yet again, defend the indefensible: LIONEL RICHIE

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a friend of mine works in video production and we had the idea of making a new video for all night long (all night) (parentheses for (matos)!) using footage of the colonel ages ago - i still so want to do it!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:25 (twenty years ago) link

Didn't he collaborate with Rob Zombie recently for something?

All Night Of The Living Dead Long (All Night)

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:26 (twenty years ago) link

yer on a role tonight, mr. stelfox

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:27 (twenty years ago) link

he is!

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:28 (twenty years ago) link

those parentheses might be my favorite redundant-yet-so-so-right titular aspect this side of the James Brown catalogue!

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:28 (twenty years ago) link

http://webpages.charter.net/cmvenuti/images/lr.jpg

― Chris V. (Chris V), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:31 (twenty years ago) link

(i never really knew about them, but if you say they're important)

― (Dave Stelfox) (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:32 (twenty years ago) link

joking apart though i do love that record, cheesy as hell but fun and a great tune - glad you're here matos

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:34 (twenty years ago) link

I knew Chris V would be along eventually! Mr. Force MD's would HAVE to get in on this one!

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:36 (twenty years ago) link

The bassplayer in the "Dancing on the Ceiling" video had a Yamaha BX-1 bass, and so did I at the time. Further Affiant sayeth not.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:37 (twenty years ago) link

My high school band teacher luuuuvvved Lionel Richie. He used to lecture me and my friends about how we should stop listening to Prince because he sucked but Lionel Richie was a genius and he's the one people would still be listening to in 20 years, etc. He even wrote a band arrangement for "All Night Long" and made us play it during the halftime show at football games. I especially hated this, because as a lowly freshman in the percussion session, I was relegated to playing cymbals, and during "All Night Long" I had to hold a cymbal up for one of the snare drummers to play the song's fake-calypso pattern on. Holding a cymbal in the air for 3 1/2 minutes in sub-35-degree weather while someone bangs away on it is, in case you were wondering, totally completely DUD.

And I saw Lionel this morning -- they were playing VH-1 at the laundromat again, and that "I Love '80s" series was on, this one focusing (or "focussing," as they say in The New Yorker) on 1985. Lionel introduced a snippet highlighting the best "Makeout Songs" of the year (which fortunately did not include a Lionel Richie song). He sounded like a man anxious to get paid.

― JesseFox (JesseFox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:38 (twenty years ago) link

He even wrote a band arrangement for "All Night Long" and made us play it during the halftime show at football games.

i would kill for a recording of this... i have a yorkshire colliery band version of louie louie and it's one of my all time faves ever

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:41 (twenty years ago) link

that long ass a capella intro to "Love Will Conquer All" (??? maybe) is something wonderful

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:41 (twenty years ago) link

Dave - search out that comp of high school bands playing funk (and wings) hits of the seventies dj shadow put out a few years back

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:43 (twenty years ago) link

what? email me details - can't believe i've missed out on that

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:44 (twenty years ago) link

a toast to the boogie!

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:45 (twenty years ago) link

outraged - OUTRAGEd! - there's not a Cliff Nobles cover!

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 22:49 (twenty years ago) link

He used to lecture me and my friends about how we should stop listening to Prince because he sucked but Lionel Richie was a genius and he's the one people would still be listening to in 20 years, etc.

Sorta reminds me of what that shill Dave Marsh said about "Penny Lover" vs. the Smiths. Moron.

I had the first two albums and enjoyed them very much in them early eighties but I can only remember the singles now and have no inclination to revisit his music further. And sorry, Mr. Stelfox, but the "Hello" video just defines ultracheese.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:06 (twenty years ago) link

what about what Marsh said about the Replacements vs. the Time? (except people still listen to both now! or at least I do and hope everyone else does too though the Time's catalogue being out of print doesn't really help there now does it)

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:09 (twenty years ago) link

(it is weird how Vanity 6 & "Controversy" are both being exhumed like crazy in the hipster sweepstakes lately but no one seems to have any love for What Time Is It even though it's a better album than Controversy)

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:10 (twenty years ago) link

That's where mp3s shine through.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:10 (twenty years ago) link

vanity 6 (and esp. those new wave Prince numbers) kinda played toward the white audience more than the Time did anyway, so it's not too odd the white audience's kids are tuning into the same stuff

