RICK JAMES
Rick James (born James Ambrose Johnson, Jr.; February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004) was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. After forming the Stone City Band in his hometown of Buffalo in 1977, James found success as a recording artist after signing with Motown’s Gordy Records, releasing the album, Come Get It!, in April 1978, where the hits “You & I” and “Mary Jane”, were released, helping the album go platinum and selling over two million records. This was followed with three more successful album releases. James released his most successful album, Street Songs, in 1981, which included career-defining hits such as “Give It to Me Baby” and “Super Freak”, the latter song becoming his biggest crossover single, mixing elements of funk, disco, rock and new wave. (More from Wikipedia)
But before I get into all of that, let me share this appreciation for Prince that was posted by Nick Gillespie on reason.com as part of the best commentary on the PMRC that I have been able to find online. It is quite a bit more barbed than the mainstream accolades that you and I have been reading of late.
“In the wake of the social progress of the past several decades, it’s hard to recapture how threatening the Paisley One once seemed, this gender-bender guy who shredded guitar solos that put Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton to shame while prancing around onstage in skivvies and high heels. He was funkier than pre-criminality Rick James and minced around with less shame and self-consciousness than Liberace. Madonna broke sexual taboos by being sluttish, which was no small thing; but as a fey black man who surrounded himself with hotter-than-the-sun lady musicians, [Prince] was simultaneously the embodiment of campy Little Richard and that hoariest of White America boogeymen, the hypersexualized black man."
(June 2016)
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The sampled break that repeats throughout “U Can’t Touch This” is the monster opening riff of Rick James’s “Super Freak” (1981), one of the catchiest and funkiest instrumental passages ever (and I am certainly not alone in feeling this way). According to Wikipedia: “‘Freak’ is a slang term for a very promiscuous girl, as described in the song’s lyrics, ‘. . . a very kinky girl / The kind you don’t take home to mother’.”
“Super Freak” includes some background vocals by the Temptations in one part, preceded by Rick James saying: “Temptations sing!” The tempo of the background singing is different from that of the song. In some long-form versions of “U Can’t Touch This”, this part of the “Super Freak” song is also sampled – it felt like a sample of a sample to me.
Initially, MC Hammer took full writing credit for “U Can’t Touch This”, but anyone familiar with “Super Freak” knew exactly where the song came from. The lawsuit brought by Rick James and others was settled out of court when MC Hammer agreed to give Rick James a songwriting credit (and thus a whole lot of cash) for “U Can't Touch This”.
(September 2016)
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Since I am down to a quarterly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, my annual list is a lot shorter, so I will try listing all of the people that I have discussed in some depth rather than just the Under Appreciated Rock Band and the Story of the Month. They are all punk rock bands of one kind or another this year (2015-2016), and the most recent post includes my overview of the early rap/hip hop scene that an old friend, George Konstantinow challenged me to write – probably so long ago that he might have forgotten.
September 2016 – 1980’s punk/rap band LIGHTNING STRIKE; Story of the Month on Patti Smith; also, Hamilton, School of Rock, MFSB, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Bob Dylan, Run-D.M.C., Aerosmith, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, the Fat Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Kid ’N Play, MC Hammer, Rick James, Vanilla Ice, Blondie / Deborah Harry, Salt-N-Pepa, the Sugarhill Gang, Nile Rodgers / Chic, Ravales.
(Year 7 Review)
