by Kevin Burton There would come a time, in a year or so, when you could not escape disco. But at its inception 50 years ago, you couldn’t have seen it coming. “Disco snuck up on America like a covert operation,” wrote Alice Echols in her book “Hot Stuff, Disco and the Remaking …
Tag Archives: R&B
What’s Going On? New Marvin Gaye Music?
by Kevin Burton There might be some court wrangling first, but there is a chance the world will get to hear some new Marvin Gaye music. According to multiple reports, a collection of tapes of previously unheard Gaye songs has been discovered in Belgium. The troubled genius moved there in 1981 to get …
Motown’s Move To LA Stifled The Magic
by Kevin Burton There is more than a little irony in the 1971 Jackson 5 song “Going Back To Indiana.” That makes for an easy choice to make Indiana a destination for our summer rock and roll road trip, Coast to Coast. For Coast to Coast we are talking rock and roll history, …
Musical Genius Thom Bell Dead At 79
by Kevin Burton Just as Philly Soul is unfairly overshadowed by Motown and Stax, Thom Bell didn’t always get the credit he deserved. The producer, arranger and songwriter died Dec. 22 at the age of 79. I never heard his name mentioned in the 70s when I was soaking in his Sound of …
“Rescue Me” Imitated The Detroit Sound
by Kevin Burton From the heart of the Motown era came a million-selling hit that typified the Detroit sound. But the song has been doubly mistaken through the years, shortchanging the artist whose vocal command made it a classic. That song was “Rescue Me,” and it was a bit of a rescue …
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