Whet Terrance Trent D'Arby?

Was he a homo-sexual?

It was his style, OP. Late Eighties early nineties had trends in grunge/punk revival, Madchester, Essex rave music, Industrial rock, Hip hop, rap metal, the Chilli Peppers, Death Metal. Romantic adult contemporary rockers like Terrance Trent D'arby, Robbie Nevill, INXS were too eighties. Jeff Buckley got away with being a romantic singer songwriter because he had a 1970s style influenced by his father Tim Buckley.

He apparently had a breakdown and is now know as Sananda Maitreya.

Terrance Trent Bottom.

He went into the fast food business.

He hated himself. He wanted to be far removed from being black and American. I read his interviews and found out a lot of lies. So, I was a fan, but as a black person, I couldn't stomach the self-hate.

Wasn't she in The Crying Game?

R2 Nailed it. He also was rather pretentious and talked a lot of shit despite not really having enough talent to back it up. He always reminded me of a less talented Prince in that way.

He always reminded me a bit of Milli Vanilli, when they did that Blame it on the Rain

Sananda is still performing, and I thinks he's got a lovely soulful voice.

No, this is a nicer one from him.

I think R6 is closest..

His interviews were very off-putting. And the MJ influence was just too strong. And he had a lot of competition.

"Wishing Well" is still a wonderfully gritty and evocative tune. Compositionally, it's got a bit of Al Green in it-I wonder what Al could have done with the song?

Janet killed his career and you know it.

[quote]He did background vocals on Corey Hart's "Love and Money" track from his 1992 album Attitude & Virtue.

No, Lenny Kravitz killed his career.

His first album Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby was very well received by critics and the public. His second album, Neither Fish nor Flesh, received poor reviews, and was drastically different from the first release. It took him 4 years for the third album which received mediocre overall, which by then his audience for the most part forgot him. He receivced better reviews for Angels & Vampires in 2005, but by then it was hard to resuscitate his career.

I'm amazed people are talking as though he had a career that could be "killed." This guy was just another one hit wonder.

Very pretentious as was his debut album. People hailed it like it was the album of the decade and was so profound and that he was going to be the next big thing. But we all know how that turned out.

I always assumed he was English.

I seem to recall during his first brush with fame and critical acclaim upon his debut being released, he was stating that it was a good as Sgt. Pepper...

U2 claimed to be bigger than Jesus at the time, R20, but I'd still take the lord over Irish Stank sleeve.

Groupie Pamela Des Barre was riding that cock in the 1990's. So he's at least bi. She has terrible taste in men.

R21 u2 is uncut?

Judging only from Wiki, he's been ahead of the curve in putting his material out there. His business talent is stronger than his song writing. Lovely voice.

He was actually a two-hit wonder.

They’re Irish, R23, so yes.

We didn’t need another Prince or Michael Jackson. We aren’t hoarders.

I thought he was gorgeous, I played the shit out of "The Hardline...", and crushed hard for the better part of a year. That year was 1988.

I thought he looked like Lisa Bonet in drag.

Those songs are great. He had a sexy sound.

I too thought he was British.

What kinds of things did he say in his interviews, R6?

He's SO thin in R31!

Is that the same model in each video? She has the same look as the model in Robbie Nevil's C'est La Vie video. (I remember because I cut my hair to look like hers.)

The second one was filmed in England so I guess that's why I assumed he was British.

I really like his third album. The song that he did with Desiree is quite nice. I also like Penelope Please and She Kissed Me.

George Michael released a version of the TTD song Let Her Down Easy which is also on the third album.

He had an undeniable talent but you could tell from his interviews that he wasn't playing with a full deck of cards. There was a breakdown of some kind (though unpublicized), he moved to Italy where his manager/wife is from, converted to Hinduism, changed his name to Sananda Maitreya, and has been rather prolific releasing most of his stuff online even before it became the norm.

He had a puzzling career arc: a great first album, which generated a lot of acclaim, then the "difficult" second album which was good by killed his career commercially, then a fairly successful third album which spawned a couple of hits (I recall them being in heavy rotation on MTV Europe at the time), then, just as his career seemed to be on an upward swing again, the fourth album ("Vibrator"?) which sank like a stone. Then came the Sananda Maitreya phase...

