Customer Reviews

Standing in the Shadows of Motown

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I almost crapped myself when i spotted this!

I had the one disc version and the DVD, both of which I enjoyed immensly. This, however, is the iceing on the cake! The 'snakepit' instrumentals is a joy to behold, and shows you that without the dynamics and unison of this band, Most of Motown acts would have scrubbed up no better or worse than Tom Jones or Dusty! The basswork of James Jamerson is self explanitory. Melodies that groove don't really sound this great, but James defined what that singing bass was alllll about. There's as much lyricism in his lines as in the vocal versions themselves!

The bonus tracks on disc one include 'Boom Boom Boom,' and the evergreen 'Higher' by Jackie Wilson, a perfect piece of pop, with Jamerson Sitting on the groove all the way. Dennis Coffey's 'Scorpio' is a breaks classic, the bongo break has long been a staple of Hip Hop sampling. I never knew it was the Funk Brothers on the groove!

The version of 'Heard it Through the Grapevine' kicks like a mule and hook you right in from the off. 'Don't Mess With Bill' is the instrumental side of the Motown revue, with very Jazzy guitar work and Jamerson's bass way out in front. This would be annoying if it weren't for his awesome melodic lines, dem lines!

The final track on disc 2 is Jamerson solo with the Temptations, real history...

If you play bass, start your melodic life here! If you don't, just dance!!!

I thought that I loved Motown because of the terrific singers. I now realize that I love Motown because of the Funk Brothers. My favorite is the 2nd CD which is instrumentals. Whoa! I felt something real. And I realized that the singers, for the most part, were totally unneccessary. The Funk Brothers? Necessary. The music is tight, natural and raw -- yet beautiful, sweet, surprisingly thoughful. Cool but extremely heated. When you hear "It's A Shame" and "Ain't no mountain high enough..." Oooh. Get it.

Hip-O Records presents the long awaited deluxe edition "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", featuring a compilation of fifteen original soundtrack tunes from The funk Brothers ~ plus bonus tracks with John Lee Hooker, Jackie Wilson, Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band ~ and that's just the first disc ~ "COOL JERK" (Bootsy Collins), "(LOVE IS LIKE A) HEAT WAVE" (Joan Osborne), "CLOUD NINE" (Meshell Ndegeocello) ~ all in all an original Grammy Award winning album.

Disc two takes us "In The Snakepit: naked instrumental remixes of the original hits ~ "I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE", "FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE", "I WAS MADE TO LOVE HER" ~ twenty four tracks of non-stop Motown memories with dialogue introducing each cue ~ the last track "YOU'RE MY EVERYTHING", featuring The Temptations & James Jamerson is a rare highlight ~ you can't help but fall for this double beautiful collection of what made Motown so great...gotta love it!

Total Time: 2-CD-Set ~ Hip-O Records 66365 ~ (5/11/2004)

Every musician knows what its like to be unappriciated in the music they perform. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN reveals the work and hits of soul performers: The Funk Brothers. This group of professional jazz musicians were the official band that Motown called into the studio to perform the music for the studio's pop artists. Artist after artist, and hit after hit, The Funk Brothers were the musicians who brought the classic soul hits to the public's ears, but never received any credit for their performances. The band consists of guitars, basses, percussion, backing vocals, strings, horns, and keyboards. These parts are all performed by professionals and they display how "any singer could be placed in front of this band, but it was The Funk Brothers who brought the music to life." This is quite apparent for the singers who perform on these live and studio records. These CD's are the work of bringing The Funk Brothers their much delayed credit of performing hit after hit. And the band needs as much attention as one can give them. Not that Joan Osborne, Bootsy Collins, Gerald Levert, Ben Harper, and Chaka Khan aren't amazing musicians. These singers know how to perform soul to its full extent. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN is a must have for any fan of great music.

Stand out tracks include:
"(Love Is Like) A Heat Wave"
"Reach Out I'll Be There"
"Ain't Too Proud To Beg"
"Shotgun"
"What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted"
"I Heard It Through The Grapevine"
"Cloud Nine"
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
"Boom Boom"
"My Girl"
"I Can't Get Next To You"

The saying goes that the funk Brothers performances were so good that "Once The Funk Brothers had recorded the instrumental part of a song, it didn't matter who sang over it". Now there's a lot of truth in this statement, because the Funk Brothers layed down some of the most recognisable instrumentals over the last 30 years (although you won't realise it was their work at first). This deluxe double Cd, attempts to give credit to one of Funk's greatest unsung heroes, and it's a very strong argument as to: 'why this wasn't done sooner??'. The 2 Disks are broken into two sections....the first Disk (Vocal Tracks), features the performances by the Funk Brothers, with various artists's vocals completing the songs. "Me'Shell NdegeOcello" gives a typically impassioned live performance on "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", that truly is deserving of her position as one of the most accomplished female vocalists of recent years. The instrumental "Bernadette" is exactly the reason, why you'd buy this album, beautifully composed, impeccably performance, and completely reflective of the motown sound, at its creative peak.

