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Thread: Rate the Rufus catalog from A to D

  1. #26
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    I liked some of her 80s hits too: I Feel For You, Ain't Nobody, Once We Get Started (I think that was the title), Higher Love (okay, it was a Steve Winwood hit but her backup vocal made that song a hit, imo. Without her vocals on that song it's not a big hit). She was/is a badass.
    To be honest, I really don't like 80's funk (ain't that a surprise if it's 80's), and what I've heard of her in that period, it wasn't an axception...

    Even in her appearances on Wakeman solo albums , I didn't find her to be all that great, despite an excellent voice...

    like all good 70's funk bands , I find that they're at their best when they go instrumental (valid for Chic, K&tG, EW&F, etc...), because their texts generally are sucky...
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  2. #27
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    Chaka sang with Wakey?

  3. #28
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    Chaka sang with Wakey?
    in his 1984 album, if memory serves
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  4. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    Chaka sang with Wakey?
    There's a url link in post #4, but I see there's a way to do this type of link, so here goes:



    (P.S. lyrics are by Tim Rice (of Rice/Webber fame) but cover your ears if you don't like Wakeman's early 80's "disco-style"!)

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    To be honest, I really don't like 80's funk (ain't that a surprise if it's 80's), and what I've heard of her in that period, it wasn't an axception...
    The '80s was a very un-funky decade. :

    Chaka's albums up through I Feel For You in '85 are all decent, though the quality declined. She brought in a higher degree of sophistication that made up for the lack of funkiness. However, she was also suffering from a bad drug problem at that time and wasn't always making the best choices.

  6. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    Tell Me Something Good is a great friking song.
    Quote Originally Posted by rich View Post
    Agreed, great song
    Written by Stevie Wonder.

    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    It's the stank that they get that makes it.
    Yeah, I dig slow funk like that... and there's not a whole lot of it around. The first time I heard it, I wasn't sure where "one" was.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    I like Chaka Khan's singing.
    Quote Originally Posted by profusion View Post
    Chaka was a force of nature back in the Rufus era.
    She's still got it going on, although maybe not quite like back then. But she's great; love her singing! She has a very distinct style and I could always identify her; part of it is the way she plays with rhythms.

    Quote Originally Posted by J. D. Mack View Post
    Let's not forget that Chaka did an album of jazz standards with Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and Chick Corea called "Echos of an Era." That's kind of a proggy connection, I suppose.
    Although she was a little out of her element there, she still sounded pretty great on it.

    And she sure was a hottie back in the day!

  7. #32
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    Chaka Khan on an album with Rick Wakeman certainly seemed a strange combination, though I suppose it's no stranger than Nik Kershaw or Jack Hues recording with Tony Banks. Apparently "1984" was a rather uncharacteristic album for Wakeman.

    Incidentally, I suspect there are more songs and more albums named after the year 1984 than any other year. Rick Wakeman, Anthony Phillips and the Eurythmics all jumped on the bandwagon

  8. #33
    Saw Chaka do the Echoes of an Era album live at Yoshi's in Emeryville. She could actually handle the jazz material well. Did a great version of Aretha's Daydreamin' also.

    My favorite Rufus album is Street Player. Chaka is best at the ballads, enough to make me cry. The early Rufus had some classic songs- Chaka does Janis' Half Moon and does it better. Masterjam was a typical Quincy Jones production for the time- Love what he did with the Brothers Johnson, too.

    (Like Ruphus Light Shine more than the first two.)

  9. #34
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    I dig Rufus, and Chaka, but my favorite stuff with Chaka are the albums Naughty and Whatcha Gonna Do For Me? The rhythm sections on those albums kill it, in large part due to Anthony Jackson's bass playing....

    Chaka's band of a few years back, with Andrew Gauche as musical director and bassist, was also killin'. Seriously.

    Jeezus, some of y'all clap on the 1 and 3, though, don't ya?

  10. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by wideopenears View Post

    Jeezus, some of y'all clap on the 1 and 3, though, don't ya?
    Clapping on the 1 is funky, if you leave off the 3.


  11. #36
    Moderator Sean's Avatar
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    Rufus' greatest shits-

    Pissing In Phil's Wheaties- D-
    Stalking Phil at the Alamo- D
    Genesis died when Gabriel left- C-
    How Dare He Marry So Much!- C


    Not a fan of any of them!

  12. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    Clapping on the 1 is funky, if you leave off the 3.

    LOL, I knew someone was gonna quote Bootsy or George.

  13. #38
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    wow this is awesome, I think this Rufus A-D is getting more action than the other rate the catalog threads.

    I'll rate all of the stuff up until Chaka Khan broke off on her own a solid Aaaaaayy.

  14. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by profusion View Post
    The '80s was a very un-funky decade. :
    The decade of Grandmasterflash and Rick James??

    But yeah, definitely less funky than the 70's in my book...

    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    Chaka Khan on an album with Rick Wakeman certainly seemed a strange combination, though I suppose it's no stranger than Nik Kershaw or Jack Hues recording with Tony Banks. Apparently "1984" was a rather uncharacteristic album for Wakeman.
    No more tha,n Ritchie Havens and that Black diva (can't remember her name, but she's the daughter of a 50's giant)on Hackett's Please Don't Touch album

    Quote Originally Posted by Sean View Post
    Rufus' greatest shits-

    Pissing In Phil's Wheaties- D-
    Stalking Phil at the Alamo- D
    Genesis died when Gabriel left- C-
    How Dare He Marry So Much!- C


    Not a fan of any of them!
    for the first three
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  15. #40
    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    I think Chaka appears on Eric Clapton's "Journeyman" doing backup vocals. I had that album way back when. That was when Eric was "The Kenny G of Blues."