He was a total cunt to his fans so fuck him! Grease fire!

I thought he had terrible stage fright and that killed his career before it even began. I could be thinking about someone else.

Anyway, it's too bad. Unique voice, look and stage presence. Maybe he just needed to collaborate with some good writers.

He had an affair with paula yates - yes, really. Pity she didn't cover her affairs with TTD and Rupert Everett in her autobiography.

I would say a 3 hit wonder:

[quote]I always assumed he was English.

That's what he worked so hard for people to believe.

R31)

When he first started, he didn't say anything alarming to anyone who was white, but as a black person, he began to list all what he was that wasn't black. Back in the day, a lot of mixed celebs did that. It pissed me off, even Mariah did that shit.

Anyway, he went further to say his dad was European or something. Everything was about race and oh, how uniquely not black he was. Later, he relished that he married an Italian and his kids are European.

In one odd, interview, this is why he explains why he fell off -- of course, he alludes it to Black celebs -- Prince or MJ.

See below post:

R31) It's hard to find old interviews online, so I couldn't find one about him saying how unblack he is. I mean he wouldn't have been the first. He was in good company with folks like Tiger Woods, but it seemed to be a mission of him to show he was European and so not black. In this interview, he tries to explain it as that there was just not that much room for another black pop star.

[quote]s Maitreya understands it, there just wasn’t enough room for another black superstar operating in the realm of poppy, soulful R&B, especially one as resistant to racial narrowcasting as he was and is (the vest he is wearing today pointedly bears the legend “Rock Star”). It was, he says, a “limited plinth”, and either he, Prince or Michael Jackson had to vacate.

[quote]“Me and Master Michael [Jackson] had to play out the Apollo/Mercury scenario: him being the entrenched god, me being the upstart who basically got sacked as a service to Apollo,” he says. Part of “a continuum of artists who carried the baton for as long as they could before they were killed, physically or psychologically”, he was, he says, “crucified”. By whom?

[quote]“I happen to know there were a couple of people in very, very high places in the establishment who, like Zeus, were kind of amused at my little routine,” he proclaims. “And it was working. Everybody was cashing in and happy as fuck. But,” he adds, switching once more to the third person to discuss himself as D’Arby, “behind his back, more and more A-list stars were complaining about the attention he was getting. The other gods on Olympus were sending their managers to ask: ‘What’s going on?’ The establishment had to do something about it because it couldn’t have all the gods angry.”

Wiki said he said the 1st album was the most important since the Beatles Sgt peppers

He did.

Certainly has a high opinion of himself:

[quote]As Maitreya understands it, there just wasn’t enough room for another black superstar operating in the realm of poppy, soulful R&B, especially one as resistant to racial narrowcasting as he was and is (the vest he is wearing today pointedly bears the legend “Rock Star”). It was, he says, a “limited plinth”, and either he, Prince or Michael Jackson had to vacate.

Notice how the most obvious part of his heritage is ignored. He's everything but black:

[quote]Thirty years ago, D’Arby, an American of Scots-Irish “hillbilly” and Native American parentage who spent time in the army in Germany before launching his career in London, was the toast of Britain.

This is Samuel L. Jackson's character in Django Unchained level of self-hate. And this is the real reason why his career, which looked to have Prince/MJ type potential tanked. Even white people don't really respect an Uncle Tom.

Oh, no. So sorry r40/r41. I'd literally just read the first few posts on here before I rushed to link this article I remembered from the Guardian. I had not seen your posts. But apparently we agree on this because it's true and clear as day. LOL.

I used to be fan but went off him years ago. And I'm being kind because I know a black woman who used to be a fan but now finds him pathetic after reading about him. She says even hearing his name (and Tiger Woods') makes her sick.

I'm going to add name changes to the physical manifestations of crazy thread. I know outed not physical, but people who do this and don't have weird or offensive original names always turn out to be crazy people who are running away from themselves.

*it's, not outed

He just didn't have the charisma to be MJ or Prince.

Or sell the albums....😩

R44) Oh, no need to be sorry. You actually found the article in which it is noted how unblack he is.

He fell down a wishing well.

I think 'Sign Your Name' was his last hit.

