Review: The Motown 7s Box: Rare and Unreleased Vinyl, Volume 2

Survival of the fittest, they called it. Ensconced in a small conference room in the label’s Detroit headquarters Motown founder Berry Gordy would convene his producers and songwriters to defend their latest works, pitting one song against another to ensure that only the best ones be released as singles and album tracks. 

“If you were down to your last dollar,” Gordy would ask, “would you spend it on a hot dog or this record?” Without knowing exactly which songs prevailed over which, the ones on the just released compilation, The Motown 7s Box: Rare and Unreleased Vinyl, Volume 2, suggest the right calls indeed were made. For the most part these songs go by in an indiscriminate Motownesque blur, neither adding to the musical legacies of some of the label’s signature artists (Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & The Pips) nor to its seismic cultural contribution and influence on the whole. 

Still this set has its moments, including the Isley Brothers’ “Sure is a Whole Lotta Woman” and the Contours’ “Take Him Back If It Makes You Happy,” the latter of which features a particularly fiery lead vocal from Dennis Edwards, who would later replace David Ruffin in the Temptations to grace such classics as “Cloud Nine” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” Overall, though, it’s the rare distinction of its material that gives this collection its greatest appeal.

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Album Review: Gladys Knight - Another Journey

The greats forge their own way, not pander to what’s necessarily popular or trendy at any given moment. For those schooled in rhythm and blues, particularly, having the right songs and the goods to deliver them with conviction is what has always counted more than anything else. Such credentials are nothing new to Gladys Knight, who’s turned out some of the most potent soul classics of the past half century. At sixty-nine, her church-nurtured pipes still sound as urgent and uplifting as when she was leaving on that “Midnight Train to Georgia” forty years ago. 

And it’s that voice which redeems much of her latest album, Another Journey (CD Baby Records), despite moments of overwrought or otherwise ill-suited production. “Old School,” for instance, sounds like the very antithesis of its title, hearkening back to the golden age of Motown and Atlantic and Stax only in its lyrics, certainly not in its hip/hop beats or, worse, an unnecessary rap which seemingly takes up more time than the lady’s own lead vocal. “Searching for the Real Thing” succumbs to some of the same production indulgences but its basic groove, a bit reminiscent of “Love Overboard,” ultimately makes this one hard to resist. “Settle” offers a far better blend of modern flavor and retro vibe, while a lovely rendition of the Lee Ann Womack hit, “I Hope You Dance,” brims with a modest gospel passion. The best of the bunch here, however, is “The Dream,” on which Knight galvanizes an emboldening message and a nursery-rhyme-like melody with supreme command and enthusiasm, which when accompanied by a children’s choir amounts to one of this legend’s most exuberant performances indeed. 

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Special Occasion: Smokey Robinson Live in Florida

Smokey Robinson, 4/10/2013, Mahaffey Theater (photo: Donald Gibson)

Smokey Robinson may very well be the smoothest, most sensual singer/songwriter ever. The man oozes intimacy. Not sex explicitly, but rather the rush of attraction and togetherness, a bit of sweet talk whispered between sweethearts in the dark. Marvin wanted to get it on. Smokey wants you, baby, to come close.

At 73 Robinson still exudes a singular passion and, with his falsetto in fine form this past Wednesday night in St. Petersburg, he seduced a sold-out Mahaffey Theater audience for two solid hours. 

After opening with a trio of expected but nonetheless exhilarating oldies—“Going to a Go-Go,” “I Second That Emotion,” “You Really Got A Hold On Me”—Robinson led his nine-piece band into “Quiet Storm,” establishing the mood of the music to come.

Indeed it was a feast for love-song lovers, “grown-folks’” music it’s sometimes called, and Robinson obliged with highlights (“Being With You,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” “The Tracks of My Tears”) from virtually every phase of his career. 

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Album Review: Phil Collins - Going Back

While the majority of covers albums by veteran artists in recent years have smacked of a marketing strategy — think of those by Rod Stewart or Barry Manilow — the new one by Phil Collins, Going Back, on which he interprets songs of Motown and other comparable classics, comes across as a genuine labor of love.

Collins has long held a soft spot for vintage R&B and pop, and he's illustrated as much throughout his career, from scoring solo hits with the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” and the Mindbenders’ “A Groovy Kind of Love” to including an oldies medley during “Turn It On Again” on past Genesis tours.

Such affinities even more richly inform Going Back, which features members of the Funk Brothers — the Motown house band, which played on virtually all of the Detroit label’s signature material — who, besides adding credibility to the recordings, provide many a direct link to their history.

