Your Love (Jamie Principle song)

"Your Love" is a 1980s Chicago house song by Bryan Walton under the name Jamie Principle. The song's lyrics were written by Principle based on meeting a woman Lisa who he wrote the song about. The lyrics were later given to Frankie Knuckles, a DJ that worked in Chicago clubs that Principle was a frequent visitor of. Despite not having produced any original music before, Knuckles agreed to work on it after hearing a demo tape version by Principle. Knuckles would take the song and add some small music to it and play to great reception at his club. This version of the song was played from tapes and was described as being different from later releases, with Jacob Arnold of Wax Poetics stated that this version was "little more than a snare march with vocals." It was later revamped by DJ Mark "Hot Rod" Trollan who added a synthesizer intro and a bassline. This version was first released in 1986 on Persona Records and was the last release from the label.

"Your Love"
Single by Jamie Principle
ReleasedApril 1986 (1986-04)
GenreChicago house
LabelPersona
Composer(s)Jamie Principle[1]
Lyricist(s)Jamie Principle[1]
Jamie Principle singles chronology
"Waiting on My Angel"
(1985)		 "Your Love"
(1986)

The song is commonly known as a track by Frankie Knuckles, despite the lesser-known Principle releasing it first.[2] The song was re-released on Trax Records and credited to Frankie Knuckles with Principle only being credited as the songwriter. The Trax release and the Persona release have little difference between them. The song did not create a wave of house music in Chicago, which did not start until the release of "On and On" by Jesse Saunders.

Production

Background

The song was made by a Chicago-based musician named Bryan Walton under the alias of Jamie Principle.[2] Principle, a Chicago native, was part of the city's music scene that predominantly revolved around gay and black nightclubs.[3] Principle was not homosexual, and said he was not very familiar with gay culture at the time.[3] He went to college for sound engineering and considered his favourite musicians to be Prince, David Bowie, Depeche Mode and The Human League.[4][5] Frankie Knuckles was originally from New York, but would work as a DJ at the Chicago clubs, initially at the Warehouse from 1977 to 1982 and then at the Power Plant which Knuckles owned and operated.[3] Princple did not know Knuckles personally before working with him on "Your Love", but positively recalled attending these clubs stating that during the Reagan Era, these clubs were "a place to escape. You could stay out all night and not worry about what was happening here. When Frankie [Knuckles] had his Power Plant club, it was like going to church and letting yourself be free without worrying about all the craziness that was happening in the streets and in the world."[3]

Writing and development

Principle explained that the song's lyrics were developed when he decided he would focus less on relationships to remain more focused on making music.[2] Principle would then meet a girl named Lisa, who the song is about.[2] Walton began writing "Your Love" as a poem about her, but later switched into a song that was written just for her.[2] The original lyrics were voiced by an uncredited Adrienne Jette, a vocalist whose only other credits was on Ron Hardy's "Sensation".[2] Principle's friend Freddy Gomez engineered the song and cut a tape of it on reel-to-reel.[2] Gomez took the song to Knuckles, who Principle did not know personally at the time.[3] Principle recalled that he was "afraid of Frankie, because I heard that if he didn't like the songs, he would just tear them up in front of you."[3] Gomez worked with Knuckles regularly and took the song to him without Principle knowing and said Knuckles would get in touch with him after listening to it.[3]

Prior to working with Principle, Knuckles had not attempted to produce anyone's music before and was initially hesitant to do so.[6] Knuckles found that Principle's lyrics were "like books, small books. He would come in with pages and pages and pages of lyrics for one song."[6] Knuckles stated he trimmed the lyrics, believing that he was attempting to "try and thin this out and concentrate on what's sweet about it, what's innocent about it, what's natural about it.”[6] Gomez stated that Knuckles contribution to the song was by adding a lot of material, as the original version was about three minutes long.[3] Knuckles recalled that they re-recorded everything from scratch with his partner Eric Kupper who lived in Connecticut.[6] When asked about the production of the song, Knuckles felt that he didn't know what he was doing when developing the track.[6] The music was recorded to a cassette tape.[6]

Music and additional production

"Your Love" was played in clubs from tape for over a year before being released on vinyl.[5] Jacob Arnold of Wax Poetics stated that this cassette tape version played that played in the Power Plant was "little more than a snare march with vocals."[7] For the first purchasable release, DJ Mark "Hot Rod" Trollan who had previously done remixing work for hire, was brought in to work on the track.[7] Trollan added much of the material to the song including its synthesizer intro and a bass line heavily sampling an italian disco track named "Feels Good (Carrots & Beets)" by Electra.[7] Despite there being different major separate releases credited to both Principle and Knuckles, the two versions of "Your Love" on Persona and Trax were declared to only have "some small differences, all the versions are basically the same" by Coleman with both these versions beginning with arpeggiated lead followed by a bassline.[2]

The other track on some releases of the song was "Baby Wants to Ride".[2] Principle described the song as about "spirituality, sexuality, and political views on topics like the draft and that the government was not accepting everyone's rights.[3] Principle recalled that "I felt like I had to voice that at the time. It was just my own frustration. It was hard for me to be the individual person that I wanted to be."[3] Principle grew up in what he described as a strict Christian household and the sexuality themed lyrics of the song also dealt with him "dealing with the whole thing of sex before marriage; I was intertwining a lot of personal issues that I had into one song."[3]

Release

The early versions of "Your Love" without the added production from Trollan was played in clubs from tape for over a year before being released on vinyl.[5] When it as played at Chicago clubs, the audience was generally unaware it was a Chicago-based artist, believing that the song originated in Europe.[5]

Though a misunderstanding in the latter part of the 1980s over how the songs were credited and listed commercially, with some tracks from this period including "Your Love" being credited differently with subsequent releases.[3] The initial version on Persona Records is credited to Jamie Principle while later releases on Trax Records are credited to Frankie Knuckles.[3][7] Persona Records was created in 1984 and co-owned by Danny Alias, who after working as a student teacher connected with some music attorneys and became a paralegal. Alias was a fan of into the Chicago dance music clubs as well as being a fan of artists like Yoko Ono and Klaus Nomi as well as recording and reading poems over dance music.[7] At a Chicago release party the Alias' song "Civil Defense" on the label, he met Knuckles who wanted him and his partner David Bell to sign Jamie Principle.[7] The label released his first single "Waiting on My Angel" in May 1985.[7]

Principle's version of "Your Love" was first released as being credited to Jamie Principle on a 12" vinyl record in April 1986 on Persona Records.[7][2][8] It was the third and final release on Persona Records.[7] Alias stated that due to doing business in Chicago led to problems as despite selling many copies of Jamie Principle's records, there were issues with "let's just say...mob control."[7] The later release credited to Frankie Knuckles was released in 1987 on Trax Records, with Principle received writing credit for “Your Love” and both of them getting writing credits for the other song on the single “Baby Wants to Ride”.[2] Principle performed the uncredited vocals on the Knuckles version.[2] Principle responded to the release on Trax decades later, stating he had "never been signed to Trax! So they literally just stole my stuff."[7]

Reception and legacy

In a contemporary review, Brian Chin of Billboard praised Principle's record as a "street record of astonighing accomplishment, one that gets better as it goes along."[8] Chin noted the "lush European feel of the vocal version is counterbalanced by the 11-minute perc-apella mix (by Mark "Hot Rod" Tollan), totally vocal-less and absorbing"[8]

The release of "Your Love" did not lead to a wave of house music musical imitations, as it was not until the release of Jesse Saunders' track "On and On" that more musicians emulated the style.[5] Frank Brewton and Bill Brewster wrote in their book that Last Night a DJ Saved My Life that music of this era in Chicago only grew after it demanded a stream of what Broughton described as "simple, repetitive drum tracks" and as people began to realize how basic a track could be and as equipment became more affordable, then people began submitting endless tapes to DJs.[4][5] Marshall Jefferson stated that with "Your Love" did not inspire anybody to make a similar record, as "His shit was too good. It was like seeing John Holmes in a porno movie. You know you can't do better."[5] Principle said that when Knuckles played "Your Love" to the audiences at the clubs, he felt the song had been validated due to the positive response to it. He recalled that "it was like God told me, "This is what you're supposed to be doing.""[3] Principle and Knuckles would collaborate on another track in the 1980s titled "Bad Boy".[3] Jefferson continued that the success of "On and On" led to a wave of imitators, stating that "They saw somebody make it big...But not be that great. When Jesse did his stuff, everybody said, "Fuck! I could to better than that!"[5]

"Your Love" became the background music to the song "You Got the Love" by The Source who mixed it with a song featuring vocals by Candi Staton.[9][10] which was a hit song in the United Kingdom 1991.[9][10][11]

Following Knuckles' death on March 31, 2014, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 29, beating its 1989 position of number 59.[12]

Track listing

12" single (JP-222)[1]

  1. "Your Love" – 7:48
  2. "Your Love (Radio Mix)" – 3:54
  3. "Your Love (Dub/Rodapella Mix)" – 11:43

References
  1. Your Love (label and sleeve). Jamie Principle. Persona Records. 1986. JP-222.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. Coleman 2017.
  3. Frank 2016.
  4. Brewster & Broughton 2014, p. 326.
  5. Brewster & Broughton 2014, p. 327.
  6. Mao 2011.
  7. Arnold 2014.
  8. Chin 1986, p. 37.
  9. Iqbal 2011.
  10. Heawood 2006.
  11. "You Got the Love - Official Charts History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  12. "Frankie Knuckles". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 6, 2014.

Sources
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