You know every note of every song. There’s no way you can avoid it. Even if you consider yourself unskilled in the art of music appreciation, you know Motown - Heatwave, Heard It Through the Grapevine, My Girl. I could go on and on. You think to yourself: those are damn good songs with damn good singers (Marvin Gaye, Aretha). But I bet you never stop to think about the people who not only created the music, but played it as well.

These are the folks that Standing in the Shadows of Motown tries to shed some light on. Essentially what you learn is that not only were the self named “Funk Brothers” great musicians, they were Motown. Here’s how it worked. They’d jam, create the beats and music, the singer would come in and sing. It’s just incredible, in a jaw dropping way, to think about it. Nothing that I’d considered before this movie. In fact, someone is quoted in the documentary as saying that they could basically bring in a chicken, put it over Funk Brothers’ music and end up with a hit. After watching this, you won’t disagree.

In wonderfully moving, funny  interviews, the surviving Funk Brothers talk about creating the music, inspirations and living in complete obscurity as the singers became superstars. Cut in with this interview footage (which is loose and on-location) are truly great concert sections. The Funk Brothers take to the stage to perform Motown hits along with Joan Osborne, Ben Harper and Gerald Levert who all really surprised me. Joan in particular can belt them out. Nice.

For fans of music, and Motown in particular, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t love this movie. It highlights forgotten heroes of music, and finally puts them in the limelight where they belong.

Movie Grade: A

Video: 3 out of 5 It’s nice, but it’s a mix of stock footage, grainy recreations and still photos. The concert is nice and crisp though. Really, ain’t the point of this disc the music?
Widescreen Anamorphic 1.85:1

Audio: 5 out of 5
The concert is what gives this disc the high marks. Beautiful, loud and surround oriented, it’s all you could ask for. The bass in particular is balanced just right with the high notes of the Motown sound.
English (DTS 6.1), English (Dolby 5.1)

Extras: 4 out of 5 In my humble opinion, this disc would be better served by standing on it’s own. But there are a few nice extras including a funny commentary by Alan Slutsky (author of the book, producer of the movie) and director Paul Justman. That’s the significant stuff for the first disc. On the second, there’s some nice interviews and some deleted scenes, but I feel it’s all a little gratuitous in light of the great movie.

Overall: 4 out of 5
At the very least, you must rent this movie and see it. There’s no reason not to. Except if you hate Motown. If that’s the case, you’re probably not human, but rather a cruel alien master sent down to enslave us fun loving humans.

Year: 2002
Based on the book by Alan Slutsky
Directed by: Paul Justman
Featuring: Joe Hunter, James Jamerson,
Joan Osborne, and Ben Harper
Details: 116 mins / Artisan Entertainment / Rated PG

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Ok, the last song is OK and appropriately strange. But the rest? Ick.

Looking at all of the music available, I noticed one file which called to me with its siren song. Some kind soul (or souls) had taken the list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs and put them together in one huge file. The whole thing weighed in at about 2.5 gigs, and given bittorrent’s effective multi-downloading, I was able to get it overnight. Overnight, some of contemporary culture’s greatest songs at my fingertips, for free. Let’s ignore the legality of such a thing. It’s amazing that this is even possible.

I get the distinct impression, that despite the RIAA’s ill-concieved and terribly executed campaign against downloading, that we’re slowly morphing into a culture of open source sharing and collaboration that will only get fueled by the increasing effectiveness of technology.

That’s a fancy-pants way of saying, ain’t no stopping us now.

2. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

That is all. Thank you for your time.

Dear ALEX,

Enter for a chance to win front row tickets and meet SCOTT STAPP, the Grammy Award winning voice

of Creed!!

See below for details

Here are some reasons that he sucks:

mtv.com – News – ‘Out Of Control’ Scott Stapp Incites Melee With 311 At Baltimore Hotel

New York Daily News – Home – Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: As TV guest, cross Stapp is hellish

tomluv: Who’s your favorite faux Christian ex-rock star?

The Smoking Gun: Archive

Reasons Why Creed Sucks. We’ve Reached 100!

You know that 90% of the people on earth probably don’t know, or give a shit, yet you continue in conversation to reference obscure artists who we don’t know and we’ll never hear. Hell, all the names you’re talking about could be fake.

So here, in a short list form, is a list of who I believe, are the most influential musicians in history.

Big Knees Matty Stone (studio musician for Janis Joplin)

Steve Cohen, (bandmaster of the famous “Seltzer Seven”)

Jimmy Two-Tone (drummer known for his infamous tirades)

Bleedin’ Fingers ‘Ugly’ Masterson (Whose two finger technique was copied by everyone from Hendrix to Red CJ Walker.)

Scott ‘Cactus Foot’ James (upright bass)

You ain’t rich, I just don’t buy it.
You got less bread than the Atkins Diet.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Love Admits to Using Drugs; Sent to Rehab

Though, in my opinion, she’s probably more addicted to acting like a fool in public than drugs. At which point does this whole tragic saga go from sad to funny to sad to funny again? I think we’re at a third or fourth sad stage. Maybe when she whips out her breast in Burger King lobby while chugging fistfuls of random pills and swigging it down with warm, stale beer – then it’ll be funny again.