Watch: Celebrate 40 Years of Sade’s ‘Diamond Life’ with a Live Set

This quiet storm classic is perfect for an eclipse afternoon.

The first time we met Sade, she was skeptically casting her eye at a man. As if glaring at him from a table on the other side of a restaurant, she opens Diamond Life, her 1984 debut, with a brief monologue.

He’s laughing with another girl
And playing with another heart
Placing high stakes, making hearts ache
He’s loved in seven languages
Diamond nights and ruby lights
High in the sky
Heaven help him when he falls.

There’s so much to unpack. Who is this dude? A former lover? A missed connection? Did Sade love him or hate him? Did she leave him or he her?

On thing’s certain: Sade knows this man’s trajectory, seems to have insight into his pending destruction. In those first few lines, she exudes confidence but within is a tension. There’s something alluring about this “lover boy” who “moves in space with minimum waste and maximum joy.” Diamond Life exudes maximum joy. A brilliant debut, its 1984 rollout began in January, about four months after she signed with Epic Records. She was 25 years old. A few years later, the great dance writer Vince Aletti interviewed Sade about her early exposure to music. Her parents were music fans and they had a good collection, she said. But it was her older brother who became the vehicle for her dance floor education.

VINCE ALETTI: Did you go out dancing?

SADE: Yes. I think maybe because we were quite deprived of music, when my brother and I grew up and discovered it, we really got excited by it. We had three records in the house when we were young: the soundtrack to Oliver —

ALETTI: Inspiring.

SADE: Yeah, very inspiring. [sings] “Whe-e-e-e-ere is love?” And we had Dinah Washington’s Greatest Hits and Sinatra and Basie.

ALETTI: Well, it’s not as bad as it could have been.

SADE: It’s not too bad, but we didn’t have a record player. That’s the problem. We had a sewing machine. [laughs] Eventually my brother bought a record player. I suppose I started going out to dance when I was 14 or 15. I was lucky. My brother was three years older, and when he was 17, he started to drive, so he could take me places. Otherwise, I would have been dependent on public transport, which would have been impossible, since there was practically none.

ALETTI: Did you have to go far?

SADE: Yeah, to go to a decent club, we used to go about 14 miles away, to a town called Ipswich. There was an American air base there, and they had all the good imported records. Unfortunately, you’d get accosted by the airmen, so I didn’t go there very regularly. They’d think, these young girls, they can’t have come here to listen to the music; they’ve come to look for the men — and we had come to listen to the music. There was one other club where they played really brilliant music, and you could safely go there. It was quite young and casual.

On Monday (April 8) at In Sheep’s Clothing NYC, we’ll be gently placing the needle on eight quiet storm classics including Diamond Life. Those in the area can sidle up to the bar or grab a spot on the double-decker bench (for maximum joy). Alongside classics by D’Angelo, Anita Baker, Patrice Rushen, Marvin Gaye and others, we’ll enjoy a buttery smooth afternoon.

Dedicated Listen: Quiet Storm Classics

Al Green – I’m Still in Love With You
Marvin Gaye – I Want You
Bobby Caldwell – S.T.
Patrice Rushen – Straight from the Heart
Sade – Diamond Life
Kashif – S.T.
Anita Baker – Rapture
D’Angelo – Voodoo

Where: In Sheep’s Clothing NYC, 350 Hudson (enter on King)
When: April 8, 2-5 p.m.