Do you know what song you know but maybe don’t know that you know? I’m glad you asked: Creative Source’s “I’d Find You Anywhere,” released in 1976 on the group’s final album, Consider The Source.
Hip-hop fans know it because it’s been sampled by more than a few artists; The Game’s song “Wouldn’t Get Far” (produced by Kanye West) actually charted on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2007. Jadakiss (of The Lox fame) recorded a song with the same sample on his 2004 sophomore album Kiss of Death; that album hit number 1 on the Billboard pop charts. Everybody else knows it (even if you don’t know you know it) because if you ever listen to oldies stations, then you have absolutely heard this song. It is a ‘70s staple jam. For the sake of argument, I will assume everybody listens to oldies stations. Even non-oldies. No age-ism, bro. Let’s move on to the song.
For starters, the song goes hard in the paint with the music-ness. It’s just dope. It builds, it climaxes, it ebbs and flows. The singing also takes you on a journey vocally. Barbara Lewis gave one hell of a vocal performance. She sings so beautifully and in the pocket, you almost miss the lyrics because of how good she sounds on top of the lush production. And that’s important because the second you start listening to the lyrics to the song, you might realize just how fucking creepy this song is. For my money, it’s got to be at or near the top of any list of Stalker Jams.
[Note: I realize and recognize that there might be a sizable contingent of people who disagree with that assertion, largely because they have a better contender. For instance, The Police, “Every Breath You Take” is definitely up there. Please share your contenders. Let’s make a list that can be used to scare the shit out of potential suitors once they’ve run their course. I still think I’m right.]
Let’s break down the lyrics, though, to see just how dedicated to stalkeration this jam is. For starters, the song is called “I’d Find You Anywhere,” which, I mean, on its face seems primed for the social media age, but also can be wistful or creepy. The title itself is romantic in that same sense as Darius Lovehall telling Nina Mosley, “Let me tell you somethin’. This here, right now, at this very moment, is all that matters to me. I love you. That’s urgent like a motherfucker,” at the end of Love Jones. It’s both beautiful and aggressive. What side you land on ultimately depends on how you feel about the person speaking.
Sidebar: I don’t want a Love Jones reboot necessarily, but I also don’t see Darius and Nina making it for the long haul, either.
So here are the lyrics to the first verse:
If they threw away the maps to this whole wide world
You wouldn’t get away, my heart would find you boy
You wouldn’t get far, it would be just a waste of time
I got built in radar for you baby, I’d find you
Holy shit. So in 1976, without maps, in the whole wide world, even if you went to Easter Island or like the Marshall Islands, she’d find you. (Note: it’s a woman singing so I’m saying “she,” but clearly this is a unisex stalker jam.) Do you know how scary that shit is? This song actually goes off the rails pretty quickly. The map thing is creepy, but imagine her ALSO telling you that trying to leave is a waste of your time (and hers ultimately) because she has a radar (Lojack wasn’t even around for another 10 years so she might legit mean a radar) on you. She’s hijacking satellites and shit. Yep, the creepy meter is flashing red, sounding off and shit....there’s something extra special about, “it’s a waste of your time to try to leave me.” It’s some scary move shit when you think of it.
As you know the hook is, “I’d find you anywhere in this whole wide world...” I think she means it, guys. Let’s go into this second verse which is less about how she’s going to track you down and more about the why of finding you anywhere.
I remember everything from the very day we met
Like the first time love, some things you can’t forget
Like the very first kiss, such warm and tenderness
Can’t measure this pleasure, can’t leave me, no never, I’d find you
So the thing that makes this so scary is that this probably isn’t even about buddy. Like sure, maybe he put it down but maybe he didn’t even have to, because she decided very early on that he was hers and she was his. This dude didn’t stand a chance. And when listening to it, the “can’t leave me, no never...” sounds urgent like a motherfucker. I’m getting scared myself and I wasn’t even born when this song came out.
Hook. Yeesh.
Last verse:
I can lose every dime but dimes can be replaced
But I couldn’t dare to lose the side of you of lovin’ face
I will be by your side, I’ll always find a way
I love you too much, to lose your sweet touchin’, your lovin’
Nigga, run.
At this point, like, can you imagine somebody dedicating this song to you? Or singing it? “I will be by your side, I’ll always find a way?” My goodness. She then goes on to say–as she levels up the stalker–that she’d track you down, like a bloodhound. Fam. She’s resorting to real, live tracking methods. This dedication to the stalk is so immense that even re-listening to it over and over to get the lyrics together I’m watching my back.
Do. Not. Want.
But if this is your jam because it’s your kind of significant other, I hope that you two find one another because the rest of us are so good on that shit. And that, my friends, is the mark of an effective ass stalker jam. It’s making me uncomfortable in 2021. The GOAT has spoken. Hopefully, there is nobody in the backseat of my truck with duct tape stretched out.
To Creative Source’s “I’d Find You Anywhere,” stop. Also, you win.