Earworms: SWV - Weak

It knocks me right off of my feet

Certain songs take hold in my head, sometimes old, sometimes new, for reasons which may or may not be obvious. So, I’ll write stuff about them.

1992 was not my favorite year of all time. Never mind the personal reasons, which existed. Let’s talk about the rise of Nirvana, and the ending of my dreams of the kind of rock music I loved – Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw, Graham Parker, etc. – ever topping the pop charts. Oh, I know I was ridiculously naïve about that at the time, but I still held out hope until that morning after Nirvana appeared on Saturday Night Live when I saw two 13-year-old girls re-enacting every stage move Kurt Cobain and Krist Novocselic had performed. I was crestfallen.

Fortunately for my ability to watch MTV, this coincided with the dawn of a golden age of r&b, particularly in the vocal group department. En Vogue and TLC came along to make deliriously intoxicating records which mixed and matched from all sorts of musical genres – soul references, of course, and hip hop, but also metal, funk, and pop. Boyz II Men were updating New Jack Swing around the same time.  In late 1992 or early 1993, I first encountered SWV’s album It’s About Time and I was hooked.

“Weak” was the third single from the album, but it’s the one that has stayed with me in the deepest way. It opens with a lightly treacly synth intro, then smoothes into a classic slow jam r&b vibe. Cheryl “Coco” Gamble takes the lead (as she usually did) and breathlessly  (and with much reverb) delivers the melody before being joined in luscious harmony by Tamara “Taj” Johnson and Leanne “Lelee” Lyons on that gorgeous and rhythmically playful chorus. “I can’t figure out just what to do when the cause and cure is you.” What a great line! Then the bridge comes along and they modulate back up to the chorus after it, making it sound even more dreamy. It’s just a masterful display of arrangement skills on a pop single.

I was lucky enough to see SWV in ’93, too. I signed up to review Bobby Brown that year, with Mary J. Blige scheduled to be the opening act. Blige canceled at the last minute, and SWV and TLC filled in her slot, which I enjoyed even more than the better known (at the time) star.