Sade was formed in 1982, when members of Latin soul band Pride — Sade Adu, (real name Helen Folasade Adu - born 16 January 1959 in Ibadan, Nigeria) Stuart Matthewman and Paul Spencer Denman — together with Paul Cook formed a splinter group and began to write their own material. Sade made their debut in December 1982 at Ronnie Scott's Club in London, England, in support of Pride. Later, in 1983, Andrew Hale joined Sade. In 1984 Paul Cook left the band.
Sade Adu, the band's singer, is the daughter of a Nigerian father and an English mother. After her mother returned to England, Sade grew up on the North End of London. Developing a good singing voice in her teens, Sade worked part-time jobs in and outside of the music business. She listened to Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, and Billie Holliday. Sade studied fashion design at St. Martin’s School of Art in London while also doing some modeling on the side.
Around 1980, Adu started singing harmony with a Latin funk group called Arriva. One of the more popular numbers that the group would perform was a Sade original co-written with bandmember Ray St. John, “Smooth Operator,” that would later become Sade’s first stateside hit. The following year Adu joined the eight-piece funk band Pride as a background singer. The band included future Sade band members guitarist/saxophonist Stuart Matthewman (a key player in ’90s urban soul singer Maxwell’s success) and bassist Paul Denman. The concept of the group was that there could shoot-offs. In essence, a few members within the main group Pride formed mini-groups that would be the opening act. Pride did a lot of shows around London, stirring up record company interest. Initially, the labels wanted to only sign Adu, while the group members wanted a deal for the whole band. After a year, the other band members told Adu, Matthewman, and Denman to go ahead and sign a deal. Adding keyboardist Andrew Hale, the group signed to the U.K. division of Epic Records.
In May 1983, Sade performed at Danceteria Club in New York, NY, United States. It was the first US Sade show. They received more attention from the media and record companies and separated finally. On 18 October 1983 Sade Adu signed with Epic Records. The rest of the band signed in 1984. All Sade albums were released through this label.
Their debut album, Diamond Life (with overall production by Robin Millar), went Top Ten in the U.K. in late 1984. January 1985 saw the album released on CBS’ Portrait label and by spring it went platinum off the strength of the Top Ten singles “Smooth Operator” and “Hang on to Your Love.” The second album, Promise (November 1985), featured “Never As Good As the First Time” and arguably her signature song, “The Sweetest Taboo,” which stayed on the U.S. pop charts for six months. Sade was so popular that some radio stations reinstated the ’70s practice of playing album tracks, adding “Is It a Crime” and “Tar Baby” to their play lists. In 1986, Sade won a Grammy for Best New Artist.
Sade’s third album was 1988’s Stronger Than Pride and featured their first number one soul single “Paradise,” “Nothing Can Come Between Us,” and “Keep Looking.” A new Sade album didn’t appear for four years. 1992’s Love Deluxe continued the unbroken streak of multi-platinum Sade albums, spinning off the hits “No Ordinary Love,” “Feel No Pain,” and “Pearls.” While the album’s producer Mike Pela, Matthewman, Denman, and Hale have gone on to other projects, the new millennium did spark a new scene for Sade. She issued Lovers Rock in fall 2000 and incoporated more mainstream elements than ever before. Debut single “By Your Side” was also a hit among radio and adult-contemporary listerners. The following summer, Sade embarked on their first tour in more than a decade, selling out countless dates across America. In early 2002, Sade celebrated their success of the tour by releasing their first ever live album and DVD, Lovers Live.
Sade made a great contribution to development of modern music. They dismantled many of the old music business ways and quite promptly became a fully functioning autonomous unit with a firm grip on every aspect of the recording process.
Sade is first and foremost a live act. Sade Adu said in one of her interviews: "When we play I know that the people love the music. I can feel it." Throughout their history, Sade have always attracted a diverse, multi-racial audience who are drawn by the band's open-minded approach to music. "And that's the best thing we've achieved."
Soldier of Love, Sade's first official studio album since the multi-platinum release of Lovers Rock in 2000, was released on 8th February, 2010.
Discography:
Studioalbums:
1984 - Diamond Life
1985 - Promise
1988 - Stronger Than Pride
1992 - Love Deluxe
2000 - Lovers Rock
2010 - Soldier of Love
Livealbums:
2002 - Lovers Live
2012 - Bring Me Home - Live 2011
Compilations:
1994 - The Best Of Sade
2011 - The Ultimate Collection
Never as Good as the First Time
Sade Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Never going to know
What fate is going to blow
Your way, just hope that it feels right
Sometimes it comes and it goes
You take it ever so slow
And then you lose it
And then it flows right to you
And special moments that last
Were they as tender
As we dare to remember?
