Rick James -- Classic or Dud?

Superfreak, Give it to Me Baby, and Bustin' Out are the songs that make me thank God for the Jammin' Oldies format. It's the leering whine that does it. Outside of that, he's been given way too much slack. I've heard people call Fire and Desire "classic." Maybe they're being ironic, it's hard for me to tell since Guns & Roses made the shift from ironically to genuinely liked. Next thing you know everyone will become reverent about Bobby Brown's "Ghostbusters II" period.

Are you suggesting that these attributes make him something of a forerunner of modern r&b, and therefore good?

Yes, a couple great singles. But coming from someone who's actually HEARD several of his LPs, as well as the one from spin-off band the Mary Jane Girls, I can assure you the man had limited musicall ideas and skills.

Comparisons to Prince are absurd.

Nothing is wrong, however, with having a couple great singles to your name

Mary Jane Girls were Rick's answer to Prince's Vanity 6. From memory, the only

-- STOP! HAMMER TIME! --

thing Mary Jane Girls had going for 'em was a nice line in ye old school street corner hooker apparel (whereas Vanity 6 were more, um, lingerie oriented). ("Lingerie-oriented" - that genre's worth a look.) As for Rick, "Superfreak" is classic (I'd maybe take it ahead of any single Prince song - that good) ("that good" being plenty good!), but

-- STOP! HAMMER TIME! --

beyond "Superfreak" Rick's career nosedives. "Give it to Me Baby" is fine, can't much remember anything else worthwhile. On balance, dud. (But "Superfreak" alone almost swings it. Fucking almost!)

That said, it's worth getting that DVD EP of videos just for the "Glow" video from 1985. James's drug problems being known publicly go quite a ways back, and this is the first video where he himself acknowledges it... The INTRO to this video is surely the very thing that inspired the Chapelle skit... James's girl in the video is yelling at him, while he's grumpy holding JD in the dressing room, "Rick, you're throwing away your life! Can't you see??" or something like that. Rick turns around slightly, and let's out a very low-pitched grumble that turns into a scream, "Look.. I'm RICK JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMES!" -- everyone pauses.

The video starts with a false start as Rick, all drunken, collapses on stage with his empty bottle of JD.. the audience is stunned, the band is stunned, Rick is looking up at his band and at himself, then looks at his girlfriend, who's giving him the "You know what to do, Rick" wink... Rick gets up, KICKS the empty JD bottle, and becomes magically sober! And his band kicks in with "Glow", which is ironically his most disco song ever.. five years after the peak.. given his very public dismissal of disco back in the day. (He claims he was forced to make the first few bars of "You And I" disco-ey due to record label pressure.)

Come Get It! (1978) and Bustin' Out Of L Seven (early 1979) are quite essential too. FIre It Up (late 1979) is more of the same; and Garden of Love (1980) is mostly ballady dreck.. Street Songs, of course, is a total 180 from the previous, and 1982's Throwin' Down is the lazy cash-in on the sound of Street Songs without as many memorable tunes, save "Hard To Get.", which just sounds like a demo for "Super Freak", but still rocks. Cold Blooded is underrated, as it's James's sparse album.. lots of pure drum machine action with long songs, and a nice choir outro. I stop with "Glow", the single. That album of the same name is blah.. as is anything he's done after that.

There's a pretty good 2-CD anthology that will cull the best of the rest, essentially. I forget its title, but it changes names and artwork every few years anyway.

Oh my god. You can't get the Glow album on CD. *swirls in my pupils*
Oh my god. I'm going to have to order it through the post and rip it myself from LP. *swirls in pupils* Oh my god. My hard drive crashed and I'm on dialup and can't even download unless it takes a billion years. Oh my god.

prince and rick sounded way different, until rick started copying prince around the mid 80s. ricks sound was harder and thicker and bassier than princes. prince was much more new wavey/fey than rick was.

OH MY GOD THE GLOW ALBUM PEOPLE

Oh my god

does it have any hits on it

I've got the 12" version of "Give It To Me Baby" now too!!!!

or is it one of his more obscuro records

Oh brainwasher I don't care
when my "Glow" LP arrives in the mail I am going to cum all over the black vinyl

It's a seminal record.

And Rick will surely cancel the PayPal transaction.

can't touch this

no really dude is untouchable

"C"

bahahah I love you guyz

Lets be straight for a minute, what would we do without him? Think on that.
("I want ALL Y'ALL to MUTHAFUCKIN' SCREAM, GERMANYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! *gestures pussy lickin'*")
Peoples, we NEED this kind of ish! Crazy mofo.

