So I was driving home tonight, music blaring and ‘Square Biz’ by Teena Marie came on the car blaster, so I thought: “how the hell could I have left this out from the baddest basslines list (earlier blog post)?”! Sure, over the last couple of weeks, i’ve heard many a track that I thought I coulda, shoulda included but then again I thought leaving this out was sacrilegious!

Allen McGrier of Rick James’ Stone City Band was on the four strings for this one so I kind of felt a little better that I at least included another of his basslines, ‘All Night Long’ by The Mary Jane Girls in the list.  Then I asked myself what other killer basslines this guy had thrown up and they  all came flooding in: ‘Give It To Me Baby’ and ‘You and I’ from Rick James, ‘It Must Be Magic’ , ‘I Need Your Lovin’ and ‘Behind The Groove’ from Teena Marie to name a few and at that point I realised any of those could easily have made the list. But then again, one man couldn’t have filled up 5-6 slots on a 20-song list (not if I wasn’t getting paid) you simply have to give the others a chance, dude.

So to cut to the chase, I believe that one Mr Allen McGrier was well represented with ‘All Night Long’ and ‘I Need Your Lovin’ but I still can’t figure out how I left out ‘Square Biz’. As they say in Harvard, dem notes wuz killa man, slap and pluck ecstasy! Check out ‘Gigolette’ by Ozone for more of the trademark Allen McGrier sound, away from the Rick James camp. Nuff respect!