Written by Claude Lemaire
For Part-5: http://soundevaluations.blogspot.com/2022/01/diving-into-disco-part5.html
By 1967, the Motor City is still monopolizing the music charts and airwaves, cruising full speed ahead, rivaled only by Britain's Fab Four. But there is turbulence and static on the horizon stemming from a strong current blowing from the West Coast, plus inner tensions within the hit factory and family. These combined factors would eventually shake the label's foundation to its core, and shape its direction before the turn of the decade.
Turn on, tune in, drop out
It's early June, and the Summer of Love is in full bloom converging at the crossroads of Haight and Ashbury streets where free flowing hippies are tripping and dancing away wearing flowers in their hair.
This segment is brought to you by the letters LSD
Psychedelics were nothing new. Psychologist and writer Timothy Leary had experimented with, and espoused the effects of acid, while the Beatles–long past their "yeah yeah yeah" period–had by now driven their car deeper into Norwegian Woods rolling on Rubber Souls, and taken Penny Lane for a trip through Strawberry Fields complete with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
San Francisco's Bay Area was thriving with bands such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience incorporating psychedelics into rock, but soul seemed spared from this acidic trip, up until now that is.
Reflections of
The way life used to be
"Reflections" mirrors that melancholic mood and was the first song credited to 'Diana Ross & the Supremes', underscoring Diana's undeniable rising star power within the Motown ranks, while sowing the seeds of discord among the trio.
Released in July, the single's strange stereo spacey intro suggest psychedelic pop ingredients–a first for the label. With its slower tempo, sadder lyrics, and the war raging on in Vietnam, the change in musical direction is a clear departure from the past, even though it was still penned by H-D-H. The corresponding album would appear only the following March.
Through the mirror of my mind
Through all these tears that I'm crying
Trapped in a world
That's a distorted reality
The drugs not only expanded the mind, they expanded the song lengths, sparking the single to take a back seat to the album for the first time in pop territory. This turn of events enabled composers and artists alike to explore outside the box, borrowing structures and arrangements found in other cultures and music genres.
Enter the Bay Area...
Hey, hey, hey, hey,
Beat is gettin' stronger
Music's gettin' longer,
I Wanna take you higher
Hailing from San Francisco, Sly and the Family Stone embodied that free spirit to a tee. The "Stone" family comprised the multi-talented Sylvester Stewart aka Sly Stone, mastering many instruments, brother Frederick J. aka Freddie on guitar and sister Rosemary aka Rose on keyboard–who joined a bit later–plus Larry Graham on bass, Cynthia Robinson on trumpet, Jerry Martini on sax, Greg Errico on drums–most members sharing equal vocal opportunity–and the back vocals trio 'Little Sister'. The racially and gender integrated group brought A Whole New Thing to the music scene in October of 1967.
Way ahead of its time, their debut LP presented a powerful mix of soul, funk, psychedelic, rock, R&B, blues, and jazzy horn stabs–a combination never seen before in the industry, but revisited decades later by artists such as Prince, and Lenny Kravitz.
With its brazen brass-heavy "Frere Jacques" nursery rhyme intro, the single "Underdog" underscores the changing of the guard with what one could codify as a proto-funky-hip hop track. "If This Room Could Talk" showcases a more soulful steady beat while "Turn Me Loose" fires into a frenzy. "Advice" has that groovy R&B vibe. "I Cannot Make It" cast a looser Jagger-Stones stutter. With dissonant chords and spooky psychedelic effects "Trip to Your Heart" is all the more original. "Bad Risk" rocks the house hard with "Dog" packing a punch closing the album. Recorded live in the studio without overdubs, the album's audacity most certainly impeded its success, prompting Epic execs to pressure Sly for a more commercial dance-oriented record.
The daily double answer was "Dance to the Music" first released as a single in November, and later as an album in April 1968. Fusing funk with psychedelic rock, powered by an energetic metronomic Motown beat and precocious break and buildup, it set the stage for future funk and disco tracks to follow. One can hear how much an influence it had on musicians such as percussionist and band leader Hamilton Bohannon by listening to his seventies solo material, such as "Foot Stompin Music" from Insides Out in 1975–a decade earlier Bohannon was working at Motown, and touring as the backing band for the label's top artists.
With his fuzzy-distorted bass brother Graham's gonna add some bottom to the mix while Sly follows with a groovy churchy-organ run, ending with Cynthia and Gerry blowing horns. The twelve-minute "Dance to the Medley" sounds almost like an alternate version of the title-track with greater emphasis put on the psychedelic effects, and we can infer future influence on The Jackson 5. "Ride the Rhythm" and "Color Me True" respectively distinguish themselves by increasing the rock and blues ingredients along with trading various vocal registers within the group, gradually reinforcing the foundations for the emerging psychedelic soul subgenre.
That same April, Archie Bell & the Drells from Houston, Texas started a new dance called the Tighten Up. With its bass solo intro, crisp funky guitar, uptempo rhythm, and particular brass chords, it added a bit of light fun to the party.
Reference List (Singles, albums, and labels):
"Reflections" [Motown M 1111]
Reflections [Motown MS 665]
A Whole New Thing [Epic BN 26324]
"Underdog" [Epic 5-10229]
"Dance to the Music" [Epic 5-10256]
Dance to the Music [Epic BN 26371]
Insides Out [Dakar Records DK 76916]
Tighten Up [Atlantic SC 8181]
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