Memorial for Winfred "Blue" Lovett - Sat. Jan. 3, 2015

[juicefree20]

Hello & Happy New Year everyone. It's been awhile & I wish the best of everything for all of you & yours.

As you all know Winfred "Blue" Lovett passed away & that represents a huge loss for all Soul Music fans. While Facebook does have its place, we've discussed The Manhattans here quite extensively over the years. Then there's the role that SDF played in me meeting Gerald Alston, Blue Lovett & The Manhattans, not to mention the years of extensive insider knowledge presented to us through the postings & pictures of Jeannie "Soul SIster" Scott, I felt as though this was the most appropriate place for me to post the memorial services for Blue Lovett.

I would like to place this tribute to Blue Lovett right here at home, where it all began.
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The Whispers represented...
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As did Bloodstone...
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Some of the visuals that were shown on screen as the music of The Manhattans played in the background...
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I'm still pulling pictures & will post more as I go.

[Soul Sister]

Juice,
Thanks for posting these pics.
Regretfully I couldn't get home for the memorial.
I have no doubt it was a lovely service and beautiful send off for Blue.

S.S.
***

[jaybs]

Juice, it is so appreciated you sharing these photo's, a real sad loss of a most genuine talented guy!

[nysister]

Juice, thank you so much for posting Blue's Memorial.

[paladin]

Well done Juice, RIP Blue.........

[juicefree20]

My pleasure Soul Sister & it was a beautiful service. It would've been nice to have seen you, but I certainly understand. And thanks for all that you've done over the years that gave us insight to The Manhattans. No one else did that & I feel safe in saying that we all appreciate your behind the scenes pictures & stories which made the fellas feel a bit more accessible to us.

Happy New Year Jeannie.

[juicefree20]

Thank you, it's my pleasure jaybs & NYSister. Lord knows, I've seen a few too many of these in recent years & it never gets easier. So much talent leaving us in a relatively short period of time & they all represent a time which we'll never see again, as these days marketing & nonsense has taken precedence over actual talent. Kinda like all of these people posting on Twitter how Kanye West was going to "create" a career for Paul McCartney.

The future of music is in trouble because 15 minutes of hype has become more important to this current generation than actual vocal & musical skills.

How this happened, I'll never truly understand, but we're going to miss the likes of men such as Blue Lovett.

[nosey]

Rest in peace Mr. Lovett. Your performances always left a smile on my face.

[Soul Sister]

"Happy New Year, Juice!!!"

S.S.
***

[paladin]

Gerald, overcome with emotion nailed The Way We Were ! Sadly it invoked memories of Ali Woodson, but nonetheless a very beautiful musical epilogue about their time together.

[tallone]

Thanks Juice for the "spirit of excellence" in which you work. As always, this is a work of art and a great tribute to a one of the finest bass singers ever, Mr. Blue Lovett. He will never be forgotten. I'm sure he is in that Heavenly Chorus, trading bass lines with Melvin Franklin, Obie Benson and Purvis Jackson.

[juicefree20]

Thank you Tallone, it's good to see your name & Happy New Year to you, my brother.

[Soul Sister]

???? Huh.....delete such a heart warming tribute?

[marv2]

Thank you Juice for all of us that could not be there, you came through again as usual!

Happy New Year
Marv

[juicefree20]

Thank you Marv & Happy New Year to you & yours!!

[edafan]

juice

thanks for honouring a great singer and a great person

edafan

[juicefree20]

Edafan, thank you & Happy New Year!

Soul Sister, as this isn't Facebook for now, I'll let this one stand.

I'll simply reach out to the family before proceeding further.

[edafan]

Edafan, thank you & Happy New Year!

Soul Sister, as this isn't Facebook for now, I'll let this one stand.

I'll simply reach out to the family before proceeding further.

thanks juice

it is such a good tribute,
it should stay to honor Blue

edafan

[smark21]

So let me get this straight…you just showed up at the memorial service and took a bunch of pictures to upload here for public consumption without first getting permission from the deceased’s family? Is that correct? If so, they have damn right to be upset with you and they ought to look into suing you for invasion of privacy. And even if they don’t have grounds for a civil case, snapping and posting pictures without prior permission is tacky and low class, no matter how noble your intentions may be. You should be ashamed of yourself and I hope from here on out, you do the proper thing and ask for permission first before you just show up a funeral/memorial service to take pictures.

