Love Don't Live Here Anymore - Background and Music

Background and Music

Producer Norman Whitfield had always wanted to work with Paul Buckmaster, the British arranger and composer. One day he called Buckmaster and invited him to work on some recordings he had finished. After meeting, they decided to contact songwriter Miles Gregory to use one of his songs for Whitfield's record group Rose Royce. Buckmaster found that Gregory was under medication from overuse of drugs and "was in considerable discomfort, if not in outright pain. He didn't write a song and dance about his pain, but I remember him sitting at the piano and wincing. So before jumping on the thing that Miles was merely indulging himself and writing, one has to remember that the guy was in a lot of pain." Nevertheless, Whitfield and Buckmaster encouraged Gregory to write the song and the result was "Love Don't Live Here Anymore", inspired by Gregory's own situation and his deteriorating physical health.

"Love Don't Live Here Anymore" incorporated the use of the Electronic LinnDrum machine, and was one of the first songs to effectively use the sound reverbs of the instrument. LinnDrum had been used sparingly in their previous single "Do Your Dance", but in "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" its use was more spontaneous, which Dave Thompson, author of Funk noted as if "it virtually duetted with Dickey, creating one of the most distinctive records of the year—and one of the most imitated of the age." The song was mainly recorded at music contractor Gene Bianco's house, where Rose Royce lead singer Gwen Dickey was present during the recording. Buckmaster recalled: "I was over at place almost every day with Norman, and some days I stayed away to write, or to mix the music. Gene had given me the keys to his apartment, and also let me use the piano to record the song. I didn't want to work on at Miles' because his piano was falling to bits."