Downtown Venus — P.M. Dawn
#365Songs: January 18
In talking about Phineas Newborn, Jr. on Tuesday, I got hung up on the idea of musicians that fell from favor due to health issues or died too young. I took this tangent offline and began sifting through my vinyl collection, pulling out albums from artists that fell under the auspices of the “gone too soon” moniker.
In a matter of moments, I had a stack I couldn’t have conquered in a day. Of course, it featured heavily in the usual suspects. Buddy Holly. Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding. I pulled out The Doors and Joy Division. Marvin Gaye got it on. Billie Holiday bumped the pile up at least four inches. Coltrane. Poor Bud Powell died of TB, alcoholism, and malnutrition at 43. Cannonball Adderly, James Booker, Freddie Webster, and Charlie Parker. Drugs. Clifford Brown. Not drugs. I gotta get out of the jazz section, FFS. Not that hip-hop fared much better. ODB. Biggie. J. Dilla. And then I came to P.M. Dawn’s The Bliss Album…? and recalled Prince Be’s tragic, anonymous end.
Formed by brothers Attrell Cordes (Prince Be) and Jarrett Cordes (Eternal), P.M. Dawn earned global commercial success with their platinum-selling 1991 debut Of the Heart, of the Soul and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience. They did this in a market dominated by hard core and gangster rap.
They certainly weren’t the first to mix rap and R&B, but their crossover appeal with the hit single “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” (which famously sampled Spandau Ballet’s “True”) forced Billboard to add “hip-hop” to the title of their official R&B charts. P.M. Dawn literally changed the industry. Since the album and the original recording of “Set Adrift” are unavailable on Spotify, here’s a refresher.
It was 1993’s The Bliss Album…? that solidified their solid critical standing. It wasn’t just the mixture of R&B and rap. The band boasted an easy musicality; one form didn’t supercede the other. It was as if Prince Be and Eternal had merged the two genres into one to create P.M. Dawn. Was the special sauce their crytpo-spirituality? 70’s soul? (Fun fact! Prince Be’s stepfather was George Brown, Kool & the Gang’s dummer.) Or a specific ear for sampling? I know I can’t hear “True” without anticipating the P.M. Dawn beat to follow.
So it goes with “Looking Through Patient Eyes” and George Michael’s “Father Figure” sample.
Whatever it is I do, I try to think about you.
I have a lot for you that nothing hides.
Whatever it is I do, I’m always thinking of you.
I hope you look at me through patient eyes.
At face value the song’s another ode to a failed love affair, but it’s also pop-culture praise and worship, Prince Be’s lyrics searching himself for the worthiness of being loved by a woman, by himself, by God.
It’s so deceiving is the clouded heart.
So superficial is the open wound.
I caress the infinite light
That even at night
overshadows the moon and sings to you
I’m temped to call it hop-hop’s yacht rock, but that undermines the craft and nifty instrumental experimentation happening just beyond the pop placidity and notable samples. I’d have picked this track for #365Songs, but it’s just doesn’t quite cut the proper representative cross-section of the P.M. Dawn oeuvre.
Fast forward to their subsequent album, Jesus Wept, however, and sample the intro. That 1 minute and 39 second track includes Blossom Dearie, The Doors, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) and segues into that album’s most notable single, “Downtown Venus” — and its instantly recognizable bass guitar sample.
Fuck.
I tried to wax eloquently about how Prince Be’s vocals on this track contradict Deep Purple’s driving, bass-heavy arena rock while maintaining its psychedelic orchestration, adding an addictive bouncy beat and a little bit more melodrama, allowing the sample to drop in and out… but it’s all prattle and puffery. Sometimes all you can say is fuck.
Fuck for the album’s lack of sales. Fuck that Prince Be’s health began declining shortly thereafter. Fuck that P.M. Dawn went back to the studio and doubled down on this experimentation and sold even fewer copies of Dearest Christian, I’m So Very Sorry for Bringing You Here, Love, Dad (1998). Just fuck for the talent and potential we lost.
“Downtown Venus” reached #48 on the singles chart before plummeting out of sight. The album didn’t crack the top 100. From a certain perspective, Jesus Wept represented the end of P.M. Dawn just as they entered their creative prime.
Prince Be suffered from diabetes for more than 20 years. A stroke in 2005 resulted in partial paralysis. Gangrene took one of his legs. During his last years, he lived in nursing homes as his health deteriorated. He died in 2016, from kidney disease, at the age of 46.
The duo’s final release? A mail-order only release in 2000 called Fucked Music — less than a decade removed from their Platinum record.
I’ll write about something happier tomorrow.
No promises.
Fucked Footnote: Attrell and Jarrett’s cousin, Doc G, took control of the band’s catalog and began performing as P.M. Dawn and releasing new music as P.M. Dawn. The only available versions of “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” on Spotify are his garbage imitations.
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