On any post, if the link is no longer good, leave a comment if you want the music re-uploaded. As long as I still have the file, or the record, cd, or cassette to re-rip, I will gladly accommodate in a timely manner all such requests.
Slinging tuneage like some fried or otherwise soused short-order cook. Embiggening the earholes
From Buttholes to Europop, from Loons to Bassoons.
I've featured Shara here before & commented on her connection to Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound as well as Massive Attack. I've posted some of her solo work but thought I'd give you all a few more from a lady that I adore.
Here's another full length & a few singles. The title track "Friendly Fire" & "Moving On" finds Shara working with On-U Sound alums Skip McDonald & Doug Wimbish as well as Jah Wobble being all over this thing.
Rough with the Smooth Moving On Poetry I Fell (so You Could Catch Me) Footprint Between the Lines After You Exit One Friendly Fire Keeping Out the Cold Segabeat
I Fell (so You Could Catch Me) [Album edit] I Fell (so You Could Catch Me) [Marc Brown mix] I Fell (so You Could Catch Me) [Mike Peden mix] I Fell (so You Could Catch Me) [Mekon mix]
She’s been called the Aretha of trip-hop. Her name is Shara Nelson.
Fuck, I shouldn’t have got so high & then listened to "Thoughts of You" while typing this shit-storm. I’m sitting here at the ole PC with major wood. (ha...ha...he said "wood"). Then "How Close" comes on: "How close is too close?..there must be a reason for this tension...I’m giving you time to blow your mind...How close is too close, baby?" Now I've gotta head to the bathroom to clean up, then I’ll hit this sucka again.
Shara was only eighteen when she hooked up with those scoundrels at On-U Sound & made her debut in 1983 as the vocalist with The Circuit on Aiming At Your Heart. She made numerous On-U guest appearances with Voice of Authority, Singers & Players, Missing Brazilians, & Dub Syndicate throughout the 80s.
Side A -
Aiming at Your Heart (Part 1)
Aiming at Your Heart (Part 2)
Side B -
Just as Long as We Have Love (Part 1)
Just as Long as We Have Love (Part 2)
However it is her work with Massive Attack on their 1991 debut album Blue Lines for which Shara remains most associated, in particular the highly acclaimed "Unfinished Sympathy".
"Unfinished Sympathy" was first released under the temporary group name Massive. It was written by the three band members Robert "3D" Del Naja, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles, Grant "Daddy G" Marshall, as well as vocalist Shara Nelson, & the group's co-producer Jonathan "Jonny Dollar" Sharp. The song was released as the second single from Blue Lines, on the band's Wild Bunch label distributed through Circa Records on 11 February 1991.
Safe from Harm
Unfinished Sympathy
Daydreaming
Lately
In total, Nelson co-wrote & provided vocals on four tracks on the Blue Lines album, including another hit single "Safe from Harm". Nelson also recorded & appears on another track with Massive Attack entitled "Just a Matter of Time", which was exclusively included on a short film the group made of the same name. It was shot on Super 8mm film on location in Bristol, 7 minutes of greatness & quite rare.
After Blue Lines, Shara launched a successful major label solo career. Her debut was What Silence Knows (co-writing & singing all tracks) on the Cooltempo/Chrysalis label.
Nobody
Pain Revisited
One Goodbye in Ten
Inside Out
Uptight
Down the Road
Chance
Thoughts of You
How Close
What Silence Knows
She also released singles such as "Uptight" produced by Mike Peden. The one I’m posting (7243 8 81184 2 2) contains the supremely superior Adrian Sherwood & Style Scott unreleased version of the song "What Silence Knows" (Style plain rips it up!).
Then life took its toll & Shara stepped away from the limelight.
In 2003, after more than 10 years away, she returned to On-U's spin-off imprint of the time, Soundboy & recorded a vocal version of Sherwood's "Hari Up Hari" from Never Trust a Hippy.
Since then she has worked with 10th Planet ("Push Me Away"), NUfrequency ("Go That Deep" & "Promised"), Doug Wimbish ("I Wanna Know" - co-writer & vocalist).
Several new tracks have been posted on Nelson's official website, including "Promise to You", "Different" & "If".
In September 2012 Shara performed live for the first time in many years, performing her hit "Unfinished Sympathy" at the concert in aid of Cool Earth produced by Angelica Campion-Armstrong.
Since then she has contributed vocals to the tracks "Badger Swagger" by The Artful Badger, "All Together Now" on The Peace Collective single. Nelson, Simon Britton, & John Power wrote & recorded the title track "Looking" for the motion picture "ANTI-SOCIAL". Nelson is currently continuing work in the studio with Simon Britton & various collaborators for her next solo album purportedly due sometime this year.
& if you are still drooling for more, here’s a baby bonus...
