"Great White Cane shows a lot of talent....and yes vision and direction..... The other thing too.... Rick James first official A-side / B-side release was You and I and Mary Jane....now...I mean you'd have to do a lot of searching to find an artist who came out the box that strong with their first release...."

I had no idea that was the first single. Good lawd.

haha... wow. It was odd too cause Rick was on Dinah Shore, he was Letterman, SNL, the Tonight Show - he did some really huge things in the name of funk - yet stated he wasn't a funk artist (cause as he put it his albums showed you flashes of rock, funk, R&b, soul, disco, and even folk). My only issue with Rick was that he really took the images of funk (Bootsy in particular), it's sound, timing, and magnified it and made it palatable if not radio friendly. My uncles hate Rick - they consider themselves funketeers in the truest sense and have all stated Rick was the beginning of the end with Funk - he sold it out to the white masses. I have always said that Pfunk took cue from Rick with One Nation and Flashlight cause he was in the truest since a funkrock/punkfunk star. I also understand that using Punk Funk was more of a marketing ploy. When he defines it to Dinah Shore it made zero sense. Lol. But it didn't matter. You are dead on the money.

I think Rick was as a mulitinstrumentalist - marginal at best. His truest strength wasn't instrumentation - it was being a fantastic song writer (single friendly songs in particular) and... a band leader. He had a great way of pulling out the best in Stone City. Prince didn't find his direction until living in New York with his half sister and hanging out at the height of the Glam Rock, new wave funk movement.

I remember a story of the New York Dolls saying they were almost positive that Prince would come see them night after night cause of his height and his fro at the time. lol.

Wanna know something wierd? Joni Mitchell told that same story. About a kid with an Afro always sitting in the front row of all her shows.