Saturday, October 18, 2008

Because it makes me smile ...


Some Billy Bragg from my wild teenage years -- and more than a little appropriate after reading this.



My poppa has always loved Motown music so I grew up listening to The Four Tops, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas and my dad's personal favourite, Brother Ray, just to name a few.


2 comments:

Beijing York said...

Thanks LuLu. That was very uplifting in what has been a very distressing past two weeks.

I love Billy Bragg and I too grew up with Motown music. Some of my favourite memories are attached to the hits created by these fantastic Detroit artists.

Frank Frink said...

Sure... make me feel really old. What? I must be almost as old as your dad. ;-)

The Motown Sound from Detroit, as well as the classic Stax/Volt sound from Memphis, is my main musical love affair and always remains my touchstone. And as a bass player, between the two - Motown and Stax/Volt - the incredible studio bass players, James Jamerson and Donald 'Duck' Dunn remain my two biggest influences.

Levi Stubbs was indeed one of the great distinctive voices of that era. I'm forever grateful that many, many years ago I had the pleasure and privilege of performing with a Motown/soul revue, incidently as the only non-black member of said revue.

That Billy Bragg song is one of the most touching and affecting songs that came out of the 80's. Thanks.