Standing in the Shadows
Aug. 18th, 2019 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayFor the past several days, I've been enjoying the music and learning about the lives and careers of some of the greatest session musicians ever to walk into a recording studio.
It started with a YouTube clip of Joan Osborne covering the Motown classic "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?" in which she's backed by a group of musicians informally known as "The Funk Brothers."
The clip, it turns out, is part of a 2002 documentary titled Standing in the Shadows of Motown, which is an amazing experience, socially and culturally as well as musically.
Anyway, after watching the YouTube clip numerous times, I was lucky enough to find the full documentary in a 2-DVD set--for an absolute bargain price--at a local Barnes & Noble. So if you're interested, and can find it locally or online, I'd recommend getting it while it remains available.
I've also done some online research into the lives and careers of individual Funk Brothers and learned that, sadly, only two of those who appear in the documentary are still alive and only one remains active musically. The hard reality is that theirs is a musical legacy that will soon exist only as history.
Which is why a film which documents the lives and careers of those who backed some of the greatest songs and voices of the Motown era is so important. Because, while we may always have the music, it's also important to understand and value those who gave it life in the first place.
Please enjoy the clip below where I originally found it--on YouTube--and watch full-screen and at full volume--with a decent set of headphones if you have them...
LPK
Dreamwidth
8.18.2019
It started with a YouTube clip of Joan Osborne covering the Motown classic "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?" in which she's backed by a group of musicians informally known as "The Funk Brothers."
The clip, it turns out, is part of a 2002 documentary titled Standing in the Shadows of Motown, which is an amazing experience, socially and culturally as well as musically.
Anyway, after watching the YouTube clip numerous times, I was lucky enough to find the full documentary in a 2-DVD set--for an absolute bargain price--at a local Barnes & Noble. So if you're interested, and can find it locally or online, I'd recommend getting it while it remains available.
I've also done some online research into the lives and careers of individual Funk Brothers and learned that, sadly, only two of those who appear in the documentary are still alive and only one remains active musically. The hard reality is that theirs is a musical legacy that will soon exist only as history.
Which is why a film which documents the lives and careers of those who backed some of the greatest songs and voices of the Motown era is so important. Because, while we may always have the music, it's also important to understand and value those who gave it life in the first place.
Please enjoy the clip below where I originally found it--on YouTube--and watch full-screen and at full volume--with a decent set of headphones if you have them...
LPK
Dreamwidth
8.18.2019
