^^you've got yourself some rare goodies.Those records are so hard to find!

SoulAlive said:

I got lucky, nobody was paying attention to RJ's page on ebay and I got these two records without havin' to bid against anybody.I also got some other rare stuff off that seller, she stopped sellin' on there two years ago BTW.

Abdul said:

Abdul said:

Damn. Damn. Damn!!!!!

I never even pay attention to Ebay. I guess now I'll start.

Cinnie said:

I ordered my copies on the 26th and they arrived on the 2nd. That's fast.

SoulAlive said:

it should

funkpill said:

I wanted 'Garden of Love' to be a double disc.

sextonseven said:

Maybe overseas postage is the problem. They get a lot of flak on soulfuldetroit.com for sure. Perhaps the service has improved since the one and only time i ordered direct from them.

I odered the CDs last Friday.They emailed me yesterday...the CDs have been shipped I should have 'em by the end of the week.

Got my CDs yesterday! I'm listening to 'Fire It Up' right now.

LoveIsTheMessage said:

I just listened to the remaster and I have to say,this album isn't one of Rick's best It's too slow and laid back,and even the two uptempo tracks ("Big Time" and "Mary Go Round") don't rock as hard as they should.I guess,after three funk-filled albums in a row,he wanted to chill out and make a 'mellow' album.Nothing wrong with that,but 'Garden Of Love' is mediocre,at best.

SoulAlive said:

agree

mrpunkfunk said:

Yeah, I can almost always find vinyl I'm looking for on Ebay, funny thing is it was me looking for Rick James' albums that had me even go there. I got sick of going in the record stores and seeing the same two RJ albums, Come Get It & Street Songs, and the countless Greatest Hits albums. It was 2001 when I found Ebay and it took me maybe four months to collect all his albums and his rare pre-motown stuff.RJ's page on there didn't have alot of traffic until the Chappelle show skit in 2004.

funkpill said:

LoveIsTheMessage said:

Rick was feuding with Motown in 1980,so he gave them a less-than-brilliant album with only 6 songs I don't think he really put his heart and soul into the 'Garden Of Love' album.Thankfully,he and Motown worked things out,and Rick delivered a masterpiece ('Street Songs').

SoulAlive said:

I know, GOL could've been better, but even still, its a pretty solid album. I just hoped he had another 3-4 songs laying around in the vault. Mary-Go-Round is my favorite song from this album.

How are the 12 Inches of "Big Time" and "Love Gun"? I've never heard those.

vainandy said:

These 12" versions are great! The "Big Time" extended version is previously unreleased.

I was hoping you were going to say there wasn't enough difference from the album version worth enough to buy them. Dammitt, I'm too broke to buy them right now.

vainandy said:

I've had the Love Gun 12" since college. It's like ten minutes long!

I never knew it existed. I recently picked up the 12 Inch of "69 Times" last year and I had forgotten how great it was.

Garden of Love is actually one of my favorite Rick James albums, I agree that it isn't the in-yo-face-funk that Rck was known for, but I love the mellow feel of the album and "Big Time", "Mary Go Round" and "Gettin' It On In The Sunshine" are just ace tracks.
I'm waiting for the albums to get a general release before buying them because Hip-O don't ship to Europe and I refuse to pay soulmusicstore's inflated prices no matter how much I want something and believe me I've been pestering Universal for years asking for GoL to be released.

Next up should be a remastered Throwin' Down, Clod Blooded and Glow. The former two I have on 80's cds that don't sound too good and Glow has never been available on cd.

vainandy said:

The "Love Gun" 12" was promo only. I got it at an amazing DJ 12" store in Pittsburgh and paid $10 for it which was a lot at the time for a broke college student.

Even though Rick himself says in his book that he gave Motown a "throw away LP" with his Garden of Love album, it's still essential Rick James IMO. His ballads during that 78-85 period were all top notch, the man knew how to do soul with that funky edge well and Garden of love highlights that.

Dustygroove now lists both albums with an expected arrival date of 18 May, yippee!

whitesockedfunk said:

Yeah,bring 'em on! The first two albums ('Come N' Get It' and 'Bustin Out Of L7') need to be reissued too.

Anyone got these yet???

mrpunkfunk said:

I got 'em Hip-O-Select mailed the CDs out very quickly.