Jon Lucien was an amazing soul singer who should have been a much, much bigger star than he was. Possessed of one of the finest voices around, one particularly appropriate for the most aching and romantic of balladry, for my money, Lucien was the great lost singer of the 70s. Not one of, THE great lost voice of the era.
His sound incorporated soul, jazz, bossa nova, Caribbean calypso and R&B, but it was his voice, a mellow baritone comparable to Luther Vandross’ distinctive pipes or Lou Rawls, that set him apart. The record company, RCA, appropriately so, wanted to market Lucien as “the black Sinatra.” The dude was that good, yes!
I never heard of Jon Lucien until the mid-1990s. I was record shopping with Yasuharu Konishi from Pizzicato 5 and some other Japanese friends who were in New York. Konishi spotted Lucien’s I Am Now album on the wall of an East Village vinyl emporium and snatched it up for *gulp* $500 dollars (chicken feed—he’s a rock star). He was literally crying he was so happy to finally own that record, something of a holy grail for Japanese “Free Soul” aficionados. He was also bummed when I found a mint copy of the album the very next day for just $10!
I Am Now, which came out in 1970 and is mostly cover versions, absolutely floored me when I first put it on the turntable. I could see why Konishi was so happy to have a copy. My favorite song from the album is one that Lucien co-wrote called “Find Yourself a Lover.” The lyrics are bold and sensual, his delivery macho, yet tender:
“You need to find yourself a lover. You need to find a man. You need to find yourself a lover… who can love you like I can.”
The song sends chills down my spine every time I hear it. It’s music guaranteed to melt the heart of any woman. All of you would-be Romeos out there reading this would be well served to find a copy to put on your next romantic mixed CD, trust me on this one!
A native of the Virgin Islands, Lucien moved to the US in the mid-60s and sang at weddings and bar mitzvahs to eke out a living. His big break came when an RCA executive was the guest at a Long Island wedding he was performing at in 1969. After making a handful of albums in the ‘70s which were critically well-received—and saw two Grammy nominations, but that sold poorly—Lucien developed a nasty coke habit in the 80s, after the drowning death of his daughter. He was married and divorced three times that decade and his frustration with the music industry and his stalled career saw him withdraw from music making for many years. In the 90s his music started to be heard by a new generation on “Quiet Storm” radio stations and in Acid Jazz clubs and he began touring again (I saw him do a magical set at S.O.B.s in New York, that I’ll never forget). His songs have been sampled by the likes of Kanye West and Public Enemy. In 2007, recovering from kidney surgery, Jon Lucien died of respiratory failure at the age of 65.
In 2011, Cherry Red’s bbr label put out an expanded edition of I Am Now. Seek the music of Jon Lucien out, you’ll be happy you did.
“Find Yourself a Lover”
“Would You Believe in Me?”
“Rashida”
“Lady Love”