[juicefree20]

Smark,

When you don't know what you're speaking about, when you speak without knowledge & you assume, you DON'T have ANYTHING right.

And if you've ever followed anything that I've ever done here regarding anything that i've ever done regarding memorials, you'd also know that in each & every case, I was INVITED to do so by someone in that artists' camp.

For example, the thread for Levi Stubbs was done with the permission, cooperation & request of the family. likewise for the memorial for Randy Cain & others.

In case you haven't noticed, I don't chase funerals nor memorials because I don't like being around death, nor people crying & being sad at the loss of a loved one.

If you need to know, not that I owe you nor anyone else any answers, I received a phone call asking me not only to take pictures, but to record the preceedings as well, which I did. During the conversation, it was crystal clear what I had planned to do & the person asking me referenced the thread that I did for James Brown which lies in our archives & they liked it.

My habit is NOT to violate the trust of anyone. Just as though I knew that Marvin Junior & Chuck Barksdale were sick, I didn't blast it to the world. I quietly asked permission from the camp of The Dells that we put it out there so that everyone could pray for both men & as Marvin's death was imminent, we could have a chance to express our love for him & to say goodbye while he could still see it, as opposed to being blindsided by his death as so often is the case whenever most of our icons "suddenly" pass away.

So I never announce nor post ANYTHING without permission, even when people ask me why a person needs to be kept in prayer. And everyone here knows that to be a fact.

THAT is exactly what I was asked to do & refused the offer of payment to do it. However, I would never throw those whom asked me to come down under the bus in order to prove anything to you nor anyone else. In fact, when I got wind of the complaints about the videos, I immediately got in touch with the person & they liked the pictures & assured me that what I did here was cool.

The problem wasn't with my PICTURES, the problem was with videos which were uploaded to Facebook by people whom were in attendance. People were discussing the performances & praising the performances & Blue as well.

It was said that those comments had some feeling as though they were talking about a concert, as opposed to remembering Blue. When I heard that, I thought that perhaps it would be best to remove this thread as well.

I was asked to take the links to the videos down from Facebook & to delete the videos & I complied with that. Despite being personally asked to do exactly what I did, there were a few family members who had a problem with the videos that were appearing in everyone's feed.

So Smark, if you'd been following anything that I've ever done here for more than 10 years, you'd know better than to make the idiotic statements that you just made. Everyone here knows that I don't do ANYTHING without receiving permission. And as there was NO announcement made during a PUBLIC memorial as regards no taping being allowed, people didn't know that uploading those videos were going to be found to be offensive by anyone.

I haven't a damn thing to be ashamed about, but you sure as hell do.

In your quest to chastise me, you made several leaps to conclusion & have no idea what you're talking about. Perhaps you should get the complete story before opening your mouth about things which you have no knowledge of. Because truthfully, you just made a complete fool of yourself.

And speaking about permission, you have my permission to remove your foot from your mouth. Nice try though.

Frankly, you haven't gotten a damn thing correct in anything that you wrote. Perhaps you should ask for the facts before assuming, as we all know what Felix Unger had to say about that.

[juicefree20]

Edafan,

Thank you very much. I was asked to hold of on posting anymore pictures & I'll get in touch directly with the main players involved, as their feelings will determine how I proceed. I'm sure that when they see my other tributes which have never displayed any pictures which embarrassed nor exploited anyone, they'll understand what was intended.

Were that the case, I wouldn't still be receiving compliments from family members & friends for the previous memorials that I've done.

[smark21]

Well I'm going to be banned here soon anyway after giving soul less ster a long overdue cussing out so all I'll say--OK I was wrong, but you never provided any context for when you asked Ralph to delete this thread other than saying family members were upset. So what else can a person assume? I don't know you very well except as someone who posts pictures from funerals and writes long winded tedious rants around here,. I think of you as Juice Limbaugh because you go on and on and on and on just like Rush Limbaugh.

[ralpht]

Juice,
Sorry about the senseless post against you from Smark. However, he called it...I banned him.

[detmotownguy]

juice you perform such fine work here. I thank you for your informative postings.

[Soul Sister]

Juice,
I replied to your private message. BUT cannot tell if it went through, my sent box doesn't indicate anything [[?).
Let me know if you received my long message back to you?

