Most of the old cats were out in Detroit, but Jamerson was living in LA and in desperate need... he had fallen far by 1984. Unlike most of his old musical compatriots, Jamerson had relocated permanently to the West Coast, where, theoretically, he was to have been guaranteed work with Motown. But time cuahgt up to him, too. Just as there were new sounds, there were new musicians... and the elder Jamerson's hands had lost thieir sense of time, that intangible element of musicianship. Work came less and less frequently, his marriage faltered, and he spent too much of the 80s in and out of sanatoriums. 'Everybody, as time went on, got sort of strange', he said of the Motown 'family' the month before [[Motown 25), 'especially after Motown moved out to California. If they see you, they're glad to see you. They just change their phone numbers so much. I don't believe in changing mine. I don't believe some of them know I'm still alive.' Four months after the special aired, Jamerson died of complications from a heart attack in Los Angeles.
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