It is Berry Gordy’s birthday today. I use the occasion to set up a list of my favourite Motown albums. As always it is a snapshot of my mind at this particular moment, done to tomorrow, it would have resulted in a different list.
Berry Gordy, Jr. (born November 28, 1929) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries. He was also a very competent songwriter and producer.
I chose to honor him with a list of great albums from his hit factory. So here we go:
1 What’s Goin on by Marvin Gaye
Highlights: What’s goin on, Mercy Mercy Me, Innecity Blues (makes me wanna holler)
2 Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
Highlights: Too high, Living for the city, Higher ground
3 Imagination by Gladys Knight and The Pips
Highlights: Midnight train to Georgia, Best thing that ever happened to me, I’ve got to use my imagination
4 Let’s get it on by Marvin Gaye
Highlights: Let’s get it on, Come get to this, You sure love to ball
5 Talking Book by Stevie Wonder
Highlights: Superstition, Maybe your baby, You’ve got it bad girl
As the bassist for Booker T. & the MG’s, Donald “Duck” Dunn became, like James Jamerson at Motown, the man who provided a groove for an entire generation to dance to. In Dunn’s case it was the legendary Memphis record label Stax/Volt, where he laid down basslines for soul stars such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Albert King, helping to create one of the largest bodies of soul and R&B music that exists.
~Steve Kurutz (allmusic.com)
Short intro:
Booker T & the MG’s – green onions:
From Wikipedia:
Birth name
Donald Dunn
Also known as
Duck
Born
November 24, 1941
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Died
May 13, 2012 (aged 70)
Tokyo, Japan
Genres
Rock, soul, rhythm and blues
Occupations
Songwriter, producer, actor
Instruments
Bass guitar
Years active
1960–2012
Associated acts
Otis Redding, Booker T & the MG’s, Albert King, Mar-Keys,The Blues Brothers, Sam and Dave
Website
duckdunn.com
Donald “Duck” Dunn (November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012)was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.’s and as a session bassist for Stax Records, which specialized in blues and gospel-infused southern soul which became known as Memphis Soul. At Stax, Dunn played on thousands of records including hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, and many others. Dunn also performed on recordings with The Blues Brothers, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Isaac Hayes, Levon Helm, Neil Young, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wilson Pickett, Guy Sebastian, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Roy Buchanan, Steely Dan, Tinsley Ellis and Arthur Conley.
Booker T. & The MG’s – Time Is Tight (Live, 1970):
Dunn played himself in the 1980 feature The Blues Brothers, where he famously uttered the line, “We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline!”
Awards:
In 1992, Dunn was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Booker T & the MG’s.
In 2007 Dunnand several Booker T & the MG’s members (Lewie Steinberg, Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, and Barbara Jackson, the widow of Al Jackson) were given a “Lifetime Achievement” Grammy award for their contributions to popular music.
Aretha Franklin hooked up with Duane Allman and recorded this version at Muscle Shoals. It is Loose and funky as hell, and full of those incredible Aretha vocals I love, it sounds like good southern gospel. Duane Allman plays bottle guitar throughout like that guitar god that he is. Listen to it, heavenly is the best description!
2. Derek and the Dominoes/Eric Clapton with Duane Allman – Layla (studio outake)
Slowhand and Skydog together, what a match!
When asked about playing with Clapton, Allman said I played the Gibson parts and Eric played the fender parts. This studio outtake from the reissue in 2009 is even better than the iconic original.
3. Boz Scaggs with Duane Allman – Loan me a Dime
Boz Scagg’s self-titled album from 1969, Boz Scaggs (Atlantic SD-33-8239) which features Duane Allman on five tracks, including the amazing slow blues jam ”Loan Me A Dime.” On the video below, you can hear Allman exchanging riffs with Larry Knechtel’s organ. Here it is, a twelve minute blues lament:
This song portrays the best of both Duane and Boz.It is a shame we don’t have anyone making music like this anymore.Good music is never out of style. Duane’s work is incredible!
At the dark end of the street
That’s where we always meet
Hiding in shadows where we don’t belong
Livin in darkness to hide a wrong
You and me
At the dark end of the street
You and me
Dan Penn was an important player in the development of the “Southern Soul scene” in Memphis in the early 60’s.
