Transcribed by www.thedebarges.blogspot.com
DeBarge finds a role model then strikes chart pay dirt by balancing the scared and the sexual in their music.This Begins Motown’s next Golden Era
What do you do when you’re surrounded by some of the most formidable artists in contemporary music and have to deliver the goods before a national TV audience as well?
You prevail, that’s what.
During the taping of Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, and Forever, the DeBarge family may well have ushered in the labels next golden era. Clocking in ample time onscreen with “Can’t Stop” and the title song from last spring’s All this Love album, the quintet eschewed synchro-steps and put movement to their music with a free-flowing grace that was remarkable for a group which had never performed a concert. At the very least, the siblings’ brief turn in the spotlight marked them in some eyes as the best of Motown’s new generation. And the veterans on hand nodded approval.
“A lot of people backstage were really rooting for us,” recalls Eldra DeBarge, 22. “I guess it was because they know we were young and this is a really big thing for us. They’d pat us on the back and talk a bit. ‘Hey man, you guys are great. I know you’re going to do a good job.’ And by the time we got out there we kind of had a proudness about ourselves. We just went out there and did it.
This demonstrable grace under pressure is common among musicians who, like the DeBarges, have spend their entire lives set apart, living the weird half-light of being both controversial and ignored. The children (there are 10) in the DeBarge family were frequently the focus of attention growing up--much of it disdainful, or curious at best, since their mother Etterlene is black and their father Robert white. It’s a tantalizing notion to think that the legion of Motown 25 viewers who were beguiled by these talented singer/songwriters might include their many Midwest neighbors whose morality just didn’t stretch far enough to enfold 10 exuberant mulatto kids. Undeniably, society’s view of their mixed-race family made them a tighter bunch, and they quickly discovered that coming together in the bond of music made the cold stares a little less bruising.
It was an early-morning interview at Motown’s Hollywood offices, but DeBarge was already looking for a conductor for its nervous energy through the little in-jokes, asides and tune-sputtering that usually keep the brood cracking up. In the months since a similar encounter last spring, James, Bunny, Eldra, Mark and Randy had ditched their cable-knit sweaters and skinny ties in favor of bright-colored, new wave fashions and splattered tunic tops. Their third and most recent album, In a Special Way, was just beginning to show its mobility on the black and pop charts on the strength of “Time will Reveal” ’s heavy radio airplay, and the group was looking forward to an upcoming video shoot of the single and, at long last, a concert tour. All This Love was on its way to platinum, but everyone seemed as generous and eager-to-please in their conversation as ever, radiant in the kind of spontaneous joy that comes out in inspired company.
“We all watched out for one another as children,” says Bunny. At 28, she’s the oldest and herself the mother of two girls. “So we’re best friends. Right here--I’ve got all the opinions I want right in one family.”
Her brothers laugh and offer a dozen at once.
“It’s hard to make friends once you’re grown, because you don’t know who to trust,” she continues. “So we have to be each other’s best friends. Other people don’t have any input in what we’re doing. They’re just there… if we want them…”
With the latest album DeBarge has taken even more control. Eldra, who had shared production duties with Iris Gordy on All This Love, has now taken over the producing himself.
“It wasn’t a quick decision,” he says. “We wanted to do it with Maurice White. My brother Bobby was talking to me kinda last minute as we were getting ready to go into the studio. He was trying to build my confidence up, saying ‘Hey, we can do this ourselves.’”
(Bobby and yet another brother, Tommy, were the first to head west form their Grand, Rapids, Michigan home. They recorded six albums for Motown with Switch, and introduced their siblings to the label and to manager Jermaine Jackson before leaving the group. Commercial music, you see, is a family affair, with only the three youngest DeBarges still at large.)
After he made his decision, Eldra “told Maurice I had my confidence back and he wished us good luck. Bobby helped me out. He was right there for me, and we really put it through. The group gave me some good material to work with, so it wasn’t all that bad. I mean, for it being my first time producing, jumping in like that.”
Giving the elements in the mix to breathe is the most obvious of Eldra’s touches. DeBarge’s music fits into a relatively uncrowded niche of ‘80s pop--jazz-backed and up-tempo, with a light soul touch on the lush manicured ballads. But compared to their previous album, In A Special Way has lightened instrumentation that allows more opportunity for subtle shading in their vocals. Brazilian percussionist Paulinho DaCosta introduces an understated exotic feel on several of the new songs (he’s recorded with Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, James Ingram, EW&F) and the skills of star session drummers Rickey Lawson (Al Jarreau tour), Harvey Mason Jr. (Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, George Benson) and Leon “Ndugu” Chancler (Jackson, Jones, Donna Summer) and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes (Jackson, Steely Dan, you-name-it) provide the sort if interesting jazz textures needed to illuminate the vocals.
Gone, too, is All This Love’s 11-man brass section. Though the new songs are for the most part free of heavy-handed flourish horns (and better for it), it was partly by accident that this particular change occurred. During the recording of some horn parts on In a Special Way there was a technical problem that fouled up the tracks. After a little experimentation Eldra and engineer Barney Perkins found a way to sneak the in and out without making it sound as though something’s missing.
On the new album, Eldra’s aim was to keep it clean. “I don’t like that muddy cluttered sound like to much is happening,” he affirms. “The tracks are too busy, and you can’t appreciate this groove in the song because something else is going against it. Just too much going on. I’ve noticed it in a lot of records and we made a vow not to ever let that happen…you can only get so much in your ear at one time.”
