Genius Of Love

Album: Tom Tom Club (1981)
Charted: 65 31
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  • What you gonna do when you get out of jail?
    I'm gonna have some fun
    What do you consider fun?
    Fun, natural fun

    I'm in heaven
    With my boyfriend, my laughing boyfriend
    There's no beginning and there is no end
    Time isn't present in that dimension
    He'll take my arm
    When we're walkin', rolling and rocking
    It's one time I'm glad I'm not a man
    Feels like I'm dreaming, but I'm not sleeping

    I'm in heaven
    With the maven of funk mutation
    Clinton's musicians such as Bootsy Collins
    Raise expectations to a new intention
    No one can sing
    Quite like Smokey, Smokey Robinson
    Wailin' and skankin' to Bob Marley
    Reggae's expanding with Sly and Robbie

    Oops! Your mama said uh
    Oops! Your mama said uh
    Oops! Your mama said uh
    Oops! Your mama

    All the weekend
    Boyfriend was missing
    I surely miss him
    The way he'd hold me in his warm arms
    We went insane when we took cocaine

    "Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon"
    "Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon"

    Stepping in a rhythm to a Kurtis Blow
    Who needs to think when your feet just go?
    With a hippie-the-hip and a hippie-the-hop
    Who needs to think when your feet just go
    "Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon"
    Who needs to think when your feet just go
    "Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon"
    James Brown, James Brown
    James Brown, James Brown

    If you see him
    Please remind him, unhappy boyfriend
    Well he's the genius of love
    He's got a greater depth of feeling
    Well he's the genius of love
    He's so deep Writer/s: Adrian Belew, Christopher Frantz, Steven J.C. Stanley, Tina Weymouth
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Freibank Musikverlags und vermarktungs GmbH, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 17

  • Frank from Dallas, TexasCorrection: The Ziggy Marley remix that samples this song is "Tumblin Down", not "Tomorrow People". I've owned the 12"vinyl since it's release in 1988. [Fixed. Thanks. -editor]
  • Bortus from AlaskaFrom what I'm understanding of Belew's role there was grounds for a lawsuit when this album was released because songwriting credits weren't given to him on certain material. Belew apparently was too busy to bother suing Weymouth. The album would have been very different had they not removed the majority of Adrian's takes.
  • Reg from Blagdon, England, U.kDidn't tom tom club make a commercial for Bird's Custard in England in the 80s?
  • Sergio Martelli from UsaI always suspected it, but this article confirmed it for me. David Byrne is an a--hole.
    He lost his spark right after 1977's "More Songs About Buildings and Food", briefly got it back with "Speaking In Tongues" but has sucked pretty much on everything else he's made ever since - syrupy pop s--t.
    Instead of being happy for his rhythm section being successful on their side project, the scumbag ignores it.
    Must have stung really bad.
  • Markantney from BiloxeThough the song was considered a "Club Song"; I think it lasted for so long, because it's also a song you could listen to Late @ Night while going to sleep. I remember more than a few nights going to sleep listening to this song.

    But as others have mentioned it's been sampled 10 ways to Sunday but I didn't see any mention(s) of Puffy? I recall him either sampling the beats and/or the lyrics?
  • Pera from Way Out There, CaFunny to read someone else's transliteration of the "language" after "we went insane when we took cocaine. I wrote it down when I was first learning the song and this is what I came up with:

    iscup handra huta hishki
    icup handra huta hi
    icup hanti husic handra huta hila
    kosaba handro uish kindro aya

    Interesting how two people can hear the same thing and have it come out so different!
  • Greg from Glendale, AzRick, definitely not Scandanavian (I'm of Norwegian descent). Vaguely Gaelic, but to me it sounds more Indonesian. I wrote out the lines phonetically the best I could:

    iko pa handra hoo kuh-haish kay
    iko pa handra hoo kuh hay
    iko pantsee hootsee kandra roo hoota ra hindra
    ko saba handa ruish
    kendro wya

    I'm surprised no one has tried to translate it. I've seen next to nothing on the 'net.
  • Rick from Modesto, CaI've always been intrigued by the foreign language in which Weymouth says a sentence or two in the song. Does anyone knwo what language that is? My guesses would be Welsh, Gaelic, or perhaps a Scandinavian language.
  • Dave from Cardiff, WalesThe Tom Tom Club rock! Mind you, they were the "little sister" band of the great Talking Heads, so no surprises there. Just shows that David Byrne wasn't the only talent in the 'Heads!
  • Dave from Cardiff, Wales"Stepping to the rhythm of a Kurtis Blow, who needs to think when your feet just go? With a hippity hop, and a hippity ho, who needs to think when your feet just go? Bohannan, Bohannan, Bohannan, Bohannan, who needs to think when your feet just go?"... Loved this song, remember it coming out when I was little even though it didn't do very well in the UK. 2-Pac and Mark Morrisson sampled it commercially as well as Mariah Carey, Ziggy Marley and Grandmaster Flash, although the list of cases where this song has been used as a rhythm sample is massive! The Tom Tom Club did have two bigger UK hits though, with "Wordy Rappinghood" (UK #7 in May 1981) and a cover version of The Drifters' "Under The Boardwalk" (UK #22 in August 1982), and they still enjoy a large cult following in Europe. A corrupted version of "Genius of Love" was also used in a long-running advertising campaign by the Bird's desserts company in the UK for most of the 1980s
  • Dave from Cardiff, WalesSaw the video of the UK music TV station "VH1 Classic" last Saturday (09 Aug 2008), very weird indeed! An animated sequence based on the cartoon-ish picture (of sorts) that formed the front cover of the Tom Tom Club's first album - 20 years before the Gorillaz were creditted with inventing that concept. Even though it did not do very well in the UK Chart, stalling at #65 in 1981, it got a lot of radio airplay and was a massive club hit in the UK, and remains a cult favourite of sorts. Very catchy tune indeed!
  • Mayra from Santa Ana, CaThat's right! People do need to start coming up with their own tunes!!
  • Lydia from Tulsa, OkThe video for this song is indeed very strange...
  • Wes from Springfield, Va"Mentions various artists that influenced Frantz and Weymouth, including Smokey Robinson, Bob Marley, Kurtis Blow, Bootsy Collins, and James Brown." Let's not forget Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon, Bohannon - who didn't have much of a career. This song had a very weird video, as I recall.
  • Kika from Nyc, NyThis song makes me giggle
  • Tim from Prescott, AzSampled? You mean completely and totally taken. At least she asked permission and paid for using it. I just wish people would come up with their own tunes.
  • Jo from Newcastle, AustraliaIsn't this the song that Mariah Carey sampled for her 90's tune "Fantasy" ?
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