With a music career that spanned three decades, and unforgettable grooves like, “Lover Girl”, and “Portuguese Love”, Teena Marie, (born, Mary Christine Brockert) has died. This is an apocalyptic loss to music. As Motown’s first white act, Marie was adopted into the black community as an honorary sista, and delivered heart-felt soul (and rock) like no one else.
Marie was one of those rare singers who was a genuine musician and not a manufactured “artist”. She may have started as a Rick James protege, but swiftly paved her own way with a voice and style that was incomparable to any other.
The soulfulness of Marie’s voice played mind games. She nearly had you thinking she was a light "skin-ded" black woman when she sang her debut single, “I'm a Sucker For Your Love”! She almost got us! Cathy Hughes , founder of TV One said, "Teena was a black voice trapped in a white body.” But to me she was a great voice that defied racial definition, and an example that real soul doesn’t belong to any one group of people. It belongs to the people.
As an avid music lover (freak actually), I’m devastated and wonder where music is going. Teena Marie, the “Ivory Queen of Soul” was undoubtedly one of the greats. I still listen to everything from “Dear Lover” to “Can’t Last a Day”, one of her modern recordings with the singer Faith. And with the loss of Michael Jackson, and the recent news of Aretha Franklin’s health concerns, I’m in a state about the loss of musical greatness. And I wonder what will we be listening to in twenty years?
What modern “artists” will be considered classic? What current performers are truly capable of creating not only music, but moments in time? Who can make me stop whatever I’m doing when their song comes on and take me to “a place” like Marie and her peers? We’ve lost another great one.
What I loved about Marie was that she knew who she was. She knew she was white, and she knew she was the business. She wasn’t acting black; she was just living with soul. (You can’t lay down a rhyme like the one in “Square Biz” by faking it.) She definitely had an affinity for the black culture, which was attributed to her upbringing, but Marie didn’t bastardize R&B; she epitomized it.
Teena Marie was extraordinary. She played as well as the boys, sang better than most of the girls, and did it all like a lady. Marie did it her way, on her terms and fully demonstrated that true talent cannot be hindered, and cannot be forgotten.
Ms. Teena, you are sorely and deeply missed. Though there will never be another one like you, your music lives on. Thank you for the music and the memories.
What are some of your favorite Teena Marie music memories?
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