yet again, defend the indefensible: LIONEL RICHIE

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― 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

Or this verse from a Deathtöungue song:

LETS RUN OVER LIONEL RICHIE WITH A TANK
"Man, his song,
It really stank,
Let's run over Lionel Richie,
With a tank."

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 12:37 (twenty years ago) link

He wrote "Lady" for Kenny Rogers, didn't he?

― abeta, Wednesday, 9 July 2003 12:45 (twenty years ago) link

yes

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 12:46 (twenty years ago) link

WTF?! The video to "Hello"?! WTF?! "Sucked"?!

Exactly! It is the perfect video, the touchstone that will never be equalled in this cynical age.

I really don't understand how Lionel came to be listed as "indefensible" when he wrote so many great songs with the Commodores and his solo stuff was pretty good too.

Still, it did always piss me off that Q listed Can't Slow Down as one of the top ten greatest Motown albums.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 12:55 (twenty years ago) link

haha!

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 12:55 (twenty years ago) link

Then, typically, you're not really paying attention. I have posted favorable comments about a myriad of artists.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:04 (twenty years ago) link

that is true

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:08 (twenty years ago) link

The video for "Hello" actually does fall into the "this is so bad that I love it" pot for me. That bust is SO CLASSIC!!!!!!!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:19 (twenty years ago) link

How could anyone not love a sculpture like that? It baffles me.

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:21 (twenty years ago) link

I'm so late in this thread. But I saw Mr. Richie open for Tina Turner at the Garden some years ago. Aside from the fact that he wore forest green leather pants, he was great.

And Matos, I fucking LOVE the Pointer Sisters. I grew up on Break Out.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:21 (twenty years ago) link

you know Tina was eyeing them pants

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:21 (twenty years ago) link

Three words: "All Night Long". Nuff said.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:24 (twenty years ago) link

ahem, five words - "All Night Long (All Night)"

― James Blount (James Blount), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:27 (twenty years ago) link

How could anyone not love a sculpture like that? It baffles me.

Love the artist, hate the art. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:29 (twenty years ago) link

"I'm so in love with you, I"m going to make the ugliest, most unflattering bust of you that you could possibly imagine! *swoon*"

Also: "Hello? Hello?" "Hello?/Is it me you're looking for?" "Oh yeah, I have a singing rapist in my apartment; BRING IT, CHUMP."

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 13:31 (twenty years ago) link

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"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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