Mrs. Mailman and I went to a party Friday night–without kids! We got to let loose for the first time in too long. While dancing, I began to notice that the only really good dance music was Motown stuff from the 60’s. Why is this? The musical selections ran from Rap to Nivana, but again and again the dance floor really only heated up with Martha Reeves, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Wilson Picket, James Brown–I guess it’s not just Motown, but soul music from the 60’s. (I guess the Stones came off pretty well too.) What has that music got that seems to be lacking in everything else? Or is it just the limitations of my age group showing?
Hi, mailman:
That’s a hard question to approach, let alone attempt to answer. Please allow me to set aside the spiky word best, begin with the belief that you like dancing to rhythm and blues, and to guess that you want to know more about your responses to soul music. In that case, maybe a couple of websites and books can start you on your way.
One of the better introductions to Motown is Nelson George’s Where Did Our Love Go?, more fully discussed on this fine website dedicated to soul music. With lots of quotes from Motown players, Mr. George spins a compelling thesis: Berry Gordy, the man in charge, wanted to cross over to a larger audience; so, he needed to draw a roadmap to show the most anvil-footed white teenager how to move his feet. Enter a whole bunch of musicians who could realize his vision, all building on the percussive talents of Benny Benjamin, a drummer who could kick out a beat and add elements from the percussion table to tell any dancer how to move. He might be less subtle than footstep diagrams on the floor of an Arthur Murray dance studio, but he was astonishly inventive and effective. If you think him simplistic, listen past the four-beat thump-thump-thump-thump everyone seems to remember from hits like Freda Payne’s Band of Gold; and listen to how he worked tambourines, cowbells, triangles, and anything else he could stroke, touch, smack, whack. This man could teach a millipede to boogaloo.
If you want to stay with Motown, the recently released book and movie, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, can help provide a musician’s eye view of how the Funk Brothers made magic. In large part, the hero of these pieces is James Jamerson, an extraordinary bassist who could always play toward and away from Mr. Benjamin’s foundational beats, always accenting, commenting, punctuating. Those two men formed a wonderful rhythm section.
The site has lots of pages, and some of them are bound to interest you. In particular, the megapage on Understanding Soul is worth your time. To go further than this, however, you may need other kinds of guides and perspectives: if you run Google on terms like neuroscience and rhythm, you can start with a gentle guide to difficult topics. From here, my friend, you’re on your own.
Peace.
It’s the limitations of your age group showing. I’ve recently been at shows ranging from Psychic TV to Cheb I Sabbah to the Dusty 45s, and they each had the place jumping.