Funk Brothers "You Keep Me Hangin' On" Isolated Tracks

Motown's famous Funk Brother's band was the mainstay for all the great hits made during the Detroit era of the label, and they were a truly formidable lot.

Although the players were great, it was the arrangements that really made the hit songs work. Here's a great example of a beautifully simple arrangement of a pop song with The Supremes "You Keep Me Hangin' On." Here's what to listen for.

1. The song features one of the smaller combos found on a typical Motown session. There are drums, 3 guitars (the usual compliment on most Motown songs), organ, percussion, tambourine and James Jamerson's great bass.

2. Listen to the interplay of the guitars. There's a high and low guitar playing the basic riff, and a 12 string outlining the chord changes. During the bridge the parts change, but all work on their own and never get in the way rhythmically. Oh, and all of the parts are dead clean as well.

3. Speaking of guitars, the 12 string that's outlining the chords is often behind the beat, which is unusual for most Motown songs, since most players had great time. The fact that it wasn't fixed is probably due to the fact that it was recorded live married to another instrument on the same track.

4. Listen to the low galloping percussion during the bridge playing roughly the same figure as the bass. You can hear it well here but not in the final mix.

5. While the tracks might sound dry, there's actually a tiny amount of a short reverb on everything that keeps the instruments in your face without seeming washed out.

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The Temptations "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" Instrumental Track

It's always fun to listen to what's inside a hit record, especially when some of the polish is wiped off. Here's a great example of a great arrangement and playing on The Temptations big hit "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." It's the instrumental-only version, except for the background harmony vocals in the chorus. Here's what to listen for.

1. The stereo panning is very distinct with most of the instruments either hard left, hard right or center. One of the cooler things is how the guitars are split hard left and right, with the fills in the center or just off to one side.

2. This is an excellent example of a song written around a single riff that never changes. All of the dynamics, and the differentiation between the sections, are created strictly by the arrangement. Not an easy feat.

3. The only drums are kick and high hat. The backbeat in the second half of the chorus comes from some highly compressed handclaps.

4. There are a lot of guitars playing. Usually there's a minimum of 2 but at times as many as 6. You never think of a Motown song being that guitar intense, but it's actually easier to do with clean guitars than distorted.

5. There's a touch of one beautiful sounding reverb on most of the instruments, with the exception of a tape delay on the solo trumpet.

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Marvin Gaye "Ain't That Peculiar" Isolated Bass and Drums

We all love those old Motown tracks recorded in Detroit in the 60s, and one of the driving forces behind them was the innovative bass playing of James Jamerson. He's been massively influential to bass players since, and rightfully so; the man was truly original. Here's the isolated bass and drum tracks to the great Marvin Gaye's hit "Ain't That Peculiar," which reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965. Here's what to listen for.

1. The bass sound is straight out of the 60s, with all of the high-end was automatically rolled off. The thinking back then was, "It's a bass instrument. It doesn't need any high-end."

2. Likewise, the bass is out in front of the drums, while the drum sound is very undefined. Again, this was the sound of the 60s when there were only a couple of mics on the drums and the bass anchored the mix.

3. The leakage is really interesting. If you listen on headphones, you'll hear the piano and horns in the background, proving that they actually did track with the entire band.

4. This is one of the more controlled bass parts played by Jamerson, who follows the bass pattern pretty faithfully throughout the song. In other songs of the period, his playing was much more free-form.

If you like these isolated tracks, you might also like my Deconstructed Hits book series that takes an X-ray look inside different hit songs from different genres and eras.

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"Can't Help Myself" Isolated Bass

Motown's James Jamerson is ones of the giants of the bass world, so it's always a pleasure when we can get to closely study his work. Here's a video of his isolated bass in The Four Tops hit "I Can't Help Myself (Suger Pie Honey Bunch)." As you listen, take notice to a few things:

1. The leakage of the rest of the band onto the bass track. Most of the recording of those early Motown hits recorded in Detroit were done on an 8 track tape machine, which means that many of the instruments had to be recorded together on the same tracks. The bass was the exception as it always had its own track, but that didn't mean that it was totally isolated. Since it was recorded through an amp, you can hear the rest of the band playing as well, which is something that we probably wouldn't stand for today. Didn't seem to hurt anything here.

