In some typefaces, L7 looks like a rectangle. That’s close enough to ‘square,’ as in fuddy-duddy, dull, conformist, fussy, and excessively conventional to prompt Rick James to leave and not look back. The song Bustin’ Out is a catchy tune, says me, and the phrase is repeated enough to work its way into my head without trying to move in. The rest of the album is okay.
I loved James’s music since the first time I heard Super Freak. It was on the punk rock show on the student radio station at Penn in 1981. The DJ played Super Freak twice because it was the best new music that week. I went out and bought all his albums.
There’s a mistake in the lyrics printed on the liner sleeve. James does a little tribute to Patti Labelle, including the most famous line in her big hit, Lady Marmalade. ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?’ is about all the French I know. Someone typed the line how it sounded: Vous le vous couchez avec moi?
converselyspeaking 