Music of the Day, 8 November 2024
incense, wine, and candles
Since when has “incense, wine, and candles” been a freaky scene? Well, who am I to judge? What’s mild to one person may be wild to another simply because they haven’t experienced it before.
Or it could be that the line is simply what fit the song’s scansion and—as usual—I’m overthinking it. I definitely won’t be overgrooving it; I don’t think I can.
Those of you who’ve been with me for at least five weeks almost certainly saw this coming. I think other distractions kept that glorious riff from earworming me, which explains why it took so long.
I know I heard “Super Freak” when it came out in 1981; I don’t remember when I first saw the video, but it only made me like the song more. It’s a banging1 dance tune, which according to Wikipedia is why James included it on his 1981 album Street Songs.
That wasn’t my scene; as a psychology major, I was very interested in “abnormal” and “deviant”2 psychology and took both psychology and sociology courses in that area. I took “Super Freak” as a funky, sex-positive song and adored it for both attributes. And while it’s mild by today’s standards of body positivity, I liked that James’s dancers are pretty diverse. James himself being all glittered up didn’t hurt either.
Listening to “Super Freak” through my earbuds reveals more delectable layers to the song. Handclaps, the vocal backups,3 and other subtle musical flourishes beautifully support that monster riff. And that tenor sax outro by Daniel LeMelle is pure fire.
I knew that Rick James had serious drug problems, but I didn’t know until reading his Wiki today that he was also a serial sexual assaulter. That’s where I draw the line: as long as all parties knowingly4 consent, it isn’t anyone else’s business what they do in private. His life is a powerful cautionary tale, punctuated by some great music.
pun intended
in quotations because defining each is difficult and dynamic; things that were once illegal and/or immoral are considered pretty mild by reasonable people these days
fun trivia bit I learned from the song’s Wiki page: when James shouts “Temptations sing!”, he means it literally. They were backup vocalists on the track
viz., no one’s under the influence of mind-altering substances and/or coercion
It's odd that this is the song he is still known for, since it wasn't his biggest pop hit. ('You and I", from his first album in 1978, made the top 20, but it's not as frequently played.) Yet it is representative of the obsession with women that dominates a lot of his lyrics. (What else can you say about "17", a tune about being in love with a minor?).
But he took his music seriously- his songs all have excellent orchestrations, very deep playing and solid, inventive usage of background vocals behind them that shows he had his finger on the pulse of his audience (making up for the fact that his label, Motown, had mostly lost touch with theirs). And certainly "Super Freak" and many of his other songs were blessed with great saxophone solos by Danny LeMelle, Rick's equivalent of Maceo Parker in James Brown's band.
The whole "Street Songs" album is worth a listen for some of its more obscure tracks as well as the hits- "Mr. Policeman", an attack on racist cops, is still pretty potent stuff...
One of the songs that defined the beginning of the wild and crazy 80s era for me.