>EDIT: Or do you mean that thick, shattering synth that
>actually plays the "bassline" (it's more stabs than a melody)
>on the Rene & Angela?

and yeah, the marriage of the piano w/the synth bassline is quintessential '80s... that's one of my favorite sounds on EARTH.

re: the "Richie" bass figure... it was the thing that made a lot of Commodores songs what they were (and yes, I do mean that part on "You Are"): "Zoom" is a good example. It was all over that first album, the second not so much, but I can swear you hear it even in more recent work. Chicago had 2 songs on CHICAGO 16 that brought Richie to mind because of the synthbass work: "Sonny Think Twice", and "What Can I Say".