#558: The Motown Story

I've bn playing an edited, "highlights-only" taped version of THE MOTOWN STORY at work a lot lately -- & practically nothing else since Weds. I knew it was all great stuff, but when you put it all together it's amazing how addictive it all Bcomes....
THE MOTOWN STORY was a 5-album best-of that Motown released in 1971 2 mark their biggest hits & "corporate evolution" over the company's 1st decade. I checked-out a copy from the local library a decade or so ago & didn't realize a disc or 2 of the package was missing 'til I got it home. But that didn't stop me from taping what I thot were the "best" parts....
Course my ears have opened up a little bit more since then. There R none of Marvin Gaye's classic duets with Tammi Terrell or Kim Weston on this tape, & I've since Bcome a sucker 4 that stuff. "It Takes Two"? Great! The original "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"? Marvelous! "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing"! & especially "You're All I Need to Get By"....
Was never that big a Gladys Knight fan, Xcept 4 "If I Were Your Woman" & "I've Got a Song in My Heart Again," so this homemade "best-of" doesn't include her KILLER version of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," released a year B4 Marvin Gaye's....
Marvin's "Ain't That Peculiar?" & Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" & Edwin Starr's "War" Rn't here cos some1 lost a couple of the records....
But all the really obvious Motown hits R here, all the way back 2 Barrett Strong's hilarious "Money." & when you connect them all 2gether, it's really amazing how the upbeat hits just keep on comin....
I already adored Diana Ross's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" & Stevie's "I Was Made to Love Her," & the Four Tops' "Reach Out I'll Be There," Marvin's "What's Goin' On?," Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street," The Miracles' "Tears of a Clown," & NE number of Supremes hits ("Stop in the Name of Love," "Back in My Arms Again," "Love is Here and Now You're Gone," etc), but what's getting me recently is how even the stuff I never liked that much B4 has all these little touches of genius scattered thruout....
Some of this is thanx 2 Motown's great studio band, the Funk Brothers (James Jamerson on bass, Benny Benjamin on drums, Earl Van Dyke on keyboards, Marv Tarplin & others on guitar), but it's also thanx 2 some great producers & amazing songwriters.
Smokey Robinson's clever-but-so-natural lyrics always seem 2 grab me, even on songs I never liked much -- The Miracles' "I Second That Emotion" opens with a really great verse, sweetly sung by Smokey:

Maybe you want to give me kisses sweet
But only for one night with no repeat
And maybe you'll go away and never call
And a taste of honey's worse than none at all....

After that, I'm sorry but as clever as it is, the rest of the song's an anti-climax 4 me. It's almost TOO lite -- maybe if they'd punched it up a bit. I have the same problem with "Shop Around." I've never had NE doubts about "Tears of a Clown," tho:

But don't let my show convince you
That I've been happy since you
Decided to go
Oh I need you so
I'm hurt and I want you to know
But for others I put on a show....

Those words added 2 a brilliant, punchy, "carnival"-like production -- well, I thot it was a freaking knockout in late 1970 & still do. Can you believe that Berry Gordy & Motown sat on that song as an album track 4 THREE YEARS B4 finally releasing it as a single?
Smokey's got more great clever-but-natural lyrics on Marvin's "Ain't That Peculiar?" The song's chock-full of great lyrics, 2 go with a lite-but-driving production & some neat backing vocals. Why don't oldies stations play it more often?
I'm also swept away by Motown's songs of adoration: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" of course, but also Stevie's joyous "I Was Made to Love Her" ("worship and adore her," "build my world all around her," "I was made to live for her") & "My Cherie Amour," a beautiful song it took me YEARS 2 even HEAR -- Ghod knows where I was at....
But even the less-successful stuff has moments of brilliance. The Marvelettes' "Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead" is full of great lines. This one just jumped out at me over the past couple nites:

You may think that love is blind
But it's as clear as a highway sign....

THE MOTOWN STORY may have some minor problems -- 2 many Supremes trax (even if most of em R cosmically great), not enuf Jackson 5 (only "I Want You Back" is included), coulda used more Junior Walker, 2 much Temptations 4 me, & maybe just a few 2 many Four Tops hits -- but there's no denying mosta this stuff, even if you're not a fan. Who doesn't love Motown?
Well, I didn't like some of it 4 years, or maybe just didn't hear enuf: The Supremes' "Reflections" I didn't get hooked on 'til it was used as the theme 4 the TV series CHINA BEACH. & summa their early hits R just kinda ... I dunno, silly? But it's only fairly recently I've noticed the heavy drive of "You Keep Me Hanging On" -- it really pushes hard, & I love Diana's spoken bit about 1/2way thru: "And there ain't nothin' I can do about it...."
Tho I think Marvin Gaye could almost do no wrong back in the '60s & '70s, something weird happens at work every time I play "What's Goin' On?" I always loved the song, but I'm not sent in2 stunned rapture & screaming along with it, as I am with Diana's "Ain't No Mountain."
The past couple nites when "What's Goin' On" has come on, I've gotten goosebumps all over both arms & had chills even if I'm sweating. Not sure what's up with that. 1 customer suggested that the store's haunted & that the ghost really likes that song. Until a better Xplanation comes along....