General Asylum

don't blame the direction of any given genre because it's different

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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

In Reply to: RE: What happened to black music posted by sudz1234@yahoo.com on July 06, 2012 at 20:09:46

Berry Gordy was reluctant to hire Norman Whitfield in the early 60's since his brand of song writing was considered too 'controversal','offensive', and 'militant' and was afraid he'd scare away his fan-base PoP audience, but decided to anyway; and created the 'Gordy label' to create some distance from the Motown power house acts (Supremes, Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson, Four Tops, etc,.) just in case his hunch back-fired.
The result, IMO is a collection of songs that forever re-shaped the Soul,R&B landscape.
One of the most notable, the song 'War' sung by Edwin Starr- considered a masterpiece anti-war anthem..
His other hits are far too long to list but easy to recognize: "ball of confusion", "Cloud-9", "pyschedelic shack" (think of post Supremes, late 60's Motown and you've got a Whitfield song).
Wiki or Amazon Norman Whitfield, and get re-aquainted with some of his classics..
One of my favorites is 'Memories' by the Temptations; written by Whitfield; it has an incredible string arraingment and showcases each member's powerful vocal range; another masterpiece IMO.
But to answer your question: Brother, they just don't make em' like that anymore...We're talkin' a different time and a whole different set of circumstances which sparks this kind of genius.

may the bridges I burn light the way...

Edits: 07/09/12

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