【潮男的Motown CD】歌曲点评录入

等了这么久可算是来了！
我是潮男苏，你们相信么╮(╯▽╰)╭
当漏请走：http://www.douban.com/group/topic/13611498/
                
                
                
                
                
                
                
                
01. I Want You Back - The Jackson Five
It's a great record and I'm almost loath to have it as the opening track but I don't know where else to put it in the line up. I probably heard this first around 1987 when I was at school. The Flare Groove thing was going on and people in my year were getting into that whole Levi 501's and Bass Weejun loafers look. This record has got one of the best riffs ever plus an amazing bass line. According to Berry Gordy he got the 'Oh baby give me one more chance' line in his kitchen one night, whitch he took to the writers known as The Corporation. They came up with this. I think that with Michael Jackson - whatever his life is now, what can't be taken away or negated, is his talent as a young person. He delivers such an amazing vocal. The beauty of it is that he sounds mature but he doesn't sound thirty-five. The fact that he can address these grown up lyrics as a kid...I just love it.
02. No Matter What Sign You Are - Diana Rose & The Supremes
I've always loved this record. Some friends of my sister's John and Terry, two soul boys who lived in Brighton, did me my first Motown compilation when I was 15. This was on there and the first thing that caught me is the fake sitar which starts if off. Then you go on and it's got everything, all the hallmarks - great backing vocals, great string arrangement. When Diana Ross concentrates, I think she is really, really good. I chose this because it still has the effect on me it had when I was 15. Plus it's about something I don't believe in. And I am Virgo by the way.
03. You Made Me So Very Happy - Brenda Holloway
The first version I heard of this was by Blood Sweat And Tears which I still really like. This tune is about as life affirming as Motown ever got. Motown was so famously driven by the market and commercialism and wanting to sell records, but this is about as close to soul in the mid-60s that you could ever get. She co-wrote this so she is obviously a very talented woman.
04. The Night - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
You know you have those dreams where you think wouldn't it be great if so worked with so and so? This is one of mine made real. The Four Seasons on Motown, what a great combination... This band with this label makes great senses because they had always been working in a r'n'b bag and so many of their songs have passed into the canon, whether it's 'Silence in Golden' or 'Beggin' or 'Working My Way Back to You' or 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You'. I think that Frankie Valli has a lovely voice although sometimes he can be a bit piercing, I have a great fondness for this band. I also like the fact that my partner's mum used to like it as well.
05. Ooh Baby Baby - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
I don't think it gets any better than this, doesn't it? I first heard this on a Motown compilation called 'Motown With A Bullet'. This is the kind of stuff I was investigating when I was in the fifth year at school and I loved it when I heard it and I have loved it more and more with every passing year. I think Smokey Robinson is one of the great lyricisits. I think he is fantastic. When people talk about singer songwriters, it's always Carole King or Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan, all of whom I love, but they tend not to talk about Smokey or Marvin or Stevie, all of them amazing songwriters. As far as this label is concerned those three are the best writers and performers. I think this song is so beautiful and that Smokey sings this faultlessly and The Miracles are a great vocal group as well. I think it's one of the best love songs ever.
06. The Bells - The Originals
I first heard this song done by Laura Nyro. She did an album with Labelle in 1971 called 'It's Gonna Take A Miracle'. As far as I know The Originals were a bit of a Marvin Gaye project and I think Marvin may have co-written this because it is a lovely throwback to doo-wop music. It was put out in 1969 but with really strong shades of 1957. Lyrically, it has a simple concept, as it is all about being in love and hearing the bells. I love it.
07. Please Stay (Once You Go Away) - Marvin Gaye
A late tune this, from the 1973 'Let's Get It On' album, and I really think that if someone wrote a song about you like this, you would have to die, you would have to jump off a cliff because what else is going to happen in your life to match that? Nothing! I want to talk about the drumming on this song because it is great. It's not in the background but it comes to help shape the song. It's just lovely. I think he was a truly beautiful writer of love songs. I know he wanted to be Sinatra but he was so much better as Marvin Gaye.
08. Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today) - The Temptations
This was on that Motown tape those guys did me and it was my first clue that The Temps were not just a finger snapping, bow tie wearing outfit. Before, I had thought about them as almost a variety act, I saw them as entertainer because they didn't write or produce anything as up until the mid-60s they were with Smokey and then they were with Whitfield and Strong. This is a 1970 Whitfield production and one of the great things about this record are the song's lyrics which have great scansions, great rhymes. When I was young - and this will frighten you - I used to write a lot of raps and the rhyming scans that are on this record, I think, were a big influence on hip-hop. Check the first three Publuc Enemy albums for evidence.
09. I Feel Sanctified - Commodores
I found this on a Motown disco compilation and I used to play this out at parties. It has a serious groove, which is nothing to do with 'Three Times A Lady', that's for sure. I don't know who's singing the vocal, it's certainly not Lionel but it has great fatback drums and a great tune which starts off with a harmonised wail and then the kick-drum starts and we are off.
10. Sugar - Stevie Wonder
This might be Stevie's first production credit. It's a great record. I love it when he kind of loses it and goes all falsetto and obviously gets very excited. Great performance from the band, some drumming which is brilliant and not sure if it is James Jamerson on bass, but that is also fab. A briiliant record, then.
11. The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game - The Marvelettes
