RFI: Psychedelic Motown

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (108 of them)
Mathematical proposition.

If Maggot Brain /= Psychedelicized,
then solve for X where X=WTF planet are we on?

J Arthur Rank (Quin Tillian), Thursday, 15 June 2006 23:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Why do some people interpret Motown = any black soul artist from 1960-1980? Not pointed at anyone in this thread, but I've always noticed that Motown has become some catch-all term.

I've been inspired by this thread to make a mix CD of psychedelic Motown songs...I'll comb through my LPs and mp3s and hopefully come up with something great. I'll post my results here if anyone's interested (dunno if the OP is still around).

musically (musically), Friday, 16 June 2006 00:36 (seventeen years ago) link

J Arthur Rank, dude, don't even listen to geir, the rest of us don't.

jäxøñ (jaxon), Friday, 16 June 2006 03:34 (seventeen years ago) link

J Arthur Rank, dude, don't even listen to geir, the rest of us don't.

i know, i know, i know. It's just, sometimes I just gotta let little air out...

J Arthur Rank (Quin Tillian), Friday, 16 June 2006 12:10 (seventeen years ago) link

The only Motown stuff that sounded truly psychedelic (that is, twee, not funky) was by R. Dean Taylor.

And what colour was he again Geir? Was he Norwegian too by any chance?

Il mio nome e' Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 16 June 2006 12:14 (seventeen years ago) link

O. Nate got it right OTM way back when he said that the chief argument was one of mere semantics ie. the word "psychedelic" itself. And I further remember Wayne Coyne years ago, talking to Xhuxk (I think) and drawing a distinction between "psychedelia" and "acid rock". So why not just agree, for Geir's sake, that the Beatles defined "psychedelia" and move on? Change the thread topic to "acid Motown" or "acid funk" - something which even Geir can't deny exists.

M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, just 'cause it's too interesting a topic to waste on a bunch of hair-splitting...

M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link

(there's already several acid funk threads, btw)

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 16 June 2006 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Chambers Chambers Chambers

trees (treesessplode), Saturday, 17 June 2006 05:25 (seventeen years ago) link

This thread is great for two reasons:

It made me curious enough to scrabble together a copy of The Temptations' 'Psychedelic Shack' and 'All Directions.' Fabulous stuff.

The sheer wrongness of Geir's posts and yet he still continues on.

righteousmaelstrom (righteousmaelstrom), Friday, 23 June 2006 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link

It would've been more effective, IMO, if someone had tried to come up with a broader definition of "psychedelia" to counter Geir's very narrow one, rather than simply citing examples of things most people would consider psychedelic that Geir doesn't.

For anyone who's bothering to look, here's a better link for the one upthread that doesn't work (for me, anyway): http://members.tripod.com/~lysergia_2

pleased to mitya (mitya), Friday, 23 June 2006 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link

His argument is bizarre. There are a million examples of psychedelia that are not twee.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 23 June 2006 18:55 (seventeen years ago) link

two years pass...

pulled out Quincy Jones' soundtrack to Body Heat and damn if those songs don't sound like lost whitfield produced Temptation songs.

(jaxon) ( .) ( .) (jaxon), Thursday, 2 April 2009 22:29 (fifteen years ago) link

thirteen years pass...

bumping this thread because i don't feel like making a new one

was listening to an old recording of the jefferson airplane doing syl johnson's "dresses too short" and i feel like this is something i've maybe underappreciated over the years, "heavy" sixties rock bands doing old soul tunes, tunes that are pretty new for me because they didn't make it as part of the "classic rock" canon (ref recent thread about "got my mind set on you". like, for a long time i didn't know "lovelight" wasn't a dead song. and then you have those early zep concerts from their first us tour where they do a very, very zep style version of garnet mimms' "long as i have you".

anyway, i'm sure there's tons more examples like this but i just don't know enough about sixties soul. thoughts?

Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 23 July 2022 01:28 (one year ago) link

I guess by "old soul tunes" you mean old in 2022, because "Dresses Too Short" was more or less contemporary to the Airplane, and "Long As I Have You" would only have been four or five years old?
The first thing that came to mind was James Gang doing "Stop" by Howard Tate on their first album, and that song had only been out for a year. Also, the Beach Boys weren't heavy, but they did cover "I Was Made to Love Her" in 1967.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 23 July 2022 01:55 (one year ago) link

check out the animals covering eddie & ernie's "outcast"

budo jeru, Saturday, 23 July 2022 01:56 (one year ago) link

Alot of the Airplane archival albums credit "Dresses..." to Balin, so imagine my surprise when I heard the Syl for the first time at the local "Soul Night" and thought it was the Dap Kings or somebody doing JA!

