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Barry White: Staying Power

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Privat Music Inc.
Released: 1999.07.27
Time:
 67:56
Category: Soul
Producer(s): Jack Perry, Barry White
Rating: ******.... (6/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.bbc.co.uk
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2002.01.26
Price in €: 6,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Staying Power (R.Holmes/J.Paschal) - 6:10
[2] Don't Play Games (S.Guillory/J.Perry/B.White) - 7:24
[3] The Longer We Make Love [duett with Chaka Khan] (A.Saunders/M.Schroeder/B.White) - 5:48
[4] I Get off on You (Kashif/J.Perry/White) - 6:30
[5] Which Way Is Up (J.Perry/D.Rasheed/B.White) - 5:42
[6] Get Up (J.Perry/B.White) - 6:11
[7] Sometimes (B.White) - 6:55
[8] Low Rider (S.Allen/H.Brown/M.Dickerson/J.Goldstein/L.Jordan/Ch.Miller/L.Oskar/H.Scott) - 5:17
[9] Thank You [Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin] (S.Stewart) - 5:46
[10] Slow Your Roll (J.Paschal/J.Perry/B.White) - 5:46
[11] The Longer We Make Love [duett with Lisa Stansfield] (A.Saunders/M.Schroeder/B.White) - 6:27

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


BARRY WHITE - Synthesizer, Guitar, Vocals, Producer, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Mixing

JACK PERRY - Synthesizer, Arranger, Conductor, Keyboards, Engineer, Orchestration, Drum Programming, Mixing
GERALD ALBRIGHT - Saxophone
PAULINHO DA COSTA - Percussion
WA WA WATSOU - Guitar
BRIDGET WHITE - Background Vocals
GLODEAN WHITE - Background Vocals
H.B. BARNUM - Conductor, Orchestration

CHAKA KHAN - Vocals, Rhythm on [3]
LISA STANSFIELD - Vocals on [11]

MIKE PATTERSON - Engineer
JOE SCHIFF - Engineer
TOM SWEENEY - Assistant Engineer
DANN THOMPSON - Assistant Engineer
STEVE GENEWICK - Assistant Engineer
WASSIM ZREIK - Assistant Engineer
OSIE BOWE - Assistant Engineer
GREG COLLINS - Assistant Engineer
JEFF GREGORY - Assistant Engineer
ROBERT HOFFMAN - Assistant Engineer
DAVE POLER - Assistant Engineer
CRAIG BURBIDGE - Mixing
PATRICIA SULLIVAN - Mastering
JOHN CASADO - Photography
MARK ELIOT - Liner Notes

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1999 CD Private Music 82185



By the late '90s, Barry White was primarily known as an icon. His music was well-known, but his voice was known better, as it stood for the epitome of sultry, sexy soul. And, befitting his icon status, he could still support a large audience in concerts, which led to new recordings — recordings that were minor hits upon their release, but never eclipsing his classic hits. Staying Power, his first album since 1994's The Icon Is Love, fits neatly into that category. It certainly is an enjoyable album, since White's voice is aging remarkably well and the production is uniformly appealing, but it's never a memorable one. Like most contemporary albums by veterans, it's littered with cameos that are designed to broaden his audience and increase chances of airplay. With the exception of the Bone Thugs N Harmony duet "Thank You" — which is the worst track on the album — they all work pretty well, and the Chaka Khan & Lisa Stansfield showcase "The Longer We Make Love" is very good indeed. However, the record sounds the best when the spotlight is on White. Nevertheless, once the album is completed, it's hard to remember any of it, even if it was enjoyable as it spun. Which means Staying Power is a standard-issue iconic release — it's classy and entertaining, but doesn't add to the legacy.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide
© 1992 - 2001 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Staying Power by Rory Holmes/Joey Paschal

