Jane Child - Don't Want to Fall in Love. Appreciation post.

[ABECK]

One of those tunes I always liked (though my memory tells me it came out circa 1986, when in reality it was 1990 - go figure).  Listening to it now, there is so much to appreciate.

Her chord voicings and changes are way more sophisticated (if I can use that term) than typical "pop" music.  Even just the chorus - I've been playing around with it and just can't stop jamming on it - so thick and smart.  Lots of Fairlight Love in the video ( one thing I vividly remember).  I wouldn't be surprised if most of the track was composed using the Fairlight - it has that sound.   The solo is funky as hell, with great pitch bend technique.  She is a player, for sure.  Her voice and the production remind be quite a bit of Chaka Khan.  Great harmonies and IN TUNE.  And the pepper on the steak -she's easy on the eyes.    

 

[jeffincltnc]

Yeah, this is great.  I was totally into this then and I'm into it now.   Well appreciated here,

[timwat]

Reminds me of mid to late '80s.

 

For me the kings of this style of pop was The System. David Frank is a beast - much respect.

 

 

[ProfD]

Jane Child's "Don't Want to Fall in Love" is an excellent tune.

 

The father of New Jack Swing, music producer Teddy Riley's remix helped that song crossover to R&B/Hip-Hop.

 

Hard to believe that was 30 years ago. Time flies. 😎

[ABECK]

12 hours ago, timwat said:

Reminds me of mid to late '80s.

 

For me the kings of this style of pop was The System. David Frank is a beast - much respect.

 

 

I had a keyboard magazine with a sound page (little vinyl record) of David Frank playing bass on his minimoog and Matrix 12.   It was so fat!

[Doerfler]

14 hours ago, ABECK said:

 The solo is funky as hell, with great pitch bend technique. 

 

In her Keyboard magazine interview, late 80's, after the song was a hit, she revealed that the solo was created by entering notes via MIDI into whatever sequencer was being used, then it was cleaned up and sped up or down to the proper tempo. I only remember this as the band I was in at the time used to cover the song. 

[ABECK]

1 hour ago, Doerfler said:

 

In her Keyboard magazine interview, late 80's, after the song was a hit, she revealed that the solo was created by entering notes via MIDI into whatever sequencer was being used.

Damn!  She mimes it well in the vid!

[DaveMcM]

Love her and the song!

[Stokely]

Wow, haven't heard that in ages  

Our female singer grew up with a lot of early/mid 80s stuff, the catch is that she has a lower range so can't pull off a lot of songs.  I know the feeling    For example we get requests for Heart all the time, and she has to pass...Anyway, we were brainstorming on some 80s female stuff.  Berlin, Missing Persons were two of the groups.  We already do a Motels song and might try some Pretenders.  Problem is we can't rope our drummer into practicing these days, so any new songs either have to be 1) easy or 2) ones he knows...

[Still VanDerGraaf]

Didn't Jane Child grace the Keyboard magazine cover once? I am sure I remember both that and reading the interview (although I can't recall much about it).

[ABECK]

[ksoper]

The whole album is excellent. She's married to Cat Gray, MD of "Let's Make A Deal," also a badass. 

[JoJoB3]

On 12/27/2022 at 5:10 PM, timwat said:

Reminds me of mid to late '80s.

 

For me the kings of this style of pop was The System. David Frank is a beast - much respect.

 

 

Still have The System sample library for the EPS 16+. Kinda fun bringing those sounds back!

 

[Mitch Towne]

The solo line and the sound she uses brings this classic to mind. 
 

 

[Ed A.]

On 1/2/2023 at 4:00 AM, ksoper said:

She's married to Cat Gray, MD of "Let's Make A Deal," also a badass. 

Cat Gray is an amazing player. I watch him on Lets Make A Deal and the guy can instantly change styles like it's nothing. Cool keyboard rig he's got too.

[EscapeRocks]

Yeah  Cat has been with Wayne Brady for a long time.  Was MD on the short lived Wayne Brady Show.

Cool dude and player

 

[EscapeRocks]

On 12/28/2022 at 10:15 AM, ABECK said:

Damn!  She mimes it well in the vid!

 

I caught a very obscure video years ago of here playing it years ago on an actual grand piano.  She warmed up with some cool chops, then launched into the song.

[ABECK]

You'll notice she uses pitch bend instead of the mod wheel for vibrato, which is definitely a skill to get right.

