By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 12:25 pm:

A great article by Susan Whitall regarding McDonald's concert here in the Detroit area.
http://www.detnews.com/2003/entertainment/0307/12/d01-215259.htm

By Eli (205.188.209.109) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 12:49 pm:

Wow!! What a fabulous article indeed.
Sue, you outdid yourself.
I really felt that one and the passion shone through like a beacon in the night!!

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 12:51 pm:

You had a great interview Susan. You captured some of his intermost thoughts. I laughed when he was talking about his character being on tv as he came into the room. Twighlight zone, he said. That was funny. When you see him, tell him thanks for recognizing Detroit, and for acknowledging African American's tremendous contribution to the great music of today.

By Eli (205.188.209.109) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 01:08 pm:

If it were not for the African-American community
I never would have been blessed enough to have been placed into the very core of some of the greatest music to have ever hit the airwaves and for this I will be forever grateful.

If it were not for the African-American community I never would have met my soul mate, Vonnie!!

When someone on another thread asked what the definition of soul was...well...I lived and breathed it 24/7 and then some since the day that I turned 13!!!!

I am forever thankful that I told my uncle to stuff it when he wanted me to enter the printing buisness.
Thank you Jesus!!!!!

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 01:16 pm:

LOL - ELI - Well, just think you could have printed up some of the flyers, tickets, and programs needed for the concerts. LOL.

I'm glad you decided to go into music. I would have missed out on all those soul songs you wrote and produced.

By Eli (205.188.209.109) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 01:39 pm:

When I went to his print shop to "get the hang of it" at the age of 18,I went to the camera room and I took a photo of a twenty dollar bill, made a lithographic plate out of it and proceeded to "print some up" but it was on glossy stock!!

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 01:42 pm:

Hahahahahaha. Well, at least you tried to be financially productive in the printing business.

By Sue (205.188.209.109) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 06:09 pm:

Thanks Sis, and Bobby.

He definitely bubbled over, talking about the African-American influence on culture, I didn't even have to get him going.

I didn't have it in, but Michael said he'd been looking forward to seeing the SITSOM film "more than any other movie," but somebody stole the DVD from his office. "I bet they're enjoying it," he said. "I would have been."

By Sue (205.188.209.109) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 06:09 pm:

p.s. Any thoughts on the occasional use of drum machine on the album?

By Lynn Bruce (68.41.106.8) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 08:07 pm:

Sue,you DID do a fine job.Not only was it informative but really interesting.

Just think,with out African -Americans contribution to our music we,d be holding up lighters to young Laurence Welks, Guy Lombardos or swing and sway with Sammy Kaye kicking out the jams.Whew!!I don't know how many hokey-pokeys and chicken dances I could stand.

Excuse me I have to go put on Les Mcann doing "Compared to What" just to get rid of my shakes

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 08:38 pm:

Sue - Did you ask Michael why he and Pattie Labelle did not record in the same studio, or was that just gossip?

By Sue (64.12.97.7) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 09:08 pm:

Lynn,
Thanks, and that's pretty funny!

That reminds me, I was at a recent Funks gig where a very excitable 20something white male, the baggypants type, jumped up onstage with the band and was flailing around, doing a sort of Gen Y dance ...I asked Uriel afterward if he'd noticed the kid, he said he had, but he couldn't watch him or it would have thrown him off his beat! "But he was feeling it" Uriel said. And he was ...it just wasn't the same beat the rest of us were feeling!

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Saturday, July 12, 2003 - 09:14 pm:

LOL, great story Sue about that kid.

By Wonder B (80.15.154.53) on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 03:59 am:

Yes Sue... we have that saying in France about people who dance to their own drumbeat... we say : "he's got rythm in his blodd but he's got a bad circulation" LOL
And do I know people like this... LOL
Great article too... plus I went to the record store and bought me that new M.McDonald CD... I can't find the words to describe it... it is THAT good...
I had read the first thread on the subject but never found the time to go there and pick up a copy... now I know why y'all were so enthusiastic...

A masterpiece... what a voice (if I ever needed a reminder)

Wonder B

By Michael/cleoharvey (160.79.83.208) on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 11:57 am:

I am in love with this album, especially "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing." There have been many covers of this song but this version rates up there with Aretha's (of course they are different) in terms of passion and love of what they are recording. Great album, get it everyone!!!

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 01:24 pm:

Sue:
Great interview...I always liked Michael McDonald's work and still have the 45s of "Sweet Freedom" and "Yah Mo Be There".

I love the "Motown" album yet I'm really having a time with my retail colleagues about it because of the ol' skepticism about a white singer singing classic soul music (and these colleagues are Black). I tell them to listen with an open mind and realize that Michael is coming from a place where he really respects this music.

SisDetroit:
Patti & Michael did record "On My Own" separately - Patti cut her vocals here on the East Coast & Michael recorded his in Los Angeles. Even the video was edited from completely diffrent shoots - Patti & Michael were never together on one set.
Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Carl Dixon London (62.31.40.155) on Monday, July 21, 2003 - 04:25 am:

Well posted Sis - great article Sue. I have just read it. After all the comments, I have to buy the CD now.

Kev - so they recorded the track 'on their own', in that case!!

By Carl Dixon London (62.31.40.155) on Monday, July 21, 2003 - 11:04 am:

I have now bought the CD and am enjoying it right now. It makes a pleasant change to hear familiar songs done this way. Michael McDonald sums up Motown,Berry Gordy and indeed Detroit, very well, in the sleeve notes at the end. I could not agree more with him. Soulfuldetroit makes another important recommendation!