Rick James
James Ambrose Johnson Jr., better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Rick James began his musical career in his teenage years. He was in various bands before entering the U.S. Naval Reserve to avoid being drafted into the Army. In 1964, James moved to Toronto, Canada, where he formed the rock band The Mynah Birds, who eventually signed a recording deal with Motown Records in 1966. James's career with the group halted after military authorities discovered his whereabouts and eventually convicted him of desertion related charges. He served several months in jail. After being released, James moved to California, where he started a variety of rock and funk groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
After forming the locally popular Stone City Band in his hometown of Buffalo in 1977, James finally found success as a recording artist after signing with Motown's Gordy Records, releasing the album Come Get It! in 1978 which produced the hits "You and I" and "Mary Jane". In 1981, James released his most successful album, Street Songs, which included career-defining hits such as "Give It to Me Baby" and "Super Freak", the latter song becoming his biggest crossover single, mixing elements of funk, disco, rock, and new wave. James was also known for his soulful ballads such as "Fire & Desire" and "Ebony Eyes". He also had a successful career as a songwriter and producer for other artists, including Teena Marie, the Mary Jane Girls, The Temptations, Eddie Murphy, and Smokey Robinson.
James's mainstream success peaked by the release of his album Glow in 1985 and his appearance on the popular TV show, The A-Team. His subsequent album releases failed to sell as well as their predecessors. Rapper MC Hammer sampled "Super Freak" for his breakout 1990 hit, "U Can't Touch This", which won Best R&B Song at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1991. James received his only Grammy for composing the song. By the early 1990s, James's career was hampered by his drug addiction, and he was embroiled in legal issues. In 1993, he was convicted of two separate instances of kidnapping and assaulting two different women while under the influence of crack cocaine, resulting in a three-year sentence at Folsom State Prison. He was released on parole in 1996. His health problems halted his career again after he had a mild stroke during a concert in 1998, and he announced a semi-retirement.
In 2004, James returned to pop culture notoriety after he appeared in an episode of Chappelle's Show. The segment involved a Charlie Murphy True Hollywood Stories-style sketch that satirized James's wild lifestyle in the 1980s. This resulted in renewed interest in his music, and that year he returned to perform on the road. He died later that year from heart failure at age 56.
Life and career
Early life
James Ambrose Johnson Jr. was born on February 1, 1948, in Buffalo, New York, to Mabel and James Ambrose Johnson Sr. He was one of eight children. He was an altar boy and choir member at St. Bridget's Catholic Church. Rick James's father, an autoworker, left the family when Rick James was 10. His mother was a dancer for Katherine Dunham, and later worked as a cleaner in the day, and as a numbers-runner for the Buffalo crime family at night to earn a living.Early career
In 1964, Rick James fled to Toronto. Soon after his arrival three drunk men tried to attack him outside a club; a trio of other men came to his aid. One of them, Levon Helm, was at the time a member of Ronnie Hawkins' backing band. Helm invited Rick James to their show later that night and he ended up performing onstage with the band. To evade US military authorities, Rick James went under the assumed name "Ricky James Matthews". That same year, Rick James formed The Mynah Birds, a band that produced a fusion of soul, folk, and rock music. In 1965, the band briefly recorded for the Canadian division of Columbia Records, releasing a single, "Mynah Bird Hop"/"Mynah Bird Song". At one point, Nick St. Nicholas, later of Steppenwolf fame, was a member; by the time "Mynah Bird Hop" was recorded, bassist Bruce Palmer had replaced him. Rick James and Palmer recruited guitarists Tom Morgan and Xavier Taylor and drummer Rick Mason to form a new Mynah Birds lineup, and soon traveled to Detroit to record with Motown. Before the group began recording their first songs for the label, Morgan left, unhappy about the label's attitude toward the musicians. Neil Young eventually took Morgan's place. It was while in Detroit that Rick James met his musical heroes, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. After meeting Wonder and telling him his name, Wonder felt the name "Ricky James Matthews" was "too long" and told Rick James to shorten it to "Ricky James".In 1966, a financial dispute in Toronto between Rick James and the Mynah Birds' handler, Morley Shelman led to Motown's learning of Rick James's fugitive status with the Navy. Hoping to prevent any scrutiny, Motown execs told Rick they would not be releasing any more of his material and convinced him to come back and work with them after straightening out his legal issues. Rick James surrendered himself to the FBI, and, in May 1966, was sentenced by the Navy to five months' hard labor for unauthorized absence. He was not yet 19 years old. Rick James escaped from the Brooklyn Naval Brig after only six weeks' confinement, but following another six months as a fugitive, surrendered himself a second time. With help from his mother, Rick James found legal assistance from his cousin, future Congressman Louis Stokes, and another attorney, former Marine Captain John Bracken, who pled Rick James's second court-martial down from a potential five years' hard labor to five months. After his release from Portsmouth Naval Prison in August 1967, Rick James returned to Toronto and endured another detention, initially derailing resumption of his career with Mynah Bird bandmate Neil Merryweather, with whom he would later collaborate, first at Motown and then in Los Angeles.
In 1968, again working under the pseudonym Ricky Matthews, Rick James produced and wrote songs at Motown for acts such as The Miracles, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, and The Spinners. It was during this third stint at Motown that Rick James met musician Greg Reeves. Reeves, hoping to find a better situation than the US$38 a week he was earning as a session bassist for Berry Gordy, joined Rick James, looking to "hitch a lift from Neil Young's rising star," and relocated to Los Angeles.
On one of his first nights in Los Angeles, Rick James was crashing on musician Stephen Stills' couch. When he awoke, he saw a stoned young man sitting on the floor in the lotus position. The man's wrists were bleeding, so a scared Rick James sought help. Rick James was later formally introduced to the man, who was Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors. After the Doors opened for Buffalo Springfield at the Whisky a Go Go, Morrison tricked Rick James into taking acid.
