Speaker 1: Request Left show is a production of iHeart Radio. Okay,
Speaker 1: you guys, as promised, I've shared my thoughts about ten
Speaker 1: love songs that are perfect for any Valentine's mix, But
Speaker 1: I know on the other side of that coin, Valentine's
Speaker 1: could be a reminder of a love gone wrong. Love
Speaker 1: gone wrong is a tragic in any person's life. But
Speaker 1: if anything, I can say that heartbreak and soul music
Speaker 1: absolutely no strangers to each other. And that said, I
Speaker 1: would like to share some songs that I think if
Speaker 1: you want to sulk and kind of you know, I'm
Speaker 1: very familiar with the comfort of sadness. Sometimes feeling sad
Speaker 1: makes us feel good, which I don't recommend because that
Speaker 1: can lead to depression. So however, I'm the master of curations,
Speaker 1: so I will give you ten songs that will kind
Speaker 1: of put you in the mood to cry if you
Speaker 1: feel like you need to do so. I'll say the
Speaker 1: number one song, probably the most mournful song that I
Speaker 1: know in jazz, is Donald Bird's song called Christo Red Dentor,
Speaker 1: And oftentimes this song gets chosen almost as a foreshadowing,
Speaker 1: like some bad's about to happen. I recall Spike Lee
Speaker 1: using this and be Malcolm CH's movie. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's mostly it's a vocal choir really doing the duties
Speaker 1: of the arrangements. There's a you know, it's a jazz
Speaker 1: song with piano upright, bass, very light brush drums and
Speaker 1: of course Donald Bird on a trumpet. But it's very
Speaker 1: mournful sounding, very sad sounding. I can't even lie to you.
Speaker 1: I can't even say that this z apropos for a funeral.
Speaker 1: I put a playlist together for my brother Michael Archer D'Angelo,
Speaker 1: and this was my opening song. But even when I
Speaker 1: put it on like it brought the mood down and
Speaker 1: kind of the funeral directors like, do you have anything
Speaker 1: more celebratory? Like, you know, I know we're sad here,
Speaker 1: but you know here, I was like, yeah, okay, I
Speaker 1: went too far. So but I will say that if
Speaker 1: crying is your goal, loneliness is your goal, you got
Speaker 1: to start with Cristo red Dentor by Donald Bird. It's
Speaker 1: on his album A New Perspective Number two. Longtime QLs
Speaker 1: guests formerly known as Terrence Trindarby, now going by the
Speaker 1: name of Sonata Matrea. He has a song called Seasons
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. Chris Rock put me onto this.
Speaker 1: He's like, yo, go to Symphony or Damn, which was
Speaker 1: his third album after Neither Fish nor Flesh, and I
Speaker 1: believe Symphony or Damn might have come out in ninety
Speaker 1: two ninety three. There's a song called Seasons, and you know,
Speaker 1: during that time period, I was going through a breakup.
Speaker 1: And the song actually kind of has a theory about
Speaker 1: the cycle of love, which is basically like, sometimes you
Speaker 1: just love is a seasonal thing. Like I know, we
Speaker 1: are taught to think that, you know, this is the
Speaker 1: last person that you will be with, you are stuck
Speaker 1: with this person for life. But sometimes love is seasonal sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on if you're a person that believes
Speaker 1: in astrology in the stars, Like sometimes it's it's a
Speaker 1: ten year thing. Sometimes it's a twenty year thing. Look
Speaker 1: bands the Beatles, love was a seven year thing. The
Speaker 1: roots are in our thirty eighth year of whatever it
Speaker 1: is that we call this thing. So but the song
Speaker 1: is actually execute it very well. It's called Seasons, and
Speaker 1: it deals with the realization of a relationship is over
Speaker 1: and hey, we had a good run, but love has seasons,
Speaker 1: all right. My third song in the heartbreak choice is
Speaker 1: by the one and only Don Blackman. Of course, Holding
Speaker 1: You Loving You is a fan favorite, especially if you're
Speaker 1: Dylla slim Village head for samples. However, since You've Been
Speaker 1: Away So Long is another song that's just as classic
Speaker 1: as Holding You Loving You, less problematic if you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Wink anyway, Yeah, since You've been in
Speaker 1: Way so long just talks about morning of a relationship,
Speaker 1: but it could also apply to just not seeing someone
Speaker 1: for a long time. You don't necessarily have to break up, So,
Speaker 1: like smart songwriters know not to add too much information,
Speaker 1: Earth Wind and Fire was wise and very early to
Speaker 1: the game of tacking pronouns out so that their song
Speaker 1: could apply to anyone. And sometimes as a songwriter, if
Speaker 1: you present your lyrics or your course in a way
Speaker 1: that leaves the door open. You know, since You've been
Speaker 1: in a way so long could be about a breakup
Speaker 1: or could it just be about a long road trip
Speaker 1: and missing someone and I'm coming back? So the song
Speaker 1: applies to both, so I highly recommend it. My fourth
Speaker 1: song is a Stevie Wonder composition done with his first wife,
Speaker 1: Sorita Wright, former receptionist at Motown that he heard singings
Speaker 1: like hey Yould singing, She's like, hey, I song right too.
