Post by timmy84 on Jul 8, 2006 14:14:51 GMT -5
When one thinks of Martha and the Vandellas, they think of them as having the greatest dance records to ever come out of the '60s, out of Motown and out of rock music, and that's indeed true. Yet, they're often giving the second tier treatment to a group as "regal" as the Supremes so to speak. Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth. In reality when basing or comparing the Supremes and the Vandellas, you can easily see the impact of Martha and the Vandellas that you just don't get from Diane, Flo and Mary.
As best as they tried, not even their best singles ("I Hear a Symphony", "Back in My Arms Again", "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "You Keep Me Hangin' On") fare little in comparison to the Vandellas' best ("(Love Is Like A) Heatwave", "Quicksand", "Dancing in the Street", "Nowhere to Run", "Jimmy Mack"). People often think that the Supremes were more influential in the crossover of black groups to make their way when it was really the Vandellas who did that first (and to a lesser but broader extent, the Marvelettes). What separates the Vandellas, though from the aforementioned girl groups of the "Super 3", was they had more of a gospel and blues backing that made their best records funkier and much looser.
In fact, Aretha Franklin owes a huge debt to Martha and the Vandellas because without them, she wouldn't have had the motivation to get out of the Dinah Washington funk she was in to find herself as one of the carriers of soul music. Aretha's best music was her late-'60s period with Atlantic and while she nor Jerry Wexler & Ahmet Ertegun wouldn't or haven't yet admitted this, in truth, songs like "Dancing in the Street", "Motoring", "Wild One", "Nowhere to Run", "Honey Chile" and "You've Been in Love Too Long" had much an impact on songs like "Respect", "Baby I Love You", "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Think" and "See Saw" paving the way for Aretha's Motown-inspired Memphis soul from the New York recording studios of Atlantic.
Without Martha Reeves, Aretha Franklin wouldn't have been as easily motivated to "be herself". She can owe her debt to Ray Charles and Sam Cooke all she want but the fact is another woman - from the Motown family tree - actually was the first true queen of soul and that was Martha Reeves. The harmonies of Rosalyn (or Rosalind) Ashford, Annette Beard and Betty Kelly (or Kelley) would be imitated too by Aretha's own sisters Erma and Carolyn and also by Cissy Houston's Sweet Inspirations. Martha influenced not only Aretha but the other great Motown soul belter - Gladys Knight, who was already established.
Also, songs like "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run" wasn't just songs that were great lyrically or just musically adapt or just vocally masterful, they were all of the above but much more: these songs symbolized the true sound of young America in a way many of the Supremes records never did. As stated though, most of us stated that the Supremes' legacy was overstated, or overrated. I didn't think so until I actually bought their greatest hits recently and put two and two together. Their hits truly were the crossing over from just black markets to white listeners' ears.
"Dancing in the Street", in general, was a turning-point record, not only for Motown but also of music in general. The same sound that made this song spectacular was actually emulated by another heralded music god: James Brown. The sounds you hear from "Street" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" for example are similar and while "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is credited with creating funk music, "Dancing in the Street" was actually an early contributor to the genre - letting everything go in blaring horns, a syncopated drum beat that almost never existed before on any Motown, or any rock drum beat before then, a blistering guitar backup, and finally the funky vocals of Martha Reeves "calling out around the world" alongside the Vandellas (and company's) harmonies was influential in bridging the gap between soul and the new then-unnamed genre. As if the music accompanied by "The Funk Brothers" was any occasion that this song was just that - funk, ain't no coincidence. It's also virtually the first disco record, more than a decade before the genre was actually founded.
Think back, how many records sounded like "Dancing in the Street"? How many records sounded like this BEFORE they recorded this legendary song? It truly was a benchmark and landmark for music. It was a social statement, a political movement, a racial melting pot and a musical revolution all in one. It impacted listeners the same way Aretha's "Respect" would have on the world. "Nowhere to Run" is one of the ultimate funk songs. The drums blare like crazy, the bass simmering, the horns again blaring, the need for strange percussion and the street-based backing of the Vandellas with a bluesy-sounding Martha in a funkdafied matter explaining why she just can't get away from an obsessive ex-lover is infectious.
In fact, the majority of Martha/Vandellas' hits and b-sides paved the way for the more soulful girl groups. Groups like Labelle, the Emotions, the Pointer Sisters, Honey Cone, High Inergy (a '70s Motown girl group), the Mary Jane Girls, Expose, the Cover Girls, En Vogue, TLC, the Spice Girls and Destiny's Child all owe a debt to Martha and the Vandellas rather than to the Supremes' whose 1970s post-Diane records also owe some debt to the Vandellas' earlier accomplishments. The fact these girls ain't even hailed as legendary pioneers to burgeoning musical sounds and paving the way for everybody from Aretha to Beyonce is a sin. The Rolling Stones ALSO pay a debt to Martha and the Vandellas due to Keith Richards' guitar riff intro in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" paying a big tribute to the horn openings of "Dancing" and also by Mick Jagger re-recording the song as a duet with David Bowie (a bland duet but nonetheless). The Who played some Vandellas records in the beginning of their careers, as did the Kinks, who did "Dancing". The hippies dug the Vandellas, the Black Panthers dug the Vandellas, the women's liberation groups dug the Vandellas, the troops in Vietnam dug the Vandellas... everybody knows the deal when you mention their records.