In California, Rick James initially worked as a duo with Greg Reeves, but soon after Rick James introduced Reeves to Neil Young, it was Reeves, not Rick James, who was hired as bassist for the newly formed rock supergroup, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Around this time Rick James formed several versions of the rock band Salt'N'Pepper. Rick James claimed that in 1969 friend and hairstylist Jay Sebring invited him to attend a party at actress Sharon Tate’s house, but he was too hungover to get out of bed. The next morning, he discovered that Sebring had been murdered when he saw the Los Angeles Times headline "Sharon Tate, Four Others Murdered."
In 1970, Rick James and Salt'N'Pepper member Ed Roth participated in the recording of Bruce Palmer's solo album The Cycle Is Complete. The duo also recorded as part of the group Heaven and Earth in Toronto. Heaven and Earth eventually changed their name to Great White Cane and recorded a self-titled album for the Los Angeles label Lion Records, released in 1972. Rick James formed another band, Hot Lips, afterwards. He also briefly replaced Mendelson Joe in the Toronto blues band McKenna Mendelson Mainline. During this period, Rick James and Mainline guitarist Mike McKenna co-wrote the song "You Make the Magic", which would later be released by The Chambers Brothers as a B-side to their single "Boogie Children."
Solo career
In 1973, James signed with A&M Records, under the name Rick James. The first single, "My Mama", was released in 1974, becoming a club hit in Europe.In 1976, Rick James returned to Buffalo and formed the Stone City Band. Shortly thereafter, he recorded "Get Up and Dance!", his second single to be released. In 1977, Rick James and the Stone City Band signed a contract with Motown's Gordy Records imprint and began recording their first album in both New York City and Los Angeles.
In April 1978, Rick James released his debut solo album, Come Get It!, which included the Stone City Band. The album launched the top 20 hit, "You and I", which became his first number-one R&B hit. The album also included the hit single, "Mary Jane". It eventually sold a million copies, launching Rick James's musical career to stardom and helping out Motown Records at a time when label fortunes had dwindled. In early 1979, Rick James's second album, Bustin' Out of L Seven, followed the previous album's success, reaching the top 20 of the Billboard 200 and reached number two on the R&B album charts. A third album, Fire It Up, was released in late 1979. Around that same period, Rick James launched his first headlining tour, the Fire It Up Tour, and agreed to invite the then-upcoming artist, Prince, as well as singer Teena Marie, as his opening act.
Following the end of the tour in 1980, Rick James released the ballads-heavy Garden of Love, which was a relative flop, only reaching number 83 on the Billboard 200. In 1981, Rick James recorded his best-selling album to date, Street Songs, which, like his previous four albums, was a concept album. Street Songs featured a fusion mix of different genres, including rock and new wave, as well as Rick James's brand of crossover funk, enabling Rick James's own style of "punk funk". The album featured hit singles such as "Ghetto Life", the Teena Marie duet "Fire and Desire", "Give It to Me Baby", and his biggest crossover hit to date, "Super Freak", which peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold more than a million copies in the United States. Street Songs peaked at number one R&B and number three pop and sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. Following up that success, Rick James released two successive gold-certified albums, 1982's Throwin' Down and 1983's Cold Blooded. In 1982, Rick James produced the Temptations' Top 10 R&B comeback hit, "Standing on the Top". In 1983, Rick James recorded the hit duet, "Ebony Eyes", with singer Smokey Robinson, as well as a ballad "Tell Me What You Want" with an introduction by Billy Dee Williams.
During this period, as Prince also became a success as a producer of other acts including The Time and Vanity 6, Rick James pursued a similar path, launching the acts Process and the Doo-Rags, and the Mary Jane Girls, the latter of which featuring his former background singer Joanne "JoJo" McDuffie as the lead vocalist and background performer. The Mary Jane Girls became successful, on the strength of the James-produced hits "All Night Long", "Candy Man", and "In My House". In 1985, Rick James produced another hit for entertainer Eddie Murphy with the song "Party All the Time". That same year, he even found time to release his next solo album, Glow and also appeared on an episode of The A-Team with Isaac Hayes. After the release of his ninth solo album, The Flag, in 1986, Rick James signed with Warner Bros. Records, which released the album Wonderful in 1988, featuring the hit, "Loosey's Rap".
Rick James's controversial and provocative image became troublesome sometimes. Famous for promoting the use of marijuana live in concerts during a time that simple possession could lead to a long-term prison sentence, Rick James was often threatened by cops in various cities that he would be arrested if he smoked marijuana on stage during performances of songs such as "Fire It Up" and "Mary Jane". According to Kerry Gordy, most Motown executives erroneously thought the latter song was a "simple cute love song to a girl," not knowing the song was about marijuana.
Rick James's overtly sexual bravado made it tough for him to be a bigger mainstream act. After the debut of the fledgling music video network MTV in August 1981, Rick James tried to present the music video for "Super Freak" to the label, only for the channel to turn the video down. Rick James accused the network of racism. MTV denied this, stating the real reason "Super Freak" was turned down by MTV was because they felt Rick James's video was too vulgar for the channel. When younger artists such as Michael Jackson and Prince found fame on the channel, Rick James accused the two singers of being "tokens" in a 1983 interview, demanding that any black artist who had a video aired on MTV take their video off the channel in protest. Rick James's rant was cosigned by David Bowie, who argued with MTV VJ Mark Goodman about the lack of black artists being featured on the channel despite the successes of Jackson and Prince. Rick James finally appeared on MTV a couple years later with Murphy's music video to "Party All the Time".