5 YEAR REWIND: PATRICE RUSHEN



(As part of our 5th year anniversary, we’re revisiting 20 key songs. This post was originally published on June 28, 2005).

Patrice Rushen: This Is All I Really Know
From Posh (Elektra, 1980)

“I’m definitely no modern soul expert but I’ve been turning up more songs of late (cleaning out my record stacks helps) that are part of that late ’70s, early ’80s vibe and I’ve been loving some of the tunes in that vein.

When I was combing through my jazz stacks, looking for LPs to cut, I gave my Patrice Rushen section a quick review and rediscovered her 1980 album Posh which features this great ballad, “This Is All I Really Know.”

(2009 update: jeez, I didn’t really have much to say here, did I? Well, let me amend that error – this is an incredible song, especially how it opens with that piano melody and Rushen and her back-up singers give the song and an appealing set of vocal layers and the icing on the cake is the bridge chorus around 2:47 which adds an even richer drizzle of soulfulness. Considering that you can find Posh for super-cheap, it’s well worth copping for this alone).