I was 19 in 1988. He seemed like a prefabricated music industry product more than an artist with a unique vision or style. He seemed to drop fully formed onto the covers of Spin and Rolling Stone, and into the hearts of music critics, but I honestly knew few true fans in real life. His debut seemed too calculated, his “success” too sudden and critically driven. It was like a memo went out; “Here is the new and improved MJ/Prince model, please promote accordingly.” Except the other two were still working, recording, and no one really wanted a third model that was a poor ripoff of the first two.

There was no “there,” there. Surprised to read that so many here were apparently genuine fans at the time. I never bought his act, not for one second.

Wow r53, that's exactly what I thought of him back then. Pretentious. I bought his album and tried to like him, I tried to support any black artist that wasn't doing the same old new jack R&B (this was the same year the first albums by Tracy Chapman and Living Color came out) but TTD was too pretentious and ready made. I remember when he went on the Apollo show doing his spins and splits and the audience was like, so..... I actually liked his flop second album because it was weird and I liked weird music. And his third and fourth albums had good songs when he got out of his own way. But after he changed his name I totally fell off.

He had an affair with paula yates - yes, really.

Isn't he supposed to be Pixie's father?

Bob Geldof is supposed to be the father.

Terence Trent D'Arby - Delicate ft. Des'ree

Terence Trent D'Arby – If You Go Before Me

Seasons

R44-5, I noticed the woman who played his "girlfriend" in both his hit videos is white, and he married a white woman IRL, too.

He was/is talented. I think he wrote and played most of the 1st album by himself.

He made some comment like he was the next Prince or Elvis or something super conceited, esp when you just have one album out.

The 1st album was very successful, but his follow-up wasn't and then people (in the US) forgot about him.

Add the name change/craziness.........

I recall being shocked as a child that he had a white video love interest but assuming it was "a French thing."

Not only was she white, they fuck at the end!

R7 LOL

In England we referred to him at the height of his popularity as "Terribly Trendy Darkie"

As the heir to Arby's, he's set for life. Singing shitty music was just a hobby of his. Last I heard he'd gone to Syria to fight with the Kurds against Isis. and they named him king. So he's now king of the Kurds.

In an early interview with a UK music magazine he said he left the US because people there were "too homophobic." Sorry, no link; I grew up reading the British music press back in the 1980s/1990s and I remember reading this as an impressionable 15-year-old.

He also had a very gay-positive song "Billy Don't Fall" on his second album.

[quote]I noticed the woman who played his "girlfriend" in both his hit videos is white, and he married a white woman IRL, too.

Yes, his action made him the typical AMERICAN Negro celeb. He was so warped into trying to convince the public that he wasn't who he was , a Black American. It's pathetic.

Furthermore, he had a God given talent, and he was so focused on a facade that it overshadowed his gift. I say this as I listen to Holding On To You. To me, he was the black John "Cougar" Mellenncamp.

He had that "I'm an ARTIST" shit going on at a time when people didn't buy into that pretension. Now, every idiot is an ARTIST.

Wow, I can see it, R55.

What a cop out to say there wasn't room enough for him alongside MJ and Prince. Bullshit. If you're genuinely talented there's always room for one more. And I believe he IS genuinely talented. But, as others have said, he couldn't get out of his own way. Personality, ego and identity problems did him in, not competition from other artists and/or TPTB killing his career. He should just own up to his mistakes, get himself together, humble himself and orchestrate a comeback.

R67 & R68 So maybe he was a self-hating gay or bi too? He seemed very gay in a live interview I saw once, or at least very soft-spoken and shy, not anything like the macho swagger he displayed in his videos.

R65 LOL guess he would have really hated that one.

TTD was rumored to have fathered Pixie. But hutchence is also rumored to have done so...

He got sucked into his own bullshit.

Great looking guy.

Talented.

But couldn't get his head out of his own ass.

I also feel like he had hangups being a mixed kid in racist 1970s America.

Wow, are you still a racist asshole, R65?

I feel like TTD got screwed by being born 30 years too early.

He was too beautiful and too mixed racially for 80s America.

They love their soul music but gorgeous mixed race or "black" people had to stay in their lane back then.

Today, at least, he'd be able to date, or be, whoever he wanted to.

