LP Review: Cold Blooded
Released: 1983
Well, folks, this is where Rick James’s punk-funk became a formula instead of a method. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I’m sticking with it.
A couple songs are inspired, a couple are pretty good, and then the rest range from alright to outright bad. We haven’t had an outright bad Rick James song since 1980’s Garden Of Love. Hell we haven’t had a mediocre Rick James song since that album.
The Twin High Points
The good news is that there are twins of glory on this LP: “U Bring the Freak Out” and “Ebony Eyes”. Each is a love song but of totally different purposes.
I’m pretty sure “U Bring the Freak Out” is James giving an ode to marijuana or more likely cocaine. He ostensibly sings to a woman, but the lyrics just seem like something a crazy drug would do to somebody.
Hey, girl, before I met you, I was so shy
I didn't smoke, drink or like to party
And then you showed me how to get high
And release myself
Whether about weed, coke, or a lady, this song funks and funks hard. The horns are fantastic and there’s a light new wavish guitar that touches the song throughout. My favorite song on the album.
Now, I may not like “Ebony Eyes” as much, but I wouldn’t quibble if you think it’s a better song. Rick James was able to get the legendary Smokey Robinson to drop in and sing with him on this duet about beautiful Black women. The ballad is “soft and gentle”, as the lyrics say, and there’s heavenly choral backup vocals.
And to no one’s surprise, Smokey sings Rick James off the stage on this one. Then again, that’s probably what Rick James hoped for when he got Smokey to bat on this one.
The Good Songs
The title track and “P.I.M.P. the S.I.M.P.” are the other two good songs on this album and each is absurd in its own special way. Now I’ve yet to wade into these waters, but here we go… “Cold Blooded” takes a stark minimalist electronic approach to funk that would be improved upon by Prince with tracks like “When Doves Cry” and “Kiss”. The songs all sound different but they have a uniting principle in being almost post-rhythm. Too good for a groove. Almost. The problem that keeps “Cold Blooded” from being a stone cold classic, IMO, is that its lyrics are too corny and there’s no interesting instrumental solo. The latter problem plagues the whole album.
“P.I.M.P. the S.I.M.P.” is more conventional in its early 80s funk, but has the spice of Grandmaster Flash rapping. Flash should have been DJing instead of rapping, but whatever. It’s nice to see the early fusion of funk and rap, especially tackling the problem of pimps taking advantage of women.
The Other Shit
“1, 2, 3 (You Her and Me)” is about what you think it’s about. I’m surprised it took a freak like Rick James this long to record a song about a threesome. As for the music itself, it’s largely that cold grooveless sound from “Cold Blooded”, but over the final minute there finally comes some splashes of live percussion, horns, and a lightly blues guitar.
“Doin’ It” is even more grooveless and pure album filler. Ditto for “New York Town” which has the same damn mechanistic drumming from “Doin’ It” and “Cold Blooded” and even “U Bring the Freak Out” (but at least “Freak” had a whole lot of other instrumentation going on to mask the simple drums).
The album’s final two tracks are when things really fall apart. Your ears will listen on in horror to “Tell Me (What You Want)” as James again takes on the role of lover man he failed so miserably at on Garden Of Love. Actor Billy Dee Williams also speaks on the song. Instead of giving it some gravitas, it sounds like a fucking parody track. Just awful.
And the album finally swerves off the road and crashes into a tree with “Unity”. It’s just James and a piano. I’ve mentioned often how James has a limited voice. Well, a track where it’s just him and a piano is a recipe for disaster and that’s just what we get.
ALBUM GRADE: C
This LP has a lot of problems, but it also had some redeeming qualities. Considering James was still a superstar on Black radio, this was an enormous commercial success. It went gold and spent ten weeks atop the R&B albums chart. The title track also hit #1 on the R&B singles chart.
None of that kind of success was deserved though given the overall quality of the album. And I gotta say record buyers took notice of the weakened material. James would never come close to replicating these sales again,
Song Scores
U Bring The Freak Out: 8.5/10
Cold Blooded: 7/10
Ebony Eyes: 8.5/10
1, 2, 3 (You Her and Me): 6.5/10
Doin’ It: 5/10
New York Town: 5/10
P.I.M.P. the S.I.M.P.: 6.5/10
Tell Me (What You Want): 3/10
Unity: 3/10