(no subject)

I'm pretty bummed about Rick James's death. I was nine or ten when Street Songs came out and "Super Freak" hit big. I remember thinking, holy shit, look at this dude. Rick was just full-on out there, you know? You just looked at that guy and knew he was doing some wild shit. And "Super Freak," man--how many top-ten songs in 1981 featured lines like "I really like to taste her every time we meet"?!? I'm surprised Tipper Gore and her girls didn't go after him. "Rick 'Super Freak' James wants to taste our children--indeed, he instructs them to 'Give It to Me, Baby.' This lascivious behavior must not be tolerated on the airwaves." And then there was "Seventeen." Of course, there's no shortage of pop songs about underage girls, but with Rick you really felt like he meant lines like "She said she read a magazine that said I was a FREAK; you'll never know, now, little girl, until you take a peek!" Crazy stuff. That's why when that crack pipe/imprisonment stuff came along, I kind of said, yap, you had to see that coming.

"Super Freak," man. There's just something perfect about that song. I bought Street Songs for that tune and listened to it non-stop for months. I can remember lying in bed listening to Street Songs and reading Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. How's that for a combo? To this day, I may be the only person on earth who associates Roald Dahl with "Ghetto Life."

When I was fooling around trying to be in a band in my late teens, I learned "Super Freak" start to finish on guitar. I even worked out the sax solo at the end. In one band, Crackerbox Death Sandwich, we even worked up a metal version and practiced it. Come to think of it, that may have been the only song we worked up. Wait, I guess there were a couple of Misfits tunes and our original "A Crop of Musk," but anyway. Of course, we never did much with the band and never got to play it anywhere, but once I did get to jump onstage with a local band I was friends with and sing backup when they covered it. You know: "Down to her feet." There was actually a metal group called Mordred that came out with their own metal version of "Super Freak" on some album, but I thought it was pretty lame.

Then, of course, MC Hammer came along and ruined everything. All of a sudden that great riff became the hook to one of the most lamentable rap songs ever. Funk dat.

Anyway, I was glad to see Rick making a comeback in the public eye with all the attention he got from the Dave Chappelle thing--even if I did have my doubts about whether it was really him. It's sad to see him die right when he was getting that recognition, but it could have been worse, I guess. I just hope he was clean and happy when he died. Cocaine is a helluva drug, you know.

ganked from milkyscarabs, who adapted it from <user site="livej

Press each letter of the alphabet successively in your web browser's address bar and write down the most amusing URL it gives you for each letter.

a -- Was just fucking around to see what would turn up.
b -- Some nutty chick asked me how it worked. ;)
c -- Was reminded of this article that I laid out for my college paper when wickedqueen posted about covering a similar story.
d -- Um, I dunno.
e -- I don't remember visiting this site! I vaguely remember looking up B. Kliban, but I must have clicked the link and gone to do something else.
f -- The Internet is gay.
g -- I like sewer zombies. So???
h -- Booyakasha.
i -- Either enfuego or goatsupreme is to blame for this. Perverted Canadians.
j -- The Juice is loose.
k -- Couldn't help laughing.
l -- This is a guy goatsupreme told me about a long time ago. Not sure how I happened on his journal again. What a spaz.
m -- I can't help it--I just smile when I say the name Merle Haggard. The name alone puts him in the top ten of the greatest country singers ever.
n -- Hahahaha. I saw these dudes in Quizno's pitching some kind of deal to some other cats, and I happened to overhear them say their URL.
o -- Forgot where this came from. Didn't turn out to be as good as I hoped it would.
p -- Damn you, dangerpest
(I got nothin' for Q.)
r -- Nothing particularly amusing about this unless you consider the fact that this impending release date gives me special tingles in my yepyep.
s -- I dunno. I really dunno.
t -- I was looking this up after someone posted a picture of one of his signs. I think it had been altered to read "Tom Rapes RVs" or something.
u -- I didn't actually read this, but I went to high school with this guy. Someone read it and tell me if it's funny.
v -- I just happened to be thinking about Zagnuts, OK???
w -- Funny that I still have to look this up. And I still get it wrong, I'm sure.
(Got nothin' for X neither. I promise. There are absolutely no entries for xxxhotfucking.com.)
y -- This is that 20 Questions thing. Pretty fun for a few minutes.
z -- Nothing funny--it's just the only "Z" URL I had. And I didn't download it, so I can't vouch for it.