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The riots had changed Detroit forever, and Bridges Knight and Eaton
needed a new name, something with some street cred.
Fred recalls, "During the riots many shops and stores
were daubed with the words 'Soul Brother' in the hope
that looters and arsonists would leave them alone. I played on the words and came up with The Brothers of Soul."
The
first release on Boo was 'Hurry don't linger' b/w 'Can't get you
off of my mind'. Fred sang lead on the top side and Richard
sang lead on the flip side.
But
Ric was keen to release "Dream" too and with
another session producing the flip "Footsteps",
the trio found themselves on the Zodiac label almost
simultaneously, under another moniker, The Creations.
It
was the fall of '67.
Fred went on to explain their routine.....
"Throughout our catalogue we
varied lead on our songs about two thirds Richard and one
third me.
The rhythm tracks would be laid down first, in a 3 hour
session. Then we would go back and add horns and strings
which might take 4 hours. Adding Backgrounds would take
another 4 hours and finally leads might take 3 or 4 hours.
Then we would do a mix. Some mixing we did at United some at
Tera Shirma some in Chicago. I think studio time ranged
between $75 and $150. That adds up to a lot of money....
WOW!
We wrote and produced
all our songs but let Ric in on
some of the credits as was the way back then. The songs
were put together in both Detroit and Chicago depending on
what was most cost effective. For example we might lay down
the instrumentals in Tera Shirma in Detroit then the vocals in
Chicago at either RCA/Universal or Columbia. It was all to do with logistics."
The trio were
finding their own sound at this time too. The Motown Sound was
changing, the Ric-Tic sound was changing, love lyrics were
being replaced by politics and anger.
But The
Brothers stuck with love and developed a new line, quite
different to what had gone before in Detroit. Placing a lot of
emphasis on instrumentation, and with no expense spared on
strings, this mix, together with their wonderful harmonies,
was the essence of their sound.
Boo's
fourth release was the Brother's follow up and became their
biggest hit. 'I guess that don't make me a loser'
coupled with 'Hurry don't linger' reached #32 in the R&B
charts on 13th April 1968. Richard Knight sang lead on
this classic song.
Things
were progressing well but they needed some kind of premises
to work from.
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