My big question is this-when they say that Bobby started abusing his younger brothers, did they mean sexually as well?
All in all, it is such a sad story. A very talented family.
[Edited 11/27/08 17:42pm]

I doubt it, they would have said it like Bunny came out about the father.

I don't necessarily think so. I think it was strongly implied-Randy couldn't even face the camera when he talked about Bobby abusing his siblings.

I watched i thought it was a good story.In short it hit on many topics and many questions were answered.After the two books a few interviews now id like to see a movie about the family.

I saw it, and didn't realize they entire family was doing drugs. I always thought it was Bobby, Chico and El.

Very sad....

The fact that El is now in jail for crack posession after seeing how drugs destroyed most of his siblings is even more sad.

It is sad and after seeing that special, I don't think the whole group will ever reunite. It does seem though, that the demons of that family have stopped with the elder Debarges. Their kids seem different. I can't get over how Bobby's kids look nothing like him.

El needs to do another album. Its been about 14 years now? Thats the real waste!

Well, he won't be recording any time soon

El should have been a superstar, hell the whole family should have been huge. El could have been #3 in the '80s behind Mike and Prince. He had (still has) that much talent.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

agree

Nah I didn't see it. I might have to catch it on the 30th.

Timmy, you need to see it and cosign on El and the family should have been supserstars

scriptgirl said:

Does it come back on any time tonight, tomorrow or what?

Timmy84 said:

it might repeat when it debuts Phyllis Hyman's this sunday

funkpill said:

Ah thanks!

LittleBLUECorvette said:

It's quite obvious Motown bankrolled him to be a crossover like Lional and Jacko. Even Bunny's album was pop for the most part. And in the mid 80's, crossing over was what is was all about. Michael Jackson, Lional Ritchie, Diana Ross, Billy Ocean etc..., they all had some sucsess trying to crossover to pop audiences. Motown wanted that with El. Personally El coulda rivalled Jacko potentially, but alas, it never happened.

Its a shame though he was stuck at Motown. Motown were dead by the mid 80's (been dying long before that). His first album did not have one co-write by him. Its one of my all time fav albums LOL, but thats because most of is is crossover pop, with some of it more akin to Chicago then El's sorta rnb. 3 tracks with Diane Warren? Anyway the album, I presume, was designed to sell millions, and musta cost alot to make aswell, as those then top of the range session musicians and songwriters dont come cheap. The album of course, did not sell millions, and I swear Motown were very slow on CD manufactoring, another sign they had no idea about the then current trends.

"Gemini" was just a bit odd and even felt half assed as an album. Sure, El was back writing the bulk of the material, and the production and playing was slick, but you had to be careful in the late 80's with rnb. His album sounded a bit dated for 1989. It also had 2 reprises of the same track. WTF? A few of the tracks sounded like poppy outtakes from the first album, and probably were, so that didn't help. Was this an rnb or a pop album? It just felt like the album was a mishmash of el rnb cuts and a few outtakes. Not good enough. Again, I actually like most of the album, but I can see why it failed.

You could argue "In the storm" sorta predates neo-soul, but that got slept on for some reason? Well I presume it did anyway. His last album was mainly a Babyface record with El's vocals, and Babyface was geting tired after La. Reid left him. Shoulda been a big hit considering, but anyway.


So a somewhat spotty, but still interesting solo career.

This would be a perfect time for an El comeback. The 90s were not really a good decade for RNB and El never fit into New Jack Swing, which was where it was at for Rnb in the late 80s, early to mid 90s.

The best thing would have been for Debarge to have put out one more album and then El could have flown the coop and then done another Debarge cd.

One thing I do remember well was seeing the cover art for Rhythm of the Night. Like James said tonight, I was shocked by it. I was a young un at the time, but I knew it was odd that El had the biggest pic on the album, which by the way, was not a good one.

scriptgirl said:

You don't keep up with current events do you?

Note that I said "would be" not "will be". There is a difference.

Haha, this is one of my fav el tracks actually. His voice sounds so innocent. It fits so well.

Of course, doing cover songs like this woulda shocked his hardcore fans, but El could really do crossover pop very well.

Not one of his best

It was good to see switch perform in the little clip.
[Edited 11/30/08 17:19pm]

I hope that is what the dad said. They talked about Bobby a lot, because he got the ball rolling for his other siblings and his story is compelling as well. I noticed that Bobby's wife seemed to be kind of angry at him and El's wife (they're seperated now) seemed rather ghetto.

It wasn't anything new I haven't heard before, but to see them
all masking their pain with drugs is very sad, you can still hear the pain when the siblings were talking about their past. I hate to hear when women stay in a abusive relationship--see what the outcome is when you don't get out, the children will always carry the pain throughout their adult life. I wonder how their relationship is with their mother? I know she has all the family on her website.(Mamadebarge.com) Bunny, looked like she was still using something. I hate to see how El looks like now, I still can't believe that the recent mugshot of him in October is actually him, What a Change
What a waste of talent, I remember reading Chico's interview online and he
stated that El is the one taking Bobby's death the hardest.




HE DOESN'T HAVE TO FOLLOW THE SAME PATH OF HIS LATE BIG BRO'

What was the pills called?4and door?Sorry i couldn't make it out.

destinyc1 said:

Fours and Doers, street slang for morphine but I don't think they even call it that anymore.

Rosesred, what chico interview do you mean? People that saw El in concert in July say he looks nothing like that mug shot. Bunny seemed fine to me. I don't think Mama D was the best mom and in fact, I think maybe all the kids but Chico have a distant relationship with her. Chico is really close to his mom, but he is a Cancer and a lot of them tend to stay close to mama.

RosesRred said:

Looks like he is.

scriptgirl said:

They are right, he doesn't look the same.


http://www.eonline.com/ub..._brig.html

I dedicate his own song to him and to all who are struggling:
SOMEBODY LOVES YOU

http://www.youtube.com/wa...LxciyUj1zs

(one of my favorites)

Here's a clip from 'Unsung'

The Debarge Story

http://www.tvoneonline.co...tvone/8200


click on the link next to it to see another clip
link is not available to copy
[Edited 11/28/08 11:51am]