Some people associate synth-pop with chilly stoicism. Maybe some of the genre’s purveyors went in that direction. But not Erasure. The British duo of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell always included a healthy dollop of heart and soul with the blips and bleeps.
On their 1988 song “A Little Respect”, the two men achieved pop music perfection. The song helped them transcend their popularity in Great Britain to become hitmakers all over the world, including in America.
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A New Duo
By the time Vince Clarke formed Erasure, he’d already earned a place in the history of British electronic pop music. He helped found Depeche Mode, writing many of their early hits. Coming out of that, he teamed with Alison Moyet to create the short-lived but highly influential collaboration Yazoo.
Looking for a new outlet in the mid-80s, Clarke decided to put an ad in the industry trades looking for a singer. Andy Bell, who was working a day job as a shoe salesman while pursuing his musical dreams, contacted Clarke looking for the gig. He got it, setting Erasure up for their debut album, Wonderland, in 1986.
That LP didn’t take the world by storm. But Erasure enjoyed more success with “Sometimes”, a big British hit from their second album, The Circus, in 1987. The table was set for their international breakthrough, which came the following year with their album The Innocents.
“Respect” is Earned
By the time they recorded The Innocents, Bell had become much more involved with Clarke in the songwriting process than when the duo first started. He brought his love of soul music to the proceedings. This came in handy on a track Clarke constructed that added a little acoustic guitar to a thumping synthetic beat.
Clarke was originally a little wary of Bell’s use of the word “respect” throughout the song. He felt it had been overused, and it also invited comparisons to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”, one of the finest recordings ever made. But Bell stuck to his guns, which turned out to be a wise move.
“A Little Respect” was beaten to the punch in America by “Chains Of Love”, its predecessor as a single that went to No. 12 in 1988. But “A Little Respect” kept the momentum rolling, landing at No. 14. Today, it’s considered one of Erasure’s signature songs and one of the crowning achievements of the synth-pop movement.
Behind the Lyrics of “A Little Respect”
It’s telling that one of the narrator’s complaints to his significant other in “A Little Respect” is “That you give me no soul.” After all, Bell’s vocal performance drips with emotional authenticity. “Oh, baby, refrain,” he begs. “From breaking my heart.”
He opens himself up to receiving love and support, vulnerable as that leaves him. “And if I should falter,” he wonders. “Would you open your arms out to me?” Later, he moans about the indifference he receives: “What religion or reason/Could drive a man to forsake his lover?”
Many of the synth-pop acts from the 80s flamed out in a hurry. Not Erasure, as Andy Bell and Vince Clarke are still very much a working entity, one with an impressive total of 19 albums in their catalog (and apparently another one coming up sometime soon). “A Little Respect” opened the doors to that longevity with its groundbreaking mixture of synthesizers and soulfulness.
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