2. Listen to how Jamerson's articulations change throughout the song. Sometimes he has a smooth release and sometimes it's staccato and chopped off. This is something else we would probably replace today, asking him to play it one way or another throughout the song.

3. There's a mistake that Jamerson makes throughout the first third of the song as he plays a major against a Dm (the third chord in the pattern) over and over. At some point he realizes the mistake and makes the change (it's only one fret difference). Not that this has ever bothered the millions of listeners that have enjoyed the song. In fact, if it weren't for the isolated track, no one would probably hear the difference.

This track is a perfect example of how modern production techniques have changed from the 1960s. Today we look for more precision and isolation, but we often lose the feel and groove as a result. That said, the track is proof that a hit is still a hit, mistakes and all.

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Four Tops "Bernadette" Isolated Tracks

I may have posted this before, but it's so cool that it's worth posting again. Here's a great video that shows off the virtuosity of Motown bassist James Jamerson on The Four Tops 60's hit "Bernadette." For most of the song you hear just Jamerson's bass, then the other parts of the song are gradually brought in, then muted.

Jamerson was truly one of a kind in that he didn't actually play a part as much as he played a groove. He's incredibly solid time-wise even within a flurry of pickup notes, and has style that's uniquely his. In fact, what's so cool is that he's given free reign within the arrangement to play what he pretty much as he wishes while the guitars and piano hold down the rhythm.

Also keep in mind that everything you hear was done on 8 track!

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Motown Loses Its Bottom End

When musicians, especially bass players, refer to Motown records of the 60's and early 70's, they  usually think about the late great James Jamerson, who anchored many, but not all of those great hits. A bass player who played on just as many hits but has never gotten nearly as much acclaim is Bob Babbitt, who played on big hits like Smokey Robinson's "Tears Of A Clown," Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," Marvin Gaye's "Mercy, Mercy Me," Gladys Night and the Pips "Midnight Train To Georgia," The Capitol's "Cool Jerk" and many more.

Bob was as much a part of the legendary Funk Brothers as Jamerson, and he was featured in the excellent Standing In The Shadow Of Motown movie and all of their subsequent concert tours. Sadly, Bob passed away yesterday at age 73, but you can get a feel for this great and humble man from this video, where Bob explains how he got his break into the fairly closed Motown family.



There's an excellent article about Bob's life and the many hits he played on in the Tennessean that's well worth the read.

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"Heard It Through The Grapevine" Marvin Gaye Multitrack

"Heard It Through The Grapevine" is one of the most covered songs ever but it all started with the Marvin Gaye version. A look at the multitrack from this song shows you exactly how the brilliance of Motown's arrangements worked.

1) This song was cut on an 8 track analog tape recorder, as were most of the Detroit Motown hits. The tracks were drums, congas and tambourine, bass, guitars, strings, electric piano, background vocals, and lead vocals.

2) Listen to the two drummers on track one. You can hear a little flaming but they're impressively precise for the most part.

3) Track two is dedicated to congas and tambourine. Jack Ashton's tambourine was actually one of the distinctive sounds of Motown records.

4) The three guitars that Motown usually used on most records was also unique. Usually each guitar was assigned a part and they didn't double much, but they do here on the verse.

5) The background vocals by The Andantes are sweet, but if you listen carefully, it sounds like the singers aren't exactly sure of their parts in the beginning of the song. It not the main parts of the the phrases, it's the intros that sometimes sound like they're searching.

6) Marvin's lead vocals are, as usual, spectacular. That said, producer and co-writer Norman Whitfield fought long and hard for Marvin to sing in the key that you hear, which was one of the reasons why the song came out about a year after it was recorded.

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The Beatles "Rain" Backing Track

Today we'll take a listen to the backing track from The Beatles "Rain," which was the B-side of the "Paperback Writer" single. The track has background and some harmony vocals but no lead vocals, which makes me think that the old phase-inversion trick (flipping the phase on one channel to cancel out anything in the center) was used to eliminate it.

1) The song is significant in the fact that the band thought that it showcased the peak of their performance skills as a band. Ringo has commented since that he rated the song as his best recorded performance ever.

