The Sweetest Taboo
by Sade

Album: Promise (1985)
Charted: 31 5
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  • If I tell you
    If I tell you now
    Will you keep on
    Will you keep on loving me?

    If I tell you
    If I tell you how I feel
    Will you keep bringing out the best in me?

    You give me, you give me the sweetest taboo
    You give me, you're giving me the sweetest taboo
    Too good for me

    There's a quiet storm
    And it never felt like this before
    There's a quiet storm
    That is you

    There's a quiet storm
    And it never felt this hot before
    Giving me something that's taboo
    (Sometimes I think you're just too good for me)

    You give me the sweetest taboo
    That's why I'm in love with you (with you)
    You give me the sweetest taboo
    Too good for me
    (Sometimes I think you're just too good for me)

    I'd do anything for you, I'd stand out in the rain
    Anything you want me to do, don't let it slip away

    There's a quiet storm
    And it never felt like this before
    There's a quiet storm
    I think it's you (ha, ha)

    There's a quiet storm
    And I never felt this hot before
    Giving me something that's taboo

    You (you give me) give me the
    (You give me the) sweetest taboo
    That's why I'm in love with you (with you)
    You give me, keep giving me the sweetest taboo
    Too good for me

    You've got the biggest heart
    Sometimes I think you're just too good for me
    Every day is Christmas and every night is New Year's Eve

    Will you keep on loving me? (Ha, ha)
    Will you keep on, will you keep on?
    Bringing out the best in me Writer/s: Helen Adu, Martin Ditcham
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 18

  • Bliss from HawaiiSweetest Taboo is about her affair with Edwige Belmore
  • B from Los AngelesTemor is a reference to lyric in song from the same album, "Fear:"
    "Can she tame the beast that is her fear
    Puede domar la fiera que es su temor
    Waiting for her matador
    Will they bring the bad news."
    She fears for her matador (matador art in the jazz lounge in the video for "Sweetest Taboo" (director Brian Ward 1985) and "Is It A Crime" (same director Brian Ward 1986). She writes "Temor" on the window at the end of "Sweetest Taboo" - the same "Temor" on the window of the same matador jazz lounge plays repeatedly in "Is It A Crime" - she's in New York, he has followed her there looking for her. But all he finds is her "Temor." Despite not getting "the bad news," she has succumbed to her fear?
    Ward also directed music video for "Never As Good As the First Time" - though in black and white, also has Sade on horseback (though different horse) - and a motorcycle - filmed at "white village" (pueblo blanco) El Rocio in Huelva, Andalusia, Spain (horses presumably Andalusians). Names painted on sides of walls: "Blanca Paloma" (white dove) in one shot and "Huelva" (province) in another. Also has a kid (so maybe the black and white is flashback) practicing being a matador, pointing a wooden sword toward a bull.
    A music video trilogy: 1) "Never As Good As the First Time" 2) "Sweetest Taboo" 3) "Is It A Crime."
  • Tre from New YorkWho plays the love interest in the Sweetest Taboo Video?
  • Ngenge Rajabu , from Ciccinant , OhioThis is a evergreen song , thank you Sade & co
  • Keith Sadefan Bell from UsaYou guys are wrong about what the sweetest taboo means. It is clear in the video. It’s not the height of sexual pleasure, though that could be part of a double entendres.

    She is in a relationship with a man who everything in her warns her is dangerous and who could also break her heart at anytime, but because she’s so in love with him, though her heart warns her of the danger, she can’t resist. This is why they show her finding a gun in his glove box, and putting it away before he gets back in the car.

    At the video’s end, she writes “Temor” on the window, which means “fear” in Spanish, to describe the apprehensions she has about giving her total heart to her Latin lover though she feels he could hurt her or break her heart at anytime.

    She reveres and fears him, but she loves him so much that though her heart tells her he should be taboo, the taboo is bittersweet. It’s like the good girl who wants the dangerous rough neck to be her man.
  • Frank from Chicago The taboo is that she is the dom.
  • Jj from SeattleThis song is about a man who has dangerous dealings with the mob or the like.... ( Gun In The Glove-box )
    She is afraid to tell him that she knows...... (Quiet Storm)
    Although she's presuming herself to be falling in love with him, she is caught between the man she see's (sometimes I think You're just to good for me) and the man he truly is (Taboo).
    Temor written in the window....... Fear.......

    For the the rap-up watch "Is It A Crime"
  • Cinco Barba from California I was always embarrassed behind the Fact that she felt so strongly about Us that she composed a song about our time together she's a Beautiful woman with a soulful voice I should of never let her Get away.
  • Renee from New York, NyMy interpretation of this song: The "Quiet Storm" is those first true feelings of love for that special person in your life.
    "Will you keep on loving me?"---if I let you kow about these feelings, will you run--do you feel the same way? You make me happy--dare I love again? Continuing to believe in love is the sweetest taboo.
  • Dane from Lima,ohio, Fl"If I tell you how I feel,will you keep on lovin' me?"What a great start to a great song.It's very positive.I love the tropical feel of this song.This one & "Smooth Operator" are her best.
  • Yoan from Paris, FranceIt could be also about anal sex. That's one of the biggest taboo, even today.
  • Mick from Aberdeen, United KingdomI think I read an interview about it and Jade is right about the heroin addiction,and this is what the song is about.
  • Mike from Sacramento, CaThis song seems to be about falling in love with a man who gets her off sexually. It's called "the sweetest taboo" because female pleasure/orgasm was (and in a way still is) a taboo subject.

    "you've got the biggest heart" could be a reference to the size of the man's penis because throughout the song she's implying she only loves him because of what he does for her sexually. "Every day is christmas, every night is new year's eve" could be a reference to the fact that good sex is said to make a woman feel good all day and night.

    However, the video implies a very different meaning of the song. In the beginning of the video she seemed to be lusting for a married man or a man with a girlfriend, which might imply the taboo of the song is about having an affair with someone who's married or in a relationship. She doesn't hook up with the guy in the video, but you have to consider the time video came out (the early 80's) something like that could ruin her image and the fact that the record company for the most part had creative control over the video and had limits to what taboo should be portrayed. At the end of the video she writes "Temor" on the window which is spanish for "fear" which could be a message for record company or an explanation to her fans.
  • Alexakarosco from Moscow, Russia Federation2 Joel, Austin, TX:

    This is aboslutely untrue!

    Sade is heterosexual. She won't sing song about lesbian love, 'cos she wrote the lyrics and melody of this song.

    2 Jade, East Orange, NJ

    It's a false statement. She never used heavy drugs.
  • Jade from East Orange, NjI thought it was about Sade's love of heroin (she was an addict for several years).
  • Kevin from Memphis , Tnfavorite lines:
    every day is Christmas/
    every night is New Year's Eve

    don't we wish.
  • Joel from Austin, TxSong about bieng a lesbian. Hence the taboo.
  • Clubber Lange from Ocean Gate, Nj"Your Love Is King" is her best song in my opinion, but this seems to be one her most famous...
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