To them it was a flame
To me it was an insect
To them it was a rose
To me it was Detroit
To them the world was turning
I only wanted soup
To them it was an ocean
To me it was Detroit
I don’t want a savior
I don’t believe in bliss
I don’t want to sleep
Just to wake up like this
I don’t want to burn you
The skillet and the ring
Its a short fall up
So please don’t make me sing
To them it was a ghost
For me it was tomorrow
To them it was a kiss
To me it was Detroit
For them its paranoia
I only wanted bread
Like second hand smoke
To me it that is Detroit
I don’t like behavior
I hate it when you cry
I don’t think i’ll save you
Here no one really flies
In Detroit
Its’ just Detroit
Father, son & holy ghost
They bought a place out on the coast
40 virgins in the yard
All shaved and ready
Neighbors never said hello
Shunned them just to let them know
We are the light
On that we hold steady
I was talking with my boss
Slavery vs the holocaust
Ships & tanks are not the same
Can we just watch the game
Home team losing ground
So i bought another round
Here’s an intern i should do
In the perfect sweater
Next to my boss in the head
He turned towards me eyes of red
How you doing boy? , he said
But he should know better
Now in the trunk of my car
Jammed up like a jelly jar
I’m not traveling fast or far
But it’s his last ride
Father never said hello
Just tossed a nod that let me know
You can work for food
But you’re just a fool in love
Papers not as old as dirt
Wash your face change your shirt
Eat some food before we work
It’s time for fools in love
Time for fools in love
Time for fools in love
Oh Elijah
Who said money don’t grow on trees?
Then why you got a wall around your garden?
I don’t believe that it’s make Believe
Oh Elijah
Oh Elijah
I put your book down
Oh Elijah
I put your book down
And thought it over
I thought it over
Who said these colors will not run?
I hope he does my laundry
A little bit of power might make you come
Oh Elijah
I put your book down
I put your book down
And thought it over
Going to meet John at two fifteen
Don’t let him in if he knocks first
He will court the county queen
Then draw the salt
Out from the the earth
Steeped in plaid
And azure will
Eyes of ink and milk and seal
Take tomorrow’s time and its tide
They wont bring my child back to me
Going to meet Mary ten to one
Third born first hot on her heel
I will tell you what to wear
If you tell me
How to feel
How to feel
How to feel
Oh look
Look at the little artist
Sitting at the coffee table
Waiting
For something to move
Him
The little artist
Look at him
Everything is nothing
Nothing is everything
For the little artist
Look at him
At the coffee table
With a coffee
A cold coffee
For the little artist
Look at him
She licks her lips
Every time she’s about to drop
Something real heavy
I make an effort to compose myself
But, I’ll never be ready
I’m not dumb
I got to know
Are you gonna go?
Just Thinking About It.
She said, fully cognizant of my situation
Just Thinking About It.
She said, you drive me out of my mind
Just Thinking About It.
She said, without any hesitation
Just Thinking About It.
I need a little time
I’m a Lover but I don’t know how
You want to do something different now
You say you want to Be Yourself
I never knew that I was stopping you
From all these things you need to do
Baby, can you just leave me a little piece
Of Our Love?
I’m not dumb
I got to know
Are you gonna leave me?
She said
I’m thinking about it
Just thinking about it
Hitting my switches
My favorite riches
Hit & Rewind
I want your from the back
From behind
I remember
Kissing my sunshine
You know
You’re calling
“What is my name?”
I want everybody to
Swing Batta Batta
Batta Batta Swing
Swing Batta Batta
Batta Batta Swing
You might find yourself
In a bowl of wrong
You might lose yourself
But you know where you belong
Laying down on the carpet
Baby, don’t you try to leave
I see you over in the corner
Picking up pieces of a bad hair weave
When all you got to do
Is baby Batta Batta Swing
Swing Batta Batta
Batta Batta Swing
Swing Batta Batta
You know you want to Swing
Now you ain’t got no where to go
But I’m gonna take you there
And you don’t need to shave nothing
Because I don’t care what you wear
9 times out of 10
There’ll be 20 more than you
And if there ain’t no strength in numbers
I’ll tell you all what to do
Just get down on your knees
And baby Batta Batta Swing
Swing Batta Batta
Swing
Batta Batta Swing (ad nauseum )
You know
I drove down
To Magic Market
It happened
Yesterday
I seen your Famous Friend
In the parking lot
But, she never looked my way
I’m a Dirty Man
I’m a Dirty Man
Now I’m a Dirty Man
But I’m so in love with you
Now Sticks & Stones
They tend to hurt me
I’m not as strong
As I was
When I had your
Sweet Sweet Love
But, I lost it all
Because
I was a Dirty Man
I was a Dirty Man
Just a Dirty Man
But, I’ll come clean for you
I’m a Dirty Man
When this engine starts
It aint running out of gas again
Love you like a clown
At the grave of a real good friend
( by your leave, sir )
We will worship what we need to know
Mother nature will tell us so
Be so lit up and ready to glow
Can’t stop can’t stop say no
She’s south in the kitchen
Life is bitchin life is bitchin again
What is fun with someone
If they never want to see you again?
