You Know The Sound, Can You Name The Band?

Another rerun (05/31/07) while I am in Nashville listening to some great music.



This band of musicians had more number one hits than Elvis, The Beach Boys, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined.

They were the band for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Diana Ross & The Supremes. The Temptations. Marvin Gaye's. Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, even young Stevie Wonder's band.

The early recording artists at Motown all had the same band. A band of session musicians hand picked by Berry Gordy from the jazz clubs and hole in the wall bars of Detroit. They were musicians, employed at Hitsville USA.

Not many can answer the question.

Until the 2002 documentary came out, finally acknowledging these great musicians behind the original "Motown Sound", I'll bet it would be hard to find anyone who could name just one member.

Joe Hunter, Earl Van Dyke, Eddie "Bongo" Brown, Jack Ashford, Richard "Pistol" Allen, William "Benny" Benjamin, Robert White, Joe Messina, Eddie Willis, James Jamerson and Jack Brokensha were original members.

These musicians never got the fame and notoriety that came out of Detroit with the hits they helped make. Their pay was for session work, no royalties. In the early 70's, when Berry Gordy moved Motown to LA, they weren't part of the move. They were replaced with members of The Wrecking Crew, LA's collection of studio musicians.

My cousin by marriage, was one of just a few white guys that was employed by Berry Gordy. I remember him talking about this new "girl" group that was going to be big, really big. Indeed, Diana Ross and The Supremes did leave their mark.

I started to research what these guys did with the years that followed, but decided to leave it out. Most didn't have the happily ever after ending, or have passed away.

The name of the band?

The Funk Brothers

Mexico 1973 ~ The "Magic Bus"

Since I'm in Nashville having a great time, I thought I'd rerun an earlier post (06/22/07) about one of my very early traveling experiences.


Jen at Get In the Car, along with a couple of her girlfriends, recently packed up the kids and headed to Mexico for a vacation. Sounds like she had a great time, and her posts brought back memories of my time spent there. After I left a comment of disbelief that they would drive there, I realized it has been 34 years since I lived there. I am sure many things have changed, one being the safety of driving around so freely. Jen suggested I share a story. I have so many, and some crazy ones that have surfaced in the past few days since she jogged my memory.

I was 18, just graduated from high school and lived in middle class burbs of Detroit. I was a "hippie" type chick ... loved the look, but thankfully had definite hygiene addictions. I met Bob, at the Aorta, just before my senior year was over. He was 21, a pot smoking, vegetarian, anti-anyone over 30 hippie, raised by a nice Catholic very well to do family, father being a top executive at Ford.

We decided to go to Mexico as soon as I graduated. I think the farthest I had ever traveled was up north on "vacation" when I was little ... about 200 miles away. And so we were going. I bought hiking boots, a back pack, got a passport and we literally stuck out our thumbs on I-75 in Royal Oak, MI ... headed to Mexico!

Like I said I have tons of stories, and maybe I will pepper the months ahead with them, but for now, I will tell one that was funny ... but maybe you had to be there. * buzzed *

We were in Santa Cruz, on the beach. Anytime we came to a town, any American or Canadian, or English speaking person for that matter, became your best buddy in less than fifteen minutes.

As we sat on the beach, a VW van pulled up. Yeah, all painted with peace signs, flowers, tie-dyed curtains, beads, the whole hippie thing. They got out and it was two couples. Lets just call them the Mama's and Papa's ... same look, singers, guitars, free spirits ... you get the picture. We all sat there watching dolphins swim by, talking about where we have been so far, our adventures, playing frisbee, and I recall some sharing of the mota. The Mama's showed me how to tear apart a pair of my jeans and sew the two inner seams together up the front and the outer seams up the back so I too, could have a long blue jean skirt like they were wearing.

After the sunset, Bob and I grabbed our gear and headed to a local family's piece of property to hang out hammocks to sleep for the night. *That's another story, renting trees for hanging hammocks was a must or you would be robbed and attacked by banditos unless you were paying a local to watch over you*

The next morning, Bob and I were going to head out, so we got up early, packed up our gear, then decided to go say good-by.

We headed to the beach and there we saw it. The van. The VW hand painted, right out of Haight-Ashbury hippie van. In the ocean. Water, almost up to the windows. We started yelling to them and they opened the door .... kinda.

The night before, after we left them, they all crashed, (probably with a little more mota) never giving a thought to the fact that they pulled in at low tide and were rocked asleep throughout the night with the high tide. Giving a whole new meaning to high tide.