Barry White supplied the make-out music soundtrack of the 70s.Following the surprise platinum-plus success of his The Icon Is Love album, White proved that he could deliver in the 90s.On his follow-up album Staying Power,”The Maestro” proved that he's ready to make make-out music for the next millennium.The title track single found the singer/songwriter /arranger/producer in the bedroom-beckoning mode he’s best known for.Though when he sings “just when you think its over I’ll come back again”,that couldn’t also be taken as a reference to his long musical career.It also served as somewhat of a reunion with some of his 70s/80s collaborators: guitarist Wah Wah Watson and Glodean White,who was a member of White's female protege trio Love Unlimited who had a #1 R&B hit with "I Belong To You" in 1974.She shares background vocals with Brenda Hollaway and Bridgett White-Hancock.With its languid tempo,wide airy mix and always-on-time string section,there was nothing to keep him from his target of seduction.The track has a dreamy ambience enhanced by Rhodes-like electric piano which drifts between the speakers with White’s subterranean-deep vocals kept upfront.The lyric’s dual meaning was made even plainer with the accompanying music video which featured White on board a spacious yacht with a luscious beauty who were all bathed in bright sunshine as they languished on a deep blue ocean.


Don't Play Games by Steve Guillory/Jack Perry/Barry White

While Barry White’s slyly acquiesced on ”Playing Your Game,Baby”,a number eight R&B hit from his 1977 platinum LP, Barry White Sings For Someone You Love for his 1999 Staying Power album,he admonishes a lover against being a game player. ”Don’t Play Games” features the ginger plucked guitar riffs and sharp string accents that are hallmark of White’s.The Maestro seems to want to get serious with this lover;serious enough to talk to her about realizing the chance she’s taking to blow a good thing.He gingerly phrases the lyrics:“don't.. play.. games/it makes a mess and all you get is pain..trying to be fly is not smart/it’s not wise”. Gerald Albright adds sax solos. ”Don’t Play Games” was one of Staying Power‘s standout tracks.


Longer We Make Love by Marlon Saunders/Aaron Schroeder/Barry White

At times,a recording artist makes two different versions of the same tune in hopes of trying to capture the right mix or attitude. Barry White recorded ”The Longer We Make Love” with both Chaka Khan and Lisa Stansfield and including the two takes on his Staying Power album.The track has similar accenting strings riffs of White’s earlier releases ( &”I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More aby”).The track is also laced with distorted rock guitar lines.Chicago native Khan though seems to have an edge;capturing the song’s sensuality with her full-throated vocals;though it was Stansfield’s version that was released as the single.


I Get off on You by Kashif/Jack Perry/Barry White

Beginning with a lengthy spoken intro in which Barry White seriously lays down a lover’s rap,the languid "I Get Off On You" is one of The Maestro’s best tracks.Co-written by White,his musical director Jack Perry and Kashif,the cut drips with sensuality.It qualifies as a prime make-out number.The track has a beyond midnight ambience and background vocals that mirror orgasmic-building intensity. Gerald Albright’s alto sax solos lightly laced another mid-song lover’s rap from White.


Which Way Is Up by Jack Perry/Doug Rasheed/Barry White

Barry White’s public image is that he’s a man’s man;having it all together.So its refreshing to hear the singer express anxiety in a song. ”Which Way Is Up” found The Maestro expressing concern about the everyday worries of the average man.When White wearily intones:”I’ve got to make money/I’ve got to live/I’m not complaining that’s just the way it is/a ball and chain around my neck/the more I dig out the deeper I get”.;there’s an authenticity that stretches all the way back to White’s hungry years and his Watts upbringing;some of which is the subject of his autobiography -Love Unlimited: Insights on Life and ove.There’s a section where White scats against Gerald Albright’s sax riffs.Though never issued as a single, ”Which Way Is Up” was embraced as a popular album track among the steppers crowd.


Sometimes by Barry White

A little known fact is that singer Barry White is a motivational speaker having engagements in school auditoriums,on college campuses as well as in corporate boardrooms.It’s also not widely known that he released an album of message songs called Dedicated during the 80s.His 1999 album Staying Power gives you a taste of this lesser-known activities on three tracks.The gritty "Sometimes" is the most “in-your-face” in terms of its directness.He begins with an inspiring rap (spoken intro):””life is a game itself/the only way you can participate in it/is you have to get involved with all your heart and soul..your mind...the positive has to overtake the negative./..things don’t always go the way you want them to..hang in there”.Against a slammin’ drum beat and a “comin-ta-get-ya” bass line, White asserts:"don't be afraid no matter what they say/you have to take a chance in life....make your move/be careful what you choose/you're gonna reap what you sow". The Maestro delivers the lyrics so forcefully that you'll be marching out to "get" a job if you don't have one already.


