scriptgirl said:

absofuckinlutely!!! love his voice. very sexy. like a cross between teddy pendegrass and eddie levert

I like his voice but wouldn't call him a great singer...

exenn said:

Yeah thats what I think too

I don't think he had any aspirations to be a "great singer" as long as he could get the message across - which he did, pretty eloquently.
[Edited 8/13/09 13:19pm]

No one can deny the awesomeness of his voice on the chorus of Love Them and Leave Them. Oooh, shivers. And Teardrops is another good showcase of his vocal talent.

he sounds straight sexy here too.





THIS IS A FUNKY JAM BUT HIS VOCALS ARE STRONG HERE. THE SONG IS A BIT PRINCEISH IMO. MAKES ME LIKE IT ALL THE MORE.

Like exenn and Harle said, I don't think he cared if he had a great voice or not. He has a good voice for ballads and he said Marvin was one of his influences (alongside James and Sly).

I'd say he had a soulful voice! He was pretty good...

Great singer? No
Effective singer....very yes.

Graycap, thank you-effective is the right word

CalhounSq said:

exactly. rick james has a nice tone, power and good delivery. he was a good enough singer to get his message across.

exenn said:

good point.

carlcranshaw said:

He did display a nice falsetto on his debut album, on the song 'Dream Maker'. and I think he pulled it off pretty well.

and yes...I would say Rick was a great singer:

Fire and Desire
Teardrops
Hollywood
When Love Is Gone
Dream Maker
Island Lady

all of these songs display his vocal range.

But I will agree, that it can be easy to 'ignore' his vocal ability because his arrangements were so 'active', so your ear could be drawn away.
[Edited 8/13/09 18:08pm]

mrpunkfunk said:

PLUS he was a funkateer. So yeah his voice will get overlooked. You think he was more inclined to be part of the Bootsy Collins class than the Marvin Gaye/David Ruffin class.

Timmy84 said:

Hell, Rick would've partied with either class.

mrpunkfunk said:

Yeah I know, lol

Funk, ballads, chest-singing, falsetto, fast, slow, with Teena, alone, high, sober, in jail, 70s, 80s, 00s... It doesn't matter.

I love me some RICK!

chocolate1 said:

Even as a Dave Chappelle episode. "I'm Rick James...b***h" lol

Timmy84 said:

Like I said- I never really thought about the QUALITY of his voice- I just loved his music.
The only time I can remember going is when he and Teena performed right before he died.

chocolate1 said:

Well he was doped up on pills or at least looked like he was on painkillers.

yeah, I'm easily one of the biggest Rick James fans in the world ... but that BET Awards performance was pretty horrible , both he and Teena sounded bad. I was saddened that he had 'smoked' his voice to oblivion. His last few studio albums he sounded ok, and when I saw him live in '02, he sounded great, but that performance in '04 left me shaking my head.

mrpunkfunk said:

Well he did have that stroke. I think a lot of things were affecting him in the worst ways at the end. He sounded groggy that last year he was alive. It was as if he had aged 30 years or something. It was sad, even sadder when I found out he had died.

Timmy84 said:

It broke my heart.
I had been into him since I was in jr. high. Everybody else was a Prince or MJ fan in my school... I was into RICK!
I didn't get into Prince until college.

chocolate1 said:

Cool.

Timmy84 said:

I have all of the albums on vinyl, except for "Wonderful" on cassette and "Deeper Still" on CD.

Timmy84 said:

Yeah, I think that stroke is truly what kept him from a 'comeback', he wasn't able to truly promote 'Urban Rhapsody' (which was a fabulous album), and he did look and sound older. I think he still had a lot more left in him though, but I guess it wasn't 'meant' to be.

mrpunkfunk said:

I also think because he was using prescription pills that it was probably inevitable he'd accidentally overuse it. He died with pills in his system. People like to focus on the cocaine but he died from prescription pills.

chocolate1 said:

You're definitely devoted and loyal. As a MJ fan, I can imagine how saddened you was to hear how he died.

Timmy84 said:

Thats true, with someone who had a history of addiction, (especially at the level or Rick's, the guy who used to spend $8,000 a week on cocaine) prescription drugs are the next best thing. So I think that his old demons simply got the best of him.

mrpunkfunk said:

Right. While I don't believe the tabloid story that his girlfriend said of him getting high on cocaine with her, I do believe that he took one too many pills that led to a violent final heart attack.

Timmy84 said: