There was a moment in the mid to late ’90s when I passed an invisible line from young adulthood — where you crave new and exciting things and your mind is generally open to cultural changes — to adulthood, where more staid things like parenthood, owning a home and, alas, feeling like you’re just culturally out of it tend to creep in. And so it goes with the neo-swing revival of the ’90s –well as far as yours truly is concerned. By the time this type of music became popular again, I was in that latter category where the excitement of dressing up in a zoot suit and learning some new dance steps sounded fun, but my energy level for such things was pretty much nil as my wife and I were raising our daughter and, it seemed, the most culturally connected to new music came when I could sit in a rocking chair with my toddler and watch the VH1 Top 20 Countdown. Flash forward 10 years and what do we have? A Mix Six, naturally! (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Bob James’
Sugar Water: Jarreau!
Jarreau is the name of Al Jarreau’s 1983 album. It’s a simple, straightforward title, but if you ask me, it’s missing an exclamation point at the end — the multiple Grammy winner puts such joy and excitement into his performances that it’s hard not to feel as giddy as he does.
The big hit from Jarreau was “Mornin’.” It still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. One reason is the lyrics (the song was written by Jarreau, David Foster, and Jay Graydon), which are uplifting in more ways than one:
My heart will soar with love
That’s rare and real
My smiling face
Will feel every cloud
Then higher still
Beyond the blue
Until I know I can
Like any man
Reach out my hand
And touch the face of God
What really sells the bridge is Jarreau’s delivery of the second verse. By the time he gets to “touch the face of God,” he’s pretty much done just that, leaving a mere mortal like myself marveling at the minor pop miracle I’ve witnessed. All in all, “Mornin’” is a solidly constructed, catchy song, but that moment in the bridge is absolutely transcendent — eternal rebirth captured in a four-minute “easy listening” number.
