Baby Loves out again. JUST in case youve missed it. Aaaarrrggghh. Paulo xxxx
Baby Loves out again. JUST in case youve missed it. Aaaarrrggghh. Paulo xxxx
Not having heard every Motown song [[hard to believe, I know!), I would have to agree that I've Never Been To Me is the worst I've heard. It is one of the most insipid songs EVER! The only time I've liked that song is when I saw a cabaret performer do it and she got more and more deranged as she sang the song, bringing herself to hysteria at the end just screaming "I've never been to me, I've never been to me! God help me get to me!!!!"
Paulo...I take it you won't be bidding on this then
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUPREMES-BABY-...-/360345612646
personally it's a record I never tire of...it finishing that is.
There are a number of tracks that I can't stand:
baby love
I can't get next to you
- these two spring to mind immediately.
But then, since 2000, with re-issues, the stuff that I think should have been left in the vaults include:
* the velvelettes [[I struggled to listen to even the first disc I thought it was so awful, and still haven't heard the second disc as I can't cope with it)
* billy eckstine
I'm sure that there are others, but overall, I liked the vast majority of matreial issued on Motown, Rare Earth, Soul, Gordy, Tamla, Mowest, VIP.
i cant dance to the music you playing...phew[[how long?) marthas way out of her vocal range it hurts my ears and gives me stomach ache.
i hear a symphony by anyone.it goes round and round and round and round and round...like that it doesnt know when to stop
i just called to say i love you.....just mush
Last edited by tamla617; 07-03-2011 at 05:12 PM.
The Velvelettes, really? Now, I thought that was a great collection though I preferred the released version of "Sayin' Something" to the one on the Anthology. They have such a classic Motown sound, I'm surprised you would consider it better off left in the vaults! Well, I guess we have to agree to disagree on that one!
Mama'a Pearl!
kenneth
I fully agree with you on The Velvelettes 'Anthology' being a great collection [[playing now as I type this...) as it must represent most if not all of their Motown recordings. I do have my favourites of course, and find I don't fully appreciate absolutely all the tracks.
I must say I like the alternative version of 'He was really sayin' somethin' just as much as the released version! That skipping beat is very infectious, and the sax break is much funkier than on most of the released Motown tracks back in the day.
If anyone here doesn't yet have it, you might think of checking it out.
Special thanks to those who were major contributors to the project...and who regularly post here.... *smile *
No names, just read the [[very!) small print in the liner notes... and which were written by The Velvelettes themselves.....
The Composer near the bottom of the barrel too.
Haaaaaaaaa,this is funny because when we think of motown you don't really think of clunkers but there were some...bareback,up the creek without a paddle-the temps[the two worst songs in the temps mighty collection ever,yuk]..hold on as long as i can-the marvelettes[i love my girls but this stinker should've been burned at the stake,hehe]..get the cream off the top-eddie kendricks[say it ain't so eddie,say it ain't so]..!
You kidding? I think the lyrics are great, and funny! She gives the guy who romanced her all of her money so he can go away to "set us up", and never returns while she waits, and waits, and waits! In other words, the fool just gave all her money away! Brilliant! One of her best songs!
And, why does every thread around here somehow morph into a Supremes/Diana Ross thread. Is that all you guys listen to?
the temps version of war and their original version of its summer [[spoken rather than sung)
Thank you lads. I did try my best and I still do try for them.
It was the first Motown CD to feature TOTAL input from the artist - selection of tracks, liner notes, photograph, pictures and right down to that hairstyle plonked on Cal's head on the cover cos the original picture cut it off!!!
I think we did somewhat of a poll for the worst Motown songs or perhaps it was the songs we are the most tired of ~ and I think Baby Love may have won; but Marvin's Grapevine and Martha's Dancing in the Street finished way high up that poll.
soulster
you're aloud an opinion,i cant stand it,you like it.no right or wrong.
i used to like "here come the girls"allen tousaint and the meters.then a chemist over her got hold of it.girls aloud recorded it.top 10.now its being remixed [[original version) for the ads and has become the signature for the chemist.does my head in and wrecked any enjoyment i got from a good song
Why is "No Matter What Sign You Are" such a stupid idea? There is no scientific basis for Astrology, so it makes perfect sense to me to ignore birth-signs as the basis for a relationship.
Debbie Dean's "I Cried All Night" is so bad it hurts my ears. It scored the minimum 1/10 on the Motown Junkies site.
Kenneth,
Don't take me too seriously.......it rhymes, what more do you want?
I hereby nominate Little Lisa's "Puppet on a String" from 1965. Strangely enough, the flipside, "Hang on Bill," is actually a halfway decent attempt at the Crystals / Shangri-La sound.