So really, why the slack off and the reminder that "they played second tier to the Supremes"? Martha Reeves and the Vandellas should be celebrated for changing the musical landscape by having the Funk Brothers go REALLY funky and sending everybody on its ear.
Martha and the Vandellas, as the great Muhammad Ali would say, SHOOK UP THE WORLD!
As best as they tried, not even their best singles ("I Hear a Symphony", "Back in My Arms Again", "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "You Keep Me Hangin' On") fare little in comparison to the Vandellas' best ("(Love Is Like A) Heatwave", "Quicksand", "Dancing in the Street", "Nowhere to Run", "Jimmy Mack"). People often think that the Supremes were more influential in the crossover of black groups to make their way when it was really the Vandellas who did that first (and to a lesser but broader extent, the Marvelettes). What separates the Vandellas, though from the aforementioned girl groups of the "Super 3", was they had more of a gospel and blues backing that made their best records funkier and much looser.
In fact, Aretha Franklin owes a huge debt to Martha and the Vandellas because without them, she wouldn't have had the motivation to get out of the Dinah Washington funk she was in to find herself as one of the carriers of soul music. Aretha's best music was her late-'60s period with Atlantic and while she nor Jerry Wexler & Ahmet Ertegun wouldn't or haven't yet admitted this, in truth, songs like "Dancing in the Street", "Motoring", "Wild One", "Nowhere to Run", "Honey Chile" and "You've Been in Love Too Long" had much an impact on songs like "Respect", "Baby I Love You", "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Think" and "See Saw" paving the way for Aretha's Motown-inspired Memphis soul from the New York recording studios of Atlantic.
Without Martha Reeves, Aretha Franklin wouldn't have been as easily motivated to "be herself". She can owe her debt to Ray Charles and Sam Cooke all she want but the fact is another woman - from the Motown family tree - actually was the first true queen of soul and that was Martha Reeves. The harmonies of Rosalyn (or Rosalind) Ashford, Annette Beard and Betty Kelly (or Kelley) would be imitated too by Aretha's own sisters Erma and Carolyn and also by Cissy Houston's Sweet Inspirations. Martha influenced not only Aretha but the other great Motown soul belter - Gladys Knight, who was already established.
Also, songs like "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run" wasn't just songs that were great lyrically or just musically adapt or just vocally masterful, they were all of the above but much more: these songs symbolized the true sound of young America in a way many of the Supremes records never did. As stated though, most of us stated that the Supremes' legacy was overstated, or overrated. I didn't think so until I actually bought their greatest hits recently and put two and two together. Their hits truly were the crossing over from just black markets to white listeners' ears.
"Dancing in the Street", in general, was a turning-point record, not only for Motown but also of music in general. The same sound that made this song spectacular was actually emulated by another heralded music god: James Brown. The sounds you hear from "Street" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" for example are similar and while "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is credited with creating funk music, "Dancing in the Street" was actually an early contributor to the genre - letting everything go in blaring horns, a syncopated drum beat that almost never existed before on any Motown, or any rock drum beat before then, a blistering guitar backup, and finally the funky vocals of Martha Reeves "calling out around the world" alongside the Vandellas (and company's) harmonies was influential in bridging the gap between soul and the new then-unnamed genre. As if the music accompanied by "The Funk Brothers" was any occasion that this song was just that - funk, ain't no coincidence. It's also virtually the first disco record, more than a decade before the genre was actually founded.
Think back, how many records sounded like "Dancing in the Street"? How many records sounded like this BEFORE they recorded this legendary song? It truly was a benchmark and landmark for music. It was a social statement, a political movement, a racial melting pot and a musical revolution all in one. It impacted listeners the same way Aretha's "Respect" would have on the world. "Nowhere to Run" is one of the ultimate funk songs. The drums blare like crazy, the bass simmering, the horns again blaring, the need for strange percussion and the street-based backing of the Vandellas with a bluesy-sounding Martha in a funkdafied matter explaining why she just can't get away from an obsessive ex-lover is infectious.
In fact, the majority of Martha/Vandellas' hits and b-sides paved the way for the more soulful girl groups. Groups like Labelle, the Emotions, the Pointer Sisters, Honey Cone, High Inergy (a '70s Motown girl group), the Mary Jane Girls, Expose, the Cover Girls, En Vogue, TLC, the Spice Girls and Destiny's Child all owe a debt to Martha and the Vandellas rather than to the Supremes' whose 1970s post-Diane records also owe some debt to the Vandellas' earlier accomplishments. The fact these girls ain't even hailed as legendary pioneers to burgeoning musical sounds and paving the way for everybody from Aretha to Beyonce is a sin. The Rolling Stones ALSO pay a debt to Martha and the Vandellas due to Keith Richards' guitar riff intro in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" paying a big tribute to the horn openings of "Dancing" and also by Mick Jagger re-recording the song as a duet with David Bowie (a bland duet but nonetheless). The Who played some Vandellas records in the beginning of their careers, as did the Kinks, who did "Dancing". The hippies dug the Vandellas, the Black Panthers dug the Vandellas, the women's liberation groups dug the Vandellas, the troops in Vietnam dug the Vandellas... everybody knows the deal when you mention their records.
So really, why the slack off and the reminder that "they played second tier to the Supremes"? Martha Reeves and the Vandellas should be celebrated for changing the musical landscape by having the Funk Brothers go REALLY funky and sending everybody on its ear.
Martha and the Vandellas, as the great Muhammad Ali would say, SHOOK UP THE WORLD!