2) For evidence of how tight the band was, listen to the break at 2:35. The interplay between Paul and Ringo is very precise and feels great.

3) Paul's Rickenbacker 4001 bass was recorded using a speaker as a microphone to get a bigger "Motown" style bass sound. The boys had been complaining for a while about how thin the bass on their records was as compared to American records, and this was one of engineer Geoff Emerick's solutions, according to his book "Here, There and Everywhere."

4) The track was also recorded at a faster tempo with the tape machine running fast, which was then slowed down to the correct speed in order to make it sound bigger as well.

5) The interplay between John's chorded rhythm guitar and George's picked rhythm is a thing of beauty. They are played and layered so well that they blend seamlessly together.

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"Tears Of A Clown" Isolated Vocals

Here's another piece of Motown history as we listen to the isolated vocals from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles big hit, "Tears Of A Clown."

1) When you isolate most tracks from the songs from the original Motown in Detroit, you find that they're usually pretty distorted. That's not the case here, as the vocals for Tears Of A Clown are much cleaner than other tracks we've listened to from that era.

2) The reverb sounds really good. It's short and dark, but it's perfect for the song.

3) The background vocal arrangement is superb. Not only do the Miracles blend so well together, but the counterpoint lines to Smokey's lead vocal fit the song perfectly.

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"I Want You Back" - Isolated Bass

Staying with our bass theme for the week, here's the isolated bass part for the Jackson 5's first hit "I Want You Back." Although everyone assumes that Motown great James Jamerson played bass on the track, it was actually bassist/saxophonist Wilton Felder of The Crusaders.

1) The sound is typically Motown, even though the song was recorded in Los Angeles instead of Detroit. It's very present with a lot of high end, and the part is very even without sounding too compressed.

2) By today's standards, the track is a little shaky, with lots of little timing mistakes. There's even a couple of mis-fretted notes and a phrase or two that sounds a little tentative. A producer today would not have kept this though, and probably would cut a few takes and then cut and pasted them together, or just move a note here or there.

3) But the feel is great, the song was a hit, so who cares about the inconsistencies.

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A Capitol Fourth

Watching the PBS Capitol Fourth special last night was a real treat in many ways. I especially enjoyed the National Symphony Orchestra, the Marine Drum and Bugle Corp, and the US Army Ceremonial Band because they were living proof that good music transcends genre.

The groove of these bands were just as wide and fat as the best Motown funk, and it was a real pleasure to listen to the extremely tight and in-tune string and horn sections. Anyone who's ever done a session with a weak horn or string section knows the pain involved, so hearing some fabulous players, directors and arrangements really makes you appreciate what you're listening to.

If only the rest of the US government worked as well as their bands and orchestras.

Here's an example of the excellent horns at about :35.

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"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Marvin and Tammi Isolated Vocals

Going back down the road of Motown history, today we look at the isolated vocal track of the Marvin Gaye - Tammi Terrell 1967 single "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Even if you don't like Motown or Marvin and Tammi, this one is worth a listen. Give it some time, the vocal doesn't come in for about 20 seconds.

1) The vocals on this track just smoke. It jumps out of the air at you as there's such a dynamic between the two singers. You'd swear that they were singing together but in fact each was done separately, with Tammi doing her part first and Marvin laying his vocal down a few months later.

2) Marvin's a bit pitchy at the turnaround of the first chorus. It sounds like he's unsure what the notes are supposed to be. Of course, I never noticed it before I listened to the vocal by itself (as is normally the case).

3) The vocal reverb is really nice. It's band limited as was the case in those days, which means that it's present without getting in the way, although this isn't the greatest audio forum to evaluate things like that.

I get chills listening to this. I hope you do too.

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"You Keep Me Hangin" On Isolated Tracks

Staying with our Motown theme for the week, here are two versions of the Supreme's classic, "You Keep Me Hangin' On."

The first version is from the superb Standing In The Shadow's Of Motown deluxe box, which is a must for every musician's video collection. Here's what to listen for:

1) This is a pretty stripped down arrangement compared to most Motown songs in that it only uses the rhythm section, with no strings or horns.

2) The tambourine, played by Jack Ashford, is a Motown signature and is used on just about every single Motown song. In this case, listen to how seamlessly it works against the snare drum on 2 and 4.

3) The interplay of the guitars is also classic Motown and a textbook on how to make 3 guitars work in a song. In the intro and verses we hear the octave high E pedal and the second guitar outlining the chord changes. In the bridge with hear all 3 guitars, with the third one entering with the funky double-time muted line.

4) The same goes for the interplay with the keyboards. An organ plays through the entire song and the piano enters only on the bridges.

5) The timing of the different guitar parts is off in a few places. It would make a producer crazy today, but didn't seem to matter much to anyone back then. The song was a huge hit and I don't think anyone who bought the record noticed that the strummed guitar was off in bars 46 and 91.

6) Check out how the mix breaks down to just the bass and drums at about 1;13, then opens back up to the entire band at 1;38.

In this second version, we have a brief introduction by Diana Ross describing how they worked out the song, then you hear the track with only the background vocals. It's really interesting to finally hear exactly what they were doing.



Tomorrow, more Motown.

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A Rare Look At A Motown Session

It's Motown week here on the Big Picture and we're going to start with an extremely rare look into a session by the legendary Temptations backed by the legendary Funk Brothers and recorded at the legendary Motown Studios in Detroit (the "Snakepit" as they used to call it).

This video was shot back in 1967 for a CBS News piece called appropriately "The Motown Story." It featured the classic Temptations lineup including David Ruffin (the lead singer) and Eddie Ruffin, both of which would leave the band soon after this video was made. The song is called "Sorry Is A Sorry Word" and was produced by Motown writers Ivy Jo Hunter and Brian Holland (who stops the song mid-way through).

Some things to observe when watching:

1) As we'll see in upcoming posts, no one at Motown cared much about isolation between instruments since they were never going to replace anything anyway. Either the band got the track or it didn't, and no one ever came back to "fix" a part. Most of the songs cut in Detroit were cut on an 8 track recorder, so a lot of overdubs weren't much of an option anyway. They were only used for a bit of control over the final balance.

2) The usual Funk Brothers band consisted of a rhythm section of 2 drummers, tambourine, congas or bongos, bass, 3 guitars, and 2 keyboards which were all recorded at the same time in the same room! Horns and strings might also be cut at the same time as the rhythm section as well. Motown was only a house in the residential area of town and the studio was in the basement. Imagine doing that in your basement!

3) Only the arranger (the very talented William Witherspoon, who I believe was actually responsible for the early sound of Motown) used headphones. No one else needed them because they were all playing in the same room so they could hear themselves as if it were a rehearsal or gig.

Enjoy. Tomorrow, more Motown.

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Words Of Wisdom

One of the smartest guys in the music business I know is Bob Ohlsson.

Bob was never an influential music executive for a big label.  In fact, he wasn't an executive at all. Bob was an engineer for Motown during their best, most productive years in Detroit and while he was there, he watched Berry Gordy build a world-class company and studied how the history of the entertainment business repeated itself.  From this came a worldly view of the business of music that always provides a "D'uh" moment whenever I read one of his posts. Bob sees the music biz (really the entire entertainment biz) on a global scale unlike anyone I've ever met.

Here's an excerpt from a recent post on the Mastering list regarding the state of live music that really hit home.

"The minute anybody has begun trying to treat entertainment as some kind of a generic commodity historically-speaking, they have always been headed for a financial train wreck.

Corporate investors really want to believe in movie mogul mythology because it appeals to their quest for power. The press loves to believe they know what people want and support the same myth endlessly as something to blame the failure of their pet projects on. Artists who fail to connect with a large enough audience to quit their day jobs also love to use "the evil industry" as their excuse. Obviously label execs love for people to believe they have great power and I think one of our biggest current problems are sorcerers apprentices at the labels who actually believe this pretention."

After some interesting private discussions at the recent AES show, I believe that we're going to see some of the great record makers of our time exit the business soon just for the reason that Bob outlined. For them, the record making process has become no fun and you have to have fun on some level to make great music.

It all comes back to a little saying that I have - "Art is something that you do for yourself; a craft is something you do for someone else."  The business of making music has turned far too much into a craft in recent years.