Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Brunner - Obama "cherrypicked" precincts to keep open
Reportedly they were black precincts that will vote for Obama and Brunner didn't figure that out until six minutes to nine. Sharp lady, eh?
9:50 1191 McCain Claims Nomination
"I never expected to be president."
You aren't yet.
10:19- Cuyahoga voting still not being reported.
You aren't yet.
10:19- Cuyahoga voting still not being reported.
9:10 Ohio Too Close For Hillary Final Purchase
And Huckabee appears to be bowing out this evening at 9:15.
9:19 - Huck has made the call, he's out.
9:32 - Huckabee's withdrawal speech was much longer than Travis' speech that he quoted in toto. Thank you for your effort and thank you for stopping your speech.
9:19 - Huck has made the call, he's out.
9:32 - Huckabee's withdrawal speech was much longer than Travis' speech that he quoted in toto. Thank you for your effort and thank you for stopping your speech.
7:51 PM Brunner Muzzels Results
Brunner steps in it as usual. Obbbbbbbbama is in court in Cuyahoga and Sandusky screws the pooch once again. Brunner should call her good "friend" Marcy Kaptur and ask why the Dems in Northwest Ohio can't get their normal scams and election fraud polling straight. It's not like they haven't had time to plan the graveyard GOTV effort.
Personally, I blame Ken Blackwell, oh, and George Bush. And Karl "with a K" Rove.
7:56 - FOX is reporting McCain with 66%. No word on Cuyahoga and Sandusky. Not there'd be a Republican total either place anyway. Except for the honorable Ben Keeler on the banks of the river that burned.
8:00 - Obbbbbbama now wants more voting time in Cuyahoga AND Franklin counties. It takes time to get those voters from place to place. We're now supposed to wait until 9:00 PM.
8:08 - aol news has Hillary at 56% with Obama at 42 % with 0% of the vote in Ohio. Guess the snitch in Brunner's office for aol didn't get the memo tonight.
8:52 - Hopefully all the money transactions in Cuyahoga, Sandusky and Franklin county are almost complete so we can start hearingObama stealing the vote results.
Personally, I blame Ken Blackwell, oh, and George Bush. And Karl "with a K" Rove.
7:56 - FOX is reporting McCain with 66%. No word on Cuyahoga and Sandusky. Not there'd be a Republican total either place anyway. Except for the honorable Ben Keeler on the banks of the river that burned.
8:00 - Obbbbbbama now wants more voting time in Cuyahoga AND Franklin counties. It takes time to get those voters from place to place. We're now supposed to wait until 9:00 PM.
8:08 - aol news has Hillary at 56% with Obama at 42 % with 0% of the vote in Ohio. Guess the snitch in Brunner's office for aol didn't get the memo tonight.
8:52 - Hopefully all the money transactions in Cuyahoga, Sandusky and Franklin county are almost complete so we can start hearing
Monday, March 03, 2008
Cottage City/Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
This is a very interesting and fun place. It is still very much intact.
The camp meeting movement in the United States began in Kentucky and Appalachia before the 1820s as religious vehicles that were also important as social gatherings. They were held annually in a particular district where participants would travel 50-100 miles to attend. Camp meetings were first introduced by Presbyterians but soon after included Baptists and Methodists newly converted by the teachings of John Wesley. In no time at all Methodists of New England began to hold their own camp meetings. The first camp meeting in Cottage City
was held in 1835 and the gatherings grew as steamboats brought companies from New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. The development of Cottage City is credited to its success as having the largest Methodist Camp Meeting Association in the world. For that one week in August of 1835, nine men from nearby Edgartown decided to separate themselves from the comforts of the town to head into the woods to find a place where they could pray. This place, the headland of East Chop, full of tall oak trees and overlooking Nantucket Sound, is where they pitched their tents. They found that the event was so "invigorating" to the spirit that they returned the next year. Soon a few mainlanders joined them, and some fell in love with the beauty of the land and water, and the healthful saltiness of the air. They too began to come back year after year.
was held in 1835 and the gatherings grew as steamboats brought companies from New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. The development of Cottage City is credited to its success as having the largest Methodist Camp Meeting Association in the world. For that one week in August of 1835, nine men from nearby Edgartown decided to separate themselves from the comforts of the town to head into the woods to find a place where they could pray. This place, the headland of East Chop, full of tall oak trees and overlooking Nantucket Sound, is where they pitched their tents. They found that the event was so "invigorating" to the spirit that they returned the next year. Soon a few mainlanders joined them, and some fell in love with the beauty of the land and water, and the healthful saltiness of the air. They too began to come back year after year.
