Dee Harvey - Just As I Am - 1991 - Motown

Dee Harvey was one on MANY quality releases that saw the light of day on Motown in the early 1990s. Such quality, and still as essential today as they were the moment they hit the streets. Dee Harvey is a classic soul singer in every sense and schooled in the traditional balladeer mode, but still able to kick ass with a dancer if he needs to. If you have the "Five Heartbeats" soundtrack album then you will already have been aware of his performance in the film as Flash, and also his KILLER 80s-styled stepper "In The Middle" which was written and produced by George Duke. The man was perfectly suited to the classy establishment of Jheryl Busby and Steve McKeever who expertly steered Motown through it's sale to MCA in 1988 until Polygram got it's hands on it and eventually maimed it by giving it to the grossly inexperienced and inappropriate Andre Harrell. Today, as you know, an album of this quality would never appear on the once-great label.

Back in 1991 I fell immediately in love with "Leave Well Enough Alone", a song describing the most sexy temptation a married man might well face and the dilemma he finds himself in. A similar tale to that laid down by the late, great Tyrone Davis, but a smoother, 1990s approach. A superb track that deserves championing to this day. Still a monster, too, is the Tena Clark penned and produced "Just As I Am". At first I thought this song was going to be a bit sugary and schmaltzy BUT get passed the initial 60 seconds we are given a real and true treat. What a vocalist Dee Harvey is! Wow. Where is he now, that's what I want to know! My third choice is the brilliant uptempo synthy number, "Nothin' But Emotion" - a great track and still I play this today. Some great funky guitar licks on here and a testament to Dee, Tena and Motown for creating some timeless material in a decade that slid more and more into musical banality and chaos as the decade went on.

Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe

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Ray Parker, Jr - I Love You Like You Are - 1991 - MCA

It's very rare I bother switching on the TV these days, and when I do what do I see? Ray Parker Jr dressed as a London ticket inspector dancing around advertising a telecoms service. Pity, I thought ruefully, that this great artist is best known for the Ghostbusters theme tune. He was, and still is much more than that. In view of that I thought I'd add this 1991 gem for MCA into the mix as it was a CD that didn't seem to get much attention at the time. The set was very much like J.T. Taylor's SUPERB CD released the same year, and similarly consisted of very agreeable uptempo grooves and tunes for a candlelit dinner. What I like about Ray's writing, especially on this Cd, is that it's rather cheeky. I like cheeky, and I have to say whether you like rap or not you have to smile at the fantastic leader single from the CD, "She Needs To Get Some" which features rapper Father MC. The lyrics are not at all risque but the double entendre is well in motion and I am sure wasn't missed on those well versed in the idiom as I!!! As an aside, Commodores lead vocalist and all-round scouser, J.D. Nicholas, weighs in on backing vocals. How cool is that?!

The second release from here was "Ain't Gonna Go For That", a second piece of uptempo pie that sat nicely at the quality end of the New Jack phenomenon. The aim, I feel, was to emulate the success of recent hits by Bell Biv DeVoe and Ralph Tresvant. It works well, and the song is still a good'un today. For the more conservative I suggest the more traditional outing "Let's Go Back To Bed", a track that was included in Andy Peebles show once or twice. This still sounds great, but I have to say all these cuts pale in comparison to the track written and produced by Gary Taylor..."Square One". Most will know of Gary's own version from the CD of the same name released later in 1993, but here we have Gary's original version in all it's glory. If you loved the Great Man's "Take Control" album then this is for you. It's very similar to his own, latter, version BUT there is a musical edge and superiority with this version. Ray's vocals are a really good match for this groove and I love it to pieces. Gary adds his own vocals in the background and I have to say that it is really magic. Still available at a reasonable price, I cannot believe that this album is 18 years old. That scares me!

Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe

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