I find Tom Clay's "What the World Needs Now Is Love" incredibly moving. A lot of thought has gone into its construction. The assassination and contemporary news reports had great impact on everyone old enough to remember them, and I can't argue with the sentiments on segregation and bigotry when seen through the eyes of a little girl: "I think it's when somebody's sick".
This is in fact a rockumentary, and it's unique. There must be someone else out there who will speak up for it.
Yes 144man, there is......
The worst Motown song is "Buttered Popcorn".
You know, the Shangri-Las could have probably pulled off "Living in Shame" a few years before. It was right in line with their "3 minute melodramas" like "Leader of the Pack" and "I Can Never Go Home Anymore" [[which has a similar them to "Shame"). But even they would have had to change the arrangement...it's way too frenetic and also changes tempo too much for the song content and lyrics, in my opinion.
And while no one puts Baby Love on their worst song list, it appears on a lot of lists of songs we are really tired of..............but still, in concert, it is one of the songs that gets a huge reaction from all the grey haired men and women who flock to Diana's concerts.
what were motown & smokey thinking when they put out "the composer" for the supremes? bad move all the way around!
"I've been undressed by kings and seen some things that a woman ain't supposed to see..."...tripe like this should've stayed buried in the Motown vaults, but for some godawful reason it got a second lease on life, giving Charlene 15 minutes of fame that [[deservedly) ticked away VERY fast, and also enabled her to sing an equally execrable duet with Stevie Wonder [["Used to Be", which I haven't seen mentioned yet).
Do you have to ask me what MY least favorite Motown song is now?
Best,
Mark
I'll come out of the closet as a fan of I've Never Been To Me, probably because it's always sounded to me like an old Diana Ross record. Ron Miller probably wrote it for her and someone rejected it but it has all the markings of the Ross sound. The pronunciation of " hey " borrowed from Touch Me In The Morning, the recitation in the middle done dramatically ala Aint No Mountain High Enough, and the whole woman searching for herself that was prevalent in seventies feminism. Dave Berry and every Drag Queen with a hot roller certainly haven't helped it's reputation but there are far worse offenders in the Motown catalog. I do agree that Used To Be is pure dreck though....
What exactly is wrong with Tom Clay's "What The World Needs Now" ? It makes a statement, it's a song that is ponderous and serious as a heart attack, but sometimes that kind of thing needs to be heard. So there. I heard it for the first time probably just a year or two after it came out, and always knew at that young age, that this song was making a very serious statement. I don't find it overwrought or melodramatic......"Livin In Shame" or "In The Ghetto" is in that category. Ironically "Livin In Shame" might have been a good song had it been given a harder edged production and had someone sing it who didn't have such a bright, chipper voice.
Glenpwood... I don't mind "I've Never Been To Me" at all. When it comes on the radio, I listen to it, as opposed to when "My Girl" or Marvin's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" come on..... then I promptly change the station. I STILL don't understand the appeal of Marvin's version of that song. It just sucks donkey balls... while I could listen to Gladys' version all day and not get tired of it. But back to Charlene. She's a perfectly good singer, but more in the folksie kind of vein. At the time of it's original release, "I've Never Been To Me" predated Mary Macgregor's "Torn Between Two Lovers" by several months, and both songs are very similar. For me.... the spoken interludes pushed Charlene's song into schlocky territory. If the spoken parts were edited out, i'd really like it a whole lot more. And besides, I can't believe you guys are slaggin on Charlene, when Motown put out stuff like this:
Last edited by jillfoster; 07-06-2011 at 01:27 AM.
Jill,
I've Never was good enough to be recorded by many others Inc Walter Jackson and The Temptations......full story on the song here
http://my.opera.com/n_august/blog/show.dml/413722
If you think about it, Stevie Wonder used the same device of a background "soundtrack" in the extended version of "Livin' for the City." I actually like both songs, though I definitely like the edited version of Wonder's better than the long version. I'm not familiar with the single edit of Clay's, if there was one, but I find the version on "Motown Sings Bacharach" a little too long.
Okay , now that others have blazed the trail first, I will chime in and admit I like "Never Been to Me" as well, though the spoken bridge version does cross the line a bit. Very interesting blog about it quoted by Mikew-UK...I had no idea the Temptations did this. The "male" lyrics I think are actually more interesting than the more predictable "female" lyrics. Quite a find.
Here's The Temptations version off the R-E-U-N-I-O-N- album for lovers of the song! Dennis does a very nice lead and it ain't schlocky. I'll have to post Walter Jackson as it's not on YouTube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tBd2Tn3seI
And if you're really brave, try this with its opening rap and ad libs. If you think Charlene's version is bad, feast on this! Kenneth, quite a find, eh?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhnq0...eature=related
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