Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 07/03/1992
Run Time: 38:58
After returning to the U.S. from London, where he fronted the
blues band
Mainline,
Rick James cut one album with
White Cane before he turned to his own solo venture. By 1977, he'd begun working with
the Stone City Band, emerging at the end of the year with an album's worth of delicious
funk-
rock fusion. Released in spring 1978,
Come Get It! was a triumphant debut, truly the sum of all that had gone before, at the same time as unleashing the rudiments of what would become not only his trademark sound, but also his mantra, his manifesto -- his self proclaimed
punk-
funk. Packed with intricate songs that are full of effusive energy,
Come Get It! is marvelously hybridized
funk, so tightly structured that, although they have the outward feel of
funk's freewheeling jam, they never once cross the line into an uncontrolled frenzy. This is best demonstrated across the monumental, eight-plus-minute
"You and I." With enough
funk bubbling under the surface to supplant the outward
disco sonics of the groove, but brought back to earth via
James' vocal interpolations,
"You and I" became
James' first
R&B chart hit, effortlessly slamming into the top spot.
"Mary Jane," meanwhile, was
James' homage to marijuana -- honoring the love affair through slang, it dipped into the Top Five in fall 1978. More importantly, though, it also offered up a remarkable preview of his subsequent vocal development. With nods to
Earth, Wind & Fire on
"Sexy Lady," Motown sonics on
"Dream Maker," the passionate
"Hollywood," and the classic club leanings of
"Be My Lady," it's obvious that
James was still very much in the throes of transition, still anticipating his future onslaught of hits and superstardom. Many of the songs here have a tendency toward the
disco ethics that were inescapable in 1978, and have been faulted as such; nevertheless, what
James achieved on this LP was remarkably fresh, and would prove vitally important to
funk as it grew older during the next decade.
~Amy Hanson, All Music Guide
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