S.S.
***

[edafan]

This tribute to Blue is fabulous.

Thanks for leaving it up.

edafan

[smooth]

Juice...

Thank you for all that you do consistent with what is correct and always professional.
Do not let any degree of negativity stop you from being who you were created to be.
I have sensed the respect for the artist you display with your photography.
Please know that I support your work and appreciate your sincerity.

Abraham Smooth Wilson

[nysister]

Smark,

When you don't know what you're speaking about, when you speak without knowledge & you assume, you DON'T have ANYTHING right.

And if you've ever followed anything that I've ever done here regarding anything that i've ever done regarding memorials, you'd also know that in each & every case, I was INVITED to do so by someone in that artists' camp.

For example, the thread for Levi Stubbs was done with the permission, cooperation & request of the family. likewise for the memorial for Randy Cain & others.

In case you haven't noticed, I don't chase funerals nor memorials because I don't like being around death, nor people crying & being sad at the loss of a loved one.

If you need to know, not that I owe you nor anyone else any answers, I received a phone call asking me not only to take pictures, but to record the preceedings as well, which I did. During the conversation, it was crystal clear what I had planned to do & the person asking me referenced the thread that I did for James Brown which lies in our archives & they liked it.

My habit is NOT to violate the trust of anyone. Just as though I knew that Marvin Junior & Chuck Barksdale were sick, I didn't blast it to the world. I quietly asked permission from the camp of The Dells that we put it out there so that everyone could pray for both men & as Marvin's death was imminent, we could have a chance to express our love for him & to say goodbye while he could still see it, as opposed to being blindsided by his death as so often is the case whenever most of our icons "suddenly" pass away.

So I never announce nor post ANYTHING without permission, even when people ask me why a person needs to be kept in prayer. And everyone here knows that to be a fact.

THAT is exactly what I was asked to do & refused the offer of payment to do it. However, I would never throw those whom asked me to come down under the bus in order to prove anything to you nor anyone else. In fact, when I got wind of the complaints about the videos, I immediately got in touch with the person & they liked the pictures & assured me that what I did here was cool.

The problem wasn't with my PICTURES, the problem was with videos which were uploaded to Facebook by people whom were in attendance. People were discussing the performances & praising the performances & Blue as well.

It was said that those comments had some feeling as though they were talking about a concert, as opposed to remembering Blue. When I heard that, I thought that perhaps it would be best to remove this thread as well.

I was asked to take the links to the videos down from Facebook & to delete the videos & I complied with that. Despite being personally asked to do exactly what I did, there were a few family members who had a problem with the videos that were appearing in everyone's feed.

So Smark, if you'd been following anything that I've ever done here for more than 10 years, you'd know better than to make the idiotic statements that you just made. Everyone here knows that I don't do ANYTHING without receiving permission. And as there was NO announcement made during a PUBLIC memorial as regards no taping being allowed, people didn't know that uploading those videos were going to be found to be offensive by anyone.

I haven't a damn thing to be ashamed about, but you sure as hell do.

In your quest to chastise me, you made several leaps to conclusion & have no idea what you're talking about. Perhaps you should get the complete story before opening your mouth about things which you have no knowledge of. Because truthfully, you just made a complete fool of yourself.

And speaking about permission, you have my permission to remove your foot from your mouth. Nice try though.

Frankly, you haven't gotten a damn thing correct in anything that you wrote. Perhaps you should ask for the facts before assuming, as we all know what Felix Unger had to say about that.

Juice, I just love the way you do the things you do!

[Ryon6]

Thanks Juice for the photos from the memorial. I, like the others, appreciate your photos and updates. Happy New Year Brother!

[tallone]

Juice,
As I said before and I stand by my word, you always have and I know you always will work in a "spirit of excellence." In my humbled opinion, you don't owe anyone an explanation on what you do and how you do it. Your work and your integrity speaks for itself. And as far as you giving "long winded dissertations", you only say what so many of us would like to say. It's just that you usually "beat us to the punch."
So keep on doing what you do, because you do it well.

[tsull1]

Excellent photos, thanks. R.I.P. Blue, a great singer in a fantastic group. I like how The Whispers stepped up, they often do during these sad memorials. That's why they're one of the classiest groups out there.