Cherrelle - "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On"

awesome thx matt

heard on the same station within the same hour. I was "around" then

Hey there are many different types of "being around". I was referring to being a part of the indie label scene of the era, not about being within the listening radius of WBLS, ya cunt.

lol indie.

Celluloid wasn't major

huh?

nice words, now, boys

I was referring to being a part of the indie label scene of the era, not about being within the listening radius of WBLS, ya cunt.

Please excuse my lack of decorum.

"Human" was obviously a great song, but I still cannot get myself to really enjoy that because I found what Human League had usually been doing so much better. Plus the rest of the "Crash" album was mostly rubbish.

While it's no lost classic, Crash showed that the League really had nothing more to say. Most of the songs are pretty good to great, and would have better served Janet or the SOS Band. "Jam," "Human" and what I think is the loveliest thing Jam/Lewis ever did the 12" mix of "Love is All That Matters" are the only things on which Phil Oakey doesn't disgrace himself.

*ignore the fact that I just wrote a crazy run-on sentence.

anyone really cool was trippin heavy on "Somebody Else's Guy" right about then

Well, I loved both back then (not that I was really cool), but SEG sounds like something with it roots in the past. While Jam & Lewis's productions sounded like the future, tough, cool and spacious. No surprise really that they'd want to work with The Human League later.

you know surmounter, I had a whole list of nice records all prepared to send to you and then I saw all this negativity and just threw it in the trash.

This place really sucks sometimes.

I don't even know what these people mean anyway is the other puzzling aspect of it. I do know that I was trying to deal with your inquiry in a critical, yet ultimately helpful manner. That was my intent.

I mean I am so sick of four word comments that are negative and derisive yet ultimately mean absolutely nothing and also add nothing to the dialogue here. What the fuck does "indie lol" even mean? I can tell it's meant to make me look and/or feel stupid but it doesn't because it doesn't even make any sense or mean anything.

Plus, I have said this before, why the fuck are people clockin me like this? I am just someone that occasionally writes about some shit that I KNOW ABOUT. I recognize a few names here, like Pappa Wheelie (who I have a lot of respect for but whose comment I didn't understand) and I recognize a few names here and there but I am not interested in stuff like "what's up with Geir" or some bullshit like that. The phrase "typical Geir" means nothing to me because i can't be bothered to track the shit that he says. (plus I have actually read some of what he writes and I don't see anything especially daunting or outrageous about it).

I honestly don't know where you people get the free time to track who has said what. I am on a LOT of forums about music on the internet. Occasionally, they get into a lot of this sort of shit, but I am interested in learning and talking about music, not in going back to high school.

I definitely have no problem telling someone to fuck off when necessary but basically I am a very nice, well-meaning helpful person.

anyone really cool was trippin heavy on "Somebody Else's Guy" right about then

Well, I loved both back then (not that I was really cool), but SEG sounds like something with it roots in the past. While Jam & Lewis's productions sounded like the future, tough, cool and spacious. No surprise really that they'd want to work with The Human League later.

Think AMOUNTS OF SOUL...

Sorry, but just because JB's an Aretha style belter doesn't mean that she has more soul than Cherelle.

I was talking about Jam & Lewis

I was referring to being a part of the indie label scene of the era, not about being within the listening radius of WBLS, ya cunt.

I mean I am so sick of four word comments that are negative and derisive yet ultimately mean absolutely nothing and also add nothing to the dialogue here.

Ok, so you have just said what?

saxby, believe me, i know how you feel. just talk to the people that interest you, and about what interests you. the rest of it feeds of big reactions anyway, you know?

and please, please, send me that list :-)

Saxby, i don't think anyone on this thread has disparaged you or your comments. all the meta-remarks about Geir (who - so goes the caricature - hates modern "black music") or indie (which is frowned upon for oedipal reasons) are par for the course on most ILM threads.

well there, andy's saying that you say you have beef with 4 worders, but that you just used one (c u next tuesday)

but please let's back to the music?

The phrase "typical Geir" means nothing to me because i can't be bothered to track the shit that he says. (plus I have actually read some of what he writes and I don't see anything especially daunting or outrageous about it).

um

Uh

There's four!

We could call this "wack shit."

who dreamt up the terrible idea of featuring King Kong in the video i wonder.

well there, andy's saying that you say you have beef with 4 worders, but that you just used one

Surmounter, Andy K. is so remarkably witty and clever that I am sure he can come up with his own explanation.

What I said, while perhaps vulgar, at least made sense and was not part of a nonsensical 4-word answer. (This is what tranpired: heard on the same station within the same hour. I was "around" then

Hey there are many different types of "being around". I was referring to being a part of the indie label scene of the era, not about being within the listening radius of WBLS, ya cunt.)