Low Rider by Sylvester Allen/Harold Brown/B.B. Dickerson/Jerry Goldstein/Lonnie Jordan/Charles Miller/Lee Oskar/

Barry White has a sense of humor about his persona.Who didn’t chuckle at his numerous appearances in cartoon form on Fox-TV’s The Simpsons and his tongue-in-cheek cameo in the Apple Computers TV ads of spring 2001.On Staying Power,the follow-up album of his mega-platinum The Icon Is Love CD,”The Maestro” covers War’s 1975 number one R&B/number 7 pop single "Low Rider" with a sense of chuckling fun,while deftly imbuing it with a slick sexual innuendo. White’s take on "Low Rider" should be set along side the steamy bedroom odes that he’s famous;”sexy can be funny!”.


Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) by Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart

The multi-million selling success of Barry White’s The Icon Is Love took some in the music industry by surprise.It wasn’t as much as a surprise to many of his long-time fans.While it had been around since his pop chart dominance of the 70s, White’s releases consistently made the upper regions of the R&B charts during the 80s.The summer preceding the release of The Icon Is Love gave a free concert in Chicago’s Grant Park during the city’s Chicagofest that lasted over two hours.On his 1999 album Staying Power, White issued a “thank you” in the form of a Puff Daddy-produced track for the multi-platinum sales of The Icon Is Love. White’s version of Sly and The Family Stone's 1970 gold number one R&B/pop classic "Thank You" aka "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin". The grateful sentiment of the song seems genuine with the lyrics;”thank you for letting be myself again” taking on a special meaning.


Slow Your Roll by Joey Paschal/Jack Perry/Barry White

Barry White’s ”Slow Your Roll” is highway music;in other words,perfect for enjoying a long drive.Co-written by White,his musical director Jack Perry and Joey Paschal,its primarily an instrumental track.The mid-tempo groover has guitar figures that bounce around the stereo field and The Maestro makes nonchalant vocal asides (easy...nothing but a ride..cruise...).One can almost see White,sunglasses in place,laid-back behind the wheel of some mega-motored,expensive automobile (a classy Rolls Royce perhaps). As one of the closing tracks on his Staying Power CD, ”Slow Your Roll” was a fun way to end an album.

Ed Hogan, All-Music Guide, © 1992 - 2001 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Barry White kicks off Staying Power, his first album since 1994's The Icon Is Love, with a title track that boasts of his long-running stamina, both in bed and in terms of his career. Indeed, the mood here is often as reflective as it is seductive. While sticking close to the machine-tooled groove that helped make Icon's "Practice What You Preach" such a memorable single, the disc also finds White putting his low-register stamp on War's "Low Rider" and Sly Stone's "Thank You" (the latter in a version that, intriguingly, recalls the slow There's a Riot Goin' On take more than the better-known hit). Staying power? Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it.

Rickey Wright, Amazon.com



"White serves up another steamy collection of music to procreate by."

People



Die erste Nummer auf Staying Power, Barry Whites erstem Album seit 1994 (The Icon of Love), ist gleichzeitig der Titeltrack, und Barry prahlt darin von seiner lang anhaltenden Ausdauer sowohl im Bett, als auch in seiner Karriere. In der Tat ist die Stimmung dieser Platte zum einen verführerisch aber auch nachdenklich. Er vertraut auf einen ähnlichen Drum-Computer-Rhythmus, der schon "Practice What you Preach" auf dem Icon-Album zu einem unvergeßlichen Song machte, aber drückt mit seiner tiefen Stimme auch "Low Rider" von War und Sly Stones "Thank You" seinen Stempel auf (das letztere in einer Version, die auf verblüffende Art viel stärker an "There's a Riot Goin' On" erinnert, als der Original-Hit selbst). Staying Power? Hey, wer hat, der hat.

