I started reading "Glow", the autobiography of Rick James last Sunday and now, already more than halfway done with it, several things have become clear to me.
1. As a child born in the 70s I was most definitely conceived to some 70s music on par with "Fire and Desire." I just know that in my heart.
2. R&B owes so much to great 70s artists like Rick James. Hip Hop and Rap sampled the hell out some Rick James hits.
3. To a large degree Black music in the 70s was about love, soul, spirituality and accessing a higher plain of consciousness. It had not come very far from it's African roots. Black artists in the 70s funk genre weren't afraid to let their Freak Flag fly because they knew that so-called freaks were on a journey towards liberation, fearlessness and joy and for a brief precious moment that was more important to them than impressing a target market with imitation. So much of what often embarrasses or discomforts people about the flamboyant and sexually loose style of the 70s is that those who represented it best, like Grace Jones or Rick James, didn't give a shit what people thought. They went with their gut and their spirit and those who couldn't copied them. Elvis, Prince, Madonna, Gaga, all learned how to draw a crowd by copying, appropriating, deriving and expertly reinterpreting the best in the business.
Ever wonder where African Shaman got their "style" from?
4. Prince owes about 70% of his career to Rick James. Everyone steals, imitates and borrows but James, cocky as he was, seemed more humble or came from a more reverent generation. Prince was a cold, insecure asshole in his early years.
5. The 80s was the dawn of artifice and excess. It produced a lot of great stuff with regards to music and it was the era I came of age in but what ever soul it had with regards to Black music was derived from what came before.
