silkman said:

SoulAlive said:

What I wonder is....why didn't he simply take the Mary Jane Girls with him to Warner Bros.? That group was his creation and when Warners gave him a new record deal in 1987,he should have insisted that The Mary Jane Girls be a part of the deal,too.Or maybe Motown had a way to prevent that from happening? In any case,it's sad that The Mary Jane Girls weren't able to continue their recording career.They were "hot" at that time and surely could have had many more hit singles.

Didn't Rick say, in the first edition of his book, the reason it never came out was because him and JoJo had a falling out ? She wanted to get paid to appear in the "Walk Like A Man" video, and he wasn't having it.

Really? I always assumed that the album was shelved because of Rick's feud with Motown.He was having problems with them,lawsuits were filed and the album got caught in the middle of it.

silkman said:

Finally listening to the album. Lots of synths and good basslines here & there. Not bad....better than Rick's Flag album for sure!

I really love it when "lost",unreleased albums are taken out of the vault and finally released.I know that Motown has a long history of not releasing completed albums and keeping them in the vaults for years.I say,open those vaults and release everything! I wanna hear it all

phunkdaddy said:

Now Wonderful is a different conversation. That album is when he really fell off.

I agree,Wonderful was a weak album.I also don't like the next album that Rick recorded: 1989's Kickin,which Warners refused to release.

Were'nt these girls Rick James answer toVanity 6 and they had a song called "In my house" which was a hit until someone realised it was about vaginas. Seems like Rick was following Prince too, as Prince had written Sugar walls for Sheena E a few months earlier, a song whose Top10 journey ended when they realised it was about PUSSY!

Adorecream said:

Were'nt these girls Rick James answer to Vanity 6 and they had a song called "In my house" which was a hit until someone realised it was about vaginas. Seems like Rick was following Prince too, as Prince had written Sugar walls for Sheena E a few months earlier, a song whose Top10 journey ended when they realised it was about PUSSY!

double entrende songs are alot of fun,lol

Adorecream said:

phunkdaddy said:

kitbradley said:

phunkdaddy said:

Don't know or care who was first but Rick of all people being at Motown knew the history of girl groups at Motown and already put Teena Marie on and more than likely already had the concept in his head despite Vanity 6. Rick was also asked to work with the boss Diana Ross at Motown. One could only wonder how brilliant such a collaboration would have been.

Until i read rick's book, i always heard a different story. I heard rick approached berry about working with diana and berry told him absolutely not!

interestingly,the songs that Rick wrote for Diana appeared on Teena Marie's debut album Wild And Peaceful....or at least,according to one version of this story can you imagine Rick and Diana duetting on "I'm Just A Sucker For Your Love"?!

SoulAlive said:

kitbradley said:

phunkdaddy said: Until i read rick's book, i always heard a different story. I heard rick approached berry about working with diana and berry told him absolutely not!

interestingly,the songs that Rick wrote for Diana appeared on Teena Marie's debut album Wild And Peaceful....or at least,according to one version of this story can you imagine Rick and Diana duetting on "I'm Just A Sucker For Your Love"?!

Exactly. Diana was Berry's Pop Princesess. He didn't want Rick trying to turn her into a Funk singer. That's the last thing he wanted.