Rickey Wright, Amazon.de



Nein, Barry White hat sich nicht in Puffy Combs gefragte, wohlfeile Hände begeben, um zu entschlacken. Das hätte man erwarten dürfen. Doch freudig kann verkündet werden, dass Barry Whites Barry-White-Sound zwar sanft modernisiert, aber nicht wirklich dem Swing unserer Tage angepasst worden ist. »Slow Your Roll«, sagt er. Mit seiner schläfrig-erhabenen, gurrenden, rollenden Stimme. Barry Whites neues Album ist dermaßen downtempo, wohlig-behäbig, elegant schleichend, dass es kaum möglich ist, sich den dicken, smarten Mann nicht predigend durch die Schlafzimmer dieser Welt streifend vorzustellen. Natürlich hat er Sex auf der Rechnung, er ist schließlich Barry White, aber auf die alten Tage denkt er nun auch über politische Issues nach, in einer gläubig-positivistischen Weise, wie sie uns von den moralisierenden Millionsellern der späten Motown-Ära, Harold Melvin &The Blue Notes etwa, vertraut (und etwas fremd) ist. Kein Song unter 6, 7 Minuten, keiner schneller als eine langsam zu Boden trudelnde Rosenblüte, und bis auf das kreischige Hit-Duett »The Longer We Make Love« (überflüssigerweise gleich in doppelter Ausführung, mal mit Chaka Khan, mal mit Lisa Stansfield) keiner weniger schön als das. Gegen Ende des Albums singt Barry White Sly Stones »Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)«, ein großer Moment, unpeinlich, cool, eine Verbeugung vor einem Künstler, der eine so ganz andere Geschichte und Haltung hat als er selbst. Ein Statement auch, das auf Barry Whites Selbstbewusstsein verweist. Er, der als einer der Hauptverantwortlichen für den vermeintlichen Tod des Rhythm & Blues, den Ausverkauf des Soul an ein amüsierwilliges, weißes Crossoverpublikum lange, lange gedisst wurde, hat 1999 eine Platte aufgenommen, die den längst rehabilitierten Barry-White-Style ins Heute übersetzt und uns noch einmal teilhaben lässt an der einnehmenden, glamourösen Größe seiner slow rolls, seiner soulful sexyness. Danke.

© SPEX



The three-million plus in record sales for Barry White's last record, 1995's The Icon is Love, suggests that audiences have yet to tire of his by-now-patented musical formula: slow, suggestive seduction songs sung in a familiar foghorn croon. His latest, Staying Power, is more of the same, likely to enthrall longtime fans and mystify everyone under the age of 35.

Staying Power recollects a time when soul -- and pop music in general -- was, to put it mildly, less sophisticated. Lines like "Tease me with your emotion/ Soon we'll share nature's body lotion," probably would have sounded more persuasive in the fireplace-and-a-white-bearskin-rug '70s (nature's body lotion?), though White essays each track with his usual booming authority.

Perhaps in search of modern day relevance, Lisa Stansfield is enlisted to duet with White, not entirely convincingly, on "The Longer We Make Love," and the omnipresent Puff Daddy remixes White's version of Sly Stone's "Thank You." Neither of them manage to contemporize, even slightly, White's "Trapped in a K-Tel '70s Soul Collection" sound.

Allison Stewart - August 2, 1999
Copyright © 1994-2002 CDnow Online, Inc. All rights reserved.



There's a sensual symbiosis between sex and strings in Barry White's aural bedroom. The strings sweeten the carnality, make it grand and embracing, while the erotic intimacy of White's delivery gives the heavenly baroque arrangements an earthy immediacy. When the balance tips, White's love recipe just don't taste right.

His long-awaited Staying Power -- the successor to 1994's double-platinum The Icon Is Love, the album where the maestro got his groove back -- doesn't skimp on orchestration, but it's often lost in a mix that tries to step to the digital present. Offered in two alternate duet versions, one featuring Chaka Khan and the other with Lisa Stansfield, "The Longer We Make Love" gets busy with the violins and ranks with the singer's classics. Others, like Puff Daddy's rap-festooned production of the Sly Stone cover "Thank You," seem unnecessarily desperate for radio action. White is still talkin' that talk, rhyming "emotion" with "nature's body lotion," yet the results remain stately and subtle when they could be sweaty and stirring.

BARRY WALTERS - RS 821
© Copyright 2001 RollingStone.com
 

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