She talks about it and other nuggets in her Keyboard Mag article:  http://www.janechild.com/press_keyboard.html

 

[Floyd Tatum]

I always liked this tune too.   Toronto girl.   In addition to everything else, I always like that little snare roll that got worked in between beats 1 and 2 somewhere in there - doesn't happen very often but when it does, it's delicious ear candy.

The whole thing is sort of overdone in a fun way.   One of a kind.

 

[StickMan393]

 

Fricken rocks

[Floyd Tatum]

I've always wondered whether the phallic symbolism, i.e. "love cuts just like a knife,  you make the knife feel good", was intentional or not.  It had to be intentional, right???

 

[elsongs]

I was a freshman in college when this came out. I met a couple dudes (a guitarist and a vocalist) at orientation, butting into their conversation about music, and later that year we formed a band with a couple of the singer's high school friends. I hung out with the guitarist a lot, we had some of the same classes, and we'd always hang out at local music stores, at his home studio or just driving around town listening to cassettes/CDs. 

One day he says, "Hey, have you heard of Jane Child?" And I was like, "No, doesn't ring a bell." And he told me, "Dude! She plays keyboards too, I know you'll dig her music!" Then he played me DWFIL and I instantly recognized it as a song I had heard on the radio recently. He described her as "A white female version of Prince" who played all the instruments. 

We'd listen to her debut album and kind of dissect it. Though DWFIL was a catchy pop tune, as was a few others, the rest of the album were a little unconventional (in a cool way) for a pop record. I remember were trying to figure out what "DS 21" was about (I'd joked that it was about the Yamaha DX-21). I seem to remember from the Keyboard magazine article that she was a big Fairlight CMI user, and the bass sound on most of the songs was this layered analog synth bass/sampled slap-bass timbre.

I still have the CD and this thread got me listening to it from start to finish a few days ago. The first four songs (including DWFIL) were definitely catchy R&Bfunk-influenced synth pop. "You're My Religion Now" kinda stopped the momentum with some unconventional melodies and scale modes. "Biology" was a cool track that matched the vibe of the first 4 songs.

But to this day, I STILL have no idea what "DS 21" was about. 😄

[stoken6]

19 hours ago, Floyd Tatum said:

I've always wondered whether the phallic symbolism, i.e. "love cuts just like a knife,  you make the knife feel good", was intentional or not.  It had to be intentional, right???

 

I never heard it as phallic. Just as a metaphor: being in love with you is bad for me, but it makes me feel good - what is a girl to do?

 

Cheers, Mike.

[elsongs]

1 hour ago, stoken6 said:

I never heard it as phallic. Just as a metaphor: being in love with you is bad for me, but it makes me feel good - what is a girl to do?

 

Cheers, Mike.

The beauty of songwriting is that lyrics can take on myriad interpretations. "Cuts like a knife" is one of the most commonly-used lyrical cliches ever (along with following any mention of "diamonds" with a mention of "pearls", among others). She was trying to play with that. Is it phallic? Could be. Or it could also be interpreted as, "Love is also pain, but you're still worth the pain, baby."

[Floyd Tatum]

2 hours ago, stoken6 said:

I never heard it as phallic. Just as a metaphor: being in love with you is bad for me, but it makes me feel good - what is a girl to do?

 

Cheers, Mike.

Knife is a well known phallic symbol in literature.  By itself, I wouldn't necessarily regard "love cuts just like a knife" as phallic, but when she adds "you make the knife feel good", it's seems more obvious.   But I still wonder whether it was deliberate.    A smart girl like her, I would tend to 99% think it was.

[StickMan393]

On 1/10/2023 at 9:05 PM, elsongs said:

But to this day, I STILL have no idea what "DS 21" was about. 😄

 

It's about a car, a Citroën DS21, that had an innovative hydropneumatic suspension mechanism.

[Tusker]

1 hour ago, StickMan393 said:

 

It's about a car, a Citroën DS21, that had an innovative hydropneumatic suspension mechanism.

+1 It’s also Patrick Jane’s car in The Mentalist TV series. Quirky Cool. A good car for Jane Child.

 

 

[AROIOS]

On 12/27/2022 at 4:05 PM, ABECK said:

One of those tunes I always liked (though my memory tells me it came out circa 1986, when in reality it was 1990 - go figure)... 

 

Always loved its arrangement, sound design and mixing. That kick and snare combo alone could have launched a series of chart toppers.