Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James

Glad I watched this up until the end.

The first half is the uphill = isn't he wonderful part.

The big accusations come about three-quarters in.

The Stone City Band playing 'live' with a Rick James look-a-likey was were it all came falling down.

IF they could have edited that out...

Up until then it was a somewhat enjoyable story.

Told me nothing new.

A lot of CV flashing towards the end too.

It does talk about his music a lot.

Which is a nice change.

Teena Marie got her diary back after his death.

He 'wrote' Deja Vu.

It says so on her record She'd forgot that she wrote it.

"That was just Rick."

Rick James came from the ghetto in a Rust Belt whose best years were gone by the time he was born. He used his appreciation for soul, blues, disco and rock to create his own style of funk. He was good, but he had a taste for drugs and was willing to pay any price to stay high. Drugs ruined his life, the lives of the women who got close to him, and hurt his kids.

This documentary does, as many of the reviewers have said, show the best of him while ignoring his many instances of violence against women. However, James was a lot more than a violent man, and the women whom he attacked were there for sex and drugs. He didn't lure them to his house. Drugs, drugs and more drugs caused those women to be hurt and they killed Rick James. He was just lucky enough to make it past the 27 Club,

Also, he was absolutely right about MTV destroying the exposure of his music to white Americans. Before the corporatization of music in the 1980s, the same radio station would play everything from jazz to blues to Motown to country. It was easier to hear black artists on popular stations. MTV virtually destroyed his ability to grow in popularity by refusing to play his music. (So too did it destroy many other funk and jazz artists),

However, at the end of the day, the person who destroyed Rick James was Rick James. And, along the way, he took a lot of other people down the road of pain paved by cocaine.

No Doco Is Perfect, Especially for an Icon. It started a bit slow but then warmed up real nice. I, of course, knew Rick James's famous music, but was really not aware of his "story."

I gave it a ten because it was interesting all the way through. It brought in his story, which was not a straightforward rise to fame. It was pretty crazy that he played with Neil Young in a band in Toronto. How many people knew that? He grew up in Buffalo, of all places.

There's a variety of viewpoints, many from his band members and former girlfriends/spouses, etc. He put Teena Maria on the map, the Mary Jane Girls, in my house. Loved their video back when.

It was just a really good exploration of the man and his music. Well worth viewing. It's a sad tale at the end, evocative of the rock stars demise.

This was a well put together documentary of a talented yet flawed human being, and the recorded audio from the Punk-Funkster himself was truly an ear-opener. I'm glad they were very honest with Rick's unfortunate sexually deviant actions due to heavy drug use, and possible childhood trauma--and he PAID FOR HIS CRIMES, unlike countless celebrated so-called rock icons of yesteryear whose also deviant actions have been white-washed and excused. As a longtime funk music fan, I did however, wish they had touched on his "Fire It Up/"Garden Of Love" period, which was part of the blueprint that birthed the iconic "Street Songs". Furthermore, I'm glad this is available for those who may only know him from "Superfreak", and a certain catch-phrase that in my opinion, turned him into somewhat of a caricature. I already see some "squares"belittling his musical contributions, and incorrectly posting here about his crimes; it's obvious they didn't watch this. Clearly, seeing their previous posts and critiques speak volumes, and I'll leave it that.

Rick James assaulted, kidnapped, raped and tortured a number of women we know of. And as young as 16 or 17 years old when he was near 50 years old.

THAT is his legacy. He wasn't "troubled" he was a lifelong predator. We are not talking about someone who patted a woman's behind in an elevator or at a party without permission -- but giving date rape drugs to minors, beating women, raping them. In fact he was convicted of TORTURING at least two of his victims.