Gwen Guthrie – Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent

27th October 2024 · 1980s, 1986, Funk, Music, Soul

“You got to have a J-O-B if you wanna be with me… No romance without finance.” This is one of the finest funk and soul singles of all time – despite its far-from-feminist materialistic message; it was the ’80s after all.

It also holds a sad memory for me. I lent my prized 12-inch copy to my friend Sarge way back in the day and… never got it back.

When I mentioned it he was adamant that he’d never borrowed it and you know how that goes: you’re friends so you can’t pursue it, but it eats away at you. And I get a pang whenever I’ve heard it over the next four decades.

Not that I’m bitter; not now that you can listen to it right here on YouTube.

Like all great funk tunes, it’s all about the bassline. The first time it comes in after the percussive intro, and Gwen’s powerful vocal – “Bill collector’s at my door, What can you do for me?” – it just blows you away, like Good Times or The Message (or countless others).

Gwen’s story, which I’ve never known ’til now, is an interesting one: she sang backing vocals for superstars including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel and Madonna, and wrote songs made famous by others like Ben E. King, Roberta Flack and, er, Gary Glitter.

In her 20s she sang in vocal groups while working as a primary school teacher until the day one of Aretha Franklin’s backup singers called in sick and Gwen took her place – beside Cissy Houston.

Guthrie soon began moonlighting as a singer of commercial jingles, sometimes with her friend Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson fame) and began a songwriting partnership with Patrick Grant that resulted in Ben E. King’s comeback single Supernatural Thing.
 
Together they wrote seven tracks on the Sister Sledge’s 1975 album Circle Of Love and she wrote God Don’t Like Ugly for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. She also worked extensively with Sly and Robbie, supplying vocals on tunes like It Should Have Been You – and duetted with Peter Tosh on Nothing But Love – as well as singing backing vocals on Madonna‘s 1982 debut album.
 
Her breakout club hit came a year later, also with Sly and Robbie, on a song called Padlock, later covered by M People, and in the same year Larry Levan remixed another Sly and Robbie collaboration called Seventh Heaven.
 
In 1986 she cemented her relationship as an ally of the LGBT community in with a single called Can’t Love You Tonight, giving proceeds to an AIDS charity. In the same year she had her biggest hit with this single, Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ on But the Rent.
 
It remained her biggest hit – and became a bit of a catchphrase among women – when she died of uterine cancer in 1999, aged only 48.