Today marks the one year anniversary of Teena Marie’s passing. When I heard about her death (via Twitter, like we do), I was stunned. Even thought she hadn’t had a hit in a few years, she was still releasing albums and touring, and I easily could have imagined her becoming the grand dame of R&B. Leaving this world as soon as she did should not have even been an option.
For those of you who don’t know, Teena was not only a white woman who found success singing R&B, she was also a pioneer in the business, inadvertently leading the charge on how artist contracts were drawn up and how artists were paid. While that in itself is something to be proud of, I would be surprised if that’s a victory she would have even claimed. From the way she chased down a recording contract to the innovative way her career laid itself out, Teena Marie was no one’s puppet. She was her own woman, and even when being molded by a producer and writer as strong-willed as Rick James, her power never flagged. In fact, James was gasoline to Marie’s flame, and there is no stronger proof of this than their duet “Fire and Desire” from his 1981 album Street Songs. The clip below is a rare video of the two of them in their prime performing “Fire” live, and the passion between those two fiery souls must have been amazing to witness live:
While I knew the music that Teena Marie was making in the early 80s, it wasn’t until 1984’s Starchild with the #4 pop hit “Lovergirl” that my attention was fully captured. Starchild hit high rotation on my tape deck, but it was “Out on a Limb” that quickly became my jam. I was 15 years old, but somehow this woman’s ode to an amazing love resonated with me. We speak about “the best” this and that, but for me, “Out on a Limb” is one of the greatest R&B ballads of the past 50 years. It was timely and timeless, all at the same time, and Teena’s delivery elevated it above just a solid song into a blueprint of how you sing a ballad. Singers like Shirley Murdock owe Teena Marie a great debt for utilizing her influence in making their own hit records. While the song was not a hit at the time, it quickly became a Quiet Storm staple on R&B stations across the US.
Surprisingly, some of Teena Marie’s most enduring songs were never hits. Along with “Out on a Limb” is “Deja Vu (I’ve Been Here Before),” a song that appeared on her first album Wild and Peaceful. Despite it never being a single, it is a signature Teena Marie track that remained a favorite at her concerts up until her death last year. You would never know that the song was written by Rick James by the way she sang it because the conviction of her delivery made it her own from the opening lines: “I’m young and I’m old/I’m rich and I’m poor/I feel like I’ve been on this Earth many times before.” [Update: if you check the comments, you’ll see that Teena revised her opinion on who wrote “Deja Vu.”]
No matter what adversity or challenges she experienced in her life, it was clear that music was her passion instead of her job and nothing would deter her from sharing it with the world. We should all be that lucky. Rest in peace, Lady Tee. Your memory and your music lives on.
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Pop Music Notes 
Very few people seem to realize Rick did not write Deja Vu(I’ve Been Hear Before). In fact, Teena herself said, in an interview(I will post the link to this interview when I dig it out of quite a few that I have), she didn’t remember writing it. She didn’t realize until a few years latter when Rick returned a diary she lent him.
I had no idea. Unfortunately, we can only go off of the writing credits, and he is credited with it. If nothing else, he had a hand in the musical direction, but that makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Thanks for sharing.
I have so much info on her I couldn’t remember what format that interview was in.
I watched this episode and completely forgot about that quote. Thanks!
She did matter! I sure hope her legacy lives on! John, thanks for remembering Lady Tee. Some of her earlier unreleased material has since been made available after her death on the compilation album First Class Love: Rare Tee – check it out, that is, if you haven’t already.
I just recently came across that collection but I didn’t pick it up. I’ve been disappointed too many times by posthumous collections, so I left it alone, but I will check it out based on your recommendation.
I really think only “true fans” will probably appreciate this posthumopus collection, though, I do think back in the day it would have been a respectable release. I really liked how many of the songs sounded unrefined. I especially liked the ones with just Teena and her guitar. Though I might be in the minority, I really found the whole thing to be quite an enjoyable listen and I think it’s probably because as someone who owns every single song she ever put out, I had never heard the majority of the songs that were included on this release.
I too have everything she put out, including her collaborations, and ,the Black Rain that she never released, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the raw Teena in this collection.I ‘m probably in the minority too, in that I think Emerald City is one of her best works. She is the only artist that I love everything of her’s I’ve ever heard. To me, she was just a phenomenal talent.
You didn’t forget it; it wasn’t in the Unsung episode. This is an exclusive clip, that wasn’t included in the episode.
Note: Her final CD will be titled “Beautiful” and will include a tribute to Smokey titled “When Smokey Sings”.
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Rick James Didn’t write Deja Vu though he may have got all the ‘writing credit’ for it.
Teena is on video as saying she was just so ‘over-whelmed’ to be finally getting a Record out and working with Rick. That she was forgot that she wrote it herself !
She had gave a book of her Poems to him and of course sang many ideas of ‘how they might go’.
It was only ‘After’ her 1st album was released that she got this book back & there – right in her Own Handwriting’ were ‘The Lyrics’ for that song.