Robert Christgau: Dean of American Rock Critics

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Richard "Dimples" Fields

  • Dimples [Boardwalk, 1981] B+
  • Mr. Look So Good [Boardwalk, 1982] B-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Dimples [Boardwalk, 1981]
Except for Betty Wright's backtalking one-upwomanship, the prime originals here--"I Like Your Lovin" and "She's Got Papers on Me"--are standard-issue love-man come-ons, but "Dimples"'s appropriation of the two greatest doowop oldies is self-aggrandizing sentimentality at its most audacious. And "I've Got to Learn to Say No!" leaves no doubt as to just what he gets from his earth angel in the still of the night. B+

Mr. Look So Good [Boardwalk, 1982]
Aware that Fields brought something quite his own to the soul/r&b heritage, I wondered why his buttery come-on never moved me. Reason's simple--he's as egoistic and ultimately lightweight as James Taylor, another traditionalist original. Dissecting women with a butcher's eye one minute and quoting Biblical prophecy the next, he persuades me of neither his essential goodness nor his essential badness. I've got nothing against the combination, either--just ask Marvin Gaye, who works at least as hard at it as Fields, or Al Green, who doesn't. B-