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:19 (twenty years ago) link

Lionel Richie is so very much not a candidate for the "defend the indefensible" category - such an excellent singer when he wants to be ("Easy," "You Are," "Endless Love"), a real gift for melody, and a wonderfully unique ear for pop-melody-as-expression-of-loneliness. "All Night Long (All Night)" is ass, sure, fine, and "Say You, Say Me" is a nightmare, but Good Lionel outweighs Bad Lionel. His "attempted" "comeback" (squarequotes because it got practically zero promotion: maybe he was attempting a comeback, but his label sure wasn't) eluded the radar almost completely, and I've always been curious about it: it was a year or two ago: anybody hear it?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:26 (twenty years ago) link

I remember the mid-nineties one, but the one from a couple of years back (the one the 'behind the music' I actually wanted to see roughly coincided with) I don't remember hearing/seeing anything with it.

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:30 (twenty years ago) link

What Time is It? better than Controversy?

Hmm... I guess I can buy that. Yeah, I suppose Controversy is relatively the worst of his early records, despite the presence of that glorious title track. "The Walk" comes pretty close to perfection though.

Who are these lame hipsters "discovering" Controversy?!

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:40 (twenty years ago) link

new york assholes

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:41 (twenty years ago) link

figures.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:42 (twenty years ago) link

i like "annie christian"!

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:46 (twenty years ago) link

Ugh. That and "Ronnie Talk to Russia" on the same record. Yikes.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:47 (twenty years ago) link

"Annie Christian" and "Ronnie Talk to Russia" are greatly weird and weirdly great. But they're really just bonus tracks -- any album that has "Controversy," "Sexuality" and "Do Me Baby" doesn't need anything else to justify itself. Oh, and "Let's Work" too. I mean, c'mon.

― JesseFox (JesseFox), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:50 (twenty years ago) link

i live my life in taxicabs

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 8 July 2003 23:54 (twenty years ago) link

i agree with Matos, except about "say you say me". i'm with you Tad about the video for "hello", oh its just vulgar. that dammed sculpture!

― di smith (lucylurex), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:03 (twenty years ago) link

I always had a soft spot for Lionel Richie back in his mid-80s heyday. Not so much for his music as for the fact that he resembled my dad. People often commented on the resemblance. Despite the fact that my dad is white, they really did look a lot alike. Maybe it was the moustache.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:10 (twenty years ago) link

Does anybody have any video or audio of him saying "Outrageous" from the show? I would kill for this.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:22 (twenty years ago) link

Frenchbloke to sampler!

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:33 (twenty years ago) link

Matos and J0hn D. OTM. A talented juggernaut he is. Like Michael his all-things-to-all-people hopes and dreams can sometimes get the better of his musical sense, but unlike Michael he also seems like a charming man--at least he comes off in his television appearances like a man with a bemused sense of humor about his own past successes and current (relative) anonymity.

I don't think I can find any semblance of pity, empathy, kindness or good will in my heart from Mr.Richie.

No offense Alex, but none of these are attributes exhibited particularly often in your ILM posts. In fact I'm hard put to name many phenomena outside of the Killing Joke that you have voiced approval of.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:34 (twenty years ago) link

'say you say me' was the big slow skate song at the roller rink in junior high, one could not escape it's seductive powers.

― keith (keithmcl), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:40 (twenty years ago) link

keith's post reminds me, that "say you say me" came dangerously close to being my high school's prom theme ... genesis's "follow you follow me" won.

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:43 (twenty years ago) link

your school's prom committee sure was big on "BLANK You, BLANK Me" songs, wasn't it?

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 00:59 (twenty years ago) link

v/vm's version of "all night long" rules

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 01:11 (twenty years ago) link

BJORN SAYS CHOOSE "KNOWING ME KNOWING YOU"! Tad's class wuz robbed!

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 04:17 (twenty years ago) link

actually, i think that our prom committee had a bunch of geirbots ... that's why we ended up with genesis (and not lionel richie or abba)

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 04:30 (twenty years ago) link

did they crash other schools' proms and scream "WHERE'S THE MELODY?" at the DJ?

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 04:43 (twenty years ago) link

that would be so punk rock, if only they were wearing viking helmets.

― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 04:51 (twenty years ago) link

Richie's comeback produced a top ten hit in Germany.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 11:06 (twenty years ago) link

What's up with comeback records titled "Renaissance" or "New Birth" or "A Brand New Day" or whatever? Is there any more desperate kind of title?

― dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 11:35 (twenty years ago) link

"Hello" was crap, and the video was ten times worse. I liked the Lionel much better in the Commodores.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 11:38 (twenty years ago) link

They should just make a video with the camera pointed at his chin the entire time.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 11:40 (twenty years ago) link

when growing up, whenever the family went on long trips, there was only three tapes in the car. My mom's copies of Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down", Kenny Loggins "Vox Humana" and my scratchy mixtape of early 80s hardcore punk (Black Flag and Dead Kennedies mostly).
Needless to say, my tape never got any play. But I did hear the other two enough times to become intimately familiar with them.
"Can't Slow Down" is a mixture of 60% cloying cheese and 40% astonishing pop genius. (more than half of the cheese is in the songs "Stuck on You" and "The Only One"; Replace those two tracks with random Al Green tracks, and you just might have something.)
Also, "Vox Humana", despite having the most garishly awful album cover in existence (yes...it's even worse than "In The Court of the Crimson King") has a moderately tolerable A-side and a semi-catchy title track that is strangely ahead of its time. Download it from your local Napsterclone and be amused by the goofy proto-house madness. It's "Footloose" as rewritten by deranged extraterrestrials.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 11:59 (twenty years ago) link

Without Lionel, we wouldn't have the lyric
One mistake and it all turns bitchy,
listening to records by Lionel Ritchie.
I'm not sure if he deserves it or even if they do.
And I kinda like that song.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 12:23 (twenty years ago) link

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Lionel is classic as fuck.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, 24 April 2018 18:29 (six years ago) link

nine months pass...

What the bloody hell happens three minutes into Say You, Say Me? I mean it wasn't a great song anyway but this hot garbage won an Oscar.

― Your dad's Carlos Boozer and you keep him alive (fionnland), Saturday, 16 February 2019 13:47 (five years ago) link

three months pass...

Lionel Richie IS classic as fuck.

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 30 May 2019 00:21 (four years ago) link

I'd forgotten about 'Don't Wanna Lose You'! Saw the video to that quite a lot in '96, and it made the Top 20. I can still sing it in my head now even though I haven't heard it for 23 years.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Thursday, 30 May 2019 01:55 (four years ago) link

two years pass...

https://i.imgur.com/pn8lXBh.png

― calstars, Thursday, 17 February 2022 01:40 (two years ago) link

Lionel Richie's stuff is wildly uneven to me, but I lean towards the Commodores hits. There's really not much by the post-Richie Commodores that I want to play, but I like "Night Shift" more than any of their previous hits except "Brick House."

― birdistheword, Thursday, 17 February 2022 15:59 (two years ago) link

(Even though those two do not have Richie on lead vocals, he's still THE guy in that group.)

― birdistheword, Thursday, 17 February 2022 16:01 (two years ago) link

"Night Shift" is a lovely neon puddle a-shimmer.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 February 2022 16:03 (two years ago) link

Even now I have to echo "Marvin... Marvin..." when I hear his name.

― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 17 February 2022 16:11 (two years ago) link

I still have no regrets about putting that song on the top of my ballot when we polled Motown a few years back.

― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, 17 February 2022 16:57 (two years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7j9iSbz0qc

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 17 February 2022 18:13 (two years ago) link

^^ love this scene and movie

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 February 2022 18:18 (two years ago) link

Pre-Cambrian ILM was a miserable place..

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 February 2022 18:20 (two years ago) link

The most charismatic and charming man I ever interviewed. Total classic, even the soppy stuff. Somebody needs to sing about endless love, and he's the master of it.

― mike t-diva, Thursday, 17 February 2022 19:09 (two years ago) link

“Hello” is a masterpiece

― calstars, Thursday, 17 February 2022 19:49 (two years ago) link

"Easy" is undeniable.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 17 February 2022 19:50 (two years ago) link

Was in a supermarket last weekend and saw his face on the cover of People or similar and he pretty much looks the same these days.

― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Friday, 18 February 2022 00:13 (two years ago) link

The pulse in “Running With The Night” alone means Lionel will be forever classic

― Master of Treacle, Friday, 18 February 2022 00:19 (two years ago) link

The end of the first verse of "Three Times a Lady" is my favourite Lionel Richie moment: "...I must say out loud...", goes to the discordant augmented (?) chord, and then hangs on it for an extra measure before the chorus. He knows he has you hooked, he can keep you listening through this strange chord.

― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 18 February 2022 00:48 (two years ago) link

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