In a 1986 essay titled “Jazz Criticism and Its Effect on the Art Form,” Stanley Crouch described Lionel Richie as “a horse-faced Negro from the South… [who] pulls down millions for songs that contain so little melodic, harmonic and rhythmic character that even the most imaginative jazz musicians haven’t tried to use them as bridges to a larger audience in the way they could when the best of Tin Pan Alley was in flower.” (Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz, p. 227)
Not two days after I read this, a friend directed me to this story at ABC News Nightline: “Baghdad’s Lionel Obsession.” Ripped from the headlines:
Grown Iraqi men get misty-eyed by the mere mention of his name. “I love Lionel Richie,” they say. Iraqis who do not understand a word of English can sing an entire Lionel Richie song.
I do prefer The Commodores…
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