Within a generation, the annual Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting was the most famous Methodist revival meeting in the country, and gingerbread cottages were rising up on the wooden platforms where the participants first used tents during the meetings. Visitors arrived by the thousands from all over New England to watch the religious spectacle in what was coming to be known as the 'Cottage City' of America. In the summer of 1863, it was still possible to wander through this wilderness of oak and meadow on the old Camp Ground and see not a single permanent building. Ten years later the oak and meadow were gone and soon, a village would have to be built in order to house the faithful.
Around 1872 the town today known as Oak Bluffs was built. The town encircled the original Camp Ground where the cottages now stood as the main street around the grounds was called Circuit Avenue. Contrary to the spiritual pursuits of the original members, the town around the Camp Grounds was quickly becoming a bustling, commercial place. The participants of the Camp Ground attempted to separate themselves by building a picket fence between them and the expanding town, and the interior remains today a place of peace and tranquility.
Before the town of
Cottage City was incorporated in 1880, it was still considered a part of Edgartown but the inhabitants were trying to separate themselves legally from Edgartown, which it felt was taking tax money and offering little or nothing in the way of services in return. Finally, in 1880, Cottage City became official but eventually, the name would be changed again, this time to Oak Bluffs in 1907.
Cottage City was incorporated in 1880, it was still considered a part of Edgartown but the inhabitants were trying to separate themselves legally from Edgartown, which it felt was taking tax money and offering little or nothing in the way of services in return. Finally, in 1880, Cottage City became official but eventually, the name would be changed again, this time to Oak Bluffs in 1907.Obama, Muslims & Ohio
Ohio Muslims unite behind Obama
As Ohio prepares to vote on Tuesday for the candidates it would like to see running for the US presidency, Matthew Wells talks to Muslims in Cleveland who are impressed by Barack Obama.
A large majority of Muslim-Americans voted for George W Bush on the road to the White House eight years ago.
But now their support seems to be coalescing around an African-American senator, whose first name derives from the Arabic word for blessing.
Among them are the 60,000 Muslims of the economically depressed Cleveland area.
They are mostly middle-class naturalised citizens, disappointed with the Bush administration's record and with a powerful sense that their religion has been misrepresented in the years since 9/11.
The city boasts Ohio's largest mosque, based around a large prayer hall that would sit comfortably in the capitals of the Middle East.
A group of men from the mosque, led by the centre's president, Faud Hamed, spoke to BBC News after evening prayers.
There was exasperation at the on-going war, and a sense that social justice - a central tenet of Islam - is being ignored: "We all know that in the US Constitution it calls for peace and justice, but if we look around the world do we see any peace and justice?"
I would think that a majestic mosque, the right to practice your religion without fear and not having ethnic and religious violence swirling through your life is a step toward peace and justice. More so than in the countries you fled to come here. I would also suggest that your "religion has been misrepresented in the years since 9/11" because you have allowed extremists to use your religion for evil purposes with no repercussions from you.
America welcomes those who wish to join in the American dream. We are a nation of immigrants. Because of that we wish to bring freedom and peace to all nations, not bring the problems of our ancestral homes here to America.
As Ohio prepares to vote on Tuesday for the candidates it would like to see running for the US presidency, Matthew Wells talks to Muslims in Cleveland who are impressed by Barack Obama.
A large majority of Muslim-Americans voted for George W Bush on the road to the White House eight years ago.
But now their support seems to be coalescing around an African-American senator, whose first name derives from the Arabic word for blessing.
Among them are the 60,000 Muslims of the economically depressed Cleveland area.
They are mostly middle-class naturalised citizens, disappointed with the Bush administration's record and with a powerful sense that their religion has been misrepresented in the years since 9/11.
The city boasts Ohio's largest mosque, based around a large prayer hall that would sit comfortably in the capitals of the Middle East.
