Creedence Clearwater Revival – "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1968)

You could have told me yourself

That you love someone else 

Instead I heard it through the grapevine

[NOTE: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s cover of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” is actually a cover of a cover of a sort of cover.  Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were the first to record the Norman Whitfield–Barrett Strong song for Motown, but their version wasn’t the first to be released.  The song was next recorded by Marvin Gaye, but his version wasn’t the first to be released either.  That honor went to the Gladys Knight & the Pips version, which was released in 1967 and promptly went to #1 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”  I think the Creedence version is really a cover of the Marvin Gaye cover, which was released subsequent to the Miracles and Pips records and was clearly the best of the three quality-wise.  The Gaye cover surpassed the Gladys Knight & the Pips cover as the best-selling Motown single up to that time.  (Got all that straight?  There may a pop quiz later.). In any event, the Creedence cover – one of the members of the initial class of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” COVER RECORDS HALL OF FAME – doesn’t sound much like any of the Motown versions, which is one of the reasons it’s a great cover.  What follows is a lightly edited version of my original February 17, 2011 post about this record.]

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If I had to pick one band that personifies good ol' American-style rock and roll music, it would be Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Here's what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says about Creedence:

Creedence Clearwater Revival . . . were progressive and anachronistic at the same time.  An unapologetic throwback to the golden era of rock and roll . . . [t]heir approach was basic and uncompromising, holding true to the band members’ working-class origins.

The term "roots rock" had not yet been invented when Creedence came along, but in a real way they defined it, drawing inspiration from the likes of Little Richard, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and the artisans of soul at Motown and Stax.  In so doing, Creedence Clearwater Revival became the standard bearers and foremost celebrants of homegrown American music.

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"I Heard It Through The Grapevine" was a huge hit – not once, but twice – for Motown artists before CCR recorded it.

Their version of "Grapevine" was released on the Cosmo's Factory album in July 1970.  That was only about 18 months after Marvin Gaye's version of the song had reached the #1 spot on the Billboard "Hot 100."

Creedence's cover of the song is eleven minutes long.  You might think that's too long, but it isn't.  (I wouldn't mind if it was an hour long.) 

It has the no-frills feel of a live performance – compared to the Motown versions, it's a white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans.

By the way, did you know that CCR performed at Woodstock?  Thanks to the Grateful Dead's endless jamming, Creedence didn't take the stage until 3 AM.  CCR frontman John Fogerty thought their performance wasn't up to snuff, so they are missing from the movie and the original soundtrack album.  (The 25th-anniversary Woodstock box set does include six CCR songs.) 

CCR at Woodstock

Here's one other odd fact about Creedence, which never got the respect it deserved:  the band never had a #1 hit, but had five #2 singles.

Click here to listen to CCR's cover of "Grapevine."

Click here to buy the record from Amazon.

  

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (1967)

If you’re ever in trouble

I’ll be there on the double

As you listen to this song, picture Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in the studio recording it.

Whether they are alternating call-and-response lines (as they do in the verses) or are singing together (as they do in the choruses), the musical chemistry is palpable – there’s a real emotional engagement between the two singers.

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

That’s why it’s hard for me to believe that they recorded their parts separately – Terrell recorded her part first, with Gaye coming to the studio to do his part later. 

Presumably Gaye was able to listen to her vocal track when he recorded his.  But Terrell could only imagine what her duet partner’s singing was going to sound like – she was like a movie actress shooting a love scene all by herself, having to pretend that the male actor playing her lover was present.

Somehow the performers (and the producers) pulled it off.  It may be the greatest pop duet ever recorded, yet it wasn’t really a duet at all – it was two solo performances stitched together.

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Dusty Springfield was eager to record “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” when fledging songwriters Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson played it for her, but Ashford and Simpson held it back from her because they hoped they could use the song to get a job at Motown.

The strategy worked.  Motown’s head honcho, Berry Gordy, hired them in 1966 – Ashford was 25, Simpson only 20.  

The pair penned several Gaye/Terrell duets and numerous songs for other Motown stars – including Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marthas and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and especially Diana Ross.  (Most of the songs on Ross’s first three solo albums were Ashford-Simpson compositions.)

Ashford and Simpson were married in 1974, and went on to release over a dozen albums as recording artists.

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The Gaye-Terrell version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” peaked at #19 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1967 – it reached #3 on the R&B charts, but it’s shocking to me that it wasn’t a bigger crossover hit.

