RJOrion said:

TonyVanDam said:

I love you Brother Cinny. I've been telling for more than a decade that Huey & Ray rip-off M.

hell yeah, i never understood how huey lewis sued Ray Parker Jr, when Lewis stole the damn song himself...i want a new drug was Pop Muzik 2.0...

It sure as hell was. I had forgotten all about that... Reminds me that I thought Pop Muzik was a Bowie tune when I first heard it.

purplethunder3121 said:

HardcoreJollies said:

Not sure I would say it is tragic as I believe it is largely of his own making. I was a huge fan when he was creating tracks like You Got the Love for Rufus, playing on some of the coolest r&b, funk and jazz of the 1970s and then the mostly stellar first two Raydio albums. But once Jack and Jill became a big crossover hit he could not resist following that money and completely sold out the r&b, funk and jazz for watered-down pop-r&b lite bullshit (for the most part) and never returned to the funk. I group him with folks like Lionel Richie and George Benson as being among the greatest real music sellouts.

You can say that about bands like Kool & the Gang, too--doesn't take away from their good years for me, though.

Hah, I had originally included Kool & the Gang and then decided to limit it to individuals. But you are right, at least all of them gave us greatness for a time (but that is why I miss it so much!). It's like a Lebron James deciding he is only going to focus on steals and rebounds rather than the exciting things we really enjoy about him.

yeah, i was ia BIG kool & the gang fan, from "Rhyme Time People" and "Fruitman" and "Music Is The Message" and "Summer Madness" and "Hollywood Swinging"...but when they hired Donnie Simpson's brother, "J.T." to be lead singer, and put out pop joints like "Get Down On It" and "Celebrate", they lost me...

RJOrion said:

yeah, i was ia BIG kool & the gang fan, from "Rhyme Time People" and "Fruitman" and "Music Is The Message" and "Summer Madness" and "Hollywood Swinging"...but when they hired Donnie Simpson's brother, "J.T." to be lead singer, and put out pop joints like "Get Down On It" and "Celebrate", they lost me...

I get where you're coming from but Kool & The Gang was only gonna get so far with their

brand of jazz as more funk bands like Cameo, Barkays, Slave, ConFunkshun, etc. had

come along with an identifiable lead voice for their bands. I dug Kool's jazz period too but

they had to make that change. It was good for the most part but yes there was a few pop

tunes that kind of turned traditional Kool fans off like Celebration and Cherish. I don't think

they planned the massive success they had with JT it just happened. I loved Ladies Night

with the dope bassline, the slick Too Hot, Take My Heart, Get down On It, Steppin Out,

and Hi De Hi Hi De Ho.

Cinny said:

IamBryan said:

is that song a rip off of "i want a new drug" by huey lewis??

I was looking at this article earlier from MTV News 3/23/2001

RAY PARKER JR. SUING HUEY LEWIS OVER 'GHOSTBUSTERS' COMMENT

LAWSUIT, FILED THURSDAY, CLAIMS SINGER'S 'BEHIND THE MUSIC' COMMENTS BROKE EARLIER SUIT'S CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT.

Ray Parker Jr. is suing Huey Lewis over comments he made in his "Behind the Music" special, accusing the pop singer of breaking a confidentiality agreement concerning Parker's 1984 hit "Ghostbusters."

The suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, states that Lewis breached the agreement by publicly discussing the lawsuit he filed against Parker 17 years ago, claiming "Ghostbusters" infringed on the copyright of Huey Lewis and the News' hit "I Want a New Drug."

The settlement agreement Lewis and Parker reached for that lawsuit in 1995 banned them from revealing any information that was not included in a press release they jointly issued at the time. The press release stated that the matter had been "amicably resolved."

Parker's lawsuit quotes Lewis (born Hugh Cregg) saying on "Behind the Music": "The offensive part was not so much that Ray Parker Jr. had ripped this song off, it was kind of symbolic of an industry that wants something — they wanted our wave, and they wanted to buy it. ... [I]t's not for sale. ... In the end, I suppose they were right. I suppose it was for sale, because, basically, they bought it."

