Surprise Musical Moment of the Week

[jazzbo]

Mine was spinning for the first time the Marvin Gaye track "(I'm Afraid) The Masquerade is Over" from "The Soulful Moods of Marvin Gaye." (Also appears on the new six cd set of Motown singles, Volume One).

The piano intro is. . . a theme from Monk's "Round Midnight." Wasn't expecting it, was so happy to hear it!

[Noj]

Is that the same "Masquerade" as David Porter does?

'Round Midnight seems to be subject to very different interpretations. Is there a layman's explanation for this song's maleability?

[jazzbo]

Personally, I think it's because "every little breeze seems to whisper Louise." (I have a personal pet theory that "Louise" was the melodic inspiration for the song, I'm probably wrong).

Not sure about the Porter song. . .

[JSngry]

Dude, you're really on a Marvin kick these days, eh?

Can't say that I blame you, either.

[jazzbo]

Yeah, I do this, I get on an artist like a terrier on a trouserleg until I get shaken off.

[JSngry]

Don't know that Marvin will prove to be easily shaken off said trouserleg any time soon, if indeed ever. The deeper you get w/him...

[jazzbo]

No I won't be abandoning him. . . he'll just be bumped from heavier rotation for a while by my new musical exciter.

Luckily, I'm very faithful and loyal to my WOMEN.

[Soul Stream]

O.K...I'll say it...never been a big Marvin fan... although I completely understand his legendary status as a musical genius. His brand of "modal soul" never really caught my ear and his voice is just a little to "light" for my tastes. I know, I suck.

[JSngry]

Yep.

[JSngry]

[Jim Alfredson]

Mike, go listen to "Distant Lover" and tell me his soul is light. Damn, that track makes me almost cry everytime I hear it. The man had soul as big as the planet.

[jazzbo]

Hey I can understand that I think Mike. Sort of.

But he's always been someone I enjoyed and this year he's really gotten under my skin.

I sort of wish he had been able to be the balladeer of standards and torch songs he wanted to be and tried to start out to be. . . . But then the journey he followed instead led to "What's Goin' On" which I think is a timeless work of art and more beyond where he was really able to be his own man. "Here my Dear" is something else too, I've never heard vocal harmonies and music and theme so carefully and yet organically interwoven. . . . It's sad how he spiraled down and out like a fast burning flame but that's life too.

The single that was his very first release for Tamla, and fizzled like a lead pipe, "(I'm Afraid) This Masquerade is Over" and "Witchcraft" is so really cool in all ways that I wish there were hundreds more renditions like this. . . and there aren't.

Anyway, I keep getting more and more respect for Marvin and Jim is right, he's someone you get deeper and deeper into.

[JSngry]

Understanding that such teerms are inevitably relative and subjective, I'll also have to disagree that Marvin's voice was "light". "Transparent", maybe (at least to my way of thinking). But that's what gave him that soaring quality when he went there with it, as well what allowed him to do those massive layered (blocked & contrapunctal) vocal things. A more "concentrated" voice would've clogged up the sonic space and it would have sounded clumsy, at best.

[jazzbo]

Okay Clem, we'll just agree to disagree on THIS one. I think the Motown set is quite a historical document, and I'm digging exploring it. And like I may have said, I think that one single from Marvin is the best thing in the box, and there's really not much like it to be found all over the discs. I wish there were!

Edited March 17, 2005 by jazzbo

[paul secor]

Don't want to get into a Motown argument - I'll take further soul soul any day - BUT David Ruffin at his best can stand with anyone on my turntable or CD player.

[paul secor]

No argument. I agree with what you're saying. Just wanted to post my love for Mr. David Ruffin.

Just reread - guess you were responding to Lon and not to me.

Anyway, If anyone's interested - check out the single he did with his brother Jimmy - "When My Love Hand Comes Tumbling Down". I don't have (or want) the Motown singles box, but I still have the 45 somewhere.

Edited March 17, 2005 by paul secor

[jazzbo]

Yeah, well things like copy labels don't bother me, sanskrit or chicken scratch on a lable is all the same once it's in the player!

I like Southern Soul too, though some of it's down home finger lickin' good aspects I can do without, just as I can do without the later Motown glitzy gloss. . . . Nothing's perfect in the commercial world and the imperfections can sometimes be the cat's meowing.

The Motown set is a great set because you can see and hear the development and hear some cats and kittens getting their one big shot and putting it all in there. . . that comes across to me and I feel it and it feels good.