Here he performs one of the greatest soul songs ever, which he wrote together with Chips Moman in 1966:
Dark End of The Street:
I also need to include the best version of this fantastic song – James Carr:
From Wikipedia:
Dan Penn (born Wallace Daniel Pennington, 16 November 1941) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including “Dark End Of The Street” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” with Chips Moman as well as “Out Of Left Field” and “Cry Like a Baby” with Spooner Oldham. Penn also produced many hits including “The Letter” by The Box Tops. Though considered to be one of the great white soul singers of his generation, Penn has released relatively few records featuring his own vocals and musicianship preferring the relative anonymity of songwriting and producing.
I’m Your Puppet (Penn/Spooner Oldham):
Steve Kurutz (allmusic.com):
Songwriter/producer Dan Penn has been a quiet force behind Southern soul music for over thirty years. Always moving just out of view of the limelight, Penn has produced and written hits for the Box Tops, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin and Ronnie Milsap, among others.
Originally from Vernon, Alabama, Penn began his career as a performer, leading several white R&B bands around the Muscle Shoals area. Achieving early success by selling a hit song to Conway Twitty (“Is a Bluebird Blue?”), the songwriter eventually moved to Memphis, joining producer Chips Moman at his American Studios. Together the two, along with Penn’s writing partner, organist Spooner Oldham, wrote and/or produced several hits for the Box Tops, such as “The Letter” and “Cry Like a Baby,” throughout the late ’60s.
…read more over @ allmusic.com
Album of the day:
Do Right Man (1994):
From allmusic.com (Chris Nickson):
If James Brown is Soul Brother Number One, you can make a very credible case for Dan Penn being number two. The Alabama native has had a hand in writing a fair number of classic soul songs, and here he commits his versions of them to tape for the first time, recording, of course, in Muscle Shoals, with their fabulous house band, and a horn section including former Memphis Horn member Wayne Jackson. It’s a tall order Penn sets himself, offering himself up for comparison with greats like James Carr, Aretha Franklin, and James and Bobby Purify, who have sung his songs — and that’s just the start of the list. However, he comes out very well, beginning with a quiet take on”The Dark End of the Street,” coming across like a note to a secret lover, rather than a cry of pain. …read more – allmusic.com
The venerable Delbert McClinton is a legend among Texas roots music aficionados, not only for his amazing longevity, but for his ability to combine country, blues, soul, and rock & roll as if there were no distinctions between any of them in the best time-honored Texas tradition.
~Steve Huey (allmusic.com)
2011 Texas Heritage Songwriters’ Association Hall of Fame Inductee:
From Wikipedia:
Delbert McClinton (born November 4, 1940) is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist.
Active as a side-man since 1962 and as a band leader since 1972, he has recorded several major record label albums, and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Rock Tracks, and Hot Country Songs charts. His highest-peaking single was “Tell Me About It”, a 1992 duet with Tanya Tucker which reached No. 4 on the Country chart. He has also had four albums that made it to No. 1 on the U.S. Blues chart, and another that reached No. 2.
He was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame, in March 2011, along with Lee Roy Parnell, Bruce Channel, Gary Nicholson and Cindy Walker.
“Giving It Up For Your Love” @ Austin City Limits:
Album of the day:
Live (2003)
Hal Horowitz (allmusic.com):
The best way to experience Delbert McClinton‘s rowdy roadhouse combination of blues, roots rock, R&B, country, and Tex-Mex is on-stage with a couple of hundred other fans on a Saturday night. In that spirit,McClinton’s second live album, and first since 1989’s Live from Austin, documents a single 2003 performance at Norway’s Bergen Blues Festival. Originally intended only as a radio broadcast, this is an unpolished example of a typical show. Although it shares five songs with its single-disc predecessor, Livefeatures McClinton weaving newer material in with hits he’s been playing for decades, such as “B-Movie Boxcar Blues,” “Giving It Up for Your Love,” and “Going Back to Louisiana.” McClinton’s in terrific voice and spirits throughout, and his seven-piece band (including two horns) is tight but loose and ragged enough to grind through rockers with garage band enthusiasm. “Rebecca, Rebecca,” the album’s slow blues showcase, proves how comfortable McClinton is with his band and being on-stage. This is clearly his forte, and even though he’s released some terrific, if not quite classic, studio albums, this is the best way to get an overall dose of his talents. The career-spanning set list isn’t a greatest-hits collection, but that just makes it more enjoyable as the singer throws in a few curve balls. ……. read more @ allmusic.com
