Hello Again Kats & Kittens, Friend & Fiend,
The New improved PPE work appliance is in! Cannot wait to see 40 People in a small, cramped room working together with one of these on….Such Joy!
ONWARD!
We are staying with yestermorn’s SESSION PLAYAH! theme…. To DEEEtroit for a session with Motown’s FUNK BROTHERS! These Kats could swing!
Motown Records Grand Poobah, Mr. BERRY GORDY JR. needed pros & got them…most, if not all MoTown’s recording output from 1959-1972 was backed by THE FUNK BROTHERS.
JOE HUNTER, EARL VAN DYKE, JACK ASHFORD, JOHNNY GRIFFITH, BENNY BENJAMIN, EDDIE "BONGO" BROWN, JAMES JAMERSON, URIEL JONES, JOE MESSINA, ROBERT WHITE, EDDIE WILLIS, RICHARD “PISTOL” ALLEN, BOB BABBITT. The list is bigger, over one hundred pro musos were FUNK BROTHERS, only 13 got recognized as a band by NARAS.
OG FUNK BROTHERS
DIANNA & HER SUPES…
1972,,,BERRY GORDY moves Motown Records to LALA…FUNK BROTHERS no more….Mr. G. creates new West Coast FUNK BROS…but the dye has been cast….new Kats good…but not the FUNK BROTHERS.
LITTLE STEVIE WONDER loved these Kats…
Mr. Motown, Mr. BERRY GORDY JR.
FUNK BROTHERS made good with a passel of rare techniques for recording music. Many Motown recordings feature two drummers, together or through overdubbing……To pump up the volume further, Funksters employed three drummers for MARVIN GAYE'S "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "That's the Way Love Is".
Mad gadgetry was at hand too…THE TEMPTATIONS' "It's Growing" features Earl Van Dyke bompin’ a toy piano. Snow chains were used as percussion on MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS' "Nowhere to Run", a custom oscillator vibrating synthesized sounds made hay with the SUPREMES' “Reflections" & "Forever Came Today" as did THE TEMPTATIONS’ "Runaway Child, Running Wild". Even a tire iron can be heard on MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS song "Dancing in the Street".
THE TEMPTATIONS…..
End of today’s roadshow….
Thanks for listening, until tomorrow.
Peace & Distance.
