This is the first full weekend of Summer - I hope someone full of love comes into your life, wherever you are.
Come into My Life, from 1987, was the debut album of singer-songwriterJoyce Sims. It was the first Sleeping Bag Records album to be released on compact disc in the USA, and it was licensed to London/PolyGram Records throughout Europe. The album contains the full versions of the title track, the hard version of “Lifetime Love,” and “(You are My) All and All.” However, for unknown reasons, the soft version of “Lifetime Love,” despite getting as much radio airplay as the hard version, was not included—but the UK remix of “All and All” was included. Joyce Sims wrote all of the songs except for “Love Makes a Woman,” a cover version of an older song. Singles released were “All and All,” the title track (which peaked at #10 on the Billboard R&B chart), “Lifetime Love,” “It Wasn’t Easy,” and “Walk Away,” the latter of which was released with remixes by Clivillés & Cole.
Come Into My Life By: Joyce Sims Come into my life, I got so much love to show you Come into my life, boy I adore you Come into my life, I got so much love to show you Come into my life, boy I adore you
Come into my life, I'll open the door If you come into my life, boy I adore you And I will treat you right And I'll show you sweet mellow days that you want and need For you hold the keys to my life Good times will flow if you make our love strong and tight Together as one not two, we'll shine like diamond ice, uh And I'll show you sweet mellow days that you want and need
Because I can brighten up your days And when you're feeling bad I'll put a smile on your face Can you tell me what price must I pay To make you see things my way Don't wait, don't wait, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Come into my life, I got so much love to show you Come into my life, boy I adore you Come into my life, I got so much love to show you Come into my life, boy I adore you
For you hold the keys to my life Good times will flow if you make our love strong and tight Together as one not two, we'll shine like diamond ice, uh And I'll show you sweet mellow days that you want and need
Because I can brighten up your days And when you're feeling bad I'll put a smile on your face, hey hey Can you tell me what price must I pay To make you see things my way Don't wait, don't wait Come to my life, coming down for me
Come into my life, I got so much love to show you Come into my life, boy I adore you Come into my life, I got so much love to show you Come into my life, boy I adore you (REPEAT TO FADE)
The soundtrack brought me right back to that summer, specifically staying with my Grandma Tinnelly in The Bronx. My father worked in The Bronx, and before work he would drop me off at my her apartment. We would go to church, shop the market, and she would show me off to her friends we met on the street. Everything we needed was reachable on foot.
On the street, the kids were listening to freestyle music. The lyrics of freestyle music are about first love, lost love, innocent love, sweet love, spring love, needing love, forever and ever love. They also broach the way young people physically express their love, through dancing and sex. Frequently, the beat of the music is a metaphor for a heart beat - fast, urgent and insistent.
Freestyle music revels in the drama of teenage love. It also had a specific look - big hair, hair products, flawless skin, outfits purchased at Merry Go Round, or Chess King, and Revlon Toasted Almond lipstick. Acoustically, freestyle music sounds best in a night club at a volume that prohibits conversation, from a boom box, or from the open windows of a car with a large spoiler.
I couldn't even attempt to work that look. But I loved that music then, and I love it even more now. It is currently 59°F (15°C) and partly sunny in New York City. Last Friday night I listened to freestyle music on the jukebox until 4am. This summer I plan on spending so many nights like that, listening to the lyrics of Lisa Lisa and dancing to the beat of Expose.
In the summer of 1987, I fell in love with New York City. The heat, the energy, the mix of people, generations, groups - all together on the street.
Freestyle reached its peak in 1987 before it fell in popularity and was slowly replaced by burgeoning house music in 1988.
Why Freestyle is actually called freestyle is subject to speculation. Some feel the term freestyle may refer to the difference between the mixing techniques used by DJs spinning this form of music (at least in its pre-house incarnations) and those who were spinning disco, the only other widely played dance music that incorporated sung vocals. Disco, with its relatively predictable beat structure, could be mixed with smooth, slow, and consistent techniques, but freestyle's syncopated beat structures demanded that DJs get creative, incorporating aspects of both disco and hip-hop techniques; they often had to (or had more freedom to) mix more quickly and more responsively to the individual pieces of music. Others believe it refers to the vocal technique: singing melodic pop vocals over the kind of beats that were previously used only with rap and semi-chanted electro-funk vocal styles was a form of freestyling —getting creative by mixing up the styles— somewhat akin to the use of the term in reference to competitive freestyle rap.
Another explanation is that the dancing associated with this music allows for a great degree of freedom of expression than the other music that was prevalent at the time. Each individual dancer is free to create his or her own style.
In Miami, the freestyle name evolved after confusion between Tony Butler's track "Freestyle Express" by Freestyle and Debbie Deb's "When I Hear Music," a slightly older but more popular track that was produced by Butler. The sound became synonymous with Butler's production, and the name of the group he was in, Freestyle, became the genre's name.
It is a genre with rather clear features: a dance tempo with stress on beats two and four; syncopation with a bass line, lead synth, or percussion, with optional stabs (provided as synthesized brass or orchestral samples); sixteenth-notehi-hats; a chord progression that lasts eight, 16, or 32 beats and is usually in a minor key; and relatively complex, upbeat melodies with singing, verses, and a chorus, with themes about love or dancing. Freestyle music in general is heavily influenced by Latin music, especially with respect to rhythms and brass-horn and keyboard parts. The Latin clave rhythm can be felt in many songs (such as in the defining “Clave Rocks” by Amoretto). The tempo of Freestyle music is almost always between 110 and 130 beats per minute (BPM), typically around 118 BPM. The keyboard parts are often elegant and clever, with many short melodies and countermelodies, again a strong influence from Latin music. It also features complicated drum machine patterns that a human drummer would have extreme difficulty playing.
