Lawrence Horn - The Hired Gun

[bradburger]

I found this episode of the 'FBI Files' on YouTube the other day which I thought might be of interest to some of our forum members who are of course familiar with name of Lawrence T. Horn, Motown's chief recording engineer and 'head mixer' up until his departure [[along with several other staff who left to join HDH) in late 1967.


https://youtu.be/a0EM6FVcdDc

Whilst the case has been discussed here a long time ago and is well documented elsewhere on the internet, I found this filled in a lot of the gaps and made me appreciate how much work the Detectives of the Maryland Police and the FBI put in to catch both the mastermind, and the killer behind this tragic story.

Whilst we are fortunate to enjoy and discuss on this forum the goodness that the human soul and spirit can create, we are reminded that at times there is also a sinister and dark side too, and rather ironically in this case, possessed by someone who was involved and contributed in making those songs and the associated memories of them that are still enjoyed by us today.

Cheers

Paul

[midnightman]

Lawrence was evil for what he did to his ex and their son... just shameful!

[TomatoTom123]

Oh yeah, I read about this a while ago and it kinda blew my mind. :[[

[bradburger]

It does indeed TT - such a horrible chain of events and ending.

Interestingly, whilst trying to find out some information about Motown songwriter Jack Goga, I sadly found out that he had been found guilty of murdering two people in L.A during 1994, and apparently died in prison in 1996.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/SUSPECT+DIES+IN+JAIL+WARD+%3A+COMPOSER+FACED+TRIAL +IN+SLAYINGS.-a083933033

Below is from the L.A Times [[European readers will not be able to read it unless they are using a proxy).

https://notices.californiatimes.com/gdpr/latimes.com/

Cheers

Paul

[TomBairdFan]

His failures in life aside, Lawence T. Horn must be the only Motowner who co-wrote and co-produced chart hits and also mastered his own works for CD release. [[An example: Junior Walker and the All Stars' ''Shoot Your Shot'' was written with Junior and James Graves; produced with Berry Gordy; then mastered for later CD release on the Shotgun/Roadrunner 2fer by himself at Supertec Sound Services).

[bradburger]

I agree TBF.

In a very old thread from about 2002 on the old SD forum, there was a lengthy thread discussing Lawrence Horn, and Ed Wolfrum described him as "an engineer par excellence".

However, I think you'll find that Ralph has a very different opinion of him!

As for those early Motown CD masterings, remember Russ Terrana also did a fair bulk of the analog to digital transfers and mastering for them, so would have been in the same boat as Horn, regards being responsible for the recording, mixing, and sometimes producing a good deal of those 'vintage' tracks as well!

Cheers

Paul