Sorry Justin Timberlake but you didn’t bring sexy back. That honor has to go to the soulful crooner Kenny Lattimore. How did he achieve this you ask? Well he did it with a little thing called old school. A song entitled “You Are My Starship” to be released off his new album “Timeless.” You see in order to bring sexy back you got to know where it came from. And in case you don’t know by now let me help you, it came from the old school.
I am always a little skeptical when anyone wants to do a cover of this magnitude. Like the old saying goes if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. And we all know this song is far from broken. Of course this is one of those songs that you think can’t possibly get any better, but after I heard Kenny’s rendition I definitely beg to differ. The way Kenny sang this song is equivalent to adding the finest silk sheets to an already comfortable bed with Egyptian cotton. This beautiful song basically was given a face lift. Kenny uses no help what so ever on background and accentuate, the lyrics more with a higher pitch. Unlike the original version, Kenny also uses the electric guitar to help with the opening. Kenny carries the work load and sticks to the original lyrics by Michael Henderson.
The arrangement is changed a tad bit by removing the sax solo done on the original by Gary Bartz. On Norman Connors and Michael Henderson’s version the vocals were allowed to rest while the sax did his thing, this was very common, to give the band their time to shine. Kenny decides to accent this particular part with the electric guitar in a duet kind of way or an underlay. Both versions open up to the melodies being played with piano, but Kenny’s version gives you a little guitar wah wah and Norman Conner’s provide you with the shingles sound from the percussion.
What the song is describing is an intimate interaction that’s giving him an outer body experience. Starship is the metaphor for her body and the body is being described as a vehicle. The first verse is stating that she is the light meaning he understands what’s going on so “Have me” have him anyway just love and care for him, but he is entrusting her with all of him til his sexual tension is gone. “I just can’t say” is his inability to talk or describe the feeling that he is having. If I didn’t know any better I would have said that Kenny was insane for trying this song because of the generation we live in. But I thought about how Kenny curved out a niche for himself. It happened when he and his wife took on the daunting task, releasing the album “Things That Lovers Do” then topped that task with the double CD of gospel and R&B love songs entitled “Uncovered/Covered”. Doing covers is not the easiest thing in the world of music and it’s a dangerous crap shoot with your career, but somehow, someway, Kenny has perfected this craft. What ever formula Kenny is using, I say keep doing it. Because this one will definitely pay off. Ironically this song and his voice is “Timeless”.
