the side chick (and lest you gloss over the lyrics, the video basically made the point crystal clear -- and was it intentional that the man of the video bore a slight resemblance to Jermaine Jackson?) and made it a pop hit and one of her signature songs.