That money was paid to resolve the lawsuit was protected by the confidentiality agreement, Parker claims.

The lawsuit states that the confidentiality agreement was "directly related to [Parker's] comfort, happiness and welfare," and that Lewis' comments were "inflammatory and disparaging" and "false" and caused Parker emotional distress.

Parker is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages as well as lawyer's fees and "further relief as the Court deems just and proper."

Huey Lewis' lawyer, Gerry Margolis, said he could not offer comment when reached Friday evening (March 23). He said he had just received a copy of the suit and had not had a chance to review it fully.

well there you have it! both songs are awful anyway!

phunkdaddy said:

RJOrion said:

yeah, i was ia BIG kool & the gang fan, from "Rhyme Time People" and "Fruitman" and "Music Is The Message" and "Summer Madness" and "Hollywood Swinging"...but when they hired Donnie Simpson's brother, "J.T." to be lead singer, and put out pop joints like "Get Down On It" and "Celebrate", they lost me...

I get where you're coming from but Kool & The Gang was only gonna get so far with their

brand of jazz as more funk bands like Cameo, Barkays, Slave, ConFunkshun, etc. had

come along with an identifiable lead voice for their bands. I dug Kool's jazz period too but

they had to make that change. It was good for the most part but yes there was a few pop

tunes that kind of turned traditional Kool fans off like Celebration and Cherish. I don't think

they planned the massive success they had with JT it just happened. I loved Ladies Night

with the dope bassline, the slick Too Hot, Take My Heart, Get down On It, Steppin Out,

and Hi De Hi Hi De Ho.

This is a good topic for another thread: "Did some 70s funk bands "sellout" in order to have massive success in the disco era and beyond"?

Let's not leave out the theme to "Pryor's Place", Richard Pryor's 1980's kid's show

KemiVA said:

Let's not leave out the theme to "Pryor's Place", Richard Pryor's 1980's kid's show

Never seen that show before, but I used to watch Kidd Video, which was around the same time. I watched the Mr. T cartoon too.

Cinny said:

If you ask me, "I Want A New Drug" sounds like THIS:

I hear some similarities but I hear more of them in this song:

KemiVA said:

Let's not leave out the theme to "Pryor's Place", Richard Pryor's 1980's kid's show

Damn never knew about this one. I generally bypassed a lot of cartoons and what not by

this time and usually only watched wrestling, Soul Train, or Bandstand.

MotownSubdivision said:

Cinny said:

If you ask me, "I Want A New Drug" sounds like THIS:

I hear some similarities but I hear more of them in this song:

I can hear it.

KemiVA said:

Let's not leave out the theme to "Pryor's Place", Richard Pryor's 1980's kid's show

Didn't know about this one either. Guess I wasn't watching kid's shows in 1984. Looks like there's some episodes on youtube. Familiar names and faces, Paul Mooney, for one.

[Edited 7/27/16 12:10pm]

Cinny said:

MotownSubdivision said:

I hear some similarities but I hear more of them in this song:

I can hear it.

which was originally inspired by this tune

HuMpThAnG said:

Cinny said:

I can hear it.

which was originally inspired by this tune

Really? I thought it was inspired by THIS song (specifically 9:00):

MotownSubdivision said:

HuMpThAnG said:

which was originally inspired by this tune

Really? I thought it was inspired by THIS song (specifically 9:00):

lyrically, probably, but that riff, even Mike admitted that they took it from Ted

even if they didn't, it's still obvious

I like some of his songs, but watching the videos, he was actually quite light weight compared to many other Black artists of the time. His music is play it safe rock and light pop rather than anything really funky like Prince or Parliament, smooth like MJ or dancy pop like Lionel Richie.

.

His best song is Jack and Jill, but the rest of it tires after a while. Just kind of like a Cleveland type version of Black rock music. I think songs like "A woman needs love, just like you do" sound too white to be truly funky and the hooks are very average. Sorry to say this.

