Rick James

Rick James songs are a blast to play. Audiences love them. Give it to me Baby is a standard groove just make sure you play the signature 16th note tom fill in the chorus. I wrote it out for you in the drum chart.
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Born in Orchard Park, New York—a suburb of Buffalo, New York—Rick James was the third of eight children. His father was an autoworker who abandoned the family, his mother was a former dancer. His uncle was Melvin Franklin, bass vocalist of The Temptations. He has a Grandson, Mark D, who currently works for a Marketing Software company in London.

In 1964, Rick James left the U.S. Naval Reserve after having begun to miss weekend training because it interfered with his music career and his raging heroin and cocaine addictions.[1] Fleeing north to Toronto, Ontario in the summer of 1964, Rick James, now using the stage name Big Jimmy, continued his musical career. His first band, formed with future Steppenwolf member Nick St. Nicholas was initially called the Sailor Boys but soon changed their name to the Mynah Birds. Bassist Bruce Palmer took over for St. Nicholas in early 1965, and the group soon released their first single, "Mynah Bird Hop" / "Mynah Bird Song" for Columbia Records of Canada.

James and Palmer soon formed a new Mynah Birds lineup with guitarists Tom Morgan and John Taylor, and drummer Rick Mason. In early 1966, the Mynah Birds auditioned for the Motown label in Detroit. Morgan was unhappy with the label's attitude towards the musicians and left, with Neil Young taking his place. With Young on board, the Mynah Birds returned to Motown to record an album, but their manager pocketed the advance money the label had given the band. The band fired their manager, who in turn told the label that James was AWOL. Motown told him to give himself up to the FBI, and the Mynah Birds' album was shelved.

James spent a year in the Brooklyn Brig, after which he briefly returned to Toronto. During the summer of 1967, Rick James formed a new version of The Mynah Birds (sometimes spelled "Myna Byrds") with Neil Merryweather. The band returned to Motown and Detroit and recorded a new version of James and Neil Young's It's My Time, but the band broke up soon afterwards. During early 1968, James returned to Motown and became a songwriter and producer, writing under an assumed name and working with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers and The Spinners.

In late 1968, James and Reeves moved to Los Angeles, California and formed a band called Salt and Pepper with drummer Steve Rumph from T.I.M.E. The group soon fell apart and later that year, James formed a new version with Canadians Ed Roth (keyboards), Dave Burt (guitar), and Coffi Hall (drums). Former Buffalo Springfield roadie Chris Sarns played bass for a while, before Ron Johnson from Kaleidoscope stepped in the following year. The group recorded a demo for Atlantic Records, and played at The Fillmore West with Jethro Tull.

In 1971, James and Roth both appeared on Buffalo Springfield bassist Bruce Palmer's solo album, "The Cycle is Complete". Then they returned to Toronto, where they recorded two singles in Toronto - Big Showdown and Don't You Worry - as part of Heaven and Earth, a band that also featured guitarist Stan Endersby, bass player Denny Gerrard, and drummer Pat Little. Heaven and Earth, minus Little, then merged with another local group, Milestone, to form Great White Cane with horn players Bob Doughty and Ian Kojima, drummer Norman Wellbanks, guitarist Nick Balkou, and keyboard player John Cleveland Hughes. The group recorded an album for Lion Records in Los Angeles in March 1972, but by that summer, they had disbanded.

In 1973 A&M Records released the first Rick James single, My Mama, which is likely to have been recorded in LA. Back in Toronto, James formed the first version of the Stone City Band with Peter Hodgson (bass), Danny Marks (guitar), and Malcolm Tomlinson (drums/vocals), and recorded an album's worth of unrelease material. In 1976, James and South African guitarist Aidan Mason co-wrote, "Get Up and Dance," which was released as a single but failed to chart.

In 1977, Rick James returned to Motown as a songwriter/producer. He soon began recording for Motown's Gordy label, first with the Hot Lips and then with a new version of the Stone City Band. This version featured Billy Nunn on keyboards and background vocals, Bobby Nunn on keyboards and background vocals, Freddie Rappilo on guitar, Andy Rapillo on bass, Mike Caputy on drums, Randy and Mike Brecker on horns, Levi and Jackie Ruffin on background vocals, Richard Shaw on bass and background vocals, Lorenzo Shaw on drums, Flick, Berry, and Steve Williams on horns, Vanessa, Joey, Dee Dot, Roger Brown, Calvin Moore, and Bennie McCullough on background vocals. James's breakthrough single was "You and I", an eight-minute magnum opus from his 1978 debut album Come Get It. The album also featured his ode to marijuana, "Mary Jane", co-written by keyboardist Billy Nunn.

1979 saw the release of two albums: in January, Bustin' Out of L Seven with Alyn Symns on guitar, Oscar Alston on bass, Lanise Hughes on drums, Nate Hughes on percussion, Danny LeMelle on saxophone, Levi Ruffin and Ramadon on synthesizer, and Erskin Williams on keyboards; that fall, Fire It Up, with Tom McDermott on guitar, was also released. The latter included hits such as the title track and "Spacey Love", a ballad dedicated to R&B legend Patti LaBelle. After 1980s lackluster Garden of Love album, Rick James was accused by many as having "sold out", and he returned to his old Buffalo stomping grounds. In 1981 he recorded a concept album entitled Street Songs, which included James's signature song "Super Freak". The song featured guest vocals by The Temptations, and was sampled for MC Hammer's 1990 Grammy Award-winning song "U Can't Touch This", as well as Jay-Z's "Kingdom Come", released in 2006. Other hits from Street Songs included "Give It to Me Baby", "Fire and Desire" with protégé Teena Marie, and "Ghetto Life".

The stream of hits continued into the mid-1980s with "Teardrops", "Cold Blooded", "17", "You Turn Me On", "Can't Stop", and "Glow". His last R&B hit was "Loosey's Rap" in 1989, featuring a rap by Roxanne Shante. During this period, he also helped launch the Mary Jane Girls and produced Eddie Murphy's one hit, "Party All the Time".

While Rick James is best known for his up tempo songs in pop circles, the R&B world remembers him as one of the premier soul balladeers in the late seventies and early eighties. He recorded an early eighties hit with Motown legend Smokey Robinson entitled "Ebony Eyes" that captures his voice almost as well as "Fire And Desire".

During this time, Rick James guest-starred on an episode of The A-Team entitled "The Heart of Rock N' Roll", in which he played himself and performed at a prison concert singing "Super Freak". Isaac Hayes also guest starred in this episode.

The above article is from Wikipedia