At his best here Collins has a way of personalizing a song, not so much to make it his own but to convince listeners it’s theirs. And he succeeds most in doing so on relative obscurities like the Ronettes’ “Do I Love You?” and the Temptations’ “Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue),” both evoking an air of wistful romance. Another noteworthy highlight is the Stevie Wonder ballad, “Blame It On the Sun,” which Collins renders with empathy and striking conviction.

He struggles, though, on more vocally demanding tracks like “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” and “Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While),” the lack of agility in his voice calling to mind just how exhilarating the definitive versions (by Stevie Wonder and the Isley Brothers, respectively) sounded in the first place.

That said, no one will mistake Collins’ singing in general for the likes of Smokey Robinson or Levi Stubbs, nor should they assume that he is even attempting to rival theirs or any other of the principal artists’ versions. Going Back is an homage, plain and simple, with which Collins honors the songwriters, musicians, and vocalists who inspired him to pursue his own musical path as a young man. That it comes, most likely, toward the end of his extensive career gives a sense of symmetry to what is overall an earnest, enjoyable album.

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Stevie Wonder is Live At Last

Every avid music fan keeps in mind a list of artists that he or she would drop everything — but has never had the chance — to see in concert. I’m not talking about the run-of-the-mill productions that roll into the same towns each year, but rather those rare, special events — whether a stop on a once-in-a-lifetime tour or a one-night-only affair — that inspire us on road trips or cross-country flights. For nearly three decades, literally for as long as I could remember — until September 14, 2007 at the Chastain Park Amphitheatre in Atlanta — Stevie Wonder topped my list.

Recorded over two nights last year at London’s O2 Arena, Live At Last — an apt title if ever there was one — now makes its way onto DVD and Blue-ray, marking the Motown legend’s first-ever official concert film. Chock full of classics that are at turns romantic (“My Cherie Amour,” “You Are The Sunshine of My Life”), idealistic (“Visions,” “As”), and anthemic (“Living For The City,” “Higher Ground”), the performance covers Wonder’s illustrious career. And for me, it underscores why I’d always longed to witness Stevie Wonder in concert…for once in my life.

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Motown, That's What I Want

“The Sound of Young America” was the slogan that Berry Gordy ascribed to the music coming out of his recording studios in Detroit, but Motown Records also proved a phenomenon. The caliber of songwriters, producers, musicians, and performers that assembled under Motown’s banner in the late ‘50s and throughout the ‘60s and early ‘70s rank among the most successful and creatively sophisticated of the twentieth century.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Motown’s inception and the label’s enduring legacy, Time Life Music has now released a substantial box set—comprised of 10 CDs and a DVD—entitled The Motown Collection.

As one would expect from a compilation of this nature and scope, the majority of its 150 songs are well-known hits from the label’s most-prominent artists, including Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, the Jackson 5, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and the Four Tops. Any serious music collection should already account for such artists (and, in many cases, with albums rather than assorted singles), yet this set would certainly fill the most conspicuous voids.

Worth mentioning is the inclusion here of lesser-known cuts or tracks by artists who didn’t yield the volume of material generated by their higher-profile labelmates. Songs like “He Was Really Sayin’ Something” by the Velvelettes (later covered by Bananarama), “First I Look At The Purse” by the Contours, and “The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” by the Marvelettes fill out the set in generous measure.

Because it concentrates on Motown’s classic era and songs recorded by its classic artists in later years, the set suffers only in the few instances when it includes material that meets neither criteria. Songs like Debarge’s “Rhythm of the Night” and Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard To Say Good bye To Yesterday,” for instance, not only seem inferior among such gems, but also inconsistent with the quintessential Motown sound.

The accompanying DVD, Ed Sullivan’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Classics: Motortown Review, features 12 performances (from five acts) originally aired on Sullivan’s weekly variety show. Essentially a cursory companion to the music discs, it wouldn’t hold up as a standalone video, but it contains a few highlights nonetheless. In particular, the 1969 debut appearance by the Jackson 5—with this thriller of a kid singing lead vocals—includes a sensational version of “I Want You Back.” As well, Stevie Wonder’s 1968 appearance, during which he played “You Met Your Match” and “For Once In My Life,” offers a telling glimpse of where his talent would take him in just a few short years, beginning with Music of My Mind.

Of course, The Motown Collection is all about the music and, in that regard, its flaws are few and far between. Moreover, considering the breadth of this compilation, it more than lives up to its purpose in celebrating the quality and the legacy of Motown.

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