So far DeBarge has offered all original material on its albums, and all it’s members contribute. Eldra writes, or co-writes with Bunny, most of the times and you’ll find them taking a front seat as vocalists as well. 24-year-old Mark has a song on the new LP, “Stay With Me.” James, however, is making impressive come-from-behind strides--although the group’s debut album, The DeBarges, was recorded in 1981 before he joined, he wrote and sang “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” on the second LP and contributed three songs to the latest, one co-written with Bill Preston. His “Be My Lady” may be tapped as the follow-up single to “Time Will Reveal.”
20 years old and the youngest in the group, James hasn’t yet show the stylistic range of brother Eldra, but his saucy expression and the sly baby-talk way he plays with certain key words introduces an appealing carelessness that’s in ironic contrast to the meticulous vocals of the others.
“James has a part in DeBarge that fills a gap,” says his sister, answering a question for him. James is clever but seems shy, and he’s content to sit quietly or cut up with 25-year-old Randy while others speak his mind. Adds Bunny: “El is more of a ballad writer. El can also write up-tempo songs, but then, he can contribute to what James has."
Through DeBarge performances have been limited to promotional events and TV appearances, February finds them hitting the road for a four-month U.S. tour, followed by a month in Europe. But though this marks their first extended test as musicians (Randy plays bass, Eldra and James play keyboards and Mark doubles on percussion and trumpet), as singers they’ve always had an audience. DeBarge kids virtually overran the choir loft in Bethel Pentecostal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where their Uncle James was the choir director and Uncle Bill the pastor. Uncle James, it seems, recognized their talent at an early age and polished their pipes through the years while instilling in them the techniques and love of gospel music. The accomplished youngsters were circulated around in chorus and as soloists. Every Sunday they would sing on a local gospel radio broadcast. “Hallelujah, Jesus, buckle my shoe,” went the refrain of on of their favored tunes.
Given the secular (and often sexual) nature of their commercial music, returning to the church in which they grow up is often awkward for the DeBarges. Although Bethel’s hard line of no smoking, no drinking and no partying has mellowed some what since the time their family filled the place, the DeBarge kids-- show biz people you understand--are eye warily by the congregation.
“When we walk in the door the first thing they do is make sure we’re still down-to-earth,” says Mark. “They start talking to us to see where the wild hairs are. They used to be strict, but now it’s kind of ‘Hey you can do what you want to, but it’s not right to do that.’ ”
“I think it was a no-no in our church t do this kind of music,” Bunny adds.
Eldra chides them gently. “Well, let’s not get into all that, talking about religion.”
How I luv to see you move your sexy body
The way you move and groove
When you whip it down the street
Come along with me I promise I’ll be good to you
Don’t you make no plans
Let it happen naturally
Yeah, Lordy Lord…
…Be my lady…
DeBarge wouldn’t be everywhere on your radio if their songs simply mirrored the group’s religious bent, and therein hands the dilemma for these high spirited performers who must thank both God and Berry Gordy for their break.
This point, however, is that religion inspired music in their lives, whether through the hymnal or their mother’s prayers.
“I remember moving into different places and people looking out the window going ‘ohhhh…’ ” says Bunny. “It was kind of hard on us, and Momma was always pregnant. I remember her crying at times, and saying ’How am I going to raise all these kids?” She finally just put it in God’s hands and said ’Lord, you wanted these kids to come into this world, you make them a blessing to me, and to someone else.’ She would put her hands on her stomach and she would pray ‘Lord, make them a blessing.’
“My mother was a very musically inclined, so I can say that it came from her and her faith in God that we went off into music. That’s why I say we knew at an early age why we were here to sing and to inspire people with our songs and with our lyrics.”
She recalls her own prayerful requests in uncertain times--”Please, God, make our record a hit”--that were twice answered: “All this Love” would have been spring’s number one soul chart listing if “Billie Jean” hadn’t been the monster hit it was, and the rise of “Time Will Reveal” didn’t leave the latest LP time to languish.
Eldra remembers their early music making wasn’t merely kid stuff. “Music was so emotional for us,” he says. “It was more than a plaything. We’d write a song when we were little, I mean five or six, and tears would come streaming down. It was real spiritual. Everyone went directly to the instrument they were meant to have.”
And if you were to take DeBarge’s themes in their grown-up songs and balance them against today’s standards, the sexual references would seem pretty mild. But for now, the family continues to thank Jesus in the inner sleeve and dot their conversation with grace notes praising His name while avoiding direct lyrical references to their faith.
Says Bunny: “When we get out here on stage it isn’t a sex thing. We want to reach out to those people and tell them about love. And God is love. We don’t want to get off into the sex thing. It’s not something that stands. We want it to be more firm than a sexual thing. The songs I write--I pray to God before I write them and ask God to give me the words.”
Eldra stresses that DeBarge is not oblivious to the responsibility they now have to their young fans. “Even though you can be God-conscious, you still are human and you still have human desires, human needs, Like, there’s nothing wrong with a man wanting a woman, and a woman wanting a man, but God’s way is to pursue a marriage situation before you start.
“So I think expressing those desires about love, even secular love, that we have for each other isn’t in any way sinful--it’s very natural. It’s okay to write songs about it if that’s the way you feel. But when you start getting deep into all that lustful stuff, you’re promoting fornication.”
“We want to be an example,” adds Mark, “just like Jesus was. He came down to Earth and showed people, ‘Hey, you can make it.’ And they didn’t take nothing from him. Nothing.”
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