  16. #41
    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    (P.S. lyrics are by Tim Rice (of Rice/Webber fame) but cover your ears if you don't like Wakeman's early 80's "disco-style"!)
    Listening right now as I type. Yeah, it's pretty awful. Chaka sings pretty well but the music is NOT funk. The "funk elements" are there but it sounds more like English Art/Rock trying to sound funky. Well, if anything it is kind of creative. As I finish typing the song has ended. It kinda grew on me..... Really, by the time the song finished I didn't think it was so awful. I guess you could call it "art/funk."

  17. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof View Post
    Masterjam was a typical Quincy Jones production for the time- Love what he did with the Brothers Johnson, too.
    Masterjam is a great "deep listen". Yeah, there's a lot of disco, but the charts are AMAZING and I swear there are no two bars of music on it that are identical. Some great songs, too. So much love and effort went into an album that the average listener probably just used to shake their groove thang.

    Quote Originally Posted by wideopenears View Post
    I dig Rufus, and Chaka, but my favorite stuff with Chaka are the albums Naughty and Whatcha Gonna Do For Me? The rhythm sections on those albums kill it, in large part due to Anthony Jackson's bass playing....
    Naughty is probably her best solo album. Whatcha Gonna Do For Me has great playing and some good grooves, but I felt the quality of the songs started to drop off at that point.

  18. #43
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    ya, Naughty is my favorite to this day, though the Funk This (Was that the name? I have it around somewhere....) album was pretty good....got back to some rawness...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    No more tha,n Ritchie Havens and that Black diva (can't remember her name, but she's the daughter of a 50's giant)on Hackett's Please Don't Touch album
    I haven't heard the album but I imagine that could actually work. The "diva" in question was apparently Randy Crawford, who I always thought was a cut above most of the other female singers who were around at that time.

  20. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by wideopenears View Post
    I dig Rufus, and Chaka, but my favorite stuff with Chaka are the albums Naughty and Whatcha Gonna Do For Me?
    In the early '80s, I had a 5 night a week gig with a Top 40 (although we'd sneak some more obscure "hip" stuff in there) band with three horns and several singers and we used to play Chaka's version of "We Can Work it Out" from the Whatcha Gonna Do For Me album. I loved playing it about as much as I can love playing a tune that doesn't have a guitar solo!


  21. #46
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    I just have to say it is so refreshing to see the appreciation for Rufus, Chaka Khan and Funk on this board. Not that I doubted this would be the case, but more a comment on the often close-minded attitude of many Prog fans.
    Duncan's going to make a Horns Emoticon!!!

  22. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Eric View Post
    I just have to say it is so refreshing to see the appreciation for Rufus, Chaka Khan and Funk on this board. Not that I doubted this would be the case, but more a comment on the often close-minded attitude of many Prog fans.
    Rufus is definitely one of the more interesting Funk bands of the 70s, though not having the attraction of a scorching lead Guitar like the Isley Brothers, they were better than many others like Lakeside, Brass Construction and Brick just to name a few. Rufus, if memory serves, always had a progressive dose of Jazz thrown in... and ISTR even a piece with an odd time sig
    Another obscure Funk band that had a progressive amount of Jazz in their music was the band Pleasure. But we could easily have a long thread about the more progressive Funk artists of the 70s like Ice/aka Lafayette Afro Rock Band and The Nite-liters and on and on... the 70s were indeed a fertile ground for excellent music!
    Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?

  23. #48
    It's easy to underestimate groove music. It may seem simpler than it is. I used to make fun of my ex's records like Roy Ayers, Kool & the Gang and Chic until she opened my eyes (and ears). Now I hear this stuff on radio and immediately transported! I have a love for it. There's a commercial on TV that uses a Bobby Caldwell tune and every time I hear it I turn it up.

  24. #49
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Eric View Post
    I just have to say it is so refreshing to see the appreciation for Rufus, Chaka Khan and Funk on this board. Not that I doubted this would be the case, but more a comment on the often close-minded attitude of many Prog fans.
    some 10 years ago, I'm not sure funk and Rifus might not have garnered as much attention... if anything, a thread like this one would've been relatively negative

    Quote Originally Posted by Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof View Post
    It's easy to underestimate groove music. It may seem simpler than it is. I used to make fun of my ex's records like Roy Ayers, Kool & the Gang and Chic until she opened my eyes (and ears). Now I hear this stuff on radio and immediately transported! I have a love for it. There's a commercial on TV that uses a Bobby Caldwell tune and every time I hear it I turn it up.
    To honest, until the early 90's, I called all these bands "that disco crap" and threw them all in the same bag as Claudia Barry or Donna Summer.

    But then I got to hear Chic-ism ('92) and was amazed at how this could be killer funk, so I started exploring a bit the bands I used to snob
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  25. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    on Gnosis ... complete their discography
    wish granted... I just entered all the ones I own (which is all except the Live album)... now I gotta go and listen to them while I got em out!
    Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?

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