R. Dean Taylor: C/D, S&D

Chris Clark being one obvious standout.

Look at this: http://www.rareearthworld.co.uk/rareearthlabel.html

The Pretty Things, The Easybeats and Love Sculpture.

Wow, that Bobby Darin albums starts out with a cover of "Sail Away."

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

Kiki Dee was on Motown for a bit in the late sixties.

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.

I <3 "There's a Ghost in My House".

Not talking about the guitarist from the BJM, then?

Nope, Canadian northern soul guy.

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as an attack on Motown in general, as they provided the world with some marvellous pop music, but they sounded a bit out of date during the psychedelia explosion in 1967-68.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.

"Shadow" is creepy and gross enough that I can't help but feel that it colors my perception of the rest of his output.