I used to roll with a photographer named Rodney (R.I.P. my friend) out on news stories in the live truck and we would listen to various tunes.
If Sade came up on shuffle then it was an immediate conversation. How hot she was, how smooth the grooves, which song is best. That last one was up for constant debate as I recall. But there was no arguing the first two.
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Sade by the way isn’t just the name of the lead singer, it’s the actual name of the band. And I suppose I’m not alone in learning this. But now I feel bad about all those years I thought it was just her and some random dudes on saxophone and bongos.
Quick aside: an earworm is a song that gets stuck in your head and will not leave. Even the tried-and-true method of listening to the song all the way through will not dislodge it. It’s just there until it doesn’t want to be there. Sade is an earworm planter in the same way that Khan put that desert armadillo wormy thing in Chekhov’s ear in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
How I came to choose Sade the singer and her band as the fifth and for now final Underrated Musical Act of the Eighties is simple. I went down a YouTube wormhole. Pun not intended.
I’m not sure how it started but I feel like I was arguing with someone that Paradise is superior to Smooth Operator as a Sade Top 40 hit. This is in the same wheelhouse as arguing Anyway You Want It is better than Don’t Stop Believing as Journey hits go. Hot For Teacher is better than any other track on Van Halen’s 1984 album, including Jump and Panama. I have my hills I am willing to die on.
And then a funny thing happened.
YouTube wormhole.
I looked up Paradise, which led me to Smooth Operator. My opinion did not change. Paradise is sultrier and has a bass hook that is so tight and menacing I’m surprised no one was arrested when it was laid down in the recording studio. Po-Po should have been breaking the door down on suspicion of crimes of passion being conducted within. It’s that much of a possible jury trial of bass playing.
Is It A Crime… to be that good?
(How many of you just got that throwaway joke?)
Before we explain, YouTube led me on autoplay to Your Love Is King. People. We need to talk. Your Love Is King is one of the ear-wormiest songs in Top 40 history. And it wasn’t remotely close to Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston or Tina Turner type overplay on the radio. As I write this without Googling, I’m not sure it did much beyond the Adult A/C or R&B charts. But Good Lord, this song.
It begins with a wailing sax solo intro that (ear muffs, send the kids out of the room) is pure carnal knowledge. Then here comes Sade herself. One of the purest vocal essences of desire and romance ever captured in a recording:
“Your love is king, crown you with my heart…
Your Love is king, never need to part…
“Your kiss is real, round and round and round my head…
Touching the very part of me, it’s making my soul sing…”
And that’s just the start! What follows is minutes upon minutes of Eighties smoothitude fueled by one of the most underrated soulful voices of any generation. In terms of class, beauty, stage presence and pipes I think only Shirley Bassey really compares if you’re not including some of the bigger names I mentioned above.
Is It A Crime? No but the next song is.
Like Your Love Is King, the song Is It A Crime begins with a filthy sax solo that takes up nearly 30 seconds. And then everything stops as Sade’s vocals come up against haunting minimalist keyboard notes. Suddenly there’s some percussion and some melody as the rest of the band joins in. By the 1:48 mark the song has built to a face-melting crescendo. And the entire time she is singing whether it’s a crime that she still wants you. No singer has ever sounded more convincing in interpreting lyrics. Maybe Sinatra.
The song is a full four minutes into its tale when the sax returns for a second ripping solo and then a fourth climax and full-stop. Suddenly there’s a bell mute trumpet that sounds like nothing less than vintage Miles Davis. And then Sade lets rip with a RIDICULOUS high note scream. And the song is still not done.
Trust me. Babies were made to this song. We’re all adults here. It’s just a fact.
Sade the singer and group only released a handful of albums over 35+ years. If you went to YouTube the wormhole is not very deep. You can find most of her/their concert hits from Live Aid and just two live recent events. In one she is wearing a pink two piece. In the other she’s in black. For the most part that’s it. And really it only adds to her mystery and allure.
Honestly I would watch Sade paint a wall beige. Her stage presence even in middle age is the variety that you cannot avert your eyes from. As underrated artists go I cannot think of someone who lives more in the shadow of your Tina’s, Aretha’s and Whitney’s. And I think…that Is A Crime.
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