Teena Marie: A Tribute To One Of My Heroes
-by Jeremy Gloff
-appeared on TheNewGay.net
-January 5th, 2011

Teena Marie is dead and I can’t stop crying. So little moves me but her songs always did.

Teena’s music career began in the late 1970s as a protege of Rick James. She was also the first white artist to be signed to the Motown label. Over the course of thirteen albums Teena Marie blurred genres and defied easy categorization. Lady Tee’s ability to string together some of the most intellectual and thought-provoking lyrics in modern music was unmatched. When Teena Marie was at the top of her game the hunger, idealism, romance, and genius of her music was peerless. It Must Be Magic and Emerald City easily sit amongst my top ten favorite albums of all time.

Here is a list of Teena Marie songs that I really love a lot. There are dozens of Teena Marie songs that all rank amongst the most important songs in my life...but these are my favorites amongst the favorites.

1) “I Need Your Lovin’” - This was the song that made me re-discover Teena Marie in the early 1990s. The opening bassline is punchy and infectious while the lyrics are earnest and clever. Atop a gleeful disco beat Tee lets us know that “M-O-N-E-Y never did a thing for L-O-V-I-N”. It is a true testimony to Teena’s gift that she could drop lines about “seeing with her third eye” and “love’s karma” in a pop song without coming off wordy or forced. A true soul classic.

2) “Where’s California” - Certainly one of the most sweeping of Teena Marie’s slow jams. With a tender melancholy Teena Marie gives one of most emotive vocal performances. I am still in awe of this song’s swelling breathtaking climax. “I couldn’t find the fog, the Beatles, or myself. This pain in my heart is about all I have left...”

3) “You So Heavy” - Mix a slammin’ 1985 drum machine track, jazz skat singing, and a blistering guitar solo courtesy of Stevie Ray Vaughan and you have the last two minutes of “You So Heavy”. The passionate wail in Teena’s vocal delivery is a fair match for the eloquence and romance of the lyrics. Never before and never since did Teena Marie sound this desperate and raw. “Rescue me and my precious cargo...we have short time to be wed...”

4) “Revolution” - This song, prompted by the shooting of John Lennon is as terrifying and sad now as it was the first time I heard it twenty years ago. The verses are laden with Beatles references and chilling images of an infected society. Thirty years after this song was written we are still a world of war and violence. “Rubber soul, look at the killer he's just standing there Reading captions from the Catcher in the Rye...”

5) “Aladdin’s Lamp” - While songs equating love with fairy tales and childhood idealism are nothing new Teena Marie owns the formula here. The cute and overly dramatic delivery of the verses are swept away by the breezy tempo-changes of the chorus. By the time the song settles into its final midtempo passage it’s been one hell of a red carpet ride. “And somewhere in your nursery rhymes I found and lost my innocence and what could be better?”

6) “Lovergirl” - Teena’s highest charting pop single was a hit for a reason. With its taut funky-as-fuck bass line and fun wordplay this was a song that was as fun to sing to as it was to dance to. There is no denying the ambition of Teena’s performance here. Who the fuck couldn‘t love a song that opens with “coffee, tea, or me baby...touche ole...my opening line might be a bit passe...”

7) “Shangri-La” - Listening this song transports me back to a highway leading towards downtown Buffalo. Its chilly beat and icy bass line are in direct contrast to the warmth and romantic yearning of the words. The humane (and inhumane) idealism of my youth is forever held prisoner by this groove and one listen takes me back to 1995. I am unable to construct a sentence explaining how this song makes me feel but it’s a sad and strange place. “Down by the sea where the sand meets the Shangri-La we can make some more pretty memories”

8) “Sweet On You” - Teena’s self-released 1994 Passion Play album was the blueprint for her albums that would follow as it was heavy on rap influenced songs about love and sex. Tee did it best on Passion Play and this song was especially fun with its guest rap from Yo Yo. This song is fun as fuck to sing along to driving eighty on an empty highway in the afternoon. (I always sang the backup singer’s parts). “Sweet as can be...but not sweeter than Lady T!”

9) “365” - It’s nearly impossible to capture the jubilation of LOVE in a song...or is it? “365” is easily one of the most celebratory “put-your-hands-in-the-air-because-we-are-in-love” songs ever written. And because this song actually sounds the way it feels to be in love I can’t listen to it without smiling the biggest smile my mouth allows. As an Atheist if anything could ever make me a believer it’s the lines “Life has taught me lessons I don’t dare to question fate - God will do the gifting all you have to do is wait”. Every vocal inflection and lyric in this song gives me hope...and the chills. The cameo from the Temptations Melvin Franklin doesn’t hurt either.

10) “Yes Indeed” - Over a stark piano and strings Teena sings nakedly about unrequited love and disappointment. The vocal and emotional climaxes of this song are nearly unmatchable by any other singer...or artist...ever. This song is so sincere you can nearly hear the blood pumping through it. A young Teena Marie at her most human, vulnerable, and powerful. This transcends mere soul...this genius that chills to the bone.

Over the years I’ve developed a close friendship with Jill Jones, one of Teena Marie’s nearest and dearest of friends. A couple years back I was supposed to fly up to New York to accompany Jill to a performance of Teena’s. I missed that trip but figured I’d catch her the next time around.

Thank you Teena Marie for always making my guts bounce, my heart pump, and my imagination swirl. The world really fucking sucks without you. It sure was a better place because of you. RIP Lady Tee.