Diana Ross had a number one hit with the song in 1970.  Her cover is much slower and more stylized – it opens with an elaborate instrumental introduction, and Ross declaims the verses rather than singing them.  I give her credit for trying something completely different, but I think the result is clearly inferior to the original.  There’s no spontaneity, no feeling.  

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Just a few months after “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was released, Tammi Terrell collapsed during a performance with Gaye.  

When doctors examined the 22-year-old singer, they found a malignant brain tumor.  After undergoing eight surgeries, she was blind, confined to a wheelchair, and weighed only 93 pounds. 

Terrell died in 1970, a month short of her 25th birthday.  

Some biographers believe that Marvin Gaye’s subsequent depression and drug abuse resulted from Terrell’s illness and death.  

In 1984, Gaye’s father shot and killed him after the two men argued.  Gaye died the day before his 45th birthday.

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Knowing about Terrell’s and Gaye’s tragic deaths makes listening to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” bittersweet.  The two were truly gifted singers, and their performance on that record is so very alive.     

Click here to listen to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” which clearly deserves its place in the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.

You can click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Marvin Gaye – "Hitch Hike" (1962)

Got no money in my pocket

So I'm going to have to hitch hike all the way

[Note: This is the third in a series of four 2 or 3 lines posts about famous and infamous natives of Joplin, Missouri – my hometown.]

You have to feel sorry for people who suffered through awful childhoods.

Billy Cook’s childhood was about as bad as it gets, but it’s hard to feel sorry for him.  

Billy Cook's left hand

That’s because Cook shot and killed a farmer who stopped to give Cook a ride when he was hitchhiking one day in 1950.  

He also killed the farmer’s wife, their three children (who were 7, 5, and 3 years old), and the family dog, and threw their bodies down an abandoned mine shaft.

I don’t care how miserable a childhood Billy Cook had – nothing excuses what he did to that innocent family.

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William Edward “Billy” Cook Jr. was born in Joplin in 1928.    

Billy’s mother died  when he was five.  His unemployed father moved into an abandoned mine with him and his seven brothers and sisters.  One night, after getting a snootful in a local tavern, he hopped a freight and left his children to fend for themselves.  (That may not be the most heartless thing a father has ever done to his children, but it’s right up there.)

Local authorities discovered the children and found homes for all of them except Billy, who was later described by Time magazine as a “small, ugly child with a deformed right eyelid.”  He became a ward of the state.

Billy Cook's mug shot

Young Billy was a truant and a petty thief, and was sent to a reformatory when he was 12.  When he was 17, he was transferred to the Missouri State Penitentiary, where he assaulted a fellow inmate who made fun of his droopy eyelid with a baseball bat.  (Do prisons still allow inmates to play baseball?  Hopefully not.)

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Billy was released from prison in 1950, when he was 21.  He returned to Joplin and tracked down his father, telling him that he planned to “live by the gun and roam.”

Cook then headed west, and ended up working as a dishwasher in Blythe, California, a desert town where the high temperature once reached 124 degrees.

After a short time in Blythe, Billy drifted back east.  He bought a .32-caliber revolver in El Paso and used it to steal the car of a man who had picked Cook up when he was hitchhiking near Lubbock.

The stolen car ran out of gas near Tulsa, so Cook reverted to hitchhiking.  He was picked up by a farmer from Illinois, who was driving to New Mexico with his wife, three children, and the family dog.  

Cook pulled his gun and forced the farmer to drive from Oklahoma to Wichita Falls, Texas, then to Carlsbad, New Mexico, then to El Paso, then to Houston, then to Winthrop, Arkansas, and then back toward Joplin.  

A biography of Billy Cook

He finally shot and killed the entire family – including the dog – and dumped their bodies in a mine shaft.  (The odds are it wasn’t the same mine where his father abandoned Billy and his siblings – the Joplin area is home to many abandoned lead and zinc mines.) 

Cook headed back west, abandoning the farmer’s car – which was bloody and full of bullet holes – along the way.  When authorities found the car, the receipt for Cook’s .32 revolver was inside.

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Back in Blythe, Cook took a deputy sheriff hostage.  He told the deputy about killing the farmer and his family, then forced him to get out of the car and to lie down in a ditch.  But instead of shooting him, Cook drove away in the deputy’s car.  

He then kidnapped a motorist from Seattle, shot him in the head, and left his body in the deputy’s car near Ogilby, a now-abandoned town near Yuma, Arizona.  He drove the Seattle man’s car to Mexicali, Mexico and abandoned it there.

