All good things must come to an end. My final post on DeBarge is really just a cool “best of” playlist I concocted. Tracks of note that I’d recommend y’all touch on are “Time Will Reveal” off the same album “Stay With Me” is of. Something about this track reminds me of Brian Wilson’s adolescent feelings that would come through in the best Beach Boy tracks. Its “Caroline, No” for a lot of us R&B fans, full of just windswept melancholia and beauty touching on some genuine feeling. Just listen to the baroque pop-ish vocals and arrangement from El, now that’s some paralleled pain right there.
Other track to check out from El’s solo career are both of the Marvin aping tracks like “Starlight, Moonlight, Candlelight” and his re-make of “After the Dance” both super sultry tracks that function on a mind and boy level just like Gaye’s best. The two tracks I highlighted from 2010’s completely slept on Second Chance album, “Heaven” with its Miguel-like delivery and rhythm or the genuinely amazing “Joyful” who wholly earns that tag simply by everything that starts at its 3 minute mark, are still proof positive that even at his older age he still has tons of talent to burn (heck even Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis who help out with the track…still got a claim to make).
I know I didn’t touch a lot on his own story of going through major drug/financial problems. Nor, did I touch on a lot of his known tracks like “Rhythm of the Night” or his appearance in the Last Dragon, but I’d like to think his music speaks better for the man himself than all of this. At end of the day, he is just one man obviously trying to sort out his own issues but hopefully one that more people will be able to admire and recognize for his musical legacy.
Also a cool bio-pic of El’s present day attempt to jump-start his career.