A group of men from the mosque, led by the centre's president, Faud Hamed, spoke to BBC News after evening prayers.
There was exasperation at the on-going war, and a sense that social justice - a central tenet of Islam - is being ignored: "We all know that in the US Constitution it calls for peace and justice, but if we look around the world do we see any peace and justice?"
I would think that a majestic mosque, the right to practice your religion without fear and not having ethnic and religious violence swirling through your life is a step toward peace and justice. More so than in the countries you fled to come here. I would also suggest that your "religion has been misrepresented in the years since 9/11" because you have allowed extremists to use your religion for evil purposes with no repercussions from you.
America welcomes those who wish to join in the American dream. We are a nation of immigrants. Because of that we wish to bring freedom and peace to all nations, not bring the problems of our ancestral homes here to America.
Strickland Loves Hillary & Hillary Loves Me
My Gov Ted must be in DC measuring for drapes because he just called me from Northern Virginia (703 637-9323) to urge me to do what's right for Ohio and vote for Hillary tomorrow. That man, he just cares so much, but I worry that if joins the Hillary Administration he will get to see his wife even less.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Gloria No Longer Glorious
Stumping for Clinton, Steinem Says McCain's P.O.W. Cred Is Overrated
From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In an interview with the Observer afterward, she suggested that Barack Obama benefits—and Clinton suffers—because Americans view racism more seriously than sexism.
Steinem also told the crowd that one reason to back Clinton was because “she actually enjoys conflict.”
And she claimed that if Clinton’s experience as First Lady were taken seriously in relation to her White House bid, people might “finally admit that, say, being a secretary is the best way to learn your boss’s job and take it over.”
Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.
“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.
McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”
Steinem’s broader argument was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises.
“I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting.”
To the Observer, Steinem insisted that “from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.”
Actually, Mizzus Steinem, it is the willingness to put one's own life on the line for that which you believe that is the qualification, not for killing, but you wouldn't know that would you, you poser.
Mizzus Steinem, you have been irritating people with your cheap marketing of yourself as a person of importance for years. Your vagina is of no importance to me and just as men have been convicted of thinking with their dick for years, for the same reason you should have been given a life sentence.
You are not qualified to speak to the greater issues of our day just because you wish to sell more magazines or increase your speaking fees.
Qualifications? Being an outlandish bitch for the last 60 years isn't one. Being a minor intellect isn't one. You used your youth and good looks to push you campaign against youth and good looks because you said women were not objects.
You are now an object of scorn and rightfully so.
Gloria, you'll always have Joe Namath in pantyhose as a victory though. It's not Paris, but then so little is, including you.
From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In an interview with the Observer afterward, she suggested that Barack Obama benefits—and Clinton suffers—because Americans view racism more seriously than sexism.
Steinem also told the crowd that one reason to back Clinton was because “she actually enjoys conflict.”
And she claimed that if Clinton’s experience as First Lady were taken seriously in relation to her White House bid, people might “finally admit that, say, being a secretary is the best way to learn your boss’s job and take it over.”
Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.
“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.
McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”
Steinem’s broader argument was that the media and the political world are too admiring of militarism in all its guises.
“I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid. It’s a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting.”
To the Observer, Steinem insisted that “from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.”
Actually, Mizzus Steinem, it is the willingness to put one's own life on the line for that which you believe that is the qualification, not for killing, but you wouldn't know that would you, you poser.
Mizzus Steinem, you have been irritating people with your cheap marketing of yourself as a person of importance for years. Your vagina is of no importance to me and just as men have been convicted of thinking with their dick for years, for the same reason you should have been given a life sentence.
You are not qualified to speak to the greater issues of our day just because you wish to sell more magazines or increase your speaking fees.
Qualifications? Being an outlandish bitch for the last 60 years isn't one. Being a minor intellect isn't one. You used your youth and good looks to push you campaign against youth and good looks because you said women were not objects.
You are now an object of scorn and rightfully so.
Gloria, you'll always have Joe Namath in pantyhose as a victory though. It's not Paris, but then so little is, including you.
Rookie Errors The Sign Of Hillary's Demise
Hillary loves me long time! Oh, the thrill, the passion and uh, the rookie political mistakes of it all.
