Alex Henderson

Michael Henderson
Fickle  (Expanded Edition)

When Buddah Records released Michael Henderson’s seventh solo album, Fickle, in 1983, R&B was going through a lot of changes. Many of the things that had characterized R&B in the 1970s—the lavish orchestration of Barry White, Isaac Hayes and Philadelphia International Records, the punchy horns of Ohio funk bands—were losing ground, and 1980s R&B was becoming a high-tech world of synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines. Some artists who had been popular during the 1970s had no desire to embrace the urban contemporary sounds of the 1980s, but on Fickle, Henderson made a concerted effort to change with the times whether he was performing synth-funk or romantic slow jams.

In order to update his sound, Henderson recruited different producers and songwriters on Fickle. Kashif associate Paul Laurence assists Henderson on the Prince-influenced title track and the sleek but funky “You Wouldn’t Have to Work At All,” while Thomas McClary (a member of the Commodores from 1968-1984) produced “Assault with a Friendly Weapon,” “Feeling Like Myself Once Again,” the mid-tempo “Thin Walls” and the ballad “Love Will Find a Way.” The album’s most 1970s-sounding track is the funk smoker “Whip It,” which Henderson previously included on his Goin’ Places album of 1977. But more often than not, Fickle is firmly planted in the R&B trends of 1983. FunkyTownGrooves’ expanded edition of Fickle offers three versions of the title song as bonus tracks.

“Feeling Like Myself Once Again,” which McClary wrote, is urban contemporary with a bit of a country-pop twang. “Country” isn’t a word one usually expects to hear in connection with Henderson, but the Commodores combined soul and country-pop on their 1979 smash “Sail On”—and ex-Commodore Lionel Richie brought a strong country-pop influence to his 1984 solo hit “Stuck on You.” So bearing those things in mind, it makes sense that McClary would write and produce a country-influenced song for Henderson.

In 1983, Laurence was growing increasingly visible as a producer/songwriter, having worked with Kashif on hit albums by Evelyn “Champagne” King (I’m in Love, Get Loose), Melba Moore (The Other Side of the Rainbow) and Howard Johnson (Keepin’ Love New). Laurence, in fact, wrote Moore’s 1982 smash “Love’s Comin’ at Ya.” And he became even more popular a few years later when he produced a string of major hits for Freddie Jackson. During a December 30, 2013 interview, Laurence remembered that Henderson was very easy to work with back in 1983.

“Kashif and I were starting to get hot, and when a producer comes up with a new sound, some established people will incorporate that sound,” Laurence explains. “That’s probably what Michael wanted to do in 1983. It was a matter of staying current. Fickle was one of the first projects I did on my own—it wasn’t the first, but it was among the first—and I was a little nervous working with such an established artist. So I kind of eased my way in there and didn’t want to be too aggressive. But Michael was very receptive to my ideas. Michael was like, ‘You’re here to do what you do.’”

Laurence, who was based in New York City in 1983, stayed in Henderson’s home when he traveled to Detroit to work on Fickle. “When Michael said I could stay with him in Detroit, I had no idea I would be staying in a huge mansion,” Laurence remembers. “His house was humungous. I remember telling Michael, ‘You could have a whole family living in here, and you would not even know it.’”

Another musician who appeared on Fickle was Detroit-born keyboardist/pianist and arranger Sylvester Rivers, who had worked with Henderson on some of his previous albums (including In the Night Time in 1978 and Wide Receiver in 1980). Rivers, interviewed on December 30, 2013, recalled that Henderson was determined to evolve back in 1983—and taking a more high-tech approach was part of that evolution. But Rivers finds that Fickle has a warmer, more organic sound than many of the synthesizer-heavy recordings of its time.

“The ‘80s was the first decade that really brought out the electronic music,” Rivers explains. “Synthesizers had made their debut in the 1970s, but they started to catch on the early ‘80s—and people were still working out the kinks, which is why it’s so easy to identify the ‘80s sound and why, to a certain extent, a lot of the ‘80s recordings sound more dated than either the ‘90s or the ‘70s recordings. A lot of people were trying too hard to be hip in the ‘80s, but I think Michael avoided that on Fickle because he was a natural musician at heart. He was still focused on the heart of the music, and he would add to it with a synthesizer effect or whatever.”

“Even though Fickle was a bit of an experiment,” Rivers continues, “Michael kept the focus in the right place. The focus should always be the music. Everything you use—whether it’s a violin or a synthesizer—should be a tool to express a musical emotion. The tool should serve the music, and not the other way around. Sometimes, people can forget that, but I think that Michael kept the focus on the music.”

Fickle, unfortunately, isn’t one of Henderson’s better-known albums. “Fickle didn’t do as well as we hoped it would,” Laurence recalls. “And I think a lot of that had to do with his fan base, which wasn’t used to hearing that kind of a sound from him. I don’t think Michael was the problem. I think that Michael wanted to take it to a whole other thing, but his audience was used to a certain style from him.”

Fickle turned out to be Henderson’s last album for Buddah. In 1986, he resurfaced on EMI Records with his eighth solo album, Bedtime Stories, which was his only album for that label. Henderson, who is now 62, hasn’t recorded any studio albums since then but continues to perform live.

Henderson wasn’t afraid to take chances back in the day, and his adventurous spirit is alive and well on Fickle.

—Alex Henderson, January 2014

Alex Henderson’s work has appeared in Billboard, Spin, Creem, Salon.com, The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Cash Box, HITS, CD Review, Skin Two, Black Beat, The Pasadena Weekly, Black Radio Exclusive (BRE), Music Connection, Latin Style, The New York City Jazz Record, Jazz Inside Magazine and many other well-known publications. Henderson (alexvhenderson.com) also contributed several thousand CD reviews to The All Music Guide’s popular website and series of music reference books.