scriptgirl said:

Yeah script they showed an old video clip of Rick's promoting the album "Bustin Out Of L 7even" from 1979, that's all the Punk Funk the audience got that night

What happened to just a plain and simple "I don't know". Unless somebody can present an article, we won't know the actually reason.

Maybe he was on the outs with Berry

If I rememeber right he talked about it in his book 'Confessions Of A Super Freak", it's been awhile since I read it.

Rick was too busy scoping, roping, and doping!

Simple: Rick James was "not ready for prime time". Berry Gordy didn't even bother to invite him. It was more about the roster from the "classic days" but some of the "classic era" artists (like Gladys Knight, Junior Walker, the Marvelettes, etc.) were NOT invited and neither were any of the session musicians.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Best answer!!!





Music for adventurous listeners


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Tribal Records

Check out part 2 beginning at 2:32.

vainandy said:

vainandy said:

OH SHIT

vainandy said:

I didn't even listen to Pt.2
Figured it was just more Rick rantin' & ravin'.



Music for adventurous listeners



tA

Tribal Records
[Edited 2/8/10 23:07pm]

theAudience said:

Nope, ropin' and dopin'!

Timmy84 said:

the only problem with that theory is....the show featured DeBarge and High Inergy.These two acts weren't exactly "classic" Motown performers.Hell,High Inergy was a one-hot wonder act from the late 70s and DeBarge was a relatively new act.In 1983,Rick James was still "hot",with a slew of hit albums and songs.He was riding high,commercially.

I'd be willing to bet that he was invited,but chose not to attend,for some reason.

He was probably passed out on Eddie's couch anyway.

SoulAlive said:

Rick seems to be known for "woodshedding" back in the day; disapearing and just doing his own thing. If this woodshedding notion and his other recreational activities got mixed in together he could have conceiveably disapeared for quite some time. And I think that the feeling of some that Berry would not be down with someone as wild as Rick being the Face of Motown on its 25 Anniversary could have some validity. "Stevie, you gotta see this hat!" What was gonna be next?

allsmutaside said:

That's probably true

Timmy84 said:

Yeah I recall watching a documentary and saw that the Funk Brothers were shunned. And actually James Jamerson was there sitting up high in the stands. I think he died not too long after that, nearly penniless.

Rick was a somewhat strange artist for Motown, more rock/hard funk than the slick RnB, so it makes some sense that he wasn't there in terms of the usual Motown sound. DeBarge were seen as a Jackson-like Motown RnB group for the 80s, so they fit in seamlessly. Motown did have a few rock acts over the years, but that's not what you normally associated w/ the label.

If Rick were gonna be on, they'd have probably worked him in w/ the Tempts (I'm guessing), but they performed w/ the Tops who def fit the nostalgic Motown mold this show was going for.

On 2nd thought, Adam Ant was there
[Edited 2/9/10 11:36am]

His crack pipe had other plans.

Let’s get back to an important point-by the time this aired-was Rick still on about MTV not showing black artists? Because MJ and Prince were mainstays at this point on MTV. My theory is that the whole rant that Rick had against MTV, while legit stemmed more from the fact that Rick knew that while MTV would eventually play MJ and Prince, they would never play him

missfee said:

Yeah he died that August.

Did Berry at least pay funeral expenses? How did he end up broke?

scriptgirl said:

As far as I know, no.

scriptgirl said:

The thing is when MTV began, they played Eddy Grant's video and maybe Tina Turner sometimes, but black R&B and funk artists were nowhere on the channel, which Rick complained about

this is from the February 19, 1983 issue of Billboard

[Edited 2/9/10 18:17pm]

Notice the date: February 19, 1983...

scriptgirl said:

I think ur right!

Bboy-where did you pull that article from?

scriptgirl said:

Google books. I was looking for articles on MJ and found that one

scriptgirl said:

Rick later pointed out,with some irony,that MTV had no problem playing songs that he wrote and produced for other artists Eddie Murphy's "Party All The Time" (which featured Rick in the video) was all over MTV in 1985,as was The Mary Jane Girls' "In My House" video.

SoulAlive said:

MTV execs probably flipped ouot when he caught him in Party All The Time

WHAT! how did he slip in this muthafucka?!