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He joined the Motown house band, the Funk Brothers, in 1968 and later played on one of the Temptations’ most iconic singles, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” which incorporates long, flickering funk riffs, bluesy excursions and pointillistic solos. The shimmery, lingering guitar part after the line “it was the third of September” is a perfect demonstration of the wah wah pedal effect. Ragin went on to appear on both Marvin Gaye’s sensual masterpieces, Let’s Get It On and I Want You, Quincy Jones’ most successful solo LP, Body Heat, Rose Royce’s breakout album, Car Wash, Smokey Robinson’s criminally underappreciated Love...

Enough with the politicizing at the funeralizing. It’s worse than 3 days of rain (which it’s going to do in these parts) on a holiday weekend. I know there’s more scheduled for today but I’m going to take a pass. Instead I’ll be celebrating a musicality Sunday, with a slight nod towards the neon gods that have and will be laid to rest this past week. My first selection, something I could use a bit more of: And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that...

Beyond the music itself, the moment everyone talked about after Franklin’s performance at the Kennedy Center was the way, just before the final chorus, as she was reaching the all-out crescendo, she stripped off her mink and let it fall to the floor. Whoosh! Dropping the fur—it’s an old gospel move, a gesture of emotional abandon, of letting loose. – Soul Survivor Ah, such sweet sadness; the lights in Detroit - which only recently began to glow a bit again - will be a bit dimmer tonight as the curtain comes down on one of Motown’s great ones. Aretha’s...

This is exclusive, and heart breaking for me and for the family and friends of the great Aretha Franklin. She is gravely ill in Detroit. The family is asking for prayers and privacy. Originally diagnosed with cancer in 2010, Aretha, who turned 76 in March, bravely battled back and refused to be knocked out by illness. Her last performance as on November 2, 2017 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation in New York. Her final public performance was at Philadelphia’s Mann Center in August 2017. It was a miraculous show as Aretha was already then fighting exhaustion and dehydration. Aretha...

Grammy-winning singer Dennis Edwards, an unmistakable voice during legendary act the Temptations’ heyday, died Thursday night (Feb. 1) of complications from meningitis, confirms his wife of 18 years, Brenda Edwards. Mr. Edwards, who lived in Florissant, died in a hospital in Chicago, and had been in and out of hospitals since he was diagnosed May 2017. He would have been 75 on Saturday (Feb. 3). Mr. Edwards received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, given to the Temptations, in 2013 that included original Temptations singer Otis Williams and the survivors of the departed members of the group. The Post-Dispatch profiled Edwards at...

1973, Al Wilson, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week on January 19, 1974 and sold over two million copies.

At time stamp of 1:50, pic of Dr. B. Carson. Wake up, all the doctors Make the old people well They're the ones who suffer And who catch all the hell

CLEVELAND, Ohio: GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson opened up to David Webb about his personal life in a special that will air on Sirius XM’s the David Webb Show Wednesday evening. Webb introduced Carson by saying he has written eight books. “Clearly an underachiever when it comes to writing,” Webb joked.

Marcus Belgrave, a jazz trumpeter who graced stages and studios with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Cocker and Motown artists galore, died Sunday. He was 78. Belgrave died at an Ann Arbor care facility and the cause of death was heart failure, said Hazelette Crosby-Robinson, a cousin of Belgrave's wife Joan. Belgrave remained active on the Detroit and international jazz scenes up until his death. Born into a family of musicians in Chester, Pennsylvania, he started playing professionally at 12 and joined The Ray Charles Band in the late 1950s — what he once described as "the beginning...

NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Ruffin, the Motown singer whose hits include "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" and "Hold on to My Love," died Monday in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 78. Philicia Ruffin and Jimmy Lee Ruffin Jr., the late singer's children, confirmed Wednesday that Ruffin had died. There were no details about the cause of death. Ruffin was the older brother of Temptations lead singer David Ruffin, who died in 1991 at age 50.

Here's a full length (12:04) version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone by the Temptations in high quality evidently played off vinyl. This longer version has a very long instrumental introduction and a long bridge at the midpoint. The musicianship impresses me. A very haunting melody with a string section and brass, rare in music nowadays. Since I know little about the recording industry, I have to ask the intelligentsia (a big word for FReepers), what techniques were used in the early 1970s to create such a sound. I presume it was recorded in the rather modest facilities of Motown...

In honor of Black Music Month, Dean Meminger honors legendary musicians in the ongoing NY1 series "Soul's Survivors," starting with Motown hit-maker Martha Reeves. That Motown sound has been pulling fans closer to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas from the time they hit the music charts more than 50 years ago. And one of their first hits was a scorcher. Martha Reeves is still working up a sweat performing that song and many of her other hits on stages around the world. "We've been singing these songs since 19... oh who cares. And they still sound good to me," Reeves...

... Teachers and parents are fighting to do right by the children, and many believe Detroit is finally on the rise after hitting bottom. Yet they worry about the toll of growing up amid danger, dysfunction and the blight epitomized by tens of thousands of abandoned homes. High levels of gang violence and premature births combine to make the youth mortality rate the worst of any major U.S. city, according to a recent analysis by the Detroit News. Even the city's 300 parks — traditionally a haven for children to play — have mostly become unusable, overgrown wastelands. "Detroit is...

DETROIT (Reuters) - The Mexican auto industry is about to go on a $10 billion factory building spree, illustrating the nation's rising economic challenge to rivals from the United States to China. Japanese and German auto manufacturers are spearheading the drive, say parts suppliers and researchers who see more auto factories built south of the border than in the United States between now and the end of the decade. The United States will consume the vast majority of the new cars, but Mexico's domestic market has rebounded from a long slump, and in a sign of Mexico's growing global role,...

Detroit Teachers Moonlight As ‘Sugar Babies’ To Offset Wage Cuts DETROIT (WWJ) - It’s back-to-school season and many Detroit teachers are struggling in the wake of budget cuts and overcrowded classrooms. According to the National School Supply and Equipment Association, the average teacher spent at least $485 on school supplies for their classroom last year. So, what are some Detroit women doing to offset their struggles in the classroom? Well, they’re becoming “sugar babies” of course — seeking financial assistance from wealthy men online. In the Detroit School District alone, 201 teachers are moonlighting as sugar babies to offset wage...

It took only six decades of “progressive” policies to bring a great city to its knees. By the time Detroit declared bankruptcy, Americans were so inured to the throbbing dirge of Motown’s Greatest Hits — 40 percent of its streetlamps don’t work; 210 of its 317 public parks have been permanently closed; it takes an hour for police to respond to a 9-1-1 call; only a third of its ambulances are driveable; one-third of the city has been abandoned; the local realtor offers houses on sale for a buck and still finds no takers; etc., etc. — Americans were so...

By the time Detroit declared bankruptcy, Americans were so inured to the throbbing dirge of Motown's Greatest Hits – 40 percent of its streetlamps don't work; 210 of its 317 public parks have been permanently closed; it takes an hour for police to respond to a 911 call; only a third of its ambulances are drivable; one-third of the city has been abandoned; the local Realtor offers houses on sale for a buck and still finds no takers; etc., etc. – Americans were so inured that the formal confirmation of a great city's downfall was greeted with little more than...

“Motown: The Musical” was almost as good as Motown: The Dyfunctional Family Reunion last night as the living principals of the greatest record company in history gathered one more time–and maybe one last time. For the Broadway premiere of Berry Gordy’s musical–already a hit with a $16 million advance and lines around the block–last night’s audience at Lunt Fontanne Theater got more than we ever could have bargained for. True, Sting and Bono were each there with their respective wives, so that was very cool. And Clive Davis had an aisle seat up front, and there were plenty of luminaries...

Denise (daughter of Little Caesar’s founders Mike and Marion Ilitch) is throwing Big Guy a solid sterling silver pizza party in Detroit later this month. All of Big Guy’s executives from GM and Chrysler will be there to return the bailout favor by ponying up $40k each to get their picture taken with their personal savior - plus all the pizza they can eat!

Martha and the Vandellas on the assembly line at the Ford Rouge plant on june 15, 1965