Do you think he has any idea how much hed make if he toured as TTD?

A shitload.

Interesting R55. I just looked up young pictures of BG, PY and TTD and I can definitely see how it's possible. Her eyes however do look a lot like BG's so I'm a bit doubtful.

She's a beautiful girl though, so she got some good genes from somewhere.

Terrence was not mixed. His parents were black. Later down the line, he gave up pretending to be mixed.

Years later on the Arsenio Hall show, he's promoting his third album, and he calls himself a black man. He states that black men must be emasculated in order to be successful in the industry. He says some interesting stuff here. I don't know why he went off the rails and went back to I'm not that black spiel.

Still a common thread is that he is fixated on Prince and MJ. He calls Prince bi-sexual. I dont know why that didn't make any waves.

"Black men need to be emasculated to be successful"

Uh, yeah, sure kid...

I just don't get why he was so fixated on race. 100% He hated being black, so he comes up with this story that he's mixed and he's not American. I swear mostly every interview mentions these statements.

Now, I'm black, but damn! There's a time and place for everything. With that said, most of what he says is negative towards black people, so I don't even know why he opens his mouth.

He's like the lobster at the bottom of the barrel, crawling over other lobsters -- i.e. Prince and MJ -- in hopes of maintaining a space on the top.

The HARDLINE is that didn't happen.

[quote]Terrence was not mixed. His parents were black. Later down the line, he gave up pretending to be mixed.

You can be mixed race or biracial even when both your parents are technically black, due to your ancestors.

Like zoe kravitz.

It's not common to have a Zoe Kravitz situation in which both parents are bi-racial. Taking that scenario off the plate, most blacks in the US have some mixture. My grandfather is half black, but I don't call myself mix, as if it were something that places me above being black.

"Dance, Little Sister" from his debut CD is also a good one.

The racial specifics are the least interesting part of this thread (although he would be an interesting subject for "Who Do You Think You Are?"--yes, even today). I gather that he has Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Scottish, and English ancestry, variants of which would be very common throughout the Caribbean.

I wonder how he stays afloat, financially. He hasn't toured since 2003.

He was ahead of his time. Had he come out now with social media being what it is, he could have made a huge splash. Talent, looks, and moves. And all without dreaded auto-tune

Here is his mother. She sings gospel.

His album and singles were million sellers. Doesn't that make him a millionaire? I think you can live the rest of your life on a million bucks. Plus he does continue to play and record and his wife is or was a showbiz personality in Italy.

NEVER tire of listening to this -

[quote]His album and singles were million sellers. Doesn't that make him a millionaire? I think you can live the rest of your life on a million bucks. Plus he does continue to play and record and his wife is or was a showbiz personality in Italy.

If he wrote the hits, he will have made some money, especially if the song is used in movies, commercials, and etc. I don't hear his music in movies and commercials.

Furthermore, I don't think you can live the rest of your life at the start of 30 on a million bucks. Let's say, he spent $40K a year, well that will only last about 25 years.

R94) It's funny he sung a J5 song and continued to trash MJ.

WHO'S LOVING YOU is solid gold if the singer can deliver it well. People, even little kids sing it all the time on talent competition shows like America's Got Talent because it's a sure fire crowd pleaser. TTDA's version is excellent.

If that interview at R44 indicates anything, it’s that talent notwithstanding, TTD’s ego and pretense remain unchecked.

r92 His mother can SANG!

Clear MJ/Prince envy.

"Delicate" by TTD'A was on the January 2003 GapBody In-Store Playlist!

R65, don’t give me another reason to hate the British.

The funny thing he looked like MJ wished he looked naturally.

[quote]Terribly Trendy Darkie

Cringe de la cringe!

Gawd I don't know who I hate more in r44's link, TTD or the alliterative interviewer/writer. " “It’s just a song,” she says, indicating her husband’s priapic prowess and the continued functioning of his organs. “All of it works.”

Witty, waspish, a former trainee journalist who knows the value of a self-aggrandising (or self-deprecating) bon mot: he has been much missed."

Please translate, R105)

Oh those are just quotes from that equally pretentious article about him r106.

Thanks. I won't be reading the gibberish. If he doesn't have anything to say that's clear, it is mostly nothing, in particular, is going on with his career.

