Luther Vandross Song Never Let Me Go

[Lorrine Hatala]

WhilePorter highlights Vandross finding success in the music industry, she also focuses on what it was like for Vandross to navigate his music career while wrestling with questions about his weight and sexuality. The most interesting part of this documentary is watching media figures who interviewed him get visibly upset or frustrated when he decided not to disclose parts of his story. This reminded me of how entitled some folks feel to your narrative and how this was often the case for Vandross.

I can remember being a young child and seeing so much of myself when watching Luther Vandross\u2019 performances. From his smile to the ways that he carried himself on stage, I always thought Vandross possessed a special candor, one that often left so many people whispering about his identity and private nature behind his back.\n\n\n\nAdmittedly, when I learned via social media that there was going to be a documentary premiering at this year's Sundance about the late Grammy Award-winning composer, writer and singer, I immediately went to a place of concern. Considering what I thought I knew about the late creator, I was worried that this would be another film seeking to \u201cout\u201d him. More than anything, I kept asking myself, \u201cHow much of this film would be about the actual talent of the \u201cVelvet Voice\u201d and how much of the film would be spent speculating on the identity of a person who never felt safe enough to be their authentic self, both in entertainment and out in the world?\n\n\n\nHowever, in Dawn Porter\u2019s new documentary, Luther: Never Too Much, I was so grateful to see her balance care and intentionality in examining Vandross\u2019 story, making it a narrative about self-reflection, rather than projection. \n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pNj9bXKGOiI\n\n\n\n\nIt was clear that Porter went into directing this documentary asking both herself and the world \u201cWhat is the true meaning of Vandross\u2019 legacy?\u201d in a world that often only recognized him for just his voice. The film reckons with the society\u2019s assumptions placed onto Black men who, like Vandross, appear to be \u201csoft\u201d in a world that prizes hypermasculinity.\n\n\n\n\n\nWhile Porter highlights Vandross finding success in the music industry, she also focuses on what it was like for Vandross to navigate his music career while wrestling with questions about his weight and sexuality. The most interesting part of this documentary is watching media figures who interviewed him get visibly upset or frustrated when he decided not to disclose parts of his story. This reminded me of how entitled some folks feel to your narrative and how this was often the case for Vandross. \n\n\n\nBut most importantly, it felt validating to watch Porter\u2019s work and see her examine the true impact that speculating on one\u2019s identity can have on an individual. For years, this was the case for Vandross and finally someone is showing the implications this had.\u00a0\n\n\n\nThough we may never fully know all of Vandross\u2019 story, what we do know is that his music and legacy is one that will always be one that centers love. Considering the times we are currently in, that will never be too much.\n\n\n\nAs someone who identifies as Black, fat, and femme, and who often found refuge in Vandross\u2019 work, I, too, dealt with many of the same issues Vandross struggled with in silence. Seeing Porter mention Vandross\u2019 issues with his body and the speculation around it helped validate my own struggle with the complexities of feeling hyper visible and invisible at the same time, and how painful it can be for the world to not actualize you beyond the scopes of your identity. Ultimately, Porter\u2019s film grapples with how the world's fixation on both his identity and sexuality made Vandross feel \u201cunlovable\u201d and consequently, the pain he often navigated. \n\n\n\nI departed the theater thinking, \"How could a man who sang some of the most beautiful love songs be so sad and lonely?\u201d and I immediately came back to the ways Vandross was never given the safety to be his authentic self. I quickly came to understand that songs like \u201cAny Love\u201d was a song about Vandross\u2019s wanting to be loved beyond what he looked like or how he identified. Or that the song \u201cWait for Love\u201d might have been about him feeling like he would never find the someone who would see past his imperfections. \n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3aFaU1G3J5s\n\n\n\n\nPorter\u2019s work asks the viewer to evaluate the important question: Do we really want to know about someone's identity to continue perpetuating stigma or because we want to help someone find freedom, truth, and peace? \n\n\n\nThough we may never fully know all of Vandross\u2019 story, what we do know is that his music and legacy is one that will always be one that centers love. Considering the times we are currently in, that will never be too much. \n\n\n","thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/into-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2024\/02\/gettyimages-1217144096-scaled.jpg","image":"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/into-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2024\/02\/gettyimages-1217144096-scaled.jpg","height":1006,"width":1024,"creator":"Jonathan P. Higgins Ed.D.","author":"@type":"Person","name":"Jonathan P. Higgins Ed.D.","url":"https:\/\/www.intomore.com\/author\/jonathan-p-higgins-ed-d-3\/","articleSection":"Culture","keywords":[null,"post","Luther Vandross","Sundance"],"publisher":"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","name":"INTO","url":"https:\/\/www.intomore.com\/","logo":"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.intomore.com\/assets\/logos\/logo-black.png","height":"188","width":"102","address":"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"584 Castro St. #623","addressLocality":"San Francisco","addressRegion":"CA","postalCode":"94114","addressCountry":"USA","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/INTO","https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/into_tweets","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/INTOmore"]} Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock our articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

