I still like this song.

The original is a nice song, but Teddy took it to another level with that remix. Good times, good times... I still bump this on the regular.

BTW, where the hell is Jane Child when we need her to accuse Lady Gaga for beatbiting Jane's tight MIDI-programming synth-funk AND synth-rock sound?!?

@BlaqueKnight & Timmy84.....what do you think of this track?



THAT Minimoog bassline is just as much a classic as the bassline from P-Funk's Flashlight. Please quote me!

Here's the album version:

[Edited 4/26/10 20:54pm]

TonyVanDam said:

No offence to Gaga, but Jane Child was alot more of an artist then she is. Writing, producing, playing, ALL ON HER OWN (bar guitars I think?) on her first album. She never gets props. Even if you hated the songs on her first album, its still damn well produced!

But just the usual one hit wonder label is all she is given (song was not a hit in the UK unfortunately). I think her label Warners fucked her over on her 2nd album. At least, thats what I read years ago?

Nobody noticed the beat sounds just like My Name Is Prince?

2freaky4church1 said:

You mean the other way around. "Don't wanna fall in love" came out before "My name is Prince" LOL.

I don't hear it at all personally. "My name is Prince" sounds like Bobby Browns "Humpin' around" abit though.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I'll third that.
I detest remixes 99.9 % of the time anyway.



Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Records

TonyVanDam said:

A couple more groovers from Here Not There...



...Perfect Love & Calling



From Surge...



...Lootsville




Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Records

theAudience said:

I already posted "perfect love" LOL. Nobody reads my posts "Calling" is still my cut as well.

AT the end of the 80's there were a handful of young super talented solo artists that debuted and seemed to be poised to be next generation of superstars for the coming decade.
Jane Child was one of them.
When she first came out she was often compared to Prince, because of her synthy sophisticated funk/rock sound that crossed over between the pop and r&b charts. Also because she wrote, produced, sang and played/programmed everything (except guitars) on her album.

Unfortunately, she was unable to build on her debut. Her second album was a mess of New Jack Swing and generic hard rock songs, peppered with experimental like tracks. No suprise, it was her last release for a major label.

Like 10 years later in 2002, she self released her third album, which given the time inbetween, was somewhat eneven and dissapointing.
Neither the third or second albums were as commanding as her debut.


But damn, when she wants to she can deliver the FONK!!
Such as this one, (which is the only one) on her third album.
It is definately her greatest strength.


[Edited 5/5/10 20:59pm]

sexyfunkystrange said:

I read ages ago she deliberately "grunged up" some of the tracks off her second album to spite Warner Brothers and deliberately make it uncommerical. Certainly an odd album thats for sure.

"DS 21" is probably my fav cut from her. "World lullabye" was a interesting cut as well. She certainly could of gone poppy industrial ala Nine inch nails judging by the slightly darker leanings of tracks like "mr jones" and "world lullabye". I can't get with some of her second album.

Her first was very cohesive though. Particually for a debut with all the input she had on it. Maybe label politics struck down another young hopeful? Shame...

BlaqueKnight said:

Calm down LOL. I just remember reading it somewhere many years ago. I hope Iam wrong

thesexofit said:

I dont think it was label politics, only because her third album, has a similar musically scattered approach like her second. I think she lacks a clear vision.
And her somgwriting, while capable, is uneven.
THe production and idea of "Sarasvati" on her second album was incredible, but it was completely out of place!

thesexofit said:

My bad.
These pages load so slowly when i'm at work sometimes that'll skim right past the graphics.


Music for adventurous listeners


tA

Tribal Records

TonyVanDam said:

I really liked it. Jane is highly underrated, yet I hear people biting licks and lines from her records all of the time.
There are what I call underground influence artists in the biz. These are artists who usually never get big themselves but influence other national artists who do get big. Jane is one. Mint Condition is another. You hear people biting their work but if you don't know the artist's work, you don't know where it came from. Jane is a phenomenal artist/musician. This bass line kicks ass; so does the bass on "Heavy Smile", "Calling" and "Perfect Love". I think musically, "Here Not There" as complete record is a good evolution from her first record.

sexyfunkystrange said:

I dont think it was label politics, only because her third album, has a similar musically scattered approach like her second. I think she lacks a clear vision.
And her somgwriting, while capable, is uneven.
THe production and idea of "Sarasvati" on her second album was incredible, but it was completely out of place!

See, this is more about artist's expression than anything else. "Sarasvati" broke the "pop rules" by being almost 8 minutes long. Its a great musical journey. If you "get" her, you get where she was going with that song. It added another dimension to her as an artist. Jane wasn't trying to be bound by genres and like Prince, she found a good mix and blend of styles to express who she is as an artist. Labels don't get stuff like that. They only want to know "Why isn't this another synth based R&B-ish record with pop-rock edges?" or "Why aren't the songs all one genre?". WB sabotaged her record. They could have easily pushed "Heavy Smile" or "Mona Lisa Smiles" or even "Monument" as rock singles or "Sshhh" as a rock ballad. Instead, they pushed what in my opinion was the most mild song on the record - "Here Not There" and they HAD to know it wouldn't fly as a single. That's like WB pushing "An Honest Man" as a single for a Prince record.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

LOCKED!!!!!

BlaqueKnight said:

I understand what youre saying, but theres a distinct line between boundless artistic freedom and having the necessaey sharp production sensibility for creating your sophmore release with a worldwide major music corporation!!
That is , of course if you plan on sustaining any kind of career with their help!

It was just irresponsible.
She had one great album under her belt with no tour. And no solid fan base of support.She hadnt EARNED the right to call the shots as she saw them.
And the way label released music is set up to be heard, bought and sold in this country, you have to understand the system and the rules FIRST! Put in the work first! Earn your spot. Build your loyal fan base first. Thats what for example, Prince did.
There was no cohesivenes in that second album. Straight ponding hard rock, to go-go beat New Jack Swing, etc. What first time buyer in the early 90's was gonna understand that? Her fans from the first album had nothing to relate to either.
And the songwriting for most of the album was only average and nothing outstanding (except for a few GREAT tracks which themselves were all out of place on the album.)
It was Jane who ended up sabatoging her own career, not WB.

Which was a true shame. The music world needed her and her incredible potential.
If she had only the disipline to control it.
[Edited 5/6/10 11:56am]

Well there's two sides to every story. Maybe the label wanted her to produce another "Don't Wanna Fall in Love" and she didn't wanna do it. Lots of artists are always told by corporate industries to repeat what they did last album. It's like you're only as good as your hit so with a label like Atlantic they probably didn't want her to experiment. Maybe if she had been around in the '70s, the story would've been different but she's far from the only one who had to deal with record industry politics.

sexyfunkystrange said:

There was cohesiveness in the record, just not from a marketing standpoint. I disagree that there was no exceptional songwriting. In my opinion it was actually better than the first record.
I also disagree that artists have to "follow the rules". Prince has been breaking the rules most of his career and he would have never made Sign Of The Times if he has been following them.
You don't think releasing Here Not There instead of, well...ANYTHING else on this record wasn't a huge slap? Come on.
I'm not saying the record is flawless but its not haphazard by any means. "Do Whatcha Do" is easily in line with the songs from her first record and could have worked well as her first single from the record to hook her fans from the previous record who dug her synth pop funk style that she started on the first CD. Now if you were trying to make the case of Surge being more "haphazrd" I might have to agree to an extent but thats not true for "Here Not There". Its diverse. Artists grow but audiences don't always grow or change with them.

BlaqueKnight said:

I know what youre sayin, difference with Prince though, is his production sense had already synthesized rock, r&b and funk into a cohesive sound from the get go. All he had to do was play with the balances of each flavor, feel me?
But more than that, he was hookin folks in with his live shows which were a whole legend in themselves. People were connecting with him directly on a personal level and in a expanded medium aside from just buying an album.
Jane on the other hand didnt ever tour on ANY of her releases.
BlaqueKnight, you have a much more open eared saviness than 90% of the music buying public. But thats just you.
Getting a record deal with a major music corporation, you had better understand from the very first step that 90% of the public's ears arent like that, if you wanna build a career with a company like the WB. Or else why sign with them???!!


God bless her and her right to create whatever type of music she wants, but in the end, what was the point? So she could take ten years to make her next one?
And that one is already like TEN years old already!

sexyfunkystrange said:

Prince was developed into the artist he became. He didn't do it all himself. WB guided him every step. The 90s music business was distinctly different from the 80s music business. The problem with Jane wasn't her music. I'm sorry but you can't blame an artist who makes good music for making good music. The problem was WB's marketing choice. I know PLENTY about record delas. I know they are all different, too. The problem is Jane was actually too late to do what she was doing in the 90s. The bottom had already fallen out in '91. 1993 was when they were trying to recover "by any means necessary" (I'm sorry, Malcolm). At that point, the business had conformed to boxes and she didn't fit any of them perfectly. The problem again, was with the business, NOT WITH THE ARTIST. Instead of conforming, she chose to continue to make her art. WB, being the evil ass corporate f*ckers they are, launched the WORST POSSIBLE CHOICE THEY COULD for a single. Now whether or not she conformed didn't matter. THEY chose to wreck any chances of sales by pushing "Here Not There" when "Mona Lisa Smiles" could have easily fallen in with what was going on musically at the time (alt-rock) and could have introduced Jane to a new audience. Even though they used Mona Lisa Smiles for the Freejack sound track, they (WB) still chose not to push it as a single. Now you tell me, how is that sound thinking on the part of the label?
Ironically, Tracey Bonham dropped "Mother Mother" which sounded like it came straight from Jane's "Here Not There" CD and it became a #1 single, proving that the "sound" could sell easily. They (WB) are adamant assholes about people staying in their boxes and at that time, were looking to punish anyone who didn't conform.

Timmy84 said:

But lets not forget that by 1994, black music producers (and I now say "producers" loosely) were all following Dr. Dre's & Sean Combs' idea of making tracks at a downtempo of 95 BPM, typical of hip-hop soul & most gangsta rap at the time.

To her credit, Jane Child was still doing uptempo tracks and downright refusing to go down the road of hip-hop soul. And sadly, it didn't help matters any that the WB didn't push promote of her 2nd album like that should have due to change of music climate of that era.

BlaqueKnight said:

Exactly. The story of the WB using Clive Davis-like tactics to ruin Jane's mainstream career doesn't surprise me at all. Typical.

BlaqueKnight said:

Im going to assume the reason WB released "here not there" as a lead single, was because it would be indicative as to the kind of overt oddness one was going to be exposed to ehn listening to the album itself.
For example, say they released "All I do is think of you" or whatever. The rock buying public would be in for WTF if they heard the album.
Same goes for if they released "Calling" or whatever, and the New Jackers picked up the album and heard "Sarasvati"!!!
So in way, I can conceive of why that single was chosen. In this case I dont blame the WB. For better or worse.It was really a no win situation. Like I said Jane didnt EARN the right to do whatever she wanted, as a sophmore WITH a major music corporation footing the bill!

The other thing one can see if you look at all her videos, is that she never developed any skills whatsoever as a PERFORMER.
In her vids Ms. Jane is either doing one of two things. Walking or sitting!!!
So that didnt help matters either.


Tracey's "mother mother" is close but really in a different class.
Where say "mona lisa smiles" sort of floats around rhythmlessly in a exotic haze during the verses for 80% of the song, "mother mother" instead drives. The rhythmic pulse of the acoustic keeping the song moving even when the band drops out.
Actually "mother mother" is more from the school of college alt-rock that Alanis Morisette came out of, than the straight forward hard rock with some heavy exotic ambiences that was where Jane was coming from.


Personally, I played the hell out of all the "here not there" album, and grooved on every song, because I was really feeling Jane as an artist.
But even then, at the same time, I knew career wise, she was making a big mistake.

Timmy84 said:

Oh, hell yea!

sexyfunkystrange said:

Well, I tend to look at an artist's art for what it is rather than try to insult the work by compartmentalizing it (unless that artist is a pop artist). Jane was obscure from the beginning. "Welcome To The Real World" was my first exposure to her, so "Don't Wanna Fall..." was a nice follow-up but she wasn't a new jack swing artist. She was alt-R&B, if you will. It was her call to go the direction she did creatively. Not R&B enough for the rockers and too rock for the R&Bers? Maybe. Blame it on the industry, not the artist. Boxes were created and every artist was guided into them around 1990-1991, so when A&R turned into promotions, lots of artists were left out in the cold.
And "Here Not There" was a TERRIBLE choice for a first single, as we have seen.

BlaqueKnight said:

All that about early 90's industry politics being said, I can remeber how excited I was when she was ready to come out with her third album ten years later! And then finally hearing it.

Any thoughts?