he was very funky with the commodores,writing many funky songs.
how he got lost from that sugerfoot impressionist.
if he didn't sell in the 80's would he be a cult artist?

thebanishedone said:

HE LOST THE FUNK WHEN HE LEFT THE COMMORDORES

Personally I think he lost it after the USA For Africa/We Are The World fiasco!!!

thebanishedone said:

I saw the video for "Dancing on the Ceiling" on VH1 classics yesterday...That is possibly the worst piece of trash ever recorded. The video is so bad it makes me angry!

I was a huge Commodores fan though. Their live album kicks ass...

I think his ex-wife beat the funk out of him.

Gold319 said:

If think about it EVERYONE at that Song/Music Video pretty much peaked there. sure they did other stuff but they all more or less where living on their past fro that point on.

Prince u were a smart dude NOT to do it Plus the song u gave that project was better!

also..

"Dancing on the Ceiling" was probably the BIGGEST SELL OUT move ever.

when you start thinking of Video Concepts before you write a song, there is something wrong.

he was abd is a love song writer, you think you would have ever heard of the Commodores if not for Lionel?

He had Funk?

MrTation said:

Exactly what I was thinking.

DMSR said:

MrTation said:

He had a hand in writing Brick House, To Hot Ta Trot, I Feel Sanctified, Zoom, Machine Gun. Not exactly Parliament funk but...

I think when Carmichael passed away is when he heard folk whispering for that pop market sound.

DMSR said:

I agree,that song and video is atrocious.One of the worst songs of the 80s.I love Lionel's first two solo albums,but when he released 'Dancing On The Ceiling',I knew that his career was in trouble.

SENSHY said:

Damn funky stuff.

But then he became a machine churning out endless ballads. Some of which are cute, no doubt, but - the guy's just ballads by numbers now.

oh yes he was very funky,he was saxophone and keyboard player and vocal for the commodores.
listen to the song "funky situation" listen to the way he sang there like ohio player or cameo singer,or listen to his funk rock of "look what you've done to me" .
there are much more hard funk songs from commodores ,i have mine colection of 3 cds that contain only hard funk songs by "the commodores"
i would recommend thses songs

look what you've done to me baby
hold on
funky situation
sexy lady
slippery when wet
flying high
cebu and many many more,people i know that most of you know commodores for their ballads butbelive me they had only 10 or 15 ballads,the rest of their stuff was mostly hard funk or funk rock .when everybody else was doing disco they were still playing hard funk.

I feel as though he lost his funk as soon as he left the commadores.He realized that he could sell alot more records writing ballads and thats the direction he chose to go. I personally felt like he should have had a mixture of both on his albums. He had the talent to do it.But then again he's a millionaire and I'm sitting he commenting on him so he must not have done that bad.