The back cover of His I Think, Therefore I Am proclaims that Taylor plays everything on "Indiana Wants Me." Presumably not the strings. It also informs me that he wrote "Love Child," "I'm Livin' In Shame," and a Temptations song called "All I Need." Huh!
The record is really promising on Side A - in addition to "Indiana" you get "Gotta See Jane" and something called "Woman Alive" which sounds exactly like "Indiana Wants Me" and is therefore fantastic. Side B is comparitively sluggish, and his covers in general seem to miss the point of the originals entirely - "Fire and Rain," "Two Of Us," and "Sunday Morning Coming Down" have never felt so overblown.
Anything else worth tracking down? Besides this video, of course?
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 19 January 2008 21:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Get the Spectrum comp mentioned above - apart from the three stone cold classic singles it has the startling Candy Apple Red on it, which is a must have.
― Guilty_Boksen, Saturday, 19 January 2008 21:59 (sixteen years ago) link
The only white dude on Motown, wasn't he?
Not including R Dean Taylor, there was also Bobby Darin, Tommy Good, Rare Earth and lots of others that no one remembers. Plenty of white women as well.
― musically, Saturday, 19 January 2008 22:21 (sixteen years ago) link
If you've ever seen a Motown discography, you'll know that there were enough white artists to fill a box set. Not just ten or twelve, more like 100 (maybe more). Besides the white rock bands on the Rare Earth roster, Motown also had a couple of country subsidiaries - Melody in the sixties, later revived in the seventies as Melodyland, then Hitsville.
― Rev. Hoodoo, Sunday, 20 January 2008 02:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Chris Clark being one obvious standout.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, 20 January 2008 02:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Look at this: http://www.rareearthworld.co.uk/rareearthlabel.html
The Pretty Things, The Easybeats and Love Sculpture.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, 20 January 2008 03:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, that Bobby Darin albums starts out with a cover of "Sail Away."
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, 20 January 2008 03:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Motown also had a couple of country subsidiaries - Melody in the sixties, later revived in the seventies as Melodyland, then Hitsville.
Ha, Mike Curb cut some records on Pat Boone on Melodyland/Hitsville.
http://soulfuldetroit.com/archives/3190/2286.html?1046103674
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, 20 January 2008 15:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Kiki Dee was on Motown for a bit in the late sixties.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 21 January 2008 09:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, problem with Motown is that in white music, they always got the stars on their way up, or just as they were coming down - never in their prime.
― Rev. Hoodoo, Monday, 21 January 2008 16:55 (sixteen years ago) link
I <3 "There's a Ghost in My House".
― Neil S, Monday, 20 October 2008 12:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Not talking about the guitarist from the BJM, then?
― post-apocalyptic time jazz (Masonic Boom), Monday, 20 October 2008 12:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Nope, Canadian northern soul guy.
― Neil S, Monday, 20 October 2008 13:01 (sixteen years ago) link
One cool thing about R. Dean Taylor is that he made stuff that sounded downright twee psych. Which is something that no other Motown act did.
And this is not meant as an attack on Motown in general, as they provided the world with some marvellous pop music, but they sounded a bit out of date during the psychedelia explosion in 1967-68. The orchestrated arrangements on some Four Tops singles were getting close, but sadly there aren't a lot of sitars, mellotrons or phasing to be heard in 67-68 Motown recordings. No lyrics about pink elephants flying through marshmallow skies either.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 20 October 2008 13:01 (sixteen years ago) link
"Shadow" is creepy and gross enough that I can't help but feel that it colors my perception of the rest of his output.
― avant-sarsgaard (litel), Sunday, 19 October 2014 23:12 (ten years ago) link