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  1. #1
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    Name your favorite Motown instrumentals.

    Name your favorite Motown instrumentals. Here's some of mine;
    1. "All Day, All Night"-Earl Van Dyke
    2. "Machine Gun"-The Commodores
    3. "Congo [[Pts 1 & 2)"-The Twistin' Kings
    4. "Walk In The Night"-Jr. Walker & the All Stars
    5. "Contusion"-Stevie Wonder
    6. "T Plays It Cool"-Marvin Gaye
    7. "All For You"-Earl Van Dyke & the Soul Brothers
    8. "Tune Up"-Jr. Walker & the All Stars
    9. "After The Dance [[Instrumental)"-Marvin Gaye
    10 "Fever In The Funk House"-James Jamerson

  2. #2
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    Hungry For Love. San Remo Golden Strings. Ric Tic/Motown or just Ric Tic?

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    Quote Originally Posted by luke View Post
    Hungry For Love. San Remo Golden Strings. Ric Tic/Motown or just Ric Tic?
    Hi Luke; "Hungry For Love" counts as Motown since it was reissued on Gordy in 1968 when Motown acquired Ric-Tic.

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    1. Cleo's Mood - Jr. Walker and the All Stars
    2. Walk in the Night - Jr. Walker and the All Stars

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    Great question, Eddie, and great choices! I'd add Earl Van Dyke's "Six By Six" to your list. And how 'bout The Magic Disco Machine!!? "Scratchin"... "Tryin' To Get Over"... "Love Pains"... fantastic disco-funk instrumentals!!!! Also, "Rapid Fire" and "I'm Ready" by The Commodores!
    Last edited by TomatoTom123; 08-17-2017 at 01:19 PM.

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    Ooooh, and I nearly forgot, Junior Walker & The All Stars' first ever single, "Twist Lackawanna"...



    IMO it says a lot if a song is good and there's no one actually doing any singing... and this is so fantastic...

    Originally released on Harvey Records but also came out as an album track on 1966's Road Runner... so we can count it as Motown

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    What a superb "B" side this was great title too



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    Way Back Home - The [[Jazz)Crusaders

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    Jr walker's version still waters is my fav

  10. #10
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    Here's a fun one .
    And if you want to make some likely money , bet somebody whether they can guess what Motown act this is!

    Last edited by Boogiedown; 08-18-2017 at 03:41 AM.

  11. #11
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    And don't forget the Motown Sounds album, full of spacey disco-funk instrumentals courtesy of Michael Lovesmith, including this JAM!


  12. #12
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    When we could get the Funk brothers just doing the instrumental parts of songs, I used to play them in my office, and I would ask the gang: "What song is this?" not only would they get they song, but they would all start singing the vocals. It made for a lot of fun.

    edafan

  13. #13
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    I remember when the "Motown Instrumentals" album came out on the budget Natural Resources label in the late 70s or early 80s. I loved those compilations...so unusual for their time. There was another Motown Sings Show Tunes, or something like that, had Thelma Huston's song from Bingo Long, something from Lady Sings the Blues I think, others. I thought those comps were really unique and fun to hear that music in those contexts really for the first time, not as individual single tracks, theme songs or b-sides.
    Attached Images Attached Images    
    Last edited by kenneth; 08-19-2017 at 01:39 AM.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boogiedown View Post
    Here's a fun one .
    And if you want to make some likely money , bet somebody whether they can guess what Motown act this is!

    I remember the "Overture" from The Miracles City Of Angels set. Picked up the LP when it came out in 1975 and it was certainly unique for them to do a album like this.

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    Keeping in mind that Berry Gordy made a business decision to keep his best musicians out of the public eye and in the studio recording for his other artists, unlike what Stax was doing with Booker T in Memphis [[or MFSB in Philly), thus, other than Jr Walker [[whose recordings were not actually instrumentals since he was singing on them as rule), and the fact that practically everything released under the name of Earl VanDyke and the "Soul Brothers" were generally just Earl playing organ solos over what had been released tracks recorded for other artists in that Mr Gordy knew he had to keep Earl happy and find ways to keep some extra money flowing into his pocket. Fever In The Funkhouse was a late Detroit era instrumental project as mostly a promise by Berry Gordy to Jamerson to give some of the musicians some props and once again, some extra income. FITF was a nice track with some mean licks by Eddie Willis and of course Jamerson demonstrating his bass mastery. If I'm not mistaken, Dennis Coffey also participated in that project, but nothing much came of it as it was not promoted or part of a larger project which would have included an album. There was also an experimental jazz label featuring Johnny Griffith being explored, but that project really went nowhere as Motown was preparing for it's move to Los Angeles. In other words...Mr Gordy saw Motown as a singers label with songs written and produced for his marquee artists by his team of writers and producers, even as the likes of HDH and some others abandoned the label in it's waning days in Detroit...
    Last edited by StuBass1; 08-19-2017 at 12:49 PM.

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    Earl Van Dyke, "The Flick". This version is on the SITSOM double CD :


  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by StuBass1 View Post
    Fever In The Funkhouse was a late Detroit era instrumental project as mostly a promise by Berry Gordy to Jamerson to give some of the musicians some props and once again, some extra income. FITF was a nice track with some mean licks by Eddie Willis and of course Jamerson demonstrating his bass mastery. If I'm not mistaken, Dennis Coffey also participated in that project, but nothing much came of it as it was not promoted or part of a larger project which would have included an album.
    Hi StuBass; one thing about James Jamerson's "Fever In The Funk House" is that it stayed in the vaults until the Motown Year-By-Year 1969 collection from 1995 [[and again on the Earl Van Dyke set The Motown Sound - The Complete Albums & More from 2012). So therefore it received no promotion [[or recognition) until long after it was recorded.

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    The Flick was just a tune they played at their club gig at the Chit Chat and recorded one night...Earls style of striking the keys was referred to as "flicking" his fingers at the keys...thus...The Flick [[I would contend)

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    stripped down and tribal, ahead of its time about two years:



    for some reason I was thinking there was another dance instrumental from that soundtrack perhaps with a title like TWO MULES AND A PIG ??
    Last edited by Boogiedown; 08-20-2017 at 03:41 AM.

  20. #20
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    From the Both Sides Now website:

    Name:  4002.jpg
Views: 2253
Size:  41.8 KBNR-4002T1 -

    Motown Instrumentals - Various Artists [3/78] Hungry For Love - San Remo Golden Strings [[S)/You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - Jr. Walker [[S)/Rapid Fire - Commodores [[S)/Papa Was A Rolling Stone - Temptations [[S, 6:36 backing track from the original LP length song)//Festival Time - San Remo Golden Strings [[S)/Cleo's Back - Jr. Walker [[S)/Way Back Home - Crusaders [[S)/Erucu - Jermaine Jackson [[S)/Get Ready - Rare Earth [[S, 3:51 edit starts at the beginning of the LP track, goes a short way into the 45, up until the vocal would start, then abruptly shifts to an edited bass solo from later in the song, fading at the end. The term "ham-handed edit" comes to mind...)

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