How The Band saved Rick James from a beating in 1964
Being in the right place at the right time is often a lucky twist of fate… What is far rarer is when the people involved both go on to become superstars, as happened with The Band and Rick James.
It is worth remembering that neither party was yet The Band or Rick James at the time. Back in 1964, the latter was still a 16-year-old named James Johnson, living in Canada after fleeing the United States to avoid being drafted into the US Navy.
As much as he saw the neighbouring country as a refuge, it was clear, almost from the first second that the future Motown star set foot in Toronto, that this was not the smooth-sailing utopia that he hoped it would be. Relatively soon after arriving, he managed to get himself into the centre of a fight in the street with unknown people over an unknown issue.
But as it turned out, he had some rather rock-and-roll guardian angels watching his back. They were Levon Helm and Garth Hudson, two musicians who, at that point in time, were just winding down their alias as The Hawks and were merely a year away from becoming the backing band for Bob Dylan.
None of the unsuspecting trio could have known what awaited their futures in that moment, though. It was simply a case of picking James up off the floor, dusting him off, and sending him on his way. The concept of stars crossing never even entered their minds, because how could they have predicted the future outcome of this chance meeting?
Within a year, Helm and Hudson were the main brains behind Dylan’s electric period, but as for James, his immediate fate was a little less intoxicating. He was eventually found by the US authorities and handed a jail sentence for avoiding his military service, but upon being released again, it didn’t hold him back any longer.
After stints in various bands, and inevitably a lot of hard graft, in 1977 James’s fortunes finally looked up when he secured a record contract under the watchful eye of Motown’s Berry Gordy, and went on to create five top 40 singles in the charts. Fist fights and prison sentences all suddenly seemed worth it because they led him to this.
As much as the release of his mega-hit ‘Super Freak’ in 1981 represented the peak of James’ career, his life was one where the clouds never fully cleared. His cocaine addiction was crippling, and he was accused of various horrific crimes over the years, including rape and kidnap. His legacy was a complex one of both a funk revolution and tragedy.
But nevertheless, there’s no way of knowing whether either The Band retrospectively realised the significance of that moment back in 1964. To them, it was about doing a good deed and getting someone out of danger. But maybe somewhere in the cosmic powers of the universe, something knew that a musical air fizzed from them both, and their connection was not just a coincidence, but quite intentional.
