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Robert Wyatt: My Favourite Motown Song
6:15 AM GMT 29/12/2008
...EDWYN COLLINS
Robert Wyatt on Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ Ooo Baby Baby
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Ooo Baby Baby
(Tamla single, 1965)
Robert Wyatt: “I just love Smokey Robinson’s lovely falsetto voice, and the wistful harmonies that are floating around in it, almost Bill Evans-y sort of stuff. Of course, the Motown musicians all played jazz and these sorts of harmonies would come out. You can see why these songs were popular in Jamaica; you can hear the influence of this in the Jamaican vocal groups and, later, in lover’s rock. I also love the old films you see of those Motown groups singing and dancing. In rock’n’roll at the time they were considered naff, but nowadays they just look magical.
“It’s funny, but at the time, the Motown boss Berry Gordy was seen as anti-political, so scared of rocking the boat, and people got exasperated with him because of that, but actually what he was doing was getting black music into the mainstream and getting white people to listen to it, which has political implications that are more resonant than some of the other more overt attempts at getting America to come to terms with itself. Anyway, regardless of the politics, lucky old America, to have Motown! As Max Roach said about jazz, ‘They don’t deserve it!’”
Read great pieces about the 100 Greatest Motown Songs in this month’s MOJO magazine.
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:15 AM GMT 29/12/2008
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