Track Listing

1. I Thought It Was You
2. Come Running to Me
3. Sunlight
4. No Means Yes
5. Good Question

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242682 in Music
• Released on: 1997-10-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Import, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .17 pounds

Album Details
Recorded in 1977 and featuring sidemen such as Tony Williams (drums), Jaco Pastorius (bass) and Hancock himself on 'electronic vocals' and multi-keyboard sounds. Includes the songs: 'Sunlight', 'No Means Yes' and 'Good Question'.

Customer Reviews

Herbie "Sings"!
Not a typical Herbie album for one BIG reason - "vocals" by Herbie himself. Why quotes? He used a voice-encoder, or "vocoder" (NOT "vocorder"). Invented by Bell Laboratories in the early 60's, this "effect" was first popularized by Wendy Carlos on her early 70's soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, most notably in her electronic realization of Beethoven's 9th. A bit later it was used by Kraftwerk on "Autobahn" and Man Machine. A vocoder takes an input signal, such as a synthesizer (but can be anything) and filters it using a second input signal, such as a human voice. The input signal is "shaped" to the charactersitics of the second signal. This second signal can be mixed with the original (Moby did this a lot on "Play") or removed so only the filtered original is heard. This is what Herbie did here. Of course when you use a synth you don't have any of the problems associated with bad singing, like wavering pitch.
Now to set things straight: Peter Frampton never used one, he used a device referred to as a "Pig", where a tube channels the sound of the instrument acoustically to the mouth where it is then "shaped" and picked up by the microphone. This effect was also used by Jeff Beck on "She's a Woman" from Blow By Blow and on the phenomenal live album he made with Jan Hammer. It was also used by BT Express on the Function At the Junction album (how's that for an obscure ref?). Also, Cher had nothing to do with her vocoded voice on "Believe". Cher had recorded a demo of this song and an independent (and then unknown) producer used the effect on her voice, then took the track to Cher who loved it. The tune became a big smash, and for the next year every Backstreet Bumbiters and the N*Sphincs recording used him, making that producer an overnight success (can't recall the name). The process used for Believe was a very-labour intensive process of isolating just certain places in the vocal performance where she changes notes, then taking her voice out and inserting the vocoded line for just the split second of the note transition. Takes hours and hours to do.
This album was an experiment in styles from Herbie, and from the picture of his setup on the back cover it is obvious he had major enthusiasm for electronic instruments. He created a sound on the new Sennheiser vocoder that approximated his voice and wrote a few funky tunes he could "sing" on. For that alone this album is a novelty. And for the funky disco suit he's wearing, complete with medallion.
The album is actually quite good, though the tunes are a bit cliche lyrically. But you still have all the great players like Harvey Mason and Paul Jackson, Mtume, Jaco Pastorious etc etc so the music kicks no matter what. When Herbie kicks in with a solo it's pure joy as always. Even though the songs are designed to be danceable, the writing is still first-rate with lots that rewards. It's also amazing to hear these great musicians doing their best to realize Herbie's vision, even though it's not really what they were used to playing. Very professional. When Herbie had a minor hit with this album, he moved into a more commercial feel and started using guitar players like Ray Parker Jr and other musicians who came from the funk and Motown schools, like Melvin Ragin ("Wah Wah" Watson), and I believe one or both are on this album. Just keep an open mind, remembering that Herbie is an explorer, and here he's expressing something that he never quite repeated. Not a failed experiment or anything, just a unique moment in his musical development: Herbie as vocalist.

I Thought It Was..WHO?
The beginning of Hancocks obsession wih vocoderized singing
starts on the monster "I Thought It Was You"-a pop early electro
funk number along with it's tital track counter tune."No Means
Yes" is a decent instrumental funk-fusion number while the
closer "Good Question" blasts back to avante-acoustic jazz smack
in the heart of VSOP territory.And theres a throwaway pop ballad
in "Come Running To Me.Trouble is-those arn't highlites;that's
the entire ALBUM-literally!Other then that,enjoy!

late 70's music from the funky innovator
From the outset, I will concede that this recording may seem somewhat out of place in the Herbie Hancock collection...but maybe not so much as at first glance. While it sounds like it was influenced by its time (late 70's disco), his greatest album (in my estimation) "dis is da drum" was also influenced by a contemporary musical trend (hip hop). Unlike other reviewers, I enjoyed the first two cuts ("I Thought It Was You" and "Come Running To Me") along with the title track, "Sunlight", paticularly for the vocorder treatment of his vocals (something Cher only recently parlayed into pop-music success). While the tracks here are accessable, I found them lively, funky and touched with a bit of melancholy. This album was my introduction to Herbie, and through it, I found the gold-mine that is his discography. Whatever Herbie wants to do (play bebop, create fusion or re-work pop tunes, gershwin, even disco!) is alright with me! He's the "funky innovator," whether he's playing this brand of light funk or "blue notes with miles."