Deep Cuts - Rick James' 'Hollywood'
DEF|Y|NE Media's series about overlooked yet exceptional tracks from renowned musicians. Rick James' "Hollywood" is a dramatic but organic departure from his notorious punk-funk anthems.
In 1978, Motown Records was in artistic purgatory.
Although Diana Ross’ solo career hit a new gear in the disco era, the fabled label was at the start of a slow period. Stevie Wonder’s creative zenith, Songs in the Key of Life, was two years behind him. Marvin Gaye’s life imitating art started taking its toll. The funky Commodores were drowning in a whirlpool of Lionel Richie’s ballads. Jermaine Jackson’s solo career stalled out of the gate following his brothers’ departure.
Enter Rick James. Actually, re-enter Rick James. When he released his solo debut album, Come Get It, that year, it marked James’ second stint at Motown after he and his group The Mynah Birds (featuring future folk/rock legend Neil Young) briefly signed a dozen years before.
(Photo credit: Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images)
Come Get It evoked thinly veiled themes of good sex, better weed, and great parties, giving Hitsville some much-needed success and street cred. With support from The Stone City Band, his longtime backing players, each track was a blueprint for all James’ hits to follow – “You & I” is a template to “High On Your Love;” “Sexy Lady” is a precursor to “Come Into My Life;” “Dream Maker” paved the way for “Teardrops;” “Be My Lady” is the prequel of “Big Time;” “Mary Jane” sowed the seeds for “All Night Long.”
The album had one song that stands alone in all of James’ catalog: “Hollywood.”
With a fade-in of somber Rhodes chords and a piercing lead guitar, “Hollywood,” the B-side of lead single “You and I,” is a brief taste of poignancy in a buffet of debauchery. It’s a tale of a young man fleeing the dismal confinements of his destitute existence to fulfill his dream; leaving with an empty suitcase, one pocket full of his mother’s guidance and the other with the gift of song.
As James pleads with his mother, “Your one and only son has got to get away/before this ghetto life becomes the death of me,” it’s clear this wasn’t Al Jolson’s “California, Here I Come,” a pasty romp of fancy-free dream chasing. For James, “Hollywood” was an escape from bleak, deadly inner-city alternatives.
Sans the Stone City Band’s signature blasting horns and aggressive guitar shredding, James and company keep it simple on “Hollywood,” placidly sprinkling colors as cold as the bitter winters of their native Buffalo, New York. Rick’s vocal throughout is quite epic, sustaining lengthy, soulful high notes that leave listeners emotionally drained.
By the end, James showed off some of his underappreciated arrangement prowess. Stone City kicked into a reggae vamp as his groveling cries of “Won’t Be Long! Won’t Be Long,” get him ever closer to Tinsel town.
Although always an honest artist, the Punk Funk pioneer would never again craft a song with such anguish and torment. “Hollywood” remains a miraculous anomaly in the songbook of a Super Freak. The Rick James who indulged in ménage-a-trios on Quaaludes with incense, wine, and candles won’t be found here. For the only time on wax, we hear James Ambrose Johnson, Jr., exuding unadulterated desperation.
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