Today, I want to thank you, Luther Vandross, for creating a whole alternate universe for me to dwell when my real world seems to be crumbling before my eyes. A marvelous spiritual experience you created with such precise vocal arrangement, mesmerizing instrumentation, and a velvety smooth voice filled with soul-wrenching emotional intensity delivered with the most heavenly tenor, baritone-ish perfection known to all mankind. This was your signature sound; a musical mystery almost too magical to put into words. Anything missing from your lyrical content was filled in with your intense emotional dialogue. Your mission was to ensure that there was absolutely nothing left to be desired. Need I say mission accomplished?
Of course, you are the Grammy Award winning Premiere Male Vocalist of our time with famous idols-turned-friends such as Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, and Diana Ross. The guy who David Bowie knew had the talent and savvy to make it in the music industry, way back when you were a background singer with a knack for putting together awesome vocal arrangements. The coveted background singer who Roberta Flack lovingly “fired” as a push to get you started on your solo career. But more than that, you are an angel God lent to humanity to bless us with the most magical, multi-dimensional musical experience imaginable.
I grew up listening to your music. I vividly remember those days back in the 80s when my mother would pull out the her vinyl records and fill the house with your velvety voice. I would watch her as she danced across the living room, seemingly in a blissful trance, as she sang along to the music. I always wondered what she was thinking during those times; she seemed to be in another world. Even though I heard your songs and knew just about every word by heart as a kid, it wasn’t until I was deep into adulthood did I discover exactly where my mother would go while listening to your magic. It’s like walking through a portal into a land just west of Oz somewhere, where love is pure and men are refreshingly emotionally sensitive.
Like Jesus spoke in parables for “those who had an ear to hear”, your anthology of music is similar in that you laid it all out there in between the lines — particularly your first six bodies of work. Becoming completely enthralled with your musical essence, your story began to play out like a movie. Your words, the emotion in voice, the timeline of the songwriting. If I had any preconceived notions, there was nothing found to confirm any of them. What was unveiled, though, was a beautiful tragedy that left me wanting to be the one who gave you what you spent your life looking for. Foolish and delusional, yes; but I fell in love with you. That’s how magical your music is to me.
I hold the kind of love for you that transcends time and extends beyond sexuality. For your courage and perseverance, we were blessed with your amazingly magical essence. You were strong enough to be unapologetically sensitive and smart enough to maintain a mystery about yourself. Dodging the labels society so desperately needed to give you and breaking out of the boxes you were forced into, you lived to give us your whole soul, everything you were.
With you, it was all about being vulnerable and creating volumes of work that told your heart’s story — novels in musical form. Your music evokes the deepest of emotions and stirs up feelings I didn’t even realize I was harboring as your yearning resonates with my own. You pull something out of me while giving us every ounce of yourself, inviting me to explore my deepest emotions. I appreciate you Luther Ronzoni Vandross, as you continue to live through the timeless music you gifted us with.
When life is too hard to bear and love is painfully illusive, I tune in to you and float away into that place where I’m inspired to imagine the perfect love story. Thank you, Luther. Love always.
Stop to Love 