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Showing posts from September 29, 2019

Midnight Music: "Moratorium" by Earl Van Dyke

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As I work my way through the absolutely-stellar "Motown Unreleased: 1969" digital collection that was released just days ago to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Motown Records, aka Hitsville U.S.A., I'm continually amazed by the stellar quality of the music. I'll probably be doing a written review with links to some of the highlights that have blown me away, but none of them have slapped me sideways like the song "Moratorium" by Earl Van Dyke. Van Dyke was the keyboardist and bandleader for the group of session musicians that played on so many Motown tracks in the sixties, sometime collectively called the Funk Brothers. This track features the Funk Brothers breaking down a new Motown sound, and really shows an evolving era. The wailing guitars, electric organ, bongos, tamborines, and shuffling drums represent the coming of the seventies and this track feels, frankly, a lot more dangerous than the Motown sound as it had existed for the previous--and fir