This time Hillary's personal friend, Liberty Price, wanted me to remember to vote on Tuesday and then to return for the precinct convention at 6:30 PM because in Texas my vote is important, but so is the precinct convention....
Being that I live and vote in Ohio I am not sure what this means for me except maybe they want me to vote in Texas as well, in a Chicago style election. I'm game as long as they send me a ticket for me to get there and vote.
If so, I'd prefer to vote in San Antonio so I can visit the shrine of freedom, the Alamo and walk along the canal sampling food and watching the parade of people. Of course there is that whole honor thing about the fighters in the Alamo which may prevent me from voting for Hillary or any other Democrat, but what the heck, there really isn't any such thing as honor amoung thieves, but we could share some home made nacho chips and salsa enjoying watching success float down the river.
This time Hillary's personal friend, Liberty Price, wanted me to remember to vote on Tuesday and then to return for the precinct convention at 6:30 PM because in Texas my vote is important, but so is the precinct convention....
Being that I live and vote in Ohio I am not sure what this means for me except maybe they want me to vote in Texas as well, in a Chicago style election. I'm game as long as they send me a ticket for me to get there and vote.
If so, I'd prefer to vote in San Antonio so I can visit the shrine of freedom, the Alamo and walk along the canal sampling food and watching the parade of people. Of course there is that whole honor thing about the fighters in the Alamo which may prevent me from voting for Hillary or any other Democrat, but what the heck, there really isn't any such thing as honor amoung thieves, but we could share some home made nacho chips and salsa enjoying watching success float down the river.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
The Princes Of Hate Hating Harry
Al Qaeda threatens to take revenge for 'royal aggression against Muslims'
Concerns about Harry's safety were deepened when firebrand preacher Anjem Choudhary, of the extremist Al Muhajiroun group, accused him of endorsing an "illegal war".
He said: "I think it is inevitable that anyone who engages in these activities is going to draw attention to themselves. He will be seen as part of the enemy and so he is a target.
"For Harry to participate has absolutely no justification. For people to say he is being brave and doing his job is simply wrong.
"Many wiser and braver men have decided not to participate and have objected and demonstrated against these wars. They should be the ones declared as heroes."
Hate preacher Omar Bakri, now in Lebanon, said: "Harry should condemn the fact that British forces are in a strange land fighting strange people who speak a different language."
It is true, insanity and hate share a different language, but strangers in a strange land share the same dreams as people every where.
It is also true that the Islamofascists every where share the same insanity and hate speaking different dialects of the same language of their insanity and hate.
That's why they are terrorists.
Concerns about Harry's safety were deepened when firebrand preacher Anjem Choudhary, of the extremist Al Muhajiroun group, accused him of endorsing an "illegal war".
He said: "I think it is inevitable that anyone who engages in these activities is going to draw attention to themselves. He will be seen as part of the enemy and so he is a target.
"For Harry to participate has absolutely no justification. For people to say he is being brave and doing his job is simply wrong.
"Many wiser and braver men have decided not to participate and have objected and demonstrated against these wars. They should be the ones declared as heroes."
Hate preacher Omar Bakri, now in Lebanon, said: "Harry should condemn the fact that British forces are in a strange land fighting strange people who speak a different language."
It is true, insanity and hate share a different language, but strangers in a strange land share the same dreams as people every where.
It is also true that the Islamofascists every where share the same insanity and hate speaking different dialects of the same language of their insanity and hate.
That's why they are terrorists.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Broken Hearted & In A Funk
Joan Osborne with The Funk Brothers Band, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted.
This song has helped and hurt over the years.
BTW, the singer is young enough to be a grandchild of the players.
Shotgun with The Funk
Gerald Levert performing a Motown classic, "Shotgun", with the Funk Brothers for a Friday night and the weekend.
I Didn't Know This.
The last desperate attempt by the Luftwaffe to protect the "Fatherland", German pilots purposely ram American bombers with their planes.
Bonaguil Castle
In southern France bordering High Agenesis and the Quercy natural regions, Bonaguil Castle is one of the best illustration of 15th and 16th centuries military architectural designs and is built on the edge of a rock spur.
Hillary's Prime Time?
