Soul Satisfaction 02 - The Motown Connection Cd Review

Soul Satisfaction 02 - The Motown Connection Cd Review

At first glance the design and presentation of the

CD earns full marks with a breezy design and the front cover also doubles up

as a 8 sided informative pullout. Each track being allocated, first a brief

description by Jo Wallace, using her own unique style of description,

which anyone who has had the pleasure of hearing her Dj will be familiar with

. Who else would use the term "Moist Motown" ! And then

following these lyrical descriptions, a potted factual history for each track

for the info freaks, as in release date, details, numbers and origins. Always

can tell how good a insert is by the amount of times you find yourself reading

it and so far this one is well on its way to being well thumbed.

On to the tracks themselves, well the listing was

previewed earlier on Soul Source but just to refresh you its repeated below,

as you may spot not strictly a Motown one but sweeps up and includes a few

tracks from labels that later came under Motown. The track order follows

a loose time structured format apart from just a few skips back and

forth. The opening tracks finds us in the time of 1963 and the end ones has

us finishing in 1973 and the styles follow suit, with early Detroit first, leading

us into the labels golden age and then finishing just before (to me when

the label lost it self) the mid 70s. Trackwise, well as said Jo Wallace

comments and the info facts do each track justice, but as you cant read them

without buying the Cd have just added my scribbles on a few of the tracks.

Junior Walker - Good Rockin

First track always a important one on a cd as its the one that sets out the

stall, and this one takes us back to the Harvey Label in 63 with a well

raucous opener, Mr Walker certainly gets you up and taking notice with this

one. Will just say this had the whole household up and rocking this

morning, all brushing our teeth in time to this one.

Marvelettes - Goddess of love

Carolyn Crawford - Forget about me

Still in 1963 and well just say ... perfection

Earl Van Dyke - How Sweet it is

A track that works so well down at "These Old Shoes" and seems to be

made for that style of venue

Billy Eckstine - I wonder why nobody loves me

Another floor filling track thats been in demand for a fair while

now and its good to see it on CD.

Tammi Terrell - I cant believe you love me

Smokey Robinson and Miracles - Can you love a poor boy

Martha Reeves - My baby loves me

One track which seems to have always been overlooked due to its commercial

success, always been a constant dig out and play through the years for

myself.

Fantastic Four - Just the lonely

Fantastic Four - Cant stop looking for my babyBoth sides of this Ric Tic outing are on here and deservedly so, always good

to hear those classic opening lines of "another two dollar room

thats never seen a broom....."

Monitors - Say you

Temps - Hey Girl

Jimmy Ruffin - Everybody needs love

Current the last play at these old shoes nites and surprisingly I read its the

flip of " I passed this way before", which sadly is one that must

have lived in my shoe box for years unappreciated.

Gladys Knight & Pips - Hes my kind of fellow

A LP track which is another one that has been in

demand recently and yet another one thats worth the cd price alone.

Four Tops - Im Grateful

Edwin Starr - Dont tell me Im crazy

Spinners - Shes gonna love me at sundown

Edwin Starr - Running back and forth

Flip of his popular Time and another one which makes you wonder why

stuff of this calibre was ignored on initial release and why you didnt pay

more attention to those flips.

Martha Reeves - Love, guess whoA first hear for me from 1970 and one that will definetly be played again.

Edwin Starr - There you go

Stevie Wonder - Light my fire

Gladys Knight - Who is she

Original of the Creative Source outing and a stop off on this trip to

those funky psychedelic early 70s

Eddie Kendricks - Date with the rainFrom 1972 comes one which found fame later in 80s on the rare groove side, and

still works well in 2001

Marvin Gaye - Come get to this

The one that earned the title "Moist Motown" and a great way

to finish with the master and a track combining the magic of his 60s stuff

with the feel of his classic 70s epics. Proves the top tip "Always finish

on a high!" correct.

Well there you go, as said just a few notes on some of the tracks, looking back at the Cd

overall, it was a great journey, from

those long far away days of 63 where both throbbing uptempo and girl soul

sounds started us off, right up to the smooth hazy days of those

early 70s, with stops off at a wide range of different Motown stops,

ranging from the well known in demand tracks to little heard overlooked

potential classics.

To me thats the one thing that makes the cd stand out from the crowd, its not

just a collection of thrown together tracks, but you can feel the thought and

effort that has gone in to planning this journey, its a

collection that you can listen to from the start to end with no need to keep

hitting that jump track button that some comps suffer from, which proves

the attention paid to the track choices.

The final word, A top selection of tracks, a great mix of in demand

items, little heard potential classics and just some cracking soul music. Its

a good one and well recommended.

In the shops date as soon as get it

Universal - 013215-2 being the number