(I checked his website and he hasn't toured in years)

Still, he has an incredible voice, and he should just upload and sell off of youtube.

America saw through the bullshit and went off him after one album. The Brits otoh continued to fawn over him and hold him in high regard for years after.

So he lives off his wife? Marry rich and you don't have to stress.

Is she rich? Who is she?

I think she's an Italian architect.

Hmm... doesn't seem like there is any real deep pocket money there, then.

But hey, she's white ...

[quote]He had an undeniable talent but you could tell from his interviews that he wasn't playing with a full deck of cards

This sums him up. He was huge in the UK in 1988 and was being spoken of as a hot new mix of Prince and Otis Reading, but he was a loon - probably schizophrenic. As out there as Lauren Hill, his female counterpart.

[quote]They love their soul music but gorgeous mixed race or "black" people had to stay in their lane back then.

Lol like N.W.A.? Straight Outta Compton was released the same year as TTD's first album, as was Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Those black men paved the way for the mainstreaming of acts like Jay Z, they entirely changed the possibilities for black musicians while TTD sat on his bony ass whining about 'emasculation' to Arsenio. He was a soul act, and soul was old hat in the late 80s, wine bar music for white people.

Emasculated. Staying in their lane.

Uh, wasn't 1988 the year George Michael caused an uproar for winning Best R& B Grammy? Ps there is a cover of GM singing Sign Your Name floating around.

I NEVER thought he was like MJ bc to me MJ was not sexy and TTD was, but he wasn't as over the top as Prince.

Some sketch comedy show from that era had a skit about a new Barbie named Terrence Trent BARBIE, hilarious!

Years ago I read Tori Spellings sTori Telling (I KNOW) and she apparently ran into him one night at a house party and gave her some life altering advice, At this point, I can't tell if his advice took or not 😂

[quote]Uh, wasn't 1988 the year George Michael caused an uproar for winning Best R& B Grammy?

There was a slight uproar, but R&B stations knew they were rocking George Michael's song. I know some were saying they would have rather Hall & Oats (blue-eyed soul artist) would have won instead of GM.

[quote]They love their soul music but gorgeous mixed race or "black" people had to stay in their lane back then.

Just curious did he actually say that line? If so WTF, why is it just 'gorgeous' mixed race?

I was young enough to both remember him and to like his 2 songs (from the first album), but not old enough to know his persona or his diva behavior back then. From what little I remember, he was something of an MTV sensation for a year or two, looked really effeminate, sang like an angel and promptly disappeared soon after his first two hits. "Sign Your Name" was the hit that I most remember, but again I was young - I believe that he is most known for "Wishing Well". "Delicate" happened in the 90's and barely broke the top 40 I think - yet VH1 played it in heavy rotation for a while. Everyone seemed to want him to succeed, but he just never broke that glass ceiling. He has a beautiful voice and I still like his songs to this day, but he left little in means of a legacy.

R121 It was all of that. TTD looked very effeminate which was the trend, and he had what they wanted on the outside. He did have great success for that bubble of time, but he didn't have much to offer that set him apart. His crazy leaked out, but I was someone who followed him. Yet, I didn't see the crazy. I read about the foolishness about how he claimed to be mixed and not American.

[quote]Just curious did he actually say that line? If so WTF, why is it just 'gorgeous' mixed race?

There's a 'gorgeous mixed race troll' on DL, r120. By 'mixed race' he means only a mix of black and another race (what the rest of the us would simply refer to as black or light-skinned black), so white/Asian or Hispanic/white don't count. He also claims that offspring of these unions are infinitely more attractive than the average population even though that's demonstrably false.

Thanks for clearing that up, R123

He looked good without the dreads.

I remember Sisqo had that look around that time.

By the way, what does WHET mean in the OP's topic?

r126 It's a play on "WEHT" which means "what ever happened to" but someone typed it wrong and it stuck, like Lena "Lens" Dunham's name being typed wrong.

Thanks.

R122, was it clear he was sleeping with paula yates when it was happening or was that only apparent later?

I never knew he was even dating Paula, but I would think that if he knocked up a white woman, he would be so proud. He wouldn't hide the fact.