Musing on the Muse

[caddyman]

I have been listening to a compilation of old (or should that be classic) Motown¹ hits recently covering the period around 1962 to about 1970. Quite apart from the sheer out put from the label in that period, it is also remarkable how many songs were written by the same team. They tend to be forgotten in the popular consciousness because few if any, were singer/songwriters, they were just jobbing songwriters. People tend to assume these days that artistes write and perform their own material, but in fact, it was comparatively rare prior to Dylan and the Beatles².

Motown in particular, and soul music in general is something I wouldn’t have gone near or admitted to going near when I was a kid; you weren’t allowed diverse musical tastes at school. Peer pressure couldn’t cope with it, and the system would break down if anybody was caught enjoying both ELP and Martha Reeves (not that I think any of the oiks at school knew who Martha Reeves was in the early to mid 1970s; she was last week’s music). It was harder to disguise your musical tastes in the pre-MP3 world and carrying a stack of LPs around was a sure-fire way of advertising your preferences. These days you can slip the Birdie Song onto your i-Pod if you want, surround it with Sigue Sigue Sputnik) and no-one will be any the wiser³.

These days, of course, I couldn’t give a damn. There’s plenty of room for anything from Hard Rock to Classical as far as I’m concerned, with much of the stuff in between though I continue to favour Prog, 60s R&B and certain aspects of the New Wave before it got beached. I do draw the line at Rap⁴ and I’ve never been very keen on Reggae beyond the occasional effort by Bob Marley.

Before you ask, Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop, Pit-Stop, Blip-Blop⁵ and the popular stuff currently posing as R&B are probably not music though they are often quite clever pieces of noise production and marketing.

Anyway, that was the mother of all digressions. It occurred to me while I was listening to some old Supremes songs that in that brief period between servicing Berry Gordy in an attempt to promote her career and her subsequent rise to head-up-her-own-arse Divadom, Diana Ross had a voice very much like a clarinet.

And very pleasant it was, too.

¹No doubt to the horror of telemeister, unbending musical reactionary that he is.

²Name a song written or co-written by Elvis. I can’t.

³If you are tempted to listen to a mix of stuff like that, I suggest that you turn the volume RIGHT up and ruin your hearing. It will be just retribution.

⁴Although I do allow that some of the lyrics are very clever.

⁵Yes, most of that is made up in the tradition that the word barbarian is supposed to have originated as an onomatopoeic sound representing foreign and uncivilised tongues.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

5a. Only half of your phrases are made up when it comes to music subgenres - trip-hop is an easily identifiable genre, and actually one of my favourites when it comes to dance music.

I will add, just because it might turn you an interesting colour, that Grime is a sub genre of UKG and hip hop, that Psibient combines psychedelic trance and ambient and that Gabba is Dutch Hardcore ... not that sort of hardcore.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

"They tend to be forgotten in the popular consciousness because few if any, were singer/songwriters, they were just jobbing songwriters. People tend to assume these days that artistes write and perform their own material, but in fact, it was comparatively rare prior to Dylan and the Beatles2"

And they are the perfect counter-argument that has become so popular since the Beatles that Singer/Songwriter = good Person who sings other people's songs = bad, talentless probably manufactured rubbish.
There are an awful lot of singer/songwriters who are DULL and should be told that just because they do both bits that doesn't make them superior to everybody else. Some of the greatest music ever has been the result of a writer doing what he/she does best and letting a charismatic performer do what he/she does best, that is not a inferior way of doing things.
In fact to go further, 60's Motown was as production line as many modern 'manufactured' artists cash driven, manipulative and riddled with commitee thinking and yet it produced one of the most beautiful, joyful and consistant bodies of music ever produced (and I do mean *ever*).

Rant over : )

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

That should read:

And they are the perfect counter-argument to the thinking that has become so popular since the Beatles that Singer/Songwriter = good, Person who sings other people's songs = bad, talentless probably manufactured rubbish.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I got your drift, and I agree.

Which is why I mentioned Elvis.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Yup, he's another great example.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

For your information, Baron Von Smarty, I don't harbour quite the hostility toward Motown music that I did when we were nippers, particularly as so much far worse, horrifying, shite has been perpetrated since then (for instance, the slop you mention that passes for R&B now). Still, if I have a choice between grooving along with Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers or yawning with the Four Tops, I'll take Hound Dog, thanks.

Mr Hughes is quite correct about Motown being a sweat shop hit factory, and it's just as well that their songwriers (Holland/Dozier/Holland, wasn't it?) were sublimely talented.

Plenty of songs do actually have E Presley's name as a co-writer, though he didn't write a note. His draconian manager Colonel Tom Parker (I've yet to encounter a more ironic alias for an illegal Dutch immigrant) strong-armed various songwriters into allowing Presley's name alongside theirs if they wanted him to sing their songs.

I didn't know D Ross put out for Berry Gordy in order to advance her career! Is that true? Ha! Finger off the pulse, obviously...

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

You know, I've heard precious little T-Bone Walker, and (as a fanatical blues guitarist) I'm keen on hearing more, if only because I know he influenced BBKing heavily and I like his tone and knotty, jazzy little chords here and there. Watching footage of him playing his guitar horizontally, though, gives my wrists sympathetic carpal tunnel.

Hound Dog Taylor's blues is raw and the most fun you can have vertically. Any of his "official" Alligator releases are recommended, but the bootlegs out there are of varying quality.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Yep Barry and Diana were getting it on and they/she used to do things to deliberately upstage to other girls.