The end of this week has turned into an unofficial theme week, focusing on women who made a momentary splash and then fell off the face of the earth.
Next on the list is Neneh Cherry, who came to my attention in 1992 with the released of her second album, Homebrew. Cherry actually reached a bigger audience with her first album, 1989’s Raw Like Sushi, which spawned the hit single ‘Buffalo Stance,’ but I’d never heard of her before Homebrew.
This album is a mix of hip-hop, R&B and pop that may well have been too ahead of its time. You look at a group like the Black-Eyed Peas scoring hit after hit these days and wonder if Cherry might have found her niche too soon.
Lauryn Hill is another artist who dabbled in this sort of soul-rap fusion, and of course she had extraordinary success before going nuts and withdrawing from the public eye.
Cherry seemed to have a promising career ahead of her. She was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy (and lost to Milli Vanilli) and received much critical acclaim for her sophomore record. But the audience didn’t find her and she faded away, eventually joining a band called CirKus, based in Europe, and releasing a couple of albums in the ’00s.
Today’s track is a fun little commentary on sex education featuring a dynamite guest vocal by Michael Stipe, who even raps at one point.
Like a valentine for a lonely soul
You can treat me like a fool
And hate
Some love brings me down
Some love turns me round and round
And round and round
Is it something that I said?
Is it something that I did?
Is it something that I, that I got in my head?
Laying in my bed is so real
‘Cause I know what I feel
But together we stand and together we lay
Hey listen to the voice of experience
This is how I live tomorrow and today
Listen to the voice of experience
That’s how I live
Stop the beat, listen to the melody
Round and round and round and round
Huh, yeah I know when I got the feeling
A feeling of love knocking on my door
First there was fifty and then there was more
What a bore, then there was none
Now there’s one cause I’m a lucky one
Feelings of love I’ve got feelings of affection
Come on and give it to me give it with protection
There’s no time we’re out of luck
The law says we can’t talk about… huh
Round and round and round
But I need some S-E-X-E-D-U-C-A-T-I-O-N, yeah
Sex education
For the people y’all
Parents and teachers get together get cool
Children need to learn about sex in school
Children need to learn about sex in school
You think they don’t do it?
Don’t get fooled
Parents don’t turn your back on the pack
Teachers want to teach but the law says whack
Don’t let your kid get caught
Without a jimmy hat
and that’s just the start
Take it to the heart of the matter
Talk about it talk about it
Sister sister, kissing by the tree
Ripe right for picking something sweet
Brother brother what’s it gonna be
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Teacher, teacher, teacher teach us S-E-X
Teach it to us stupid without the FX
Teacher teach us with your ABCs
Rollin’ on the alphabet I’m gonna
Get to Z.
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, Cherry definitely had a level of success and critical notice, albeit brief, that the other artists of this week didn’t share. Still, I’m not even sure I would know her “hit.”
This song is a little jarring to me, at least in the early morning hours. Always like to hear Stipe’s voice though in any song. Chorus’ redundancy is likely to drive Amy off a cliff:)