Speaker 1: Sarita pinned some of his greatest lyrics. I believe that
Speaker 1: in Stevie world, like music is his main thing, like
Speaker 1: lyrics are. I've seen and heard examples of him writing
Speaker 1: his songs, but you know he loves to collaborate with people.
Speaker 1: And Serta I think has written like just a line
Speaker 1: share of some of his greatest songs that we love.
Speaker 1: So her pen game is a match. And she has
Speaker 1: a song that she did on her second album called
Speaker 1: Stevie Wonder per Serrita, and it's called because We Ended
Speaker 1: as Lovers, very sad song. It starts with rain and
Speaker 1: she and Stevie also use the background choir kind of
Speaker 1: as a mournful kind of color that Donald Bird used
Speaker 1: for Crystal Redentor. And because We Ended as Lovers is
Speaker 1: basically a plea to like, hey, even though we broke up, like,
Speaker 1: let's not totally be out of each other's lives. I
Speaker 1: believe in amicable breakups. If you break up with someone,
Speaker 1: I think you need a year off before you contact
Speaker 1: that person, and then you re enter their lives once
Speaker 1: the smoke is cleared. I think after a year you
Speaker 1: can be friends with your person. So also to note
Speaker 1: that Michael Simbello, if you're a fan of flash Dance
Speaker 1: and you love the song Maniac, many don't know that
Speaker 1: Michael Simbello was one of Stevie Wonder's greatest disciples, Like
Speaker 1: he was in Wonder Love his band for the longest
Speaker 1: and co wrote with Stevie A Loott. So this is
Speaker 1: one of those songs as well that he's involved with.
Speaker 1: I'll make it quasi contemporary. In bringing up Mayor Harthorne,
Speaker 1: not enough has been said about Mayor's his production methods,
Speaker 1: his tactics, like he'll like he really nails the happy
Speaker 1: medium between something that's new and something that's classic. And
Speaker 1: I gotta say that kind of Mayor's take on a
Speaker 1: Delphonics kind of slow jam. And this song is called
Speaker 1: a Strange Arrangement, which is the title track. It's just
Speaker 1: a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous melody and arrangement. I love it
Speaker 1: so much that yes, it's about a breakup. It's about
Speaker 1: someone that's realizing, oh this is over. He's like realizing
Speaker 1: it in real time. That Dan, I guess, is the
Speaker 1: end of the road for us, and so a strange
Speaker 1: arrangement by Mayor Harthorne is number five. Number six. Another
Speaker 1: unsung hero Betty Davis. Betty Davis is an artist, singer, songwriter, producer,
Speaker 1: first Black woman to produce her own music to get
Speaker 1: a credit for it, which you know her work that
Speaker 1: she released in the early seventies, women weren't really ever
Speaker 1: given agency to have their own ideas, and especially for
Speaker 1: black women, and Betty's fight for her artistry is probably
Speaker 1: the thing that we know most about her. She also
Speaker 1: kind of did everything ten years before anyone else. So
Speaker 1: she was Prince before Prince, and she was Madonna before Madonna.
Speaker 1: She had entered Miles Davis life when she was just
Speaker 1: turning nineteen twenty, and just her youthfulness and her perspective
Speaker 1: on the world kind of had an effect on Miles
Speaker 1: Davis and this is why he created A Bitches Brute.
Speaker 1: There is a song on a compilation called Is It
Speaker 1: Love or Desire? And this song is just It is
Speaker 1: called when Romance Says Goodbye. It's a very quiet song,
Speaker 1: very haunting, but also kind of ry and full of humor.
Speaker 1: I love the way that she overenunciates the word lovers.
Speaker 1: She calls it live os like it's almost like five
Speaker 1: syllables a live oz love oz Betty Davis when Romance
Speaker 1: says goodbye. Next up on the heartbreak list, of course,
Speaker 1: is a song called I'm Alone and in prom to
Speaker 1: improv song by Bobby McFerrin, now known as father of
Speaker 1: Taylor McFerrin and Javon McFerrin, of course Madison McFerrin. But
Speaker 1: it's just a display of his mastery of handling multiple
Speaker 1: duties at once as lead singer, as bass player, as
Speaker 1: multiple singers, just as a one man show, and showing
Speaker 1: his humor as well. It's a song just talking about
Speaker 1: being alone, which sometimes isn't a bad thing, but he
Speaker 1: can't help but put humor in his music. So this
Speaker 1: is one of those songs in which it is kind
Speaker 1: of fun to hear the audience laughing at his punchlines
Speaker 1: because clearly he's making stuff up at the last minute.
