Welcome to Summer 2021 y’all. Welcome to the oceanic emotionality of Cancer Season. Let’s make it saucy with some special soulful birthday tributes as we try to resist the urge to be productive and bask in the sun for these long, long days in the northern hemisphere. We’ve got Eddie Floyd, Martha Reeves, Lena Horne…
Tag: Martha Reeves
I’m Still Standing: Chillin’ since the 60’s to the 80’s Femme Gems
I think I say, perhaps snidely, that I didn’t come into loving Sixties Soul Music via Punk, as basically every white DJ I’ve ever met has. That’s mostly because I’m a Black Queer of mixed ancestry that was born in 1982. In 1982, names that had set stages as diverse as The Apollo, Ed Sullivan,…
That Seventies Show – Vol. 2: A Superfly Sequel Of Lady Soul From The Decade Of Me
About 18 months ago, I ventured out of the avenues of my typical fawning over 1960’s R&B and dropped the electronic needle on a bunch of 1970’s shadow classics. The 1970’s was also the first real era of the sequel blockbuster, so like any other producer, one looks at the returns of former successes and…
The Ambassador of The Motown Sound: Miss Martha Reeves
Calling out around the world, we have one helluva birthday to celebrate. She’s perhaps that singular and that collective all in one. In a lot of ways, she’s always and always will be “Miss Motown.” We’re talking Martha Rose Reeves. She turns 75 years old this July 18th. Her efforts for Motown and beyond have…
Martha & The Vandellas “Can’t Break The Habit” (1965, Unreleased. From Never Released Masters From Motown’s Brightest Stars, 1986)
Martha & The Vandellas “Can’t Break The Habit” (1965, Unreleased. From Never Released Masters From Motown’s Brightest Stars, 1986) We’re finishing our Vacation to 1965 through the feminine eye just in time to celebrate Martha Reeves’s 74th Birthday. And who wouldn’t want to end the trip in Motown Studio A, Circa 1965 with the latest…
Martha & The Vandellas “No More Tear Stained Make – Up” (From the LP Watchout! 1966)
Martha & The Vandellas “No More Tear Stained Make – Up” (From the LP Watchout! 1966) Where would I exactly be in making a presentation on girl groups without thinking of Martha & The Vandellas? Pretty much nowhere, since, after the super obvious case of The Supremes, Martha Reeves and her singing partner’s catalog is…