Street Songs: Deluxe Edition (CD)

Rick James got an early start on his music career, forming the Mynah Birds with future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer while still in his teens. Though signed to Motown, the group fell apart when James got in trouble for draft-dodging. He rebounded in the '70s, eventually becoming a solo star with his winning combination of rock, pop, and funk (which he called "punk funk"), scoring numerous hits in the '70s and '80s. He became quite the impresario, producing Teena Marie, the Mary Jane Girls, and others. James's biggest visibility in the '90s came from being sampled for M.C. Hammer's megahit "U Can't Touch This," and then from an arrest for drugs and various other more violent crimes. By the end of the decade, however, he was free, clean, and back to recording and performing, getting the chance to clean up his legacy before passing away in 2004.

• Category:  Music  »  R&B  »  Funk
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: September 25, 2001
• Label: Motown Records
• UPC: 044001469626
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106668262
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #73602 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #3549 in R&B (See Top 100 R&B Bestsellers)
• #196 in Funk (See Top 100 Funk Bestsellers)

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Street Songs: Deluxe Edition includes four 12 inch mixes and a live bonus disc.

Personnel includes: Rick James (vocals, arranger, guitar, bass, drums, timbales, timpani, percussion); Teena Marie (vocals); Alonzo Miller (spoken vocals); Tom McDermott (guitar, percussion); Larry Hansen (violin); Daniel LeMelle (flute, alto & tenor saxophones); John Ervin (flute, trombone); Gerald Albright (flute); Cliff Ervin (piccolo, trumpet, flugelhorn); Stevie Wonder (harmonica); William Rhinehart (saxophone, background vocals); Erskine Williams (Clavinet, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards); Levi Ruffin, Jr. (OBX synthesizer, strings, background vocals); Donny Keider (vibraphone); Narada Michael Walden, Steve Price (drums); Armando Peraza (percussion); The Temptations, Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, Jane't DuBois (background vocals).

Producer: Rick James.

Reissue producer: Harry Weinger.

Engineers include: Tom "Super" Flye, Rick "Port Hole" Sanchez, Bobby Brooks.

Recorded at The Record Plant, Sausalito, California; Motown/Hitsville U.S.A. Hollywood, California; The Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, California between December 1980 and July 1981. Originally released on Gordy (G8-1002M1). Includes liner notes by Craig Werner.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Although he is remembered almost as much for his legal problems and wild image as he is for his music, Rick James laid down some truly unassailable funk in the 1970s and '80s. 1981's STREET SONGS was probably his finest moment, and its 20th anniversary was celebrated by the release of this DELUXE EDITION. James pared away all the fat on this release to give us jams as transcendent as "Super Freak," "Give It To Me Baby," and "Fire and Desire," a duet with Teena Marie. Those three tracks alone should be enough to raise the disc to iconic status.

The two-disc DELUXE EDITION, however, also includes 12-inch mixes of "Super Freak" and "Give It to Me Baby," which are near-perfect extended dancefloor workouts.

The second disc presents a wealth of unreleased live material (recorded at a concert in California), which captures James and his band at the peak of their powers. Add to all this meticulously remastered sound and you have a funk classic raised to the level of perfection.

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