Sade Parking Lot

smooth music for all people Fans of outré cinema / weird vids are probably familiar with "Heavy Metal Parking Lot", a classic little piece of video verité that interviews fans outside a Judas Priest concert in 1986. There was also a sequel made by the same crew in 1996, "Neil Diamond Parking Lot". I rewatched both of these recently (obligatory in certain circles) and it got me thinking "is there anyone else making great parking lot movies out there?". Well I have great news that isn't news to you if you read the subject of this email. There's Sade Parking Lot. This is "A Message To Sade", an extra feature on the Lovers Live DVD, 2001. The vid is 10 minutes long.

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[Sade - A Message To Sade - Directed by The Polish Brothers (Lovers Live Extra 2001)]

I wasn't into Sade until a few years ago-- I thought of her music as like, yuppie music for real estate developers. I come from a punk / noise background and so her music was just too smooth for me, I couldn't hear it. But the fool who persists in their folly becomes wise-- like everyone else I know that got really into harsh noise, I followed the path until I reached a pure joy and acceptance for all sound as it is, and then into a newfound appreciation for the Beach Boys, Steely Dan, and/or Sade. It's great to be here.

Everyone in this video is on the same page as me with regards to loving Sade. Also, it's 2001 so no one has experience being in a video-- everyone is a little shocked, delighted, and embarassed, and it's really cute. This was filmed in 2001, after a 7 year hiatus in which nary a peep was heard from Sade or her band (also called Sade). The excitement in the arena is palpable. There's a few marriage proposals, a few people sing, and everyone expresses their love, through the camera, directly to Sade. She's one of a small number of truly shy pop singers who nonetheless makes confident and personal music (the lady from Mazzy Star being another example). It's easy to imagine her watching this video and crying the entire time. I would.

If you're just getting into Sade it's OK to start anywhere, there's no duds. "No Ordinary Love" has a great video-- [YouTube 4:01]. My favorite song right now is probably "by your side", because it sounds like she's singing to someone named "Judy". I looked it up though and she's saying something else. If I had a friend named "Judy" I'd sing this to them all the time-- [YouTube 4:25]. Rap fans may recognize Sade from the sample on MF DOOM's "Doomsday", this is embarassing to say but someone made a whole mashup record and it's really nice: [SADEVILLAIN I & II - YouTube 42:24]. Maybe a good entry point to Sade if you’re already a fan of the supervillain (RIP).

Special shoutout to Carlos "Russian Tsarlag" Gonzalez, who first got me into Sade years ago. In a perfect world we'd get a crossover event there, but for the time being you'll just have to imagine it. He's extremely prolific and there's a lot of his older maniac stuff on YouTube, but here's the Bandcamp link for the recent material-- [Bandcamp]. OK, chosen randomly from older stuff here's the "Community Death Tube" LP-- [YouTube]. If anyone's doing Tsarlag Parking Lot please call me!!!!!

Peace everyone :)

If someone sent this to you because you're obsessed with Sade, or because someone thinks you should be, or maybe someone wrote TSARLAG in ranch dressing on the side of your bungalow and a google search led here, well you may enjoy other things I've written as well. This is Pleasant Realms, an email newsletter about mostly non-stressful YouTube videos.