Rick James

Genres:	Funk • Pop / Rock • R&B / Soul
Descriptive "tags":	funk • soul • 80s • disco • pop
Decades Active:	1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Artist Compilations:	Rick James (with Smokey Robinson)
Links online:	BBC Music • Official Homepage • Wikipedia

Biography

James Ambrose Johnson, 1 February 1948, Buffalo, New York, USA, d. 6 August 2004, Los Angeles, California, USA. The nephew of Temptations vocalist Melvin Franklin, James pioneered a crossover style between R&B and rock in the mid-60s. Having fled to Canada after going AWOL from the US Naval Reserve, in 1965 he formed the Mynah Birds with two future members of the Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young and Bruce Palmer, plus Goldie McJohn, later with Steppenwolf. Motown Records signed the band as a riposte to the British wave of R&B artists then dominating the charts, before their career was aborted when James was arrested for draft evasion. Resuming his career in Britain in the early 70s, James formed the funk combo Main Line. Returning to the USA, he assembled a like-minded group of musicians to perform a dense, brash brand of funk, influenced by Sly Stone and George Clinton. Signed to Motown in 1977, initially as a songwriter, he rapidly evolved a more...

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