The bass, presumably played by Marcus Miller, starts with a high note than slides down the frets. Five thick keyboard chords played staccato introduce the song. Then comes the guitar lick, similar to but slicker than the chicken scratch playing in funk bands. This is set against piano chords and a thumb slapping bass line. Oh, yeah, and one rock solid, cymbal, snare, and kick-based drum pattern. After a little bit, a synthesizer holds court behind all this, setting another layer to the mix.

It's almost 40 seconds of introduction before Luther Vandross starts singing the first track on his first solo album back in 1981. \u201CI can\u2019t fool myself, I don\u2019t want nobody else to ever love me.\u201D Vandross was a male singer heavily influenced by women vocalists. In fact, his phrasing on this song reminds me as much as anything of Dionne Warwick. Part of that is the extensive number of syllables, each given one note in the syncopated long lyrical lines of the melody. You know, the way Burt Bacharach gave Warwick to sing in songs like \u201CDo You Know the Way to San Jose?\u201D. I\u2019m not saying Vandross\u2019s melodic invention is as complicated as that of Bacharach, but the way he negotiates the rhythm of his lyric is as tricky as that of Warwick.

Vandross\u2019s vocal, along with the dance groove in the rhythm track, lets the strings enter the track without being noticed. They actually enter in the middle of the first line of the second verse \u2013 \u201CI still remember in the days when I was scared to touch you.\u201D But they swell into a more prominent role as the chorus comes up: \u201COh my love,\u201D with a single woodblock in the middle of the elongated \u201Clove,\u201D then \u201CA thousand kisses from you is never enough,\u201D and as he stretches out that \u201Cenough,\u201D there\u2019s another wood block. Everything combines here to let us feel the urgent joy Vandross wants us to share as he tells of his love.

Soon comes the most dramatic point of the whole record. \u201CI just don\u2019t want to stop!\u201D Quickly, overdubbed Vandrosses chant in a much higher register \u201CToo much, never too much, never too much, never too much.\u201D Vandross had spent most of the seventies singing background vocals for the likes of Roberta Flack, David Bowie, Donna Summer, and Chic. He knew how to make this part sharp, intimate, irresistible.

The third verse is playful. Vandross wakes up, sees a photo of his beloved, calls to find no answer, goes to work where he is surprised by the loved one. \u201CWho needs to go to work to hustle for another dollar,\u201D he sings, and \u201Chustle\u201D is echoed by a sweetened chorus of female voices, the only time in the song he doesn\u2019t provide all the vocals. I find this an interesting choice that adds poignancy, though I can\u2019t really explain it. Sometimes, it\u2019s just a good idea to put something different in a song without making obvious sense.

Luther Vandross never oversang anything. He always trusted the song, delivered the melody, made sure the words were clear. He liked to arrange the music to keep things interesting, but he didn\u2019t go for melismatic extensions. His vocals were so controlled, so smooth, so elegantly delivered. I saw him live twice \u2013 once in 1984, when he had put on a huge amount of weight, and again in 1986, just after he had lost 85 pounds. He was charismatic both times, and he made women in the audience swoon.

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