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Motown Remixed. Remixing Michael, and others....

paranoidwriter waves hello

19:17 / 18.06.05

I've finally got round to listening to a few tracks from the new Motown Remixed album and I'm listening to it now as I funky-type. I've only heard three tracks so far, but I've got to say that I love this! As a big lover of Motown, mixing, sampling, bootlegs, and remixes in general, I'll say it again, but louder: I LOVE THIS!

You can hear a few tracks for free on this website's Jukebox.

So I was wondering, what do you think? You likey? You no-likey? Is it ever a good idea to do this kind of thing, or "Down with this sort of thing!"?

As a side-note, I foresee a "Michael Remixed" album coming up including a wide range of "popular" and "hip" artists. Imagine Marilyn Manson doing 'Thriller', Justin Timberlake doing 'Billy Jean', Scissor Sisters doing 'Off the Wall', or Whitehouse doing "Bad", etc and so on, and so forth. In all seriousness though, would any of this do Mr Jackson any good (aside from whether he deserves it or not)?

What do you think Barbelith?

07:46 / 20.06.05

I'm a big Motown fan, and the problem I had with this was that the originals mean more to me, so most of the remixes seem weak in comparison. Some work very well, the Jackson 5 and Eddie Kendricks tracks in particular, but War adds nothing and takes away everything, and people should never, NEVER mess with Temptations and Marvin Gaye tracks, especially anything that was produced by Barrett and Whitfield, these men were at their peak at this point, and their stuff simply cannot be bettered. The best track on the album for me is the Gladys Knight & the Pips 'Heard it Through the Grapevine' remix, though I think they kind of shot themselves in the foot for the most in mixing such well known tracks for the most part. There are other volumes planned though, so maybe they used this one as a means to get people interested.

Motown still kicks ass, and always will. Check out anything by the Temptations from Cloud Nine to A Song For You, anything by Marvin Gaye post Heard it Through the Grapevine, Stevie Wonder's 4 'experimental' albums, hell, anything from around 67-73 is just about perfect.

I've got that usual thing when something I adore becomes popular, part glad that the stuff is being recognised as good, part anger that it's just a fad and that people will move on.

paranoidwriter waves hello

13:38 / 20.06.05

Hey Benny, if you like Motown (and the likes) have you heard this Murco Records Compilation yet?

My favourite is 'IT'S NOT THAT EASY' Reuben Bell & the Casanovas, and it's the reason I bought the CD in the first place. It's one of the most Soul-full love songs I have EVER heard, and I still find it hard to believe Mr Bell is a Mister and not a Missus.

BTW, I get what you meant about the Motown Remix Album, and as I haven't got a copy I can't say if I agree or not with what you said about 'War', etc. But I also like the 'Heard it through the grapevine' cover, and I thought the Jackson 5 remixes were fun (no?), especially the new beats.

15:38 / 20.06.05

I haven't heard it, but will endevour to change that.

Thinking about it more, Motown was more a collective in which song would be created by writers/musicians, and then offered around, recorded by many different artists and released based on the response from the collective, so remixes make sense of songs that don't really belong to anyone. It just happens to be that some artists made songs more their own than others. war is a great example of this, recorded by the Temptations, had a good response from the fans from the album, but Gordy wouldn't release it by them as he worried about the fans losing some of their love for the Temps if they got all 'socially conscious', so they passed it around and Edwin Starr made it his own.

If there's any original tracks that you don't have and are interested in, let me know and I'll burn you a cd.

Rollo Kim, on location

15:52 / 20.06.05

In the words of the great pub philosopher Billy Bleach: "One day someone'll do a remix of that... and they'll ruin it."

paranoidwriter waves hello

16:05 / 20.06.05

Thinking about it more, Motown was more a collective in which song would be created by writers/musicians, and then offered around, recorded by many different artists and released based on the response from the collective, so remixes make sense of songs that don't really belong to anyone

Definitely! Which is one of the reasons why Motown is one of the greatest record labels ever (as well as the sheer talent in their catalogue, of course). All this makes me think of 2Tone Records as well, but that's another thread....

The classic example of this "collective mentality" is 'Tears of a Clown' "by" Smokey Robinson. The main hook which starts the song was written by the God that is Stevie Wonder (who's classical stuff under the pseudonym 'Eivets Rednow' I must get round to listening to). But he didn't know what to do with it, so he handed over to Mr Robinson and well, the rest is pop history.