web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Prince

  • Infatueighties: #76: Super Freak

    Rick James’ autobiography, “Memoirs of a Superfreak”, isn’t exactly an award-winning piece of writing. However, it gives you an idea of how much the title of “super freak” actually fit Rick. Somewhat shamefully, those freaky antics (immortalized in the legendary Dave Chappelle skit) have obscured the fact that Rick made some pretty good music.

    “Super Freak” is one of those near perfect fusions of rock and funk. While Rick (if he was still here) would say that Prince got much of his style from Rick (the two toured together in 1980), the fact is a) how the hell could Prince have followed Rick when their debuts came out the same year? (1978) and b) doesn’t “Super Freak” sound somewhat reminiscent of Prince’s “When You Were Mine”, which came out a year before “Super Freak” (and would have placed pretty high on this chart if I included tracks that were never commercially released as single A-sides)? Then again, Prince never had The Temptations sing background on his biggest hit. Either way, this song’s hard to knock. If the B-52’s met Parliament/Funkadelic, the result would have been “Super Freak”.

    I love the way Yahoo! Music follows “Super Freak” with “Trapped in the Closet”. Ladies & gentlemen, it’s the Sick Fucks of R&B playlist!!

  • The New Music Files 10/21/08: Featuring AC/DC, Kenny Chesney, HSM3 and More!!

    I figured it was time to change the title of the column into something a little less…you know, boring. Anyhow, here’s what you should be expecting to see on store shelves and in your trusty little iTunes browser this week:

    AC/DC: Black Ice:

    Those rascally Aussies have pretty much made the exact same album for thirty + years now, but damn if people don’t go out and buy tons of it each time. Black Ice is their first album of new material in almost a decade, and it’s receiving a little extra notice not only because they’re crisscrossing the globe in support of it, but because, much like The Eagles album from last year, this album is being released exclusively at Wal-Mart and walmart.com (actually, the album went on sale yesterday, but who’s counting). If you’re anywhere near rock radio or VH-1, I’m sure you’ve already heard the first single “Rock & Roll Train”.

    (more…)

  • Friday Throwback: All in Love is Fair

    I had no clue what I was going to use when I told GG I would take care of the Friday throwback in his absence. Hell, I was absolutely stunned to actually see this You Tube performance footage.

    I go back and forth between Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions and Prince’s Sign O’ the Times as my favorite album of all time.

    Innervisions was one of the first albums-maybe even THE first-that I ever owned. I played the grooves off of that record, even though I wasn’t able to appreciate the poetry of the songs-everything from Higher Ground to Golden Lady -until I was much older.

    All in Love is Fair is by far my favorite song on Innervisions, and is one of the best written love songs in history.   I was stunned to see video footage of Stevie singing this that wasn’t taken from a recent concert or television performance. In the thirty-five years since Innervisions’ release, the song has become a standard, rerecorded by everyone from Cher to Streisand. I believe Sinatra may have taken a crack at it too. Still, no one tops the original.