Day 12: Ten City – That’s the Way Love Is

 

Today’s disc is another 12” single. It’s from 1989 but I definitely bought it years later, at least partly for the memories, because 1989 was the year I fell in love with house music, dear readers. There wasn’t much competition, you might argue, as the UK charts* at the time featured delights like Jive Bunny and much pop with a capital P, i.e., bloody loads of Stock Aitken and Waterman and ‘classic’ acts like Simply Red. House music wasn’t new in ’89 (the brilliant Can You Feel It by Mr. Fingers, Larry Heard, came out in 1986, the amazing Strings of Life by Rhythim is Rhythim, Derrick May, in ’87) but until 1989 I was oblivious to such developments. Then I went to a place and took a pill (neither blue nor red, usually just white). And everything changed.

 

Does that sound dramatic? It’s true though. Things really did change after just one ecstasy pill in a not particularly special club in the centre of London in the spring of 1989. I was without direction (see previous posts) and suddenly I found some (do this again, feel this giant joy, listen to this amazing music, move your body, stop being so bloody miserable). I knew a lot of the options available to me at that time were not what I wanted so instead I chose house music (all night long). I wasn’t alone. ’Twas a youth movement, friends, a really good one.

 

There have been so many phases of house music and its relations by now (deep house, acid house, techno, garage, progressive house, trance, rave, hardcore, happy hardcore, gabba, commercial dance music…) that it all gets a bit blurred and some people hear you went a-raving and think you listened to non-stop 2 Unlimited (and I never once heard them played in a club of any kind). This Ten City single is very representative for me of the music I heard during my first house music/ecstasy experience back in 1989. It was mainly American, and some UK, house music with strong vocals, usually about love or people coming together (also a form of love, of course). Other bands/artists I remember from that time were: Adeva, Coldcut, D Mob, S’Express, Exposé, Inner City, Fingers Inc, Joe Smooth, Robert Howard & Kym Mazelle. Here for example is New Jersey’s Adeva (I had her album Adeva! on cassette – yes, I was still mainly using cassettes at this point):

Ten City (from intensity, says Wikipedia) were a Chicago band who met the right producer – Marshall Jefferson (sometimes known as the father of house music, though others might fancy the title). Jefferson (who lives in Manchester, England these days) was responsible for many, many great records including 1986’s Move Your Body on the legendary Trax Records (the first house song to use piano, apparently). He worked some magic with Ten City too - they had a few dance hits as a trio (Byron Stingily, Herb Lawson and Byron Burke) and in more recent times vocalist Stingily has worked under the Ten City band name again with Jefferson to make new music (2021’s Be Free, it’s pretty good, listen here). Here is the song on today’s disc from 1989:

Back tomorrow with more great tunes (but if you hate dance music you might want to switch to another channel for a while).

*For those interested in such things, go here for a list of UK number 1 singles in 1989.

For the first intro post to this series go here.