Some Criticism's have been made regarding "Ben Harper's" contributions here, and I don't feel it's completely justified, just look at the songs that he's tackling ("Marvin Gaye's, legendary "I heard it through the Grapevine"), most artists would baulk at the idea of what is considered one of the greatest songs ever made. And Ben Harpers effort is by any means of fantastic effort, and worthy of praise. Is it comparable to Marvin's effort??.....Of course not!!, It'd be nearly impossible to match (or indeed improve) on the original, and Ben Harper in no way embarrasses himself here. Sure, he can't quite match the depth or emotion of Marvin's version.....but I ask you this "Who can???". Moving on this disk provides many highlights and all the contributions here (especially "Chaka Khan", "Bootsy Collins") are more than worthy of inclusion on this release, with many tracks providing interesting Covers/Spins on the original tracks.

Disk 2 (largely Instrumental), is the main attraction here, as it takes a lot of the original tracks that featured the Funk Brothers on Instruments and strips the tracks of the vocals, so you're left with utterly gorgeous instrumentals (on most tracks). And it's here that the sheer brilliance of the Funk Brothers truly shines through, as hearing "I Heard it through the Gravevine", "My Girl", "Ain't No Mountain high enough", "mercy mercy me" without vocals of little vocal accompaniment, manage to become some of the most beautiful performed instrumental tracks I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. They truly take on a different sound or life of their own, when heard without the vocals, and backs up the claim that "It was so well performed, that It didn't matter who sang over it" admirably. In fact I reckon, I could probably sing in my vocal-deficient voice, and the funk Brothers instrumentation would make even my out of tune wailing sound acceptable. This is a truly staggering album, that (whether you've seen the film or not) truly deserves your attention, and this is also applicable to anyone with a passing interest in Motown or Funk in generally, and possibly one of the easiest 5 star reviews I've given recently, this is one of those album with a really sense of longevity, and not something that sounds great now, but dates horribly in a years time, as the material here, has already stood the test of time.....remarkable stuff!!!

I bought this CD after previously buying the DVD and watching the documentary of the Funk Brothers. Joan Osborne (whom I never heard of before this album or DVD was released) is astounding. Her rendition of "What becomes of the broken hearted" is unmatched by anyone ever. The CD sounds excellent and could not be improved in any way. Instrumental's like "Bernadette" are very well crafted with different instruments coming in as the song requires. I would buy this one again or for gifts as it is one you won't put in your CD file and not play again. I keep my copy in my car and play it several times a week. It's great fun and professionally packaged..one of the best packaged CD's I have seen so far. They did a good job on this one and it shows...in every way.

This is just an incredible cd package. Buy and watch the DVD movie first to fully appreciate this. Allan Slutsky and others really put a lot of thought, work and love into this deluxe compilation. It is really just magic. The second cd with the original snakepit Motown recordings, without the vocal tracks, is absolutely priceless, revealing the true source of the Motown sound.
Also, I have to put my two cents in on the Joan Osborne performance of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted. This has to be one of the great perfomances of all time! Certainly my favorite. Watch it on the DVD.
Buy this cd and enjoy!

Bought this after watching the DVD. Sure it has the beautiful clean re-recordings of past Motown Hits including Joan Osborne knocking your socks off, but what makes this CD special are the added original Motown recordings less vocals. You can't help but try to put yourself in place of the orignal vocalists and try your hand at each song. You can almost feel the vibes of the converted garage studio envelop you. This is as close as it gets to being there in the sixties. The only downside is your are left wanting more, much more.

Sure, everybody's heard of the Supremes, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and Stevie Wonder. But few were aware of the Funk Brothers until the outstanding documentary Standing In The Shadows of Motown came out in 2002. The Funk Brothers were Motown's house band from 1959 to 1972, when the label relocated from Detroit to LA. Studio musicians weren't credited on Motown releases until 1971 (many other pioneering studio musicians and backup singers remain in the shadows of Motown), although the Funk Brothers' unique sound graced all of Motown's pivotal hits such as My Guy, Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed, Delivered and Heat Wave.

The first disc (and only disc on the standard soundtrack) contains modern recordings of Motown standards such as a smoldering Motown-worthy Heat Wave (Joan Osborne) and soul luminaries Meshell Ndegeocello (You've Really Got A Hold on Me), Gerald Levert (Reach Out), Ben Harper (Ain't Too Proud To Beg, Heard It Through The Grapevine), and Chaka Khan (What's Going On, Ain't No Mountain High Enough).

On Standing In The Shadows of Motown (deluxe edition), we're given the chance to hear the Funk Brothers' genius unimpeded, since the second disc contains the backing tracks (My Girl, For Once In My Life, I Second That Emotion) with the vocals stripped. The tight interplay of guitar, organ, piano and drums would define the sound of a generation, and it's much easier to appreciate it on its own merits (check out the tight bongo solo and bass punch on Standing in the Shadows of Love, or the studio banter on Love Is Like an Itching In My Heart). Short snippets of dialogue from Funk Brothers members and Motown musicians / writers round out the offerings.

Though the original band lineup changed frequently (several musicians suffered early deaths, including Benny Benjamin (drums), the Funk Brothers sound went on to back Motown's greatest hits, and it's about time that such an important element in the Motown formula is finally receiving the recognition they so greatly deserve, albeit too little, too late since most of the original Funk Brothers have gone to that great jam session in the sky.

Whew!!! Get the deluxe edition if you can. It gives you the music that was in the movie and more. This is one CD that you will listen to over and over again. It truly magnifies how exceptionally talented the Funk Brothers were and how important they were to the success of Motown. Hats off to Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan, Joan Osborne, and Gerald Levert on this first CD. Both CD's can stand on their on. I don't have a favorite cut on either. I just listen straight through and start over again. ENJOY!!!