Friday, October 12, 2012

The Soul Corner - Martha and the Vandellas "Nowhere to Run"

Got my mind on my hometown of Detroit and the remarkable playoff clinching performance by the Detroit Tigers' Justin Verlander as I write this Thursday night. So I had to go with a quintessential Detroit song this week.  
"Nowhere to Run" has all the best Motown elements - killer melody, crushing chorus, big big James Jamerson bass lines, the best drum sounds, and amazing lead vocal.


And if you think this song could have been made in New York or Hollywood, or anywhere other than the Motor City, take a look at one of the first music videos, made as the first Ford Mustangs rolled off the line in Detroit in 1965, with some rich background about the recording of "Nowhere to Run":

at

1 comment:

  1. John HylandOctober 13, 2012 at 12:37 PM

    Thanks for this one, JD... I have always loved this song, and as you probably know, Dave Marsh ranked it #10 in the 1,000 Greatest Singles Ever:

    http://www.lexjansen.com/cgi-bin/marsh_xml.php?fn=10

    His description of the work of Jamerson and Benjamin is spot-on.

    ReplyDelete