Tied like a chain
With the same spin on it
You want to save face
I’d pick your panty up
But i doubt it
( so that’s where we are so that’s where it is? )
The bright lights
They aren’t shining for me
All these girls?
Weak as powder blue
And none of them
Is you
I’m going to Hudson
You forgive
But don’t forget anything
Tell me what
Else can I do?
To prove my love is true
Here in Hudson
Mercy will forget my name
Just like the others
I was a fool with your love
But not again girl
I know time moves one way
Can we count it down
In Hudson
Take my word
Take my breath
Take my heart
For yourself
I’ll be here when
Nothing’s left
In Hudson
In Hudson
Written and recorded by Marc Anthony Thompson.
He’d only just arrived and we were missing him already: in 2010, when the American singer Marc Anthony Thompson, aka Chocolate Genius Incorporated released his fourth album Swansongs (his first on the French label No Format), he declared that it would be his last, at least under that name. It was a big loss, one to be lamented: surely but discreetly, Marc Anthony Thompson had established himself over the years, through numerous releases, as an indispensable soul singer who kept faith with the music that had inspired him as a teenager (AlGreen, Sam Cooke and all the other giants of the same ilk), whilst managing to avoid the pitfalls and formulas of easy imitation, of retro revivalism. In terms of genre, this man has taken every liberty imaginable, with his warm, subtle and often heart-shredding voice, flirting with indie rock, embracing the blues, folk and funk. After two albums released in the 80s under the name with which he was baptized, and three others under the moniker Chocolate Genius (Black Music in1998, God music in 2001 and Black Yankee Rock in 2005), he signed with Nø Førmat! (a name and an aesthetic that suit him well) for his swan song.
And that’s what scared us. Then...bounce back: he’s taken his time (it’s been five years since Swansongs) but...yes...Marc is back with a brand new album called Epilogue 1: Truth vsBeauty, whose title gives a nod and a wink to that end that wasn’t, in fact, the end of Chocolate Genius IncorporatedIsn’t an epilogue usually the final act, the conclusion?
So what’s this Epilogue 1 ? “Let’s just sa y it’s the beginning of the end ” , he jokes. “I always try to make each of my albums seem like the last...but also the first.”
Epilogue 1: Truth vs Beauty is, in effect, a new departure. First because Chocolate Genius Incorporated has turned a page and moved on from his trilogy of autobiographical albums, with their songs about family and the loss of people close to him. But more importantly, because he’s found a new way of making music. For the first time in his career, he didn’t just go into the studio and record an album. To be honest, he didn’t even expect to record an album at all. In between various other pursuits (writing music for theatre, touring as guitarist inBruce Springsteen’s band, a move from New York to northern California where he opened a restaurant with his family), he continued to write songs, like a hobby, or more like an intimate diary, and record them alone at home, playing all the instruments himself.
It’s those songs that Nø Førmat decided to release, hand-picking twelve from more than thirty. As such, considering the truth and beauty of their epiphany and the moments of inspiration in which they were fashioned, their recording is another kind of story altogether, a different kind of adventure. Some were born in the state of New York, and others in Los Angeles, in Marc’s childhood home, which he inherited from his deceased parents.
"I returned to the same methods that I used to write my very first songs, when I was a teenager. Back then I used to record them on a cassette player, in my mother’s bedroom, doing everything myself. This time round I found myself in the same place, in the same room, the difference being that the cassette player had become a laptop computer. There’s a piano, a chimney, a floor, I know it all very well...I slept in the room that I recorded in. It was very comfortable, and the spirits of the family were with me.”
According to Marc, Epilogue 1: Truth vs Beauty isn’t an album that’s ‘well leafed’,like a family photo album. But it’s still very personal and intimate. In the first few seconds you can hear the sound of water: that’s Marc’s faithful four-footed friend(who has died since) having a drink in the bathroom where he was trying to record.
These twelve songs sound the same as Chocolate Genius Incorporated has always done: that’s to say, they sound like only he can sound and reflect the wealth and variety of his inspirations. They float and glide between genres and references. Even when he was little, that was already his way: “ I remember, when I was younger and used to sing all alone in my room, my mother would ask ‘who are you trying to be today?’ She wasn’t teasing me or anything; it was just her way of saying that I was learning from all kinds of other people.”
Marc’s fifth album is a meticulous patchwork of underground soul, DIY rock, low-fi R’n’B, and disarming folk, veiled and tender. It’s American music in the widest-sense, like a panoramic photo taken during a full moon, with a very long exposure and plenty of sensuous care for detail, tonality and colour. It’s a record to listen to in the car, when you’ve already come to the end of the road, parked on a beach opposite the sea. Or in the wee wee hours, during a sleepless night. Or after love, when the sensation of exhaustion can’t be disentangled from that of well-being. Chocolate Genius Incorporated plays every instrument, but he also plays with light, with emotions, with space and time, with the flesh. Twelve songs, beautiful in their skin, that send out shivers, that penetrate the surface, go straight to the heart and hit the bulls-eye. If this album is the beginning of the end for Chocolate Genius Incorporated, then we’re already dreaming of hearing the follow up.
