LP Review: Street Songs
Released: 1981
Before we go any further, let’s just appreciate this man wearing knee-high red leather boots.
Okay, on to the review… If you were a funk music fan in 1981, you would have been supremely worried about Rick James. A few years before, he came out smokin’ hot with Come Get It! (B-) in 1978. Then in 1979 he released two albums. The disappointing, but still funky Bustin’ Out of L Seven (D+) and the very engaging Fire It Up (B). Then in 1980 came the disastrous Garden Of Love (D+), which shockingly ditched the funk.
And the album sales were starting to lag too…
Come Get It!: #3 R&B, #13 pop
Bustin’ Out of L Seven: #2 R&B, #16 pop
Fire It Up: #5 R&B, #34 pop
Garden Of Love: #17 R&B, #83 pop
Even more worrisome were the singles. 1978’s “You And I” (#1 R&B, #13 pop) and “Mary Jane” (#3 R&B, #41 pop) were smashes by funk standards. Less triumphant were the singles put out in 1979 going into 1980.
“High On Your Love Suite” — #12 R&B, #72 pop
“Bustin’ Out” — #8 R&B, #71 pop
“Fool on the Street” — #35 R&B
“Love Gun” — #13 R&B
“Come Into My Life” — #26 R&B
“Big Time” — #17 R&B
You can see the trend. I can see the trend. Rick James was getting stale and was on the verge of fading into musical obscurity…
BUT THAT AIN’T WHAT HAPPENED THANKS TO STREET SONGS!
Rick James finally puts it (whatever it is) all together on Street Songs. Tight funky dance tracks that don’t meander into pointless jams. Opulent ballads that don’t descend into embarrassing lover man territory OR reveal his vocal limits. He even manages to have a couple of message songs. And they work!
There are guest stars galore: Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Teena Marie, Ja’Net Dubois, Gerald Albright, and Narada Michael Walden.
Street Songs is a motherbleepin’ blast!
And this motherbleeper sold like hot cakes. It spent an absurd TWENTY weeks at #1 on the R&B albums chart, which tied it with Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life for the then-longest tenure atop that Billboard chart. Street Songs also nearly topped the pop charts as well attaining a high of #3. Imagine that. THIS album that funked so hard getting that high on the pop charts. Unbelievable.
Needless to say, Rick James saved his career and created a lasting musical legacy with this bad boy.
Gimme That Stuff, That Funk, That Sweet, That Funky Stuff
Few albums have opened better than Street Songs thanks to the bass from “Give It To Me Baby”. The isolated thumps let you know something funky this way comes. Then there’s a loud smash of drums and a cacophony of horns and synthesizers blare into your speakers. Ole Slick Rick then just starts talking nonsense about how “he’s so intoxicated” and how he’s “so crazy”. No lies spotted. Ultimately he concludes to his girlfriend upset with his antics that “I just wanna love you” and that they should start gettin’ it on.
And the secret sauce of this song? Temptations’ bass singer Melvin Franklin singing “give it to me” in unison with a bass guitar during the refrains. AND Franklin singing “hey girl” during the outro, which has an insane horn chart. Can you tell I love this song? Yes, I love this song.
This absolute monster of a funk and dance song deservedly topped the R&B chart and was James’s first top 40 pop single since “You And I”.
So, we’re used to Rick James being a horn dog, but then he does the unexpected. We get a message song!
Well, what qualifies as a message song for Rick James. “Ghetto Life” doesn’t have any call to action, but it’s an autobiographical reading of James growing up in the ghetto. With the Temptations singing backup and Daniel LeMelle blowing on the sax, the funk track does so much damage in its description of hollowed out inner cities in post-World War II America.
Especially when James sings “One thing 'bout the ghetto / You don't have to hurry / It'll be there tomorrow / So brother don't you worry”. Yeah, that’s depressing.
After a scorching eight minutes of funk, James then drops a ballad. Now on previous albums this was a hit-or-miss proposition. Thankfully, it’s all hits here as James decides to go with a symphonically funky approach on “Make Love To Me”. There’s an abundance of strings, which you think would detract from the funkiness, but there’s an incredibly funky backbeat that keeps the track rumblin’ instead of syrupy. Think of Barry White’s “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Baby”.
The final song from Side 1 is the reggae-tinged War-inspired funk of “Mr. Policeman”, which features Teena Marie on prominent backing vocals and kick ass harmonica from Stevie Wonder. Whereas “Ghetto Life” was descriptive, the lyrics here are absolutely pointed and a call to arms resonating some four decades later as cops keep gunning down innocent unarmed people.
To wit, “It’s a shame and disgrace / Every time you show your face somebody dies”. And James spits those lines before Wonder’s harmonica comes in as a lamentation for the fallen.
So no way that James can keep up that kind of energy for Side 2?
Very Kinky Girl
Sheeeeeit, Rick James ain’t playin’.
The second half of the LP starts with that bouncy synth/live bass of “Super Freak”. Imagine dropping the needle on that for the first time? THIS IS HOW YOU SEQUENCE AN ALBUM.
Ahem, anyways, “Super Freak” (#3 R&B, #16 pop) is fucking awesome. It’s one of the best new wave songs ever made, has the Temptations again singing backup vocals, and LeMelle again has a breathtaking saxophone solo. The song garnered James a Grammy nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. This made him the first Black artist to receive that nomination.
Think about THAT ONE for a second. A genre born largely on the backs of Black musicians didn’t have a Black nominee in this category till 1982…
With that bone thrown to White folks, James then drops “Fire and Desire” a ballad duet with Teena Marie that’s legendary on Black radio. Rick James as svelte lover man doesn’t really work, but Rick James acknowledging he can be mean, cruel, and a jerk as he begs for forgiveness? That works. And the man’s vocals never sounded better on a ballad than here. I think he took musical PEDs for this.
And Teena Marie? She makes the song with her powerful wails and ad libs. If it was just James lonesomely singing this track, it wouldn’t work. Marie’s coos at the end of the song mixed with a vibraphone softly playing just sets you down easy after all the pyrotechnics.
To be honest, that song kind of leaves you spent, so James wisely has the next song be lowkey. But lowkey ain’t no key.
“Call Me Up” isn’t a groundbreaking funk number, but it still makes for a great song because it’s so competently performed. Woulda been the best track easily on a couple of previous Rick James albums. Bonus points for having the sounds of a dialed telephone injected to the track.
Street Songs finishes on the jittery “Below the Funk (Pass the J)”. Yet another homage from James to Buffalo (“I was raised in a city they call Buffalo / zero degrees below / and it’s too damn cold and funky”) and marijuana (“Pass the joint! / I ain’t finished with it / need one more hit”) this song is the weakest on the album, but it’s still very good! And it has the good sense to end after two-and-a-half minutes.
ALBUM GRADE: A+
The fuck you still reading this review for? Listen to the album!
Song Scores
Give It To Me Baby: 10/10
Ghetto Life: 10/10
Make Love To Me: 8/10
Mr. Policeman: 9/10
Super Freak: 10/10
Fire and Desire: 8.5/10
Call Me Up: 8/10
Below the Funk (Pass the J): 7.5/10