Street Songs

James, Rick

album cover

The Best Way to Work Out That Disco Karma

Disco was in its drab, faceless twilight when Street Songs came along and superfreaked all over 1981, reminding Village People victims how thrilling music played by live musicians could be. The timing was pure genius: Recognizing that disco had pushed the live-band funk that defined the '70s—Earth Wind & Fire, Parliament—to the deep margins, Motown songwriter/producer Rick James styled himself as a leering, winking ringmaster of a hardfunking revue. He cranked out thumping rubber-band backbeats that sounded like they could roll all night. His lyrics, such as they were, told of discoera debauchery in the codes of cocaine clubland. And he sang them in a me-so-horny whine that oozed risqué outlandishness.

For all the attitude and period accoutrements (this is one of the first "urban" records to utilize the buzzy analog synths then swarming new wave pop), Street Songs is surprisingly strong on the hit-making fundamentals. The album's monster singles—"Give It to Me," "Super Freak"—are both built on succinct, endlessly repetitive two-measure bass phrases, ordinary vamps that scoot along in a hypnotic groove. The album tracks aren't as potent, but in one case, a smoldering ballad with Teena Marie entitled "Fire and Desire," James suggests that as much as he wants to be the next funk bad boy, he can't completely shake that Motown sweetness.

In 1990, lightweight rapper MC Hammer appropriated elements from "Super Freak" for what became his breakthrough song, "U Can't Touch This." It was another reminder, a generation removed, of the potency of these tunes: Without James's sirens-wailing hookcraft, Hammer's derivative rapping would never have hit the big time.

Genre: R&B
Released: 1981, Motown
Key Tracks: "Give It to Me," "Super Freak," "Fire and Desire."
Next Stop: The Mary Jane Girls: The Mary Jane Girls
After That: Prince: Dirty Mind
Book Pages: 389–390

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