Bimble, check the glow video...giving The Juice a run for his money in the Best Actor stakes you get me?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sVZfm7qXY9A
"You feel sorry for me? I'm RICK JAMES! (bitch)"
Oh and his OUTFITS. Leopard print, ruffle shirt, jheri curl goodness...

i wanna get that 1982 dvd.

the mix-cd 'im rick james bitch' by cosmo baker is worth finding.

I know the Glow video!!!!!
I'm never attracted to gay men but that man had some good hair. Oh yes. Want him in my bed real soon.

I mean I'm never attracted to BLACK men, oh dear.

Okay wait...there's a 1982 DVD?

are you serious

He was one of the most entertaining Soul Train guests I remember..looking stoned out of his mind (shock) and talking to Don Cornelius about the new genre of music he had invented called "fun wave". Unfortunately I cannot for the life of me remember what ep/performance it was from and since Soul Train is only on at 4am here there's a chance I may have dreamt up part of it? I'm not sure if/what Soul Train eps have been released on DVD but I'd love to come across it one of these days.

btw this is always worth a watch...Rick James + Grace Jones = guaranteed fun times

Yeah, what a trip! Did they ever record anything together? They're like peanut butter & jelly aren't they?

I've got the Street Songs album now and it is fulfilling every musical need I could possibly have.

I'm sorry that I never took the time before to read Donut's excellent posts upthread.

This video of "Give It To Me Baby" cracks me up. The way he keeps looking into the camera in the beginning! Roffles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFmQAQ9EDeM

I like his early records, man. I'm fucked. My neighbors told me to turn it down. I want to kill them.

I've got the 12" version of "Give It To Me Baby" now too!!!!

Can I have it? I'll be your friend.

the video for "glow" is indeed something miraculous.

Why could any human being resist a song by Rick James about a hooker who had a pimp?

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:fze86Z6rCsJWtM:http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/5/55/200px-Rick_james_cold_blooded.jpg

Fuck.
he is the shit okay?

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:nAjZMBUSgqHTiM:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f6/Rick_james_cold_blooded.jpg/200px-Rick_james_cold_blooded.jpg

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:4lwLHUpzY7PBgM:http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41S7GP7CS6L.jpg

NO BUT I HAVE FLIPPED MY LID OVER THE COLD BLOODED ALBUM YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't even mind the Smokey Robinson duet.

There's even piano at the end!!! "UNITY"

Damnit where is the Reverend.

dude, "Ebony Eyes" is classic

gorgeous harmonies on that one

Rev!!!!
The power was out at my place today and I wished I had your phone #
can I email you or sumptin?

I just picked up Volume 3 of Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures, and there amongst the 60's/early 70's obscure soul treats is "Ebony Eyes"...it doesn't really fit in, but it's sure nice to hear it again...

FUCKING HELL YES IT IS!!!
EBONY EYES

GOD

I'm in love with Rick James. I can't help it. I'm really totally and completely in love and I can't help it. Shit.

So, Give It To Me Baby. C/Landmark of Western Civilization?

P.S. 0:50 - 0:54 Needs to be made into a gif and used into one of those obnoxious ILX grid-of-gif image posts.

0:50 to 0:54 of this, that is.

Hahahhaha. You got it, man. I wish I knew how to make a gif like that!

title="Share photos on twitter with Twitpic"><img src="http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/197zph.jpg"; width="150" height="150" alt="Share photos on twitter with Twitpic"></a>

http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/197zph.jpg

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh............. fuck it

thread needs mary jane youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lImZkke-5ys

is his autobiography worth reading? i mean i can't see how it wouldn't be but some amazon reviews are pretty down on it

Classic!

I mean, I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be being moved by a track like 'Fire and Desire' or laughing at it!

I am 100% ready to read the new Rick James "auto"biography, I haven't read a bad David Ritz bio yet and there's way too much material for him to work with for it not to be amazing

There's also a complete box set (digital) remaster of all his albums out, and eventually they are going to include the unreleased Mary Jane Girls album which has only been in the vault for 3 decades or something

http://theseconddisc.com/2014/07/09/give-it-to-us-baby-rick-james-motown-masters-and-more-are-digitally-reissued/

So how about a 15 hour mix? (Not 10 as the URL says -- 15)

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/04/383558326/i-m-rick-james-10-hours-of-the-funk-supernova-s-best-songs