Song of the Moment: Paula Abdul – “Rush Rush”

"Rush Rush" was released as the lead-off single from Paula Abdul's 1991 album, Spellbound.

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#Music, #PaulaAbdul, #90s, #90sMusic, #1990s, #1990sMusic, #PopMusic, #AeschTunes

Dionne Farris Sings “I Know”

Listen to this track by folk-soul-roots-rock-pop maven Dionne Farris. It’s “I Know”, her most recognized hit song from her 1994 debut album Wild Seed, Wild Flower. That record followed her standout spot as guest vocalist on another era-defining hit song— Arrested Development’s 1992 hit “Tennessee”. That earlier song and her adjunct involvement with the group on other tracks and in live appearances raised her profile as a singer with an impressive range and emotional depth. She takes what she displayed working with Arrested Development and applied it here on her own hit song that also stands as an anthem of the era.

This tune hit the charts in early 1995 as the flagship single to represent her debut album. It achieved a number one position on Billboard’s top forty mainstream chart for ten consecutive weeks between April and June of 1995. That made “I Know” the most successful song all year on that specific chart. It scored a number one in Canada and top twenty positions in Europe and in Australia and New Zealand as well. The song also garnered Farris a 1996 Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocalist.

“I Know” came out of a collaboration between Dionne Farris and songwriters Milton Davis and William DuVall shortly after she parted ways with Arrested Development. Davis and DuVall each had distinguished pedigrees as writers and musicians, working with a wide spectrum of artists between them including John Mellencamp, The Neville Brothers, and Alice in Chains. They worked up this song and others with Farris on a demo and pitched it to Columbia Records A&R man and future American Idol judge Randy Jackson. Plans for Dionne Farris’ debut record moved forward on the strength of the demo with Jackson co-producing this track and others.

The song’s synthesis of styles was an important factor that contributed to its success and to Dionne Farris’ overall artistic profile. It mixes musical elements across a spectrum of styles in one seamless package in a way that remains unmatched even today. Her bluesy delivery suggested it as an R&B record. Yet because it doesn’t colour within the lines stylistically speaking, it also bucked the system of what an R&B single was supposed to sound like in 1995. Significantly, this didn’t affect its massive success on the charts. Farris’ performance made that question of style immaterial. What counted was the balance she struck between ferocity, sweetness, and melancholy, doing so with startling emotional precision.

“I Know” is musically appealing instrumentally as well, mixing in beats with muscular slide guitar in a bluesy stew of sounds. The soaring middle section that introduces a vital layer of vocal harmonies is a highlight, communicating feelings of liberation mixed with a sorrowful lament that is truly affecting. The jangly guitars underneath that in this section add more stylistic variance still. They suggest a folk-rock influence that pairs incredibly well with Farris’ neo-soul style vocal.

The lyrics that tell the song’s story are a reflection of their times when love songs went beyond the emotional primary colours of the past. By the 1990s, listeners developed a vocabulary to understand and express feelings associated with bad relationships in a way that hadn’t been in place before. This was the height of the Oprah era! The strict lines between emotions even within loving relationships became understood as a lot more blurry and harder to define as all good or all bad. That’s exactly where this song lives; between fatigue, deep sadness, personal resolve, and emancipation.

Farris’ narrator sounds world-weary and burdened with an unhealthy history between her and the subject of this second person narrative. Maybe that person is a lover, either current or ex. Maybe the song is aimed a whole social framework in the form of racial gaslighting rather than a specific individual. All of these could apply. Maybe that’s another reason it was so resonant.

In any case, “I Know” still confidently puts its cards on the table as a song of liberation. It’s about someone coming to the realization that it’s time to move on after being emotionally hoodwinked and ransacked too many times in a relationship. Farris’ vocal serves that facet of the song incredibly well. She voices a narrator who is steadfast in her convictions. The narrator knows, finally, what’s happening, and what’s always been happening. And she decides it’s time for it to stop.

Yet, this is only one feature of this song’s emotional landscape. She knows why the object of the narrative says they love her. But she can’t say the same, which is perhaps something new that she’s come to realize. There is pain and regret heard in that statement as much as there is confidence and inner strength. Cutting bad relationships loose always implies how much we once invested in them with all of our hopes as life as we once knew it comes to an end. New starts after putting something away for good are almost never all about jettisoning only the bad memories and experiences associated with a bad relationship. The good and the hoped-for get lost along with it.

That’s why it often takes so long to get out of a bad relationship. The healthiest decisions are so often the hardest to make as we cling to the hope that things will get better, patterns will end, and people will change. Dionne Farris singing “it’s not going to work this time” is full of strength and self-possession. But there is also an element of deep sorrow and mourning heard in it that is just as strong. Letting people and the worlds they’re a part of go even if it’s the right thing to do and even if we aren’t entirely ready to give them up is healthy. But it’s also among the cruelest realities we’ll ever have to face.

Dionne Farris lost some career momentum after her hit debut album due to disputes with her label. Purportedly, this was in part because of how uncategorizable her music is and how unwilling she was to be placed into a marketing box defined by prescribed genre lines. But she is an active singer, performer, and songwriter today. You can review her more recent activities and output at dionnefarris.com

To hear another version of this song, check out this rocked-up rendition from Dionne Farris and her band on a May 1995 appearance on The Jon Stewart Show (sic). A remarkably fresh-faced John Stewart hosts that show, although he’s since reintroduced the “h” in his name in the intervening years.

Enjoy!