Gerald Levert, “Is This the Way to Heaven” | After Dark 🕛 🌃

In the 41^st edition of After Dark (2022), we explore the naughty, risqué, & sexual vibes behind, “Is This the Way to Heaven” by Gerald Levert.

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nnuendo? More like full-on sexual vibes! Welcome to After Dark 🕛 🌃, a column featuring songs that are best suited for nighttime, specifically, the bedroom.  Many of the records featured here raise eyebrows, as well as the temperature! These After Dark tunes focus on the universal three-letter word:  SEX. The dark records gracing After Dark are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  In the 41^st edition of After Dark (2022), we explore the naughty, risqué, & sexual vibes behind, 🎵 “Is This the Way to Heaven” by 🎙 Gerald Levert.

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Theme & Lyrics ✍ 

I really miss 🎙 Gerald Levert.  Sadly, Levert passed away at the age of 40 in 2006.  He wouldn’t see his final studio album, 💿 In My Songs, be released.  Ultimately, Levert would win his sole 🏆 Grammy posthumously for the title track (DESERVINGLY).  In My Songs was one of Levert’s finest albums of his career, filled with some stellar, grown-folks R&B gems.  One of the best is the album’s closer, 🎵 “Is This the Way to Heaven”.  I have no doubt that it appears at the end of the album in memoriam for a brilliant singer/songwriter gone too soon.  That said, thematically, Gerald Levert isn’t truly exploring mortality or the afterlife – he’s exploring that universal three-letter word we all know and love, SEX.  Honestly, Levert was a total bada$$ when it came to singing about sex.  This is not his first rodeo on After Dark 🕛 🌃.

 

This slow jam is all about seduction, and Gerald – well – he’s struggling to control himself.  From the onset, he asserts, “I know, I know / You’re trying to save yourself, baby.” Yes, but ultimately, the temptation is too much.  For what it’s worth, Gerald doesn’t seem to care, justifying, “I’m not wrong / For stopping by, for staying tonight.” Woo! It gets steamier with the “kissin’, huggin’” Levert encourages, leading to the horny chorus:

“Caught up

Can’t think, feelings so deep

Tell me, babe

Is this the way to heaven?

And you’re next to me

Wouldn’t you be strong ‘cause I’m so weak

Tell me, babe

Is this the way to heaven?”

Heavenly feelings though hellish intentions, it seems! Of course, this nameless lady, who’s been strong through some of “Is This the Way to Heaven” starts to concede to pleasure, with Levert asserting, “Maybe we should say prayer or two.” Perhaps, considering they’re about to ‘make it do.’

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Final Thoughts 💭

I could keep going, analyzing 🎵 “Is This the Way to Heaven” but Gerald Levert makes his intentions crystal clear. It’s all about sex (aka heaven in this song) and if you’re not titillated and turned on, well, something’s wrong! With those soulful, masculine pipes, I believe Gerald Lever could damn-near woo anybody to have sex.  Rest in peace, Gerald!

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🎙 Gerald Levert • 💿 In My Songs • 🏷 Atlantic • 🗓 2007

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Gerald Levert, “Is This the Way to Heaven”: After Dark 🕛 🌃 No. 41 (2022) [📷: Atlantic, Brent Faulkner, cottonbro, Darkmoon_Art, JJ Whitley, Ketut Subiyanto, KoolShooters, Luan Queiros, The Musical Hype, Pexels, Pixabay, Tazz Vaughn]

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