Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Rufus Album, May 23, 2001
Remember when a great album consisted of SONGS? Not intros, outros, interludes and skits, but a solid collection of tunes that stuck in your head for days. And whatever happened to restraint and brevity? With the dawn of the CD age, artists seemed to be filling every second of time available on a disk just because it was there! Thankfully "RUFUSIZED" avoids these pitfalls and delivers the goods from the horn blessed opener, the classic "Once You Get Started"(great drumming by Andre Fischer) to the breezy, transcendent groove of the closing "Stop On By" (give it a listen, you'll be singing this one forever!) and doesn't miss a beat anywhere in between. There's not a clunker in the batch and it all runs in classic LP time, just over 37 minutes. This release is also notable for the healthy rock influence once evident in Chaka Khan's choice of material, but now sadly, seemingly gone for good. But that's mere quibbling, just sit back and marvel at the tight band interplay, ambition (the sprawling, lovely "Pack'ed My Bags") and the way Tony Maiden anchors every cut with his inventive but never too-flashy guitar playing. "RUFUSIZED" hasn't aged a day since '74! Essential Listening.
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Thing, Chaka and Rufus at their best., June 6, 2008
This one should be in everybody's collection.
The sheer fun that jumps off the cover (by Norman Seeff, famous for his seventies and eighties b&w band photography) barely is able to hint at what goes off once your laser beam hits the first notes of Once You Get Started. If this doesn't make you smile something's definitely wrong with your (groove)system.
Not only is the song full of surprises, twists and turns (as is the entire album), Tony Maiden's guitar licks are amazing. The horn arrangement creative as can be. And then there's Chaka. I should simply shut up and have you listen to her shoot this music up the charts as she did at the time.
This album has it all, tight up tempo songs, mid tempo ones (Somebody's Watching You (ooh that organ)- as Once You Get Started one of my all time favorites), beautiful ballads f.e. Your Smile (and what a wonderful piano intro to Pack'd My Bags - but as I said, full of surprises), some of the greatest musicians doing what they do best without anybody getting in their way: Chaka Vocals, Tony Guitar and Backing Vocals, Bobby Watson Bass and Backing Vocals, André Fischer Drums and Percussion, Kevin Murphy All Keys and Backing Vocals.
The band members arranged the album themselves (with great string and horn arrangements by Clare Fisher and Kevin Murphy - no wonder Quincy loved this band - just listen to the horns on Rufusized )
Nuff said: GET IT!
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Where I Fell In Love With "The Khan"!! , February 3, 2006
As a child of 10 in late 1974, I first heard the funky
and melodious voice of a true original and soul diva
named Chaka Khan and I was tranformed!
Now I grew up already knowing the sounds of Gladys,
Aretha, Mahalia and other powerhouse singers by this time
and so when Chaka hit it was like a tidal wave of sound!
A new soul sista was staking her claim and she was going
to be around for awhile!--(as it turned out!)
Of course, I was already familiar with
"Tell Me Something Good", "Smokin' Room",
"Ain't Nothin' But A Maybe" and "In Love We Grow"
from the preceeding album "Rags To Rufus"
which my mother owned and played frequently.
But there was something about "Rufusized" that just
sunk into my psyche and my soul that still remains
to this day!---It's just bad to death!
I love every song on here of course, but the ones
that still send me to this day are
"Once You Get Started", "Please Pardon Me",
"Pack'd My Bags", "Stop On By" and her searing rendition
of Janis Joplin's "Half Moon"!!...Just crazy funky!
Another goodie on this album is Chaka's funk-rocky
ode to feminism "I'm A Woman (I'm A Backbone)" which
is never talked about that much when Chaka fans or
Rufus featuring Chaka fans discuss her music, but it
is a potent vocal and lyrical performance just the same!
This pre-dated the Ashford & Simpson penned classic
"I'm Every Woman" from Chaka's debut solo effort by 4 years.
Ray Parker Jr., who would later come to prominence
with his group RAYDIO and in his own solo endeavors,
was co-writer and provided some incendiary funky rock
guitar licks along with Rufus guitarist Tony Maiden.
He was also co-writer on an earlier Rufus funk-rock
classic which proceeded this album called
"You Got The Love", from "Rags To Rufus", which
is much more well-known and discussed by
Rufus & Chaka fans alike.
Now, some 32 yrs later at age 42, I have all of the
classic albums of my childhood and teen years on
remastered CD's and I have every Rufus album from
"Rags To Rufus" to "Live and Stompin' At The Savoy"...
and there all good, but again, there's something about
"Rufusized" that still gets me to this day!
A definite "must-have" for any fan of Chaka's
or lover of pure 70's funk!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
by Rufus 
