2. LOVER AND FRIEND - MINNIE RIPERTON (MINNIE album)

TRACK 2. Lover And Friend (M.Riperton, R.Rudolph, Lewis, Dozier)

Album Released May 9, 1979

Minnie is the fifth and final studio album (not counting a posthumous release the following year) by Minnie Riperton. She died of cancer two months after its release. It was also her first album for Capitol Records.
With a new record deal under her belt and a guarantee from the label of priority marketing/promotion, Minnie went right to work on what would be her final album. With husband Richard Rudolph, Keni St. Lewis, Gene Dozier, Randy Waldman, Marlo Henderson & Bill Thedford contributing songs, the album served as Minnie's final statement to the music world and fans.
Minnie brought son, Marc and daughter Maya Rudolph into the studio to sing background on "Dancin' & Actin' Crazy," while the tender "Lover & Friend" was the perfect ode to her relationship with Richard. Minnie was at her most playful self on her remake of the Doors' "Light My Fire", a duet with José Feliciano (who had a hit with his own version of this rock classic in 1968). It's been said that the reason we don't hear José until the second half of the song, is because he had just happened to be at the studio when it was being recorded and popped in.
If there was a track that would be described as her "goin' home" song, no doubt it was "Memory Lane" -- Minnie's reflection of her past while knowing what indeed was in the future. "Memory Lane" was a hit. Riperton incorporated the sadness of the ending of a relationship while suddenly shifting to cries of "I don't want to go" and "save me." It is thought that the song was her farewell to her family and the world.

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Watch the Live Performance of Lover And Friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWI1YzmnehU
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Guess we always knew
Best of friends we'd always be
Sister and brother we two
Romance never entered our view

Always you were there
when I needed you
Suddenly out of nowhere
I realized I loved only you

And that just how true love begins
It just walks on in
And one day I knew
It was you ... it was you
It was always you

Baby, in the end... I've got you as lover and friend
Darling in the end I've got you as lover and friend

Funny how it goes
We'd be the last to know
We were made for each other
And from friends we became lovers

Keep on being my friend
Our love will never end
We'll have it all
Yes we will... yes we will
Yes we will

Baby, in the end... I've got you as lover and friend
Darling in the end I've got you as lover and friend

Keep on being my friend
Our love will never end
We'll have it all
Yes we will... yes we will
Yes we will

Baby, in the end... I've got you as lover and friend
Darling in the end I've got you as lover and friend

We're gonna have a happy ending
We started our with such a great beginning
We'll walk together talk together
In every kind of weather
We're bound together
forever yeah

Baby, in the end... I've got you as lover and friend
Darling in the end I've got you as lover and friend
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Видео 2. LOVER AND FRIEND - MINNIE RIPERTON (MINNIE album) канала MinnieRipertonCHANNEL