Speaker 1: So I'm Alone by Bobby McFerrin, number eight, very new.
Speaker 1: If you know me and you followed me on the socials,
Speaker 1: you know that my love for the group Salt is strong,
Speaker 1: and the brightest star in that ensemble is, of course
Speaker 1: Cleo Soul and if you go to a Rose in
Speaker 1: the Dark album there it is man, you got to
Speaker 1: hear the song called I Love You, which could be misleading.
Speaker 1: Of course I look at it and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a love song, and she's basically saying that I've
Speaker 1: heard everything coming out of your mouth except for the
Speaker 1: term I love you. So this is a good example
Speaker 1: of how to communicate what needs aren't getting met in
Speaker 1: your relationship. So it's not necessarily a breakup. Oftentimes relationships
Speaker 1: could go to dark emotional territory, and we often panic
Speaker 1: because we don't know how to communicate with our significant other.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you need a song to help nudge you
Speaker 1: to say the words. So I would say that I
Speaker 1: Love You by Cleo soul Is that songs at number
Speaker 1: eight number nine is a long time favorite. If you
Speaker 1: were attendee or if you're on YouTube and you've seen
Speaker 1: a Brothers in Arms performance by me and my brother D'Angelo,
Speaker 1: I will say that we are You know that we're
Speaker 1: very familiar and we know our way around an Ohio
Speaker 1: Players song, and I will say that for this song
Speaker 1: it is basically our Love has Died by the Ohio Players.
Speaker 1: This is on their nineteen seventy two Pleasure album Pleasure,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of it's a rather defensive song because
Speaker 1: if you know the vocal stylings of Leroy sugar Foot Vonnor,
Speaker 1: you know kind of his his baritone growl ah girl
Speaker 1: like he whenever it's time for the breakup song, especially
Speaker 1: if it's slow, it's time for Sugarfoot to come to
Speaker 1: the forefront. Of course I Want to Be Free as
Speaker 1: his most famous song. But if you listen to Our
Speaker 1: Love Has Diet, I mean, the title in itself has
Speaker 1: pretty much tells you everything you need to know about
Speaker 1: the song. Yeah, our Love has Died by the Ohio
Speaker 1: Players and our final song in this sort of my
Speaker 1: top ten go to's for breakup songs and for heartbreak songs.
Speaker 1: Les mc cann's has an album called Layers and the
Speaker 1: title loan says it all and it's called Sometimes I Cry.
Speaker 1: I highly recommend this. One of the one of the
Speaker 1: biggest breakthroughs that I've had in therapy was sort of
Speaker 1: the shock look or my therapist's face when you know,
Speaker 1: I was counting on two hands, like the amount of
Speaker 1: times I've cried in a decade. She's like, wait, you've
Speaker 1: you've only ride maybe twelve times and ten years, And
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, average maybe one and a half
Speaker 1: times a year. You know, her jaw dropping on the floor. Look,
Speaker 1: it was I was raised. I was taught we weren't
Speaker 1: supposed to cry. Now I cry the drop of the
Speaker 1: hat because we're not going to survive if we don't
Speaker 1: express our emotions. You don't want it to sit down.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I cry. Also has a really gorgeous apar loop.
Speaker 1: And if you're a hip hop head, I will say
Speaker 1: that slick Ricks behind Bars produced by Warren G. It's
Speaker 1: so weird that Warren G produced that song. And I
Speaker 1: will say that that song has like no trace of
Speaker 1: the G funk that I'm accustomed to coming from Warren G.
Speaker 1: So when the behind Bars song first came out, that remix,
Speaker 1: the Warren G remix of it, of course I was
Speaker 1: and like, you know, some gangster and it was far
Speaker 1: from that. It was it almost felt like a tripod
Speaker 1: quest produced it. Like that's how weird it talented to
Speaker 1: hear like I kept checking, like, wait, Warren G did this?
Speaker 1: So but the sample of course comes from uh sometimes
Speaker 1: I cry by Les mccannon and so those are my
Speaker 1: ten heartbreak songs, and don't don't get too comfortable in
Speaker 1: heartbreak like it's it's good to get your emotions out,
Speaker 1: but don't live there. All right, Well, that's my take
Speaker 1: on Valentine's songs you should check out basically,