Trugoy The Dove

More sad news for 2023. I hadn't even got around to writing about the death of Burt Bacharach when it was announced that Trugoy The Dove had died aged just 54. Trugoy The Dove, also known as Plug 2 and Dave Jolicouer, was one of the trio of Long Island friends who formed De La Soul and who in 1989 released one of the most important records of that year, their debut album 3 Feet High And Rising. It's difficult to overstate the impact De la Soul had on 1989, an album and a bunch of songs that crossed over between all kinds of scenes and audiences. De La Soul's songs could be heard wherever music was being played,  songs like Eye Know and The Magic Number fitting in perfectly alongside Soul II Soul, The Stone Roses, Black Box, Inner City, 808 State and Happy Mondays. The day- glo graphics, long sleeved t- shirts, CND symbols, irreverent attitude to sampling and Daisy Age, positive lyrics made them stand out in a year when Public Enemy and NWA also made era- defining hip hop records but with a very different sound and tone. In 1989, it felt like wherever you went where good music was being played, De La Soul were part of it, their songs stitched into the feel good times of that year. 

'Three is the magic number', the hook from one of their best known 1989 songs, was sampled from a 1973 Bob Dorough song aimed at helping American kids in the 70s and 80s learn maths. They laid it over the drums from Double Dee and Steinski's Lesson 3, first written and demoed onto cassette in 1986. They had multiple legal wranglings over sample clearance and then with the record label Tommy Boy and had finally sorted out many of their legal issues last month, with The Magic Number finally appearing on streaming services

The Magic Number

De La Soul would go on to make several more albums, the follow up De La Is Dead saw them try to move on from the Daisy Age styles and 1996's Stakes Is High saw them still in good voice and top form. Later on they recorded with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz, making Feel Good Inc, one of the stand out Gorillaz songs and co- written by Trugoy/ Dave. 

RIP Dave Jolicoeur. 

The Chart Show

The Chart Show was more or less the only place to watch videos in the late 80s and early 90s, MTV being the preserve of the well off. Every week it had a specialist chart, indie, dance or metal and was required viewing, often with a hangover and a day with no responsibilities in front of you. So, make yourself a cup of tea, sit back and slip back in time...

...to October 1989's dance chart with Electribe 101 and De La Soul...



... and to the indie chart in April 1991, with New Fast Automatic Daffodils and The Shamen, showing dance's influence on indie...



...and from a few years later, February 1994, this top ten run down has the mighty Inspiral Carpets and Mark E Smith collaboration and Suede...



No metal charts here I'm afraid but there's plenty more where these clips came from if you look at the Youtube sidebar.

Know It All

De La Soul were a massive part of 1989 and performed the rarely achieved trick of completely re-writing and re-wiring hip-hop, if only briefly. For a while their love beads, their Daisy Age, their 'conscious' lyrics and clubby t-shirts and 60s hippy band samples made everything before seem like old hat. Or old cap. A few hip-hop groups followed them through- Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest. Then they backtracked a bit and went more old school. I saw them live twice, both times while standing in a field. The first was a Glastonbury on Saturday afternoon in 1990- it was an unparalleled disappointment. It was what critics used to accuse hip-hop of being, just three men shouting over drumbeats. A year later they played the first day of the Cities In The Park mini-festival in Heaton Park, alongside ACR, Durutti Column, Revenge (during Peter Hook's Sisters of Mercy tribute act phase), 808 State, Electronic and Happy Mondays. De La Soul played early on but to a large crowd. And with the same lack of finesse and lack of charm they'd brought to Glastonbury. Shame really, because Three Feet High And Rising is excellent and there are parts of the rest of their catalogue worth looking a go. And as I said at the start, in 1989 they were inescapable.

Eye Know (The Know It All Mix)