This is the second section of a two-part chapter written for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). You can read Part One here. Neither section is in the book's current plan.
An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
Written by Rick James and Alonzo Miller
Produced by Rick James
Single from the album Street Songs, Gordy, 1981
The riff.
Early singles by the Kinks and the Rolling Stones provide prime examples of pop music's all-time classic riffs. The hypnotic appeal of the riff is defined and embodied by the simple, repetitive piledriving of "You Really Got Me" and "All Day And All Of The Night," "The Last Time" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," and other monster, monolithic guitar hooks (like the Beatles' "Day Tripper," the Jam's "In The City," the MC5's "Kick Out The Jams," and we may be here all night if we keep this up).
Although not as widely celebrated, Rick James' riff for "Super Freak" belongs in that conversation. Its subsequent use by the Romantics (who adapted it for their sole Top Ten hit "Talking In Your Sleep") and MC Hammer (who sampled it for "U Can't Touch This") illustrate its durability. It still belongs to Rick James.
In the summer of 1979, one of the guys I knew at work was into Rick James. I had seen print ads for James' album Bustin' Out Of L Seven, with its comics-style cover graphic and promise of punk-funk, but hadn't heard any of the music. My coworker recommended I stop listening to that new wave rock 'n' roll crap I favored and get hip to some Rick James already.
(He also recommended I start cheating on my girlfriend with as many willing young lasses as I could find, so I took his advice with a grain of salt.)
I didn't hear Rick James until he appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1981, performing "Give It To Me Baby" and "Super Freak." I was impressed. Some short time after that, the girlfriend (same one as in '79) and I saw a young rock 'n' roll band at a local bar, and their repertoire of Rolling Stones and Who covers also included a little Rick James. I don't remember if they did "Super Freak" or "Give It To Me Baby" (or both), but I was instantly struck by the generational continuity of a group of white rock 'n' roll kids covering contemporary black music, just as The Rolling Stones had covered R & B gems over a decade before. I was sold. And I bought myself a copy of Rick James' Street Songs album.
The Rick James vibe was heavy on hedonism, a funky soundtrack to a drug-fueled orgy in progress. Born James Johnson, Jr., James was a native of Buffalo who'd fled the armed services and relocated to Toronto in the mid '60s. As we've already seen, his Canadian group the Mynah Birds ended when he was incarcerated in 1966.
By the late '70s, he was back with Motown, recording deep and insistent grooves with his Stone City Band. He had more success on the R & B charts, but crossed over for two Top 20 hits on Billboard's Hot 100: "You And I" (# 13) in 1978, and "Super Freak (Part I)" (# 16) in 1981.
The story goes that James only recorded "Super Freak" because he wanted a track that white people could dance to. With backing vocals by the Temptations, "Super Freak"'s tale of a very kinky girl oozes sex and debauchery, its pursuit of satisfaction all day and all of the night burning like intertwining candles atop a riff as infectious and dangerous as an STD. It's such a freaky scene.
James' fame is rivaled by his infamy, his history of excess and depravity, his drug use, the accusations of sexual abuse, kidnapping, and even torture that landed him back in prison for a couple of years in the '90s. The image of his criminal dissipation overshadowed his music. Rick James died in 2004.
The riff remains.
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available for preorder, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!!
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