Soul Satisfaction 02 - The Motown Connection Cd Review
At first glance the design and presentation of the
CD earns full marks with a breezy design and the front cover also doubles up
as a 8 sided informative pullout. Each track being allocated, first a brief
description by Jo Wallace, using her own unique style of description,
which anyone who has had the pleasure of hearing her Dj will be familiar with
. Who else would use the term "Moist Motown" ! And then
following these lyrical descriptions, a potted factual history for each track
for the info freaks, as in release date, details, numbers and origins. Always
can tell how good a insert is by the amount of times you find yourself reading
it and so far this one is well on its way to being well thumbed.
On to the tracks themselves, well the listing was
previewed earlier on Soul Source but just to refresh you its repeated below,
as you may spot not strictly a Motown one but sweeps up and includes a few
tracks from labels that later came under Motown. The track order follows
a loose time structured format apart from just a few skips back and
forth. The opening tracks finds us in the time of 1963 and the end ones has
us finishing in 1973 and the styles follow suit, with early Detroit first, leading
us into the labels golden age and then finishing just before (to me when
the label lost it self) the mid 70s. Trackwise, well as said Jo Wallace
comments and the info facts do each track justice, but as you cant read them
without buying the Cd have just added my scribbles on a few of the tracks.
Junior Walker - Good Rockin
First track always a important one on a cd as its the one that sets out the
stall, and this one takes us back to the Harvey Label in 63 with a well
raucous opener, Mr Walker certainly gets you up and taking notice with this
one. Will just say this had the whole household up and rocking this
morning, all brushing our teeth in time to this one.
Marvelettes - Goddess of love
Carolyn Crawford - Forget about me
Still in 1963 and well just say ... perfection
Earl Van Dyke - How Sweet it is
A track that works so well down at "These Old Shoes" and seems to be
made for that style of venue
Billy Eckstine - I wonder why nobody loves me
Another floor filling track thats been in demand for a fair while
now and its good to see it on CD.
Tammi Terrell - I cant believe you love me
Smokey Robinson and Miracles - Can you love a poor boy
Martha Reeves - My baby loves me
One track which seems to have always been overlooked due to its commercial
success, always been a constant dig out and play through the years for
myself.
Fantastic Four - Just the lonely
Fantastic Four - Cant stop looking for my babyBoth sides of this Ric Tic outing are on here and deservedly so, always good
to hear those classic opening lines of "another two dollar room
thats never seen a broom....."
Monitors - Say you
Temps - Hey Girl
Jimmy Ruffin - Everybody needs love
Current the last play at these old shoes nites and surprisingly I read its the
flip of " I passed this way before", which sadly is one that must
have lived in my shoe box for years unappreciated.
Gladys Knight & Pips - Hes my kind of fellow
A LP track which is another one that has been in
demand recently and yet another one thats worth the cd price alone.
Four Tops - Im Grateful
Edwin Starr - Dont tell me Im crazy
Spinners - Shes gonna love me at sundown
Edwin Starr - Running back and forth
Flip of his popular Time and another one which makes you wonder why
stuff of this calibre was ignored on initial release and why you didnt pay
more attention to those flips.
Martha Reeves - Love, guess whoA first hear for me from 1970 and one that will definetly be played again.
Edwin Starr - There you go
Stevie Wonder - Light my fire
Gladys Knight - Who is she
Original of the Creative Source outing and a stop off on this trip to
those funky psychedelic early 70s
Eddie Kendricks - Date with the rainFrom 1972 comes one which found fame later in 80s on the rare groove side, and
still works well in 2001
Marvin Gaye - Come get to this
The one that earned the title "Moist Motown" and a great way
to finish with the master and a track combining the magic of his 60s stuff
with the feel of his classic 70s epics. Proves the top tip "Always finish
on a high!" correct.
Well there you go, as said just a few notes on some of the tracks, looking back at the Cd
overall, it was a great journey, from
those long far away days of 63 where both throbbing uptempo and girl soul
sounds started us off, right up to the smooth hazy days of those
early 70s, with stops off at a wide range of different Motown stops,
ranging from the well known in demand tracks to little heard overlooked
potential classics.
To me thats the one thing that makes the cd stand out from the crowd, its not
just a collection of thrown together tracks, but you can feel the thought and
effort that has gone in to planning this journey, its a
collection that you can listen to from the start to end with no need to keep
hitting that jump track button that some comps suffer from, which proves
the attention paid to the track choices.
The final word, A top selection of tracks, a great mix of in demand
items, little heard potential classics and just some cracking soul music. Its
a good one and well recommended.
In the shops date as soon as get it
Universal - 013215-2 being the number
