prior to Herbie and Rod Temperton doing LITE ME UP

Herbie and Ray Parker Jr should have done a straight up R&B album, under Herbie's name, but with the both of them writing the lion's share of the music.

Because everything the two of them touched:

"Tonight's The Night"
"Ready Or Not"
and especially "Stars In Your Eyes"

was fire. I think that Herbie's "singing" voice would have worked well on some of that Ray Parker Jr. early '80s production. It did with Rod Temperton (though, he pulled a Chaka Khan w/Quincy Jones on himself, putting himself way down in the mix). Problem w/that gimmick is that you have to be careful, if not simple with the lyrics. For as much flak as Ray gets, when he worked with others, he understood the limits.

Also, as it pertains to Herbie's "streetwise"-ness, when he had the Rockit Band, they would do "Stars In Your Eyes" and it would sound just like a Cameo (post-Alligator Woman) song. I wish they had re-recorded it that way.

>I'm not enough of a Jazz aficionado to get into where each
>one fits, so to me George vs Herbie comes down to two
>things.... R&B & Funk. Now I'm not saying both couldn't do
>both genres well but I feel one dominates the other in each of
>those categories. For the most part Herbie needed a helping
>hand when it came to R&B and George's funk was a little too
>mimicy at times (totally agree with the Bootsy biting) Back
>then Herbie seemed more authentic in a street sense... which
>was why rocket worked. George on the other hand was much more
>radio savvy and could move outside his own zone if it meant
>making a hit record. My hunch is Herbie is a much better
>musician but I think George is an all around better artist.

Yeah. George Duke to me, is the guy who could make the banal palatable. Which is a skill all in its own. Hearing him talk about Deniece Williams's "Let's Hear It For The Boy" in her Unsung profile, it was hilarious. He hated that song as it was presented to him, and yet, he put that "Duke" wavekit all over it. Working with Michael Sembello and the like I think brought him closer to that crossover love he got on the low. Cause hell if he didn't yap "Maniac" for one of his songs on the Clarke/Duke Project II...