The Dead also did "Hard To Handle".

Paul Butterfield (not the heaviest) did "Get Out of My Life, Woman" (by Lee Dorsey) and "One More Heartache" (by Marvin Gaye) when they were brand spanking new singles.

Vanilla Fudge lords over all with "You Keep Me Hangin' On".

Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield did "Stop" as an instrumental on Super Session.

Jesus Christ @ the extra-ignorant Geir posts itt.

I guess by "old soul tunes" you mean old in 2022, because "Dresses Too Short" was more or less contemporary to the Airplane, and "Long As I Have You" would only have been four or five years old?
The first thing that came to mind was James Gang doing "Stop" by Howard Tate on their first album, and that song had only been out for a year. Also, the Beach Boys weren't heavy, but they did cover "I Was Made to Love Her" in 1967.

― Halfway there but for you

"Dolly Rocker, it's called Dolly Rocker
It's an old make of dress
Well, months old, you know
That sort of thing"

Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 23 July 2022 04:19 (one year ago) link

mccain otm re: vanilla fudge + "hard to handle." good jams.

Vanilla Fudge also did "Shotgun" (Junior Walker). Deep Purple did "River Deep, Mountain High" (Tina Turner). The Small Faces did "Every Little Bit Hurts" (Brenda Holloway). The Jimmy Page-era Yardbirds did "My Baby" (Garnet Mimms). Of course Janis Joplin/Big Brother did "Piece of My Heart" (Erma Franklin) which became a hit + part of the classic rock canon, so I guess it's disqualified... likewise "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (The Temptations) by Rod Stewart with the Faces. Janis Joplin also did "Tell Mama" (Etta James) and various other soul tunes. The Who did James Brown songs and "Heat Wave" (Martha & the Vandellas) but that was early in their career. I thought the Velvet Underground might have done "Hitch Hike" (Marvin Gaye) but I guess they just swiped the intro of it. The MC5 did "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" (James Brown).

Josefa, Saturday, 23 July 2022 07:12 (one year ago) link

"Of course Janis Joplin/Big Brother did "Piece of My Heart" (Erma Franklin) which became a hit + part of the classic rock canon, so I guess it's disqualified"

no that's exactly the sort of thing i'm thinking of, i never heard the erma franklin version. a lot of the soul covers i _know_ them from oldies radio, but someone like garnet mimms, nah

the velvets were unique for the era in that they didn't _do_ covers, there's a recording of them doing "green onions" on the andy warhol tapes i think but that's about it.

Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 23 July 2022 11:03 (one year ago) link

It's interesting that Jerry Ragovoy seems to be involved with many of these songs as a songwriter. He wrote or cowrote the Garnet Mimms songs and "Stop" by Howard Tate and "Piece of My Heart."

His Wikipedia entry lists several other compositions of his that fit the original question.

Josefa, Saturday, 23 July 2022 14:22 (one year ago) link

Yes, that is interesting. Wonder if he and Rudy Clark ever crossed paths. #onethread

Meme for an Imaginary Western (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 23 July 2022 14:25 (one year ago) link

XP He played piano on the James Gang's version of "Stop" too.

Speaking of Rudy Clark, the Dead also did "Good Lovin'" (originally by the Olympics and popularized by the (Young) Rascals).

Ha!--The Olympics' "Good Lovin'" (which had different lyrics from the actual original by Lemme B. Good) was produced by Ragovoy!

Paul Butterfield (not the heaviest) did "Get Out of My Life, Woman"

Also covered by Iron Butterfly on Heavy.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 23 July 2022 16:08 (one year ago) link

(which is also not the heaviest)

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 23 July 2022 16:34 (one year ago) link

Al Kooper & Mike Bloomfield did "Stop" as an instrumental on Super Session.

Remembering too that they also did a straight vocal version of Gene Chandler's Curtis Mayfield-penned "Man's Temptation" on that same album.

...and speaking of Curtis, Vanilla Fudge did "People Get Ready" and later on Beck Bogert & Appice addressed "I'm So Proud".


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.