FEATURE:
Groovelines
Sade – The Sweetest Taboo
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I am going to include a very special song…
into Groovelines this week. I will quote from an interesting and detailed article about the song’s origins and development. Before then, it is worth getting some chart statistics regarding the mighty The Sweetest Taboo:
“The Sweetest Taboo" is a song by English band Sade from their second studio album, Promise (1985). It was released on 30 September 1985 as the album's lead single. While the song peaked at number 31 on the UK Singles Chart, it fared considerably better in the United States, where it reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1986, remaining in the top 40 for 13 weeks. It also became the band's second consecutive number-one single on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, following "Smooth Operator”.
Oner of Sade’s best-known songs, I think The Sweetest Taboo is a classic! With the sensuous and soulful voice of Sade Adu and her band sounding incredible throughout, everyone needs to listen to the song and get lost in it. The Sweetest Taboo is the biggest and finest song from Promise. That album came a year after the sensational Diamond Life – an album that possessed Your Love Is King and Smooth Operator in its arsenal. I love Sade as a band, though I think Adu is one of the greatest voices there has ever been. As this feature is called Groovelines, there is a forensic element regarding the songs featured. The title also suggests vinyl connection. Go and get Promise on vinyl if you can, as it is a truly magnificent album.
There might be debate as to which Sade track is the best. No matter what you reckon, one has to concede that The Sweetest Taboo needs to be in the top-three! I will bring in a great feature from Sound on Sound from 2004. I cannot quote everything from the article as it is very detailed and extensive. A few sections definitely caught my eye:
“Helen Folasade Adu helped redefine urban soul when, as Sade, the Nigerian-born Londoner burst onto the scene in the mid-'80s with her multi-platinum debut album Diamond Life. Her laid-back, near-emotionless vocal delivery served as a perfect counterpoint to the high-passion, heavily embellished singing of an Aretha Franklin or a Whitney Houston. Recorded by 'production engineer' Mike Pela and featuring the contributions of Sade bandmates Stuart Matthewman (guitar/sax), Paul Denman (bass) and Andrew Hale (keyboards), Diamond Life was produced with a slick, quasi-jazz feel by Robin Millar at his own Power Plant facility in North-West London. It spent 98 weeks on the UK charts, 81 weeks on the Billboard Top 200, and spawned the hit singles 'Your Love Is King', 'Hang On To Your Love' and 'Smooth Operator' while earning Sade a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Between February and August 1985 the same team then reassembled for Sade's even more successful follow-up Promise, which was co-produced by her, Robin Millar, Mike Pela and, in a less central role, Ben Rogan. The album contained such radio-friendly hits as 'Is It A Crime', 'Never As Good As The First Time' and 'The Sweetest Taboo', the artist's signature song which enjoyed a six-month run on the American pop charts.
Standing behind a corrugated metal screen at the back of the control room, Sade recorded her overdubbed vocals through a Neumann U87 treated with a delayed EMT 140 echo plate, Dbx 160X compressor and, for the middle section of 'The Sweetest Taboo', an AMS RMX reverb. "We almost always used either an 87, a 57 or a 58 for Sade," says Mike Pela, "and we'd always come back and try other things. In fact, on her most recent album we used a Neumann 49. She's pretty easy to record, although how she approaches the vocals depends on whether or not she's writing the song as she goes along. Although the band typically comes into the studio with some of the songs already written, others will be written on the spot, drawing on ideas that have already been knocking around. So, if Sade is piecing the words together, her vocal will be recorded in sections until she comes up with what she wants, including the right kind of melodic rise and fall. In the case of 'The Sweetest Taboo', on the other hand, her vocal went down in complete takes. And as I don't like too much piecing together, I usually try to keep the number of takes down.
In terms of the co-production roles, Robin Millar largely directed operations, saying "Let's do this next," or "Let's try that," while also overlapping with Mike Pela when deciding what sounded good, where a song should be heading and how to best achieve this. "I had a fair amount of input on the artistic side," Pela says, "and the band members were also pretty vocal and quite involved. For her part, Sade liked to be inspired by a song, so while she'd be particularly interested in building up her vocals, she would also comment if there was something she thought should be added or removed. She was right in the middle of everything."
"Generally, if Sade heard something that she liked and thought she could write to, she and the other musicians would keep going with it," Pela remarks. "You see, one interesting aspect to Sade's music is that it is a band effort, not just her, and the result is that there's always continuity and depth. It's not just about a solo artist. They'll come up with ideas, she'll find something she likes and then that will turn into a song. That's the way things have always developed, and that is one of her strengths. It isn't just her. I mean, she's obviously unique and instantly recognisable, which is great, but she also has this support behind her, and that, too, is great. That's the musical continuity. All of them have been together through thick and thin, and that is slightly unusual and, in terms of the public perspective, maybe a bit under-appreciated.
"'The Sweetest Taboo' has a middle section that comes back at the end, so the basis of the song is quite simple, and the original idea was that we were going to use this rhythm provided by the drum loop. Dave Early, however, wanted to play it, and it would have been a bit silly to do that with a sampled rim and snare going on at the same time, so he played it as part of the live band and then we dropped in on that drum track to enhance the live feel, sampling the rim, the snare and the kick to get a constant dynamic, a constant punch to the drums. At the time we were doing this sort of hybrid thing that was suddenly becoming available for people to try out”.
I think Sade is one of these artists who we all know and like, yet her music is not played as extensively as you’d imagine. Apart from big tracks like The Sweetest Taboo and Your Love Is King, she has created some amazing music through the years. Her sixth studio album, Soldier of Love, was released in 2010. I am not sure whether the band will return and there is going to be any more music, but we have so much great material from them to enjoy. Promise does not get the same kudos as Diamond Life, yet I think it is such a fine album without a weak moment. To me, The Sweetest Taboo is the finest gem from that record. An instant classic, it still sounds breath-taking after almost thirty-six years. I shall leave it there but, if you have not spun The Sweetest Taboo for a while, go and do so now as it will lodge in the head and heart for ages! A stunning song from a terrific band and a peerless singer, it has been on my mind a lot recently. One only needs to hear The Sweetest Taboo for a mere few seconds before it…
STOPS you in your tracks.