"Cage fighting" slugs its way on to prime-time TV
Branded as barbaric by critics in the 1990s for its lack of rules, mixed martial arts, or MMA, has evolved into a more mainstream sport that bars biting, eye-gouging, head-butting and strikes to the groin.
Bill, I presume, is at least somewhat relieved by the newer rules.
Branded as barbaric by critics in the 1990s for its lack of rules, mixed martial arts, or MMA, has evolved into a more mainstream sport that bars biting, eye-gouging, head-butting and strikes to the groin.
Bill, I presume, is at least somewhat relieved by the newer rules.
Detroit's One And Only Funk Brothers
Motown had some great songs and some great players. Being a white kid in Detroit at a private school in the mid sixties wasn't just a challenge, it was laughable for me at least. Rockin' out to the MC-5, getting to hang with Mitch Ryder, watching Iggy bleed and hearing Motown change was heady stuff for a kid who had finagled his first set of drums by getting all "A's" and first seat as a trumpet player in the school band. I was playing trumpet pieces written for classical music and marches during school hours while wrestling with classical literature and Greek by day, teaching myself drums at night playing to Booker T and the MGs and Ramsey Lewis Trio records and going to clubs to listen. No easy feat for a kid who was 5' 5 1/2", 189lbs, all stuffed into a suit that made me look like the Michelin Man and just as white. I was not a hit in Detroit. Not in 1966. I never knew just how much Motown's Funk Brothers had influenced me.
If you have ever listened to music from that period, pre-Beatles, you have tapped your foot to the Funk Brothers. If you haven't heard the music you have tapped to their influence. If you haven't tapped your foot (or tried to shake your hips) get an EKG. You need it.
They are Motown's unsung heroes. Known as The Funk Brothers, the studio band put the backbeat into hits for Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, etc. They played on more #1 records than The Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley combined, but no one knew their names.
Then you get to the artists that the Funk Brothers played for and with that weren't as famous, but created what was known as the Motown Sound before Phil Specter's wall-of-sound, the wah-wah pedal and other techniques. The players who were from Memphis, Tuscaloosa, the fields of Georgia and every no count town in between worked Detroit day jobs and jammed, formed bands and played late into the night often going straight to their day job after a gig. Players like Eddie Floyd, Mable John, Big Joe Turner and Little Willie John (Fever) were all crashing their styles together in small clubs and back rooms before Barry Gordy and his secretary Martha Reeves ever showed up. Thus the Funk Brothers were born.
Gordy was cleaning up "negro" music to appeal to the much larger white audience. It was a very smart business move. Gordy created a "transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues" so successfully that Dusty Springfield, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and even Pat Boone were stealing riffs, sounds and entire songs to make them stars. Gordy, born into a middle class family, also decided that the soul musicians recording with him needed discipline, style and his work ethic. He brought in experts to shape the onstage persona's of groups like the Marvlettes, the Supremes and Sam Cooke. He also brought union methods to corral and control "his" musicians through exclusive contracts for everything including performers and studio musicians. In my opinion, Gordy got very rich by making the Detroit sound suck.
The Funk Brothers were sneaking all over Detroit playing studio sessions for everybody they could as Gordy's thugs chased them, threatened them and "fired" them. Sometimes the Funk Brothers would do multiple recording sessions in one day and still play the clubs at night. Gordy fired them as a group and individually more times than he got married and divorced which is no easy accomplishment, but even the "genius" Gordy knew that he needed them more than they needed him. Gordy got rich and created fame (while denying them to the Funk Brothers), but the Funk Brothers made history and a sound that will outlive the saccharine sounds of Motown Detroit and the even worse Motown LA.
I'm writing this because late last night I watched "Standing in the Shadows/Motown" about the Funk Brothers. What an incredible documentary. I cannot recommend it more highly. I bought the soundtrack faster than a Ronco slicer and suggest you do the same. You can get it HERE and forgo that EKG as you start tapping from start to end. Come on, you know you really hate to love hearing Bootsy Collins sing "Cool Jerk", but you do, don't you? Where are my star glasses when I need them.