Cook managed to avoid all the law enforcement officers who were looking for him and made it back to Blythe, where he kidnapped two men who were on a hunting trip.  He drove with them to the Baja California town of Santa Rosalita.

Billy Cook with Mexican police

Santa Rosalita police chief Francisco Morales recognized Cook on the streets of the town, snatched the .32 revolver Cook had stuck in his belt, and arrested him.

“I hate everybody’s guts,” Cook supposedly said after the was arrested, “and everybody hates mine.”

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After he was captured, Cook was returned to Oklahoma, where he was found guilty of murdering the farmer and his family and sentenced to 300 years in prison.

After that he was tried in California for the murder of the Seattle man, convicted, and sentenced to death.

Cook was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin on December 12, 1952.  

Peace Church Cemetery today

His body was returned to Joplin and buried in an unmarked grave in the Peace Church Cemetery, which is located just north of the intersection of North Schifferdecker Avenue and West Zora Street.

Some people believe that Cook’s restless spirit still haunts the overgrown cemetery.

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The 1953 movie, The Hitch-Hiker, was inspired by Cook’s crime spree.  The film’s hitch-hiking murderer – who is portrayed by William Talman – even has an eyelid that doesn’t close all the way, just like Cook.  (Those of you who are my age or older will recognize Talman as District Attorney Hamilton Burger from the Perry Mason TV series, which aired from 1957 to 1966.)  

The Hitch-Hiker was one of eight movies directed by Ida Lupino, an actress who starred in dozens of Hollywood films before turning her hand to directing.  She also directed more than 100 network television series episodes.

Ida Lupino

Paste magazine included The Hitch-Hiker on its list of the 100 best film noirs of all time:

As a woman-helmed production, The Hitch-Hiker was a rarity in its heyday, though if you didn’t know [Ida] Lupino held the reins, you might not guess the film was directed with a feminine touch.  The Hitch-Hiker was as much an anomaly in Hollywood as it was a change of pace for Lupino, who, after directing four features that each revolved around the struggles and victimization of women, decided to try her hand with decidedly more masculine fare.  Decades later, her film is still generally considered the first noir directed by a woman, but it should really be thought of first as a slim, unsparing, suspenseful slice of true crime.  She puts her foot on the gas and doesn’t let up until the very end.

Click here if you’d like to watch The Hitch-Hiker.

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“Hitch Hike,” which was released in 1962, was Marvin Gaye’s first top-forty single.  

Click here to watch Marvin Gaye perform “Hitch Hike” in the 1964 concert movie, the T.A.M.I. Show, which I saw at the old Lux Theatre in Joplin when I was 12 years old.  (One of the go-go dancers is the criminally underappreciated actress, Teri Garr.)

And click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Marvin Gaye – "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1968)

You could have told me yourself
That you loved some one else
Instead I heard it through the grapevine

[NOTE: Motown Records cast a giant shadow over pop music in the sixties and early seventies, and I think that I had to include at least one Motown classic in the initial group of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.  Here's a somewhat revised version of my February 2011 post about what I believe is the greatest of all the Motown hit singles of the sixties.]

Motown Records was a remarkably successful manufacturer of hit records.

I don't know enough about organizational analysis in general or the particulars of Motown's operations to explain that success.  But what is clear from even a quick-and-dirty study of Motown is that the company paid attention to details – nothing was left to chance.

For example, Motown had an artist development program.  Motown sought out talented musicians, but many of those musicians had been raised in housing projects and were very young and inexperienced – they weren't ready for prime time, so to speak.

Motown's first headquarters

Motown's artist development program turned out performers who were well-groomed, well-dressed, and very, very polished both onstage and offstage.

Motown acts were just as popular with white audiences as with black audiences, and that may have been as much the result of the demeanor and appearance of Motown performers as it was about their music (although their music was as good as anyone's).  Motown artists like the Supremes, and Marvin Gaye, and the Temptations called into question many of the old white stereotypes about African-Americans.

The Motown production process has been described as "factory-like," but you can't argue with the results.  The 1960s were a time when the best-selling pop music was also the best pop music, and Motown's records were best sellers and very good.  The "Motown Sound" was as distinctive and recognizable as a Cadillac's tailfins, and the best Motown records sound just as good today as they did 40 years ago.  

Berry Gordy

Motown's founder and CEO, Berry Gordy, held quality-control meetings every Friday morning during the label's heyday, and his word was law when it came to which records got released.  As hard as it is to believe now, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" didn't make the cut the first time it was presented at one of the Friday morning meetings.

