Teena Marie
Teena Marie was a rarity in the music business. A white artist with an overwhelmingly Black audience. The only other artist I can think of with that profile was the Average White Band, but they had way more pop success than Marie as limited as their success was.
Anyhoo, Lady Tee recorded some demo material for Motown Records in the late 70s finally getting an album released in 1979 courtesy of Rick James. Ole Slick Rick dominated the writing and production of Wild and Peaceful, but Marie quickly took control of her own career.
On her second album, Lady T, she was already writing most of the material and by her third album Irons in the Fire, she was writing everything and producing everything. That’ll be another rarity in the music business back then: a woman writing and producing all her own material.
And her material was pretty dang good. I think Marie is somewhat limited as a vocalist, but her writing is always clever, never resorting to tropes. All you gotta do is listen to “Square Biz” to get that point. She was also a multi-instrumentalist and never hesitated to collaborate even as she maintained control over her music.
That demand for control led to a split with Motown in the early 80s and she landed with Epic Records. Overall her material there is weaker than the Motown stash, but I think it’s because of the growing reliance of all musicians on mechanized beats and cheesy ass keyboards. This was a particularly harsh development for musicians like Marie who came of age prior to the BIG 80s DRUM MACHINE.
That said, Marie never embarrassed herself with a terrible album in this era. PLENTY of other elder soul stars fell flat on their faces trying to keep up with the times. By 1990 however, she was worn out by the biz and took a four year hiatus. After independently releasing an album in 1994, she again took a hiatus this time for a decade, before spinning out a few albums in the mid-and-late 2000s.
Sadly, she died in 2010 and a posthumous album was put out in 2012. I don’t particularly like her 2000s output, so I skipped it, but that 2012 album Beautiful seems promising from what I’ve heard. I might review it one day.
MOTOWN YEARS (1977-1982)
Playlist on Tidal
Album Reviews
Wild and Peaceful: C-
Lady T: B-
Irons in the Fire: A
It Must Be Magic: A-
EPIC RECORDS YEARS (1983-1990)
Playlist on Tidal
Album Reviews
Robbery: B
Starchild: C+
Emerald City: C
Naked to the World: C+
Ivory: C+