Notable members of the Funk Brothers
Early members included bandleader Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke (piano); James Jamerson (bass guitar); William "Benny" Benjamin and Richard "Pistol" Allen (drums); Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina (guitar); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion, vibes, marimba); Jack Brokensha (vibes, marimba); and Eddie "Bongo" Brown (percussion). Hunter left in 1964, replaced on keyboards by Johnny Griffith and as bandleader by Van Dyke. Around the same time Uriel Jones joined the band as a third drummer.
In 1967, guitarists Dennis Coffey and Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin, who introduced the wah-wah pedal sound that defined Motown's psychedelic soul records, joined the band. Benny Benjamin died the next year, and Bob Babbitt began to replace James Jamerson on many recording dates. The Funk Brothers were a racially integrated band. Most members were black; Messina, Brokensha, Babbitt, and Coffey were white.
If you have ever listened to music from that period, pre-Beatles, you have tapped your foot to the Funk Brothers. If you haven't heard the music you have tapped to their influence. If you haven't tapped your foot (or tried to shake your hips) get an EKG. You need it.
They are Motown's unsung heroes. Known as The Funk Brothers, the studio band put the backbeat into hits for Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, etc. They played on more #1 records than The Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley combined, but no one knew their names.
Then you get to the artists that the Funk Brothers played for and with that weren't as famous, but created what was known as the Motown Sound before Phil Specter's wall-of-sound, the wah-wah pedal and other techniques. The players who were from Memphis, Tuscaloosa, the fields of Georgia and every no count town in between worked Detroit day jobs and jammed, formed bands and played late into the night often going straight to their day job after a gig. Players like Eddie Floyd, Mable John, Big Joe Turner and Little Willie John (Fever) were all crashing their styles together in small clubs and back rooms before Barry Gordy and his secretary Martha Reeves ever showed up. Thus the Funk Brothers were born.
Gordy was cleaning up "negro" music to appeal to the much larger white audience. It was a very smart business move. Gordy created a "transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues" so successfully that Dusty Springfield, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and even Pat Boone were stealing riffs, sounds and entire songs to make them stars. Gordy, born into a middle class family, also decided that the soul musicians recording with him needed discipline, style and his work ethic. He brought in experts to shape the onstage persona's of groups like the Marvlettes, the Supremes and Sam Cooke. He also brought union methods to corral and control "his" musicians through exclusive contracts for everything including performers and studio musicians. In my opinion, Gordy got very rich by making the Detroit sound suck.
The Funk Brothers were sneaking all over Detroit playing studio sessions for everybody they could as Gordy's thugs chased them, threatened them and "fired" them. Sometimes the Funk Brothers would do multiple recording sessions in one day and still play the clubs at night. Gordy fired them as a group and individually more times than he got married and divorced which is no easy accomplishment, but even the "genius" Gordy knew that he needed them more than they needed him. Gordy got rich and created fame (while denying them to the Funk Brothers), but the Funk Brothers made history and a sound that will outlive the saccharine sounds of Motown Detroit and the even worse Motown LA.
I'm writing this because late last night I watched "Standing in the Shadows/Motown" about the Funk Brothers. What an incredible documentary. I cannot recommend it more highly. I bought the soundtrack faster than a Ronco slicer and suggest you do the same. You can get it HERE and forgo that EKG as you start tapping from start to end. Come on, you know you really hate to love hearing Bootsy Collins sing "Cool Jerk", but you do, don't you? Where are my star glasses when I need them.
Notable members of the Funk Brothers
Early members included bandleader Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke (piano); James Jamerson (bass guitar); William "Benny" Benjamin and Richard "Pistol" Allen (drums); Robert White, Eddie Willis, and Joe Messina (guitar); Jack Ashford (tambourine, percussion, vibes, marimba); Jack Brokensha (vibes, marimba); and Eddie "Bongo" Brown (percussion). Hunter left in 1964, replaced on keyboards by Johnny Griffith and as bandleader by Van Dyke. Around the same time Uriel Jones joined the band as a third drummer.
In 1967, guitarists Dennis Coffey and Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin, who introduced the wah-wah pedal sound that defined Motown's psychedelic soul records, joined the band. Benny Benjamin died the next year, and Bob Babbitt began to replace James Jamerson on many recording dates. The Funk Brothers were a racially integrated band. Most members were black; Messina, Brokensha, Babbitt, and Coffey were white.
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