This is a Smokey tune, a Smokey production I think. Wanda Young - has a great tone to her voice. It's also another example of Smokey pushing the boundaries of what you can do with a pop lyric and melody. The music goes all over the place. It starts off with that riff and them the drums come in. It's great plus I love the fact that Smokey always had a theme for his songs and the idea of the hunter getting captured is, again, great.
12. From Head to Toe - Chris Clark
Another Smoley song and production, I bought this from Bill (at JB's Records, Hansway Street W1) on seven inch a while ago. I first heard of Chris Clark when I read Berry Gordy's biography eight years ago and when I heard this I really liked it. It is a great mod-soul tune and the fact that she has got a blonde bob just adds to it. It's not a famous Motown tune but it is a classic sounding Motown tune.
13. Never Can Say Goodbye - Jackson Five
This is another terrific performance from Michael. I think this record was made in 1971 or 1972 when he would have been about thirteen or fourteen. It's a brilliant record. One of the things that I think gets overlooled in music are backing vocal arrangements and what a backing vocal can do to you subconsciously as a listner; what they choose to sing, what they choose to echo, what they choose to leave out. The Jacksons are really good singers, and Michael gives a vocal performance which is one of the best he has ever done, The yearning he has... it's brilliant. This is the sound of a boy who is seriously gifted.
14. Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye
It's a dark record this but I think it has got amazing, amazing depth. In that Ostend documentary, when Marvin is asked about what music he likes, he replies, I like gypsy music, I like jazz. He wasn't saying I like Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, it was quite off the beaten track stuff he was talking about. He was a famous Gershwin fan and I think all of those things come to the fore on this album. And like Superfly I would imagine that this album is much better than the film. A year after What's Going On and he made an album completely the opposite to that. Just great. I mean if you can forget, his writing, his arranging and his producing, if he was just an interpreter of words, he would still be one of the best. The fact that he was making these records himself makes him truly astonishing.
15. Still Waters (Love) - Four Tops
When we hear a record, what makes me and you go "Jesus Christ!" is usually of someone is a genius. Now this record is genius and what about Four Tops? As a vocal group, they are brilliant interpreters of songs with an incredibly powerful lead vocalist. I love the way the song opens with levi Stubbs 'walk with me'. The backing vocals are amazing, especially when they go in at the end with that, 'take my hand' refrain. This is a lovely record.
16. It's a Shame - The Detroit Spinners
Again, this was on that Brighton tape and it's one of those records that you hear and you think 'of course!' this record had to exist. This is a Stevie production, a Stevie co-write with Syreeta and Leif Garrett, and it is so brilliant. I want to pkay this to everyone, especially to those who only know Monie Love's take on it. From that guitar intro and onwards, it is three and a half minutes of pure joy. And then, when you discover Stevie's role in it, the record makes even more sense. It's one of the best pop songs ever. Forget soul, forget categories, this is a great pop song and it is as fresh as yesterday.
17. Bad Weather - The Supremes
This is a post-Diana Supremes track, recorded in 1973. It's a great record that starts off with a lovely horn line and has this lovely loose drumming throughout. Again, this is from Stevie Wonder's purple period. I just think he was faultless at this time. He is like Mozart. Claims can be made for Gershwin and for Lennon and McCartney, and rightfully so, but Stevie is definitly one of the most important figures in 20th century music.
18. Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.) - Edwin Starr
This is archetypal mid-'60s Edwin on fire form. Among the label's many secret weapons (tambourine, vibraphone) the sax is a killer on this. Four years later, Edwin would be railling against the establishment in war but here he's content to inform the FBI he has lost his love. Priceless.
19. Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
I honestly don't know a better record than this. It is so beautiful, so complete. I remember at my school being asked to write down my favourite lyric. This is the song I chose. The initial riff is Stevie Wonder's. I have heard Stevie talk about this and he says he came up with it in 1963, which means that the riff, which helped make the record, is the work of a thirteen year old. It beggars belief. Put him with one of the greatest ever pop lyricists and you might have a hit on your hand. I mean, who else in the r'n'b charts was writting about Pagliacci? I think this was a time when people read more, listened more, engaged more and absorbed more. The thing is, however many times I hear this tune, I am always excited when I hear this record. It is an amazing record. Obviously, I love all these records but there are some which I cry about, and this is one of them. Even talking about it makes me emotional I can't believe how good it is, Smokey is an unbelievable lyricist, this is an eternal song and I think I'd better leave it at that.
20. To Know You is to Love You - Syreeta
I bought this on a seven inch in 1997 in a record shop in Hull for £2.50. You know when you make little noise to yourself because you can't believe how lucky you are? I left the shop nearly in tears going 'wooh-wooh' and walking six inches above the ground because I couldn't believe I had got this for such a low price. This is one of my favourite pieces of recorded music ever, from my time. I think it is five and a half minutes of pure glory. It was written by Syreeta and Stevie as they were coming to the end of their marriage and maybe that is why it is such an intense tune. It challenges you to stay with it. It challenges you to put up with it for five and a half minutes and actually go through the grief. It's got this stoned relentless groove, which goes on and on and on. It's about the impossibility of being alive, about the impossibility of loving people and how difficult it all is. By the time the strings come in, it's unbelievable, it's like pulling your soul out. Again, what I love about it, is that it is nothing to do with the Motown sound, it is mothing to do with Berry Gordy; it is just the creation of these two people, the sound of this group of people making art music, making a song about what it is.