Just a question for experts (I'm not that much on RPJr works).....

Is anyone aware of a CD release of the "Searchin' For The Spirit" remix of "Ghostbusters" (maybe in some kind of compilation)?!?

I know it was released on a 12" back in 1985, but I never came across a re-release on CD.

Thanks.

Adorecream said:

I like some of his songs, but watching the videos, he was actually quite light weight compared to many other Black artists of the time. His music is play it safe rock and light pop rather than anything really funky like Prince or Parliament, smooth like MJ or dancy pop like Lionel Richie.

.

His best song is Jack and Jill, but the rest of it tires after a while. Just kind of like a Cleveland type version of Black rock music. I think songs like "A woman needs love, just like you do" sound too white to be truly funky and the hooks are very average. Sorry to say this.

The first four albums with Raydio are fantastic.My favorite is the third album,Two Places At The Same Time.It contains pure funk jams like "For Those Who Like To Groove","Until The Morning Comes","It's Time To Party Now" and a superb R&B slow jam "Tonight's The Night".

When Ray went solo a few years later,he delivered some cool songs but admittedly,he went in more of a pop direction."The Other Woman" was a huge pop crossover hit,with a rock feel to it.When he started doing songs like "Ghostbusters" and "Girls Are More Fun",I sorta lost interest.But I really liked his 1987 comeback album After Dark which,thankfully,brought him back to soulful R&B sound.

I'd love to see him reunite with Raydio and play some dates.

HuMpThAnG said:

Cinny said:

I can hear it.

which was originally inspired by this tune

I just wanted to say...the first picture on that youtube slideshow is from the 45 room at my local wrecka stow!

SoulAlive said:

Adorecream said:

I like some of his songs, but watching the videos, he was actually quite light weight compared to many other Black artists of the time. His music is play it safe rock and light pop rather than anything really funky like Prince or Parliament, smooth like MJ or dancy pop like Lionel Richie.

.

His best song is Jack and Jill, but the rest of it tires after a while. Just kind of like a Cleveland type version of Black rock music. I think songs like "A woman needs love, just like you do" sound too white to be truly funky and the hooks are very average. Sorry to say this.

The first four albums with Raydio are fantastic.My favorite is the third album,Two Places At The Same Time.It contains pure funk jams like "For Those Who Like To Groove","Until The Morning Comes","It's Time To Party Now" and a superb R&B slow jam "Tonight's The Night".

When Ray went solo a few years later,he delivered some cool songs but admittedly,he went in more of a pop direction."The Other Woman" was a huge pop crossover hit,with a rock feel to it.When he started doing songs like "Ghostbusters" and "Girls Are More Fun",I sorta lost interest.But I really liked his 1987 comeback album After Dark which,thankfully,brought him back to soulful R&B sound.

I'd love to see him reunite with Raydio and play some dates.

Yeah, the stuff under the Raydio name isn't as poppy. I got into it after SoulAlive's posts. He won't steer you wrong!

TonyVanDam said:

Cinny said:

If you ask me, "I Want A New Drug" sounds like THIS:

I love you Brother Cinny. I've been telling for more than a decade that Huey & Ray rip-off M.

Much love! I probably saw you say that first!

Here's a recent interview. He talks about the Huey Lewis lawsuit and Stevie Wonder

MickyDolenz said:

Here's a recent interview. He talks about the Huey Lewis lawsuit and Stevie Wonder

damn even his talking voice is smooth

AHHH he still gets paid off "Ghostbusters". See, I knew he looked too happy to be running around singing that song to this day if Huey snatched all his paper.

Cinny said:

AHHH he still gets paid off "Ghostbusters". See, I knew he looked too happy to be running around singing that song to this day if Huey snatched all his paper.

I didn't know about Huey being asked to do a song for the movie 1st. If he had done that I wonder if would he have been asked to be the teacher in Back To The Future.