"Grapevine" was written by Barrett Strong, who was the singer on Motown's first big hit, "Money (That's What I Want"), which was released in 1960.  (The song was actually released on Tamla, another of Gordy's labels.)

Strong never had another hit as a singer, and eventually joined the Motown songwriting staff, where he teamed up with Norman Whitfield, a Motown producer.

The duo is best known for the series of "psychedelic soul" hits they co-wrote for the Temptations -- including "Cloud Nine," "Ball of Confusion," and "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone."

Norman Whitfield (top) and Barrett Strong

But in 1966, Strong had no track record, and Berry Gordy was not impressed by the version of the song that Smokey Robinson and the Miracles recorded in August of that year.  In fact, he said it was "horrible."

Whitfield had worked successfully with Marvin Gaye, and persuaded him to record "Grapevine" in April 1967.  Gaye's recording of the song featured not only the usual Motown session musicians and backup singers, but also members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  The singer and Whitfield clashed over how Gaye should sing the song, but Whitfield eventually prevailed.

Once again, Berry Gordy gave "Grapevine" a thumbs down.  A couple of months later, Gladys Knight & the Pips were given a crack at the song.

Gordy didn't think much of their recording either, and Motown didn't do much to support it.  But the single reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart in November of that year and remained at #1 for six weeks.  It almost made it to the top spot on the Pop chart as well, but peaked at #2 (behind only the Monkees' "Daydream Believer").

Give Norman Whitfield credit.  He still believed in the Marvin Gaye "Grapevine," and pushed Gordy to release it as well.  The song was added to a Gaye album that came out in September 1968, but was not released as a single until so many radio DJs started playing it that Gordy finally relented.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" outsold all previously released Motown singles.  It stayed at #1 on both the Billboard Pop and R&B charts for seven consecutive weeks in late 1968 and early 1969.  

I wonder if Berry Gordy ever said to  Norman Whitfield, "You were right and I was wrong."  Probably not.

The Gladys Knight version of the song was not a particularly convincing interpretation of the song.  Gaye's record, by contrast, is perfect.  Whitfield dug deep into his ball of producer's tricks, and he hit the ball way out of the park.

Click here to listen to the Marvin Gaye version of "Grapevine."  

Click the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Marvin Gaye – "What's Going On" (1971)

War is not the answer

For only love can conquer hate

This will be the last 2 or 3 lines for 2017, which was the year when the people of the United States of America lost their cotton-pickin’ minds for once and for all.  

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I recently saw this bumper sticker on a car parked at the community center where I go to work out when it’s too damn cold to be outside.  (It only costs $50 a year for a senior membership, which entitles me to unlimited use of the strength-training and cardio machines at any of the 19 community centers in my county.)

Technically speaking, you can’t say war is not the answer until you specify what the question is.  But let’s not quibble.

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War is not the only thing that isn’t the answer, of course:

And last but not least:

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On May 15, 1969, “Obie” Benson – who was one of the Four Tops – witnessed a violent clash between anti-war demonstrators and police in Berkeley’s People’s Park.  

Benson discussed the ugly scene with his friend Al Cleveland, a Motown songwriter, who wrote the original version of “What’s Going On.”

The other Four Tops didn’t want to record the song, so Benson gave it to Marvin Gaye, who rewrote the melody and the lyrics.  Gaye thought the song would be a good fit for the Originals – “a group that has been described as “Motown’s best-kept secret” – but Benson convinced Gaye to record it himself.

Motown’s head honcho, Berry Gordy, thought the idea of Gaye recording a protest song was “ridiculous.”  After Gaye recorded it, Gordy didn’t want to release it – he told Gaye it was the worst thing he had ever heard.

Of course, Berry Gordy didn’t want to release Gaye’s recording of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” as a single.  Go figure.

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“What’s Going On” sounded like no other record.  Perhaps that was because many of the musicians who performed on it were high as a kite during their time in the studio.

James Jamerson

Unlike his fellow musicians, legendary Motown bass guitarist James Jamerson apparently preferred booze to weed.  His drink of choice was reportedly Metaxa, a blend of brandy and wine that is made in  Greece.  The story goes that Jamerson drank so much Metaxa the night he was supposed to record the bass part for “What’s Going On” that he couldn’t sit up straight – instead he lay on the floor while playing.

Detroit Lions stars Lem Barney and Mel Farr were among those who take part in the simulated conversation at the beginning of the song.

Here’s “What