Original Performance: Tom Tom Club
Written by: Tom Tom Club
Alternate Titles:a.k.a. Fantasy
Lyrics:The Genius of Love [Live version (a)]:
[from February 14 2003 version]
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 is one time I'm glad I'm not a man
Feels like I'm dreaming, but I'm not sleeping
Yeah
The Song:"Genius of Love" is a famous hip-hop song by the Tom Tom Club, who were a side project of a few members of the Talking Heads. Released on their self-titled album in 1981, this ode to funk music would end up being one of the more often sampled songs in hip hop (see below).
Live:Played live 8 times:
Earliest known live version:
January 22, 2003Latest known live version:
April 16, 2007Beck tossed the song into his "party band medley" called "
Funk" for the first at the end of his set at a private shindig at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22 2003.
On February 14 2003, Beck just sang the first two verses in his high falsetto voice, before the medley segued into a little
Busta Rhymes.
Notes:
- Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" is the most famous song to sample "Genius of Love." I was hoping not to mention this here at all, but some media reports said that Beck was covering "Fantasy," which needs to be refuted.
- [Lyrics from Tom Tom Club's original]
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 is 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 shakin' to Bob Marley
Reggae's expanding with Sly and Robbie
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
Stepping in a rhythm to a Kurtis Blow
Who needs to think when your feet just go
With a hippityhop and a hippityho
Who needs to think when your feet just go
Who needs to think when your feet just go
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