See, it isn't necessarily pretty but it makes sense. it was a point I was trying to make. It is not a 4-worder. I am trying my hardest not to name drop the people that I knew at that time (and look like a cunt in the process) but I was trying to explain how they/we felt about those Tabu jam/lewis records.

Thanks for the explanation about the Geir lore, but the truth is I don't really care. And I was talking about INDIE in the BUSINESS SENSE OF THE WORD. Independent labels and distribution, not in the sense which rightfully might be disparaged.

I am trying my hardest not to name drop the people that I knew at that time (and look like a cunt in the process)

It's quite likely that they liked Jam/Lewis too.

no, the exact point I am making is that they did not. pay attention and put some effort into your posts.

why?

hatas win! yay!

i think he's only curious to know why people who liked Jocelyn Brown didn't like this stuff. me too.

It was wack shit and did not fit into the indie aesthetic. Pay attention.

well, to be honest (despite all the idiocy), upon thinking about it, I think it might well have been a bit of a local/regional bias. Jocelyn's history (i.e. in Inner Life) with local people like Leroy Burgess and Larry Levan had me and my friends here really excited about this record before it even dropped.

While I personally can see vast differences between its sound and that of most of the Tabu stuff (and see the thing is I still really like the Cherrelle single as well, it's catchy but in a "radio" kind of way), the real fact is that the stuff did not go over at the Paradise Garage. It didn't have the right bass sound for one thing and if you can't hear the oodles of compression on most of those Tabu records then you just don't know what it is.

"Somebody Else's Guy" is a club record that made it onto the radio. Cherelle was made for radio but was worked to the clubs. Big difference.

Can people grasp that?

http://static.flickr.com/77/227686015_506cd3d913_o.jpg

see, that is the exact kind of shit I hate about this place. Amidst completely asinine levels of idiocy, upon the urging of others, I nonetheless try to summon up some sort of explanation that I felt made sense and someone drops some gif in like it's a clever thing to do.

hatas win...

well, to be honest (despite all the idiocy), upon thinking about it, I think it might well have been a bit of a local/regional bias. Jocelyn's history (i.e. in Inner Life) with local people like Leroy Burgess and Larry Levan had me and my friends here really excited about this record before it even dropped.

personal anecdote of the time. no judgement inferred. i can get down with this.

While I personally can see vast differences between its sound and that of most of the Tabu stuff (and see the thing is I still really like the Cherrelle single as well, it's catchy but in a "radio" kind of way)

plaese to define 'catchy but in a 'radio' kind of way'

the real fact is that the stuff did not go over at the Paradise Garage. It didn't have the right bass sound for one thing and if you can't hear the oodles of compression on most of those Tabu records then you just don't know what it is.

and this matters ... why?

"Somebody Else's Guy" is a club record that made it onto the radio. Cherelle was made for radio but was worked to the clubs. Big difference.

false dichotomy, inferred value judgement

Can people grasp that?

but what does it all mean?

It don't have to be so serious y'know?

It all means that we are all going to die someday and this is possibly the most minute topic I can even imagine in the first place.

I am not going to parse through all of your parsing except to say that what I said is not a false dichotomy, nor is there any "inferred value judgment" (in fact what you really mean IMPLIED, not "inferred" I believe). If you indeed inferred a value judgment, that is your prerogative but it is not an objective standard upon which statements can be properly assailed.

I was trying to explain to the few people in here who have a sincere and genuine interest in the topic, not to the people who have hating gifs ready to drop and pseudo-intelligent bs parsing to follow.

I am out of here... hatas win. Maybe some sincere people got something out of this, I don't know but I am not going to spend any more of my time on this issue of the Cherrelle record.

but the snarky remarks, the puerile images, and so on, are part of the interior here. if you view every such posting as a personal attack--rather than seeing it for what it is: someone posting something silly for no particular reason--you are going to get very frustrated. the haters cannot "win", for the simple reason that there is no-one in here who is one. when dealing with on-line communities it's also important to remember that posters often are in very different moods--someone just woke up, someone just got laid, someone just broke up with his girlfriend, etc.--this invariably leads to conflicts now and then.

point taken

no i meant inferred, as in i inferred a value judgement from it. otherwise i'm not sure i understand what your point is

your 'points' don't lead anywhere, they are empty and conclusion-less

"Somebody Else's Guy" is a club record that made it onto the radio. Cherelle was made for radio but was worked to the clubs. Big difference.

what does this mean? how does this make me understand the music any better? what about these songs leads you to define them this way?

you're guilty of lazy thinking

maybe you're inviting the silliness by being a complete dick, Saxby

I mean it's not like we need an American Marcello

I mean it's not like we need an American Marcello

See that's the exact type of thing I don't understand and dont want to understand.

Ok, one last go...

People don't pay $15 to go to the Garage to hear the same shit they can hear for free on WBLS (or basically what was playing on the radio when they left the house). I have not been speaking broadly about this stuff, just about how me and my friends reacted to it. Personally I went to Danceteria nearly every night (because I got in free and lived nearby) except usually Thursdays was Limelight (once it opened, and also was cool on Sundays), Fridays was Area or the Roxy and Saturdays was usually some combination of the Garage or the Saint. I had a lot of different friends. Mainly, my friends that I am speaking about here were people who were in the inner circle of the Garage, who blatantly did not like any of these jam/lewis artists.

I made an earnest attempt to figure out why but that's all I know really.

Anyone who thinks that the Cherrelle record was a huge NY club record is wrong. I would be lying if I said I can remember exactly, but it was probably spinning for a while in the clubs until it got saturated on the radio, at which point it was mainly a "radio record". These are esoteric insider industry terms that WE USED, I am sorry if you cannot relate to them and feel they are meaningless but I can assure you that there are some very heavy people in this crowd that used expressions exactly like that (and NO, I DON'T COUNT MYSELF AMONG THE "HEAVY"). I did KNOW them.

"Somebody Else's Guy" was a record that played at the Garage probably until the day it closed and were there not so damn many huge Garage records (and this a relatively late one), I'd be tempted to argue that it was one of the biggest records in the history of the place. Cherrelle, no.

It's a cute and catchy 12". I own it and like it.

"Lazy thinking" is when you drop a gif in, not when you make an earnest attempt to explain your views.

this is fine, it's good to engage and differing perspectives are awesome to hear. but coming in gung-ho with "this record sucks and I KNOW BETTER" and expecting real dialogue to result is kind of misguided. as is the idea that someone would read the line "I don't want to understand" and think, well, this person is clearly interested in any opinion other than their own"

I mean, I've done as much after-the-fact wishing I was there about the Garage as anything. that kind of stuff is totally interesting to me! Jam-Lewis for me is very bedrock; I'm from Minneapolis and had a club-DJ uncle who played that stuff. the fact that it didn't pass muster in other areas isn't terribly surprising, nor is the fact that it took hip-hop ages to catch up in my burg to where it was elsewhere. fierce regionalism, basically. because I like a lot of music the wheres and whys of that regionalism never stops being fascinating.

I mean it's not like we need an American Marcello

Hahaha! Matos for the win! Amen to that.

Saxby, let's look at that comment you made to Andy K. again one more time:

Hey there are many different types of "being around". I was referring to being a part of the indie label scene of the era, not about being within the listening radius of WBLS, ya cunt.

You are correct that this is not a four word comment, it is essentially a four letter one. You called him a cunt. This is an offensive comment, and is where all the trouble started. Right off the bat, you took it beyond musical discourse into the realm of personal insults. Everything that followed was a direct result of this surprising move on your part. Nothing had to get nasty. We could have just had a mutually respectful disagreement about music on this thread. Instead, you took it somewhere no one else wanted it to go, nor saw any need for it to go there. Then you were surprised when people didn't respond positively. Why would people respond positively to such a negative statement?

Also I wonder if Jocelyn Brown didn't have some other hit besides Somebody Else's Guy because I do remember she was a big name back then, but when I play that song now it doesn't ring any bells at all.

I'm going to try Alexander O'Neal again, too. He looks familiar in pictures, but I can't remember any of the music right now.

The only other thing I can remember besides the Cherrelle track (thanks to Lex for correcting the double 'r') from that time period that was really great on that station was Mtume's "Juicy Fruit", but that's yet another case where I play it again now and it just doesn't sound as amazing as it did then. I kinda feel the same way about S.O.S. Band, frankly, but I think I first heard them a year or two prior to this time period. The crazy synthesizer sound on their "Just Be Good To Me" sounded sooo new at the time, really like nothing I'd ever heard. That is a great song.

Here it is on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cajy5WSDd0

Mtume's "Juicy Fruit":

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

Another one I remember that was huge around this time was Midnight Starr's "Freak-A-Zoid". I can't find an original video of that on You Tube at all, and I'm dying to hear that again.

good grief, this is a boss record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G44wgSRFb1k

can never be enough songs about hot guys whose big mouths you wanna kiss

yeah i don't really get the big mouth thing tbh, but i'm right there for those stabs in that chorus - it's like jimmy jam's gone and smashed his bottle of magic potion and he's waving its jagged neck right in your face

there's quite a lot of implied violence in some of jam & lewis's productions for cherrelle imo, some of those basslines sound like they just want to knock your head clean off

drums that sound like they want to crunch straight into your knees

it's almost industrial music in a velvet wrap

made sense that she and Alexander O'Neal worked so well together; they coaxed out of J&L their fiercest productions.

Those real time spazzy drum machine fills...

you look good to me is one of my all time favorite songs for sure