That's from the Wikipedia article for the song "Reach Out I’ll Be There," which my son John says is his "favorite H-D-H song, and one of my favorite songs by anyone." That's at John's blog post "Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier has died." Goodbye to Lamont Dozier, who was 81.
...“Reach Out, I’ll Be There”, started with an instrumental introduction that Brian Holland was noodling with on the piano....
Go to the podcast to hear the actual music clips.
Holland was playing that part, over and over, and then suddenly Lamont Dozier was hit with inspiration — so much so that he literally pushed Holland to one side without saying anything and started playing what would become the verse....
Again, there's a clip.
The interesting thing about that track is that it shows how the different genres that were charting at the time would have more influence on each other than it might appear from this distance, where we put them all into neat little boxes named “folk-rock” or “Motown”. Because Lamont Dozier was very specifically being influenced by Bob Dylan and “Like a Rolling Stone,” when it came to how the song was phrased. Now, this is not something that I would ever in a million years have thought of...
Ha ha. I still felt that way, even though I know I listened to this podcast.
... but once you know it, the influence is absolutely plain — the way the melody stresses and elongates the last syllable of each line is pure Dylan. To show this, I am afraid I’m going to have to do something that I hoped I’d never, ever, have to do, which is do a bad Bob Dylan impression. Everyone thinks they can impersonate Dylan, everyone’s imitations of Dylan are cringeworthy, and mine is worse than most. This will sound awful, but it *will* show you how Dozier was thinking when he came up with that bit of melody:
[demonstrates]
Let us never speak of that again.
Ha ha. Should I feel bad for directing people to the specific thing our podcaster, Andrew Hickey, implored us not to talk about? He also asks for listeners to tell other people about the podcast, so I hope it's okay! It is very interesting. And he perfectly demonstrates the influence of Dylan in the phrasing and proceeds to play the 4 Tops clip that makes it absolutely obvious: When you feel that you can't go on....
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All of Hickey's episodes are interesting. Thanks again for recommending the podcast. One of the best series I've listened to?
Lamont was a great one. Loved his music.
I don’t think we recognize the influence of the blues in some of Dylan’s songs. Covers by blues artists make this clear. Songs like Mama You’ve Been On My Mind, Down Along the Cove, Emotionally Yours, Gotta Serve Somebody, High Water, I Shall Be Released, Meet Me In The Morning, My Wife’s Home Town, New Pony, Pledging My Time, Pressing On, Ring Them Bells, Step It Up And Go, Sweetheart Like You, The Levee’s Gone To Break, etc.
Dylan has a way of working with words to not only form rhyme, but to pull out internal rhymes within words through his singing style. It’s a major reason why I can listen to his songs over and over again, hearing something new in a nuance, phrase, or use of a word. Dylan often uses the rare meaning of a word in the dictionary which tends to throw off the meaning of a phrase if you don’t look it up. Keep the mind active.
This was the music of my life. Growing up in Detroit, everything else was secondary. Motown, and Holland Dozier Holland songs were what you heard. Everywhere. From cars, from house windows, at parties. It was the ubiquitous sound of the Detroit area. RIP to Lamont Dozier.
I'll have to go back to that episode to give it a listen.
BTW, "...everyone’s imitations of Dylan are cringeworthy,...". Especially Dylan's.
Holland, Dozier, Holland.
As a kid, I was a voracious consumer of album liner notes. I would go into record stores (remember those?), and just read liner notes. I remember repeatedly seeing those names, and thinking those guys??......again??
The Holland brothers are still with us.
Today's "music" pales in comparison to what H-D-H and their contemporaries turned out. Still great stuff 50+ years down the road.
Sorry, I fat thumbed the "?" at the end. I meant to use a "." though if I was still a teenager, I'd have used a "!".
Johnny Rivers did a contemporary Christian version of "I'll Be There." I like his version but still love the Four Tops' version. Nevertheless, when I hear Levi Stubbs, I can't help but think of "feed me, Seymour," from Little Shop of Horrors.
Just started the all you need is love episode of 500 songs.
One of the things I learned was that Dozier along with Holland and the other Dozier was originally supposed to produce the Beatles Revolver album.
Also that bass had to be diald back because it would cause records to skip by jumping the needle from the groove
John LGBTQBNY Henry
An underrated aspect to all the great Motown songs is the bass playing.......mostly by James Jamerson.
The GOAT.
Temujin, it would be great to sit down with you and share memories of growing up in the Detroit area in the 60s and 70s. Motown really was the music of our lives.
I started listening to the All You Need is Love ep of the 500 songs podcast. Mainly about the Beatles but I learned 2 new things so far:
Holland-Dozier-Holland were originally supposed to produce the Revolver album. Just imagine what that would have sounded like!
When music was on vinyl, bass lines had to be toned down. Too heavy a bass thumping would cause the tone are to jump out of the groove.
One of the things I love about the podcast is all the useless trivia I learn from it!
I loved Motown in the 60s. Great music and Holland-Dozier-Holland were at the heart of it. Sad to see him go. I'd known the name but never who he was. Earlier eps of the podcast helped correct that.
I don't remember if Dozier was in it but there is a great movie called "The Funk Brothers" about some of the Motown sesssion musicians of that day.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
I second Another Old Lawyer:
"All of Hickey's episodes are interesting. Thanks again for recommending the podcast. One of the best series I've listened to?"
J. Henry: "The Funk Brothers" is terrific. Studio A, good Lord.
How odd! I've been catching up on the podcast episodes and today I was just listening to that Four Tops episode on the way home from work. May Mr. Dozier rest in peace.
I went through Basic Training and AIT (for light weapons infantryman) at Fort Polk Louisiana in the late spring and summer of 1969. The Four Tops and the Temptations were played almost to the exclusion of everything else.
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