Munderrated 2 -terence trent d arby wishing well

In February of 1988 I laid in my bed listening to the radio trying to got to sleep as I brother snored in a bed right beside me. As I started to drift off I heard something that sounded like Prince had combined his musical sperm with Bobby Womack in the womb of Tina Turner. The words jolted out of my pre-slumber phase; "Kissing like a bandit,Stealing time,Underneath a sycamore tree,Cupid by the hour sends,Valentines,To my sweet lover and me,Slowly,But surely,Your appetite is more than I knew,Sweetly,Softly,I'm falling in love with you"

I had no tape, no way of keeping this brilliant nugget, so I decided to commit it to memory as best I could. I walked around the singing it in my best "old dudes" voice(I had no idea who sang it) just to relive the sensation that came from hearing the song. A few days past and I heard it again on WBLZ and soaked up every note of the song and waited with glee for the name of the genius of melody. Terence Trent D'arby.

Terence Trent D'arby rode the wave of Wishing Well,Sign Your Name, Let me Stay and a remake of the Michael Jackson/Smokey classic Who's Loving You to a crest of 12 million records sold. He inserted himself in that pantheon of 80's artist(black artist's especially) to create an indelible mark on the music scene. Springsteen, Madonna,Prince, and Michael may be the few who can claim a bigger breakout than D'arby. So what makes him an underrated artist you may ask? The answer is his brilliance has been completely forgotten in the following years. His second album Neither Flesh Nor Fish lofty concepts and self aggrandizing tones turned listeners away in droves and they have never returned. But his music at its core has been adventurous if not accessible. I myself was unfamiliar with the following efforts until one fateful day in Gem City Records.

My boy Dre and I were in there on a Friday evening was our custom in those days. He went to the bin that housed the newest used selections. I went to the 4.99 bin and struck sonic gold. I immediately come across Symphony or Damn his third album released in 1993 and shriek with as much manly joy as I can muster. Then flipping through a few more cd's I come across Vibrator and my mental rolodex scrolls to album reviews I'd read in years past and pulls up the review from a Vibe magazine a few years earlier. "D'arby was the only true contender for Prince's black rock/funk crown. Vibrator is a gritty funky....." Enough said I feverishly flipped through the next rows and came across Neither Flesh Nor Fish his alienating sophomore effort. I hoped against that I would find the all important first album Introducing the Hardline. With no luck. I took the cd's to the listening station by song number 3 of Vibrator I was hooked bought all 3 cd's on the spot without much listening to the others.

With D'arby I found an artist who loved to write not merely wrote, but loved the structure of words and was not afraid to be intelligent and introspective. Holding Onto You is an ode to a dead relationship that gave life to an artists great works. This song struck a chord with me because it typified what I always found that my writing was always better when hurt or stressed this song became my anthem. Other gems like Undeniably, It's Been Said, Frankie and Johnny and If You Go Before Me reveal a man who has no lane that he can't handle. For those who have not listened to this man ever start with some of his later work before picking up his Thriller, or Purple Rain in Hardline. Like those gems by other geniuses you may be doing yourself a disservice because of the funky accessibility and pop perfection. Give this underrated brother a listen.