iM PRETTY SURE RICKS IS FOR SHOW ... CAUSE THERE AINT TWO BASSES IN THE SONG ... HE SHOULD JUST CARRY A GUITAR ITS MORE PLAUSIBLE ... AND I AINT SAYIN HE CANT PLAY CAUSE I KNOW HE CAN
@@kitrik23 In an interview Oscar Alston did he said Rick was great on bass and didn't want the responsibility of carrying and playing mostly during shows! He wanted to move through out freely! Bootsy Collins did an interview on their bass off (bassin, lol) before a concert(Parliament/Funkadelic) in front of the audience also! Basically said same as Alston, he plays great! My personal opinion, I believe Rick has to be called out to do so! They say he did that w/Prince on drums during Fire It Up tour when P was entertaining on a drum set! Rumor, not sure how true it is! Thanks!
@@miacamillah8532 I know that.... but if you ask most people born after 1990 about Rick James, he's little more than a punch line to most and no one even mentions his band. None of the members even have wikipedia links... If that's not underrated than I don't know what is. I know all about Rick James and the Stone City Band's legacy in the 70s and 80s. Sure, of course anyone who was alive in that period, knew of them but a lot of musician's don't - and I don't mean on RU-vid, I mean in real life.
@@robowenmikels That's an over statement. I am in the business, and we get many requests for Rick James music. Matter of face his songs rank high in Spotify. I do agree he should have been as big or even more popular as Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi or Prince (Who evolved into Rick After he opened for him) but MTV REFUSED to play his music. In the 80's it was THE music vehicle. He exposed MTV as Racist. They only played Michael Jackson & Prince because they were on white Labels. Executives said you don't play them you can't play Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, etc.
I watch a lot of the videos in the 70s mostly with black bands they always have a white guy playing A Trumpet, Sax or Trombone.. No racism just people getting together and making beautiful Music I love it :)
Im so excited...Singing with the bass player for Stone city band .... Oscar Alston..on October 9th for the Buffalo international film fest (BIFF) to celebrate The Rick James film Bitchin: the sound of fury of Rick James. This is gonna be Epic...to celebrate my home town idol ... Can't Wait!!!
@@antonyelk.3414He can likely play bass, but he’s always pretending live. The Stone City bass player, Oscar Alston is the man you hear and see to the left. I think RJ sang for Neil Young.
@@jeffrorichard2765 Probably yes. But hes main instrument was the bass and he played bass for Neil, you can google it :) anyways, RJ was a great overall musician who deserve more credit than he gets, he also inspired Prince in many ways which is a reciet of it self!
@@larrypeters3675 Rick could write sing play every king of instrument when he was in prison he wrote over three hundred songs but he died before he could bring them to the studio.
He was the king of "PUNK FUNK " and I was one of his deciples,I had all of his albums.there was always a sleeper hit on many of his records.like "hard to get ", money talk to name a few."RIP. SLICK RICK", Always remembered never forgotten.
I can listen to King James all day long. What a talent!! what a persona !! All his songs were smashing hits. The one and only Funk Master . R.I.P… my brother 🙏
The Dave Chappelle comedy sketch was detrimental to Rick James' legacy because it caused young people to identify Rick with drugs rather than his musical body of work, and many completely forget that Rick was a brilliant musician and an artist who influenced many who came after him.
They probably wouldn't know about him,,, plus Rick is a detriment to his own legacy. His abuse of drugs and subsequently women speaks volumes to his character. Alas, I agree his music is certainly good, however, his character when it comes down to it is most certainly not.
@@squigglesmcjr199 So did I, but as a pop-culturally figure, I think many younger people know of him from the Skit or the TikTok version of Super Freak (sped up the song).
Personally when I first heard(and saw)this on Saturday Night Live in 1979, I liked it(went and bought the single the next day)-thought it would be his next big hit-it wasn't, but so it went with a lot of songs back then-who can figure people's taste? The record labels are(or were then)partly to blame also.
Racist MTV was a main vehicle of music back then. They refused to play Rick James. Rick spoke up about racism on MTV. MTV knew Prince copied him, and to spite him they played Prince 100 times a day on MTV, but never Rick.
Rick was such a great performer and a musical artist one of the greatest to ever do it, stone city band were fantastic. Just to add this song slaps like five fingers to the face
LOVE this funky jam, such a cool funky jam with such a big backing band the Stone City Band, they literally should be called the R-Funk Army like Parliament's P-Funk army, they are totally up there!!! I see the guitarist has an Eddie Van Halen design bumblebee striped guitar too, I wonder what the actual story behind it is, either way it certainly adds flare to the band!
October 11, 1980, is when this performance was first broadcast on the Don Kirchsner's Rock Concert. The guitarist, is Tom McDermott, a truly underrated player...and clearly, he knew what was up, as far as Eddie being out-of-this-world, next level and had to borrow some of that mojo (in appearance at least). The first time the world saw the yellow and black striped Frankenstrat was on, March 23, 1979, and the guitar was only finished in time to be photographed for the back cover of VH2 and wasn't actually played on the album. I'd love to ask Tom McDermott, the actual story though... he doesn't even have a wiki page and is a post man in Cali, somewhere, last I heard.
@@bobcox4396 Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out. I'm still getting into the Rick James deep cuts but man, I'm really impressed by the whole band. Tom's guitar work is pretty interesting and unique.
Dr. Dre= George Clinton DJ Quik= Rick James If you check Quik's catalog Street Gospel and Rhythmalism, you can definitely hear influences of Punk Funk in G Funk! #FireItUp