Such a fine time as this
What could equal the bliss
The thrill of the first kiss
It'll blow right to you
It's never as good as the first time
Never as good as the first time
(Never as good as the first time)
Good times, they come and they go
Never going to know
It's like the weather
One day chicken, next day feathers
The rose we remember
The thorns we forget
We'd love and leave
We never spend a minute on regret
It is a possibility
The more we know, the less we see
Second time is not quite what it seemed
Natural as the way we came to be
The second time won't live up to the dream
It's never as good as the first time
(Never as good as the first time)
Never as good as the first time
(Never as good as the first time)
Ba-da-da-da, bum-bum-bum
Ba-ba-da-da-da, bum-bum
Ba-da-da-da, bum-bum-bum
Ba-ba-da-da-da, bum-bum
Natural as the way we came to be
Second time won't live up to the dream
As natural as the way we came to be
The second time is not quite what it seemed
It's never as good as the first time
As the first time
Never as good as the first time (the first time)
Natural as the way we came to be
Second time won't live up to the dream
As natural as the way we came to be
Second time is not quite what it seemed
It's never, ooh
As good as the first time (as good)
As the first time
As good as the first time (first time)
Ba-da-da-da, bum-bum-bum
Ba-ba-da-da-da, bum-bum
Ba-da-da-da, bum-bum-bum
Ba-ba-da-da-da, bum-bum
In Sade's song Never As Good As the First Time, the singer reflects on the passing of time and how special moments of the past remain forever etched in our memory. The opening lines suggest that we never know what fate will bring our way and that sometimes we experience highs and lows, which we must accept as part of life. We hope that the good times we experience will feel right, but sometimes we have to settle for slow acceptance and even loss.
The chorus repeats the phrase "Never as good as the first time" to emphasize that things may never be as perfect or as joyful as they were when we experienced them for the first time. The lines "Good times, they come and they go, never going to know, it's like the weather, one day chicken, next day feathers" affirm the idea that everything in life is impermanent, and just like the weather, good times can turn into bad times without warning.
The second stanza continues the theme of life's unpredictability and how we often forget the bad things and only remember the good. The lyrics suggest that we fall in love and leave without regret, and that with each encounter, we learn less and less about love. The song ends with a repetition of the chorus, with the added beat of Ba-da-da-da and Bum-bum, to highlight the song's somber message that "second time is not quite what it seemed."
Line by Line Meaning
Good times, they come and they go
The enjoyable moments of life do not last forever and are temporary
Never going to know
It is impossible to predict the future and what it holds
What fate is going to blow
We cannot control what happens to us and are at the mercy of fate
Your way, just hope that it feels right
We can only hope that the circumstances that come our way are desirable
Sometimes it comes and it goes
Some opportunities appear and disappear without warning
You take it ever so slow
To savor the good things in life, it is important to take it slow and enjoy every moment
And then you lose it
Despite our best efforts, sometimes we still lose what we cherish
And then it flows right to you
However, there are times when the good things come back to us effortlessly
So we rely on the past
When present circumstances are uncertain, we tend to rely on our past experiences for guidance
And special moments that last
Memorable moments in the past help us get through uncertain times
Were they as tender
We question whether these memories are as soft and loving as we remember them
As we dare to remember?
We question whether our memories are exaggerations or true reflections of reality
Such a fine time as this
We are currently experiencing a time that is great and reminiscent of the past
What could equal the bliss
We ask what could be as great as this moment that we are living in
The thrill of the first kiss
The excitement and joy of experiencing something for the first time, such as a kiss, cannot be duplicated
It'll blow right to you
Good moments can come as easily and quickly as the wind blows
It's never as good as the first time
Repeated experiences cannot match the excitement and greatness of experiencing something for the first time
(Never as good as the first time)
This line appears throughout the song as a repeated chorus
It's like the weather
Life is unpredictable and can change as quickly and suddenly as the weather
One day chicken, next day feathers
One day life can be great and the next, it can be terrible
The rose we remember
We tend to focus on the good things we experienced and remember them fondly
The thorns we forget
However, we tend to forget the negative and painful experiences we went through
We'd love and leave
Our tendency is to move on from an experience after it has run its course
We never spend a minute on regret
We rarely take the time to reflect on our past and regret our actions
It is a possibility
There is a chance that the more we know about something, the less exciting it becomes
The more we know, the less we see
As we delve deeper into something, it can become less and less special to us
Second time is not quite what it seemed
Even if we experience something again, it will never quite live up to our initial experience
Natural as the way we came to be
It is natural to seek out new experiences and to want to repeat memorable ones
The second time won't live up to the dream
No matter how much we want it to, a repeated experience can never be as great as the first
Ba-da-da-da, bum-bum-bum
These sounds appear throughout the song as a musical interlude
Ba-ba-da-da-da, bum-bum
These sounds appear throughout the song as a musical interlude
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Stuart Matthewman, Helen Adu
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@johnbruno7614
Only legends are listening to SADE in 2024
@leilaAS1105
Facts❤️
@AdamExploresBritain
True.
@leroysnead4435
Present! In Good Company...
@mosquitoevi
It's true!
@stephaniejohnson2403
I know that’s right!👏🏿👏🏿💃🏿💃🏿
@chrisvalle7249
The fact this was almost 40 years ago is INSANE!!! The definition of timeless 😮💨
@skinnymack5985
ELEVEN DAYS AGO!!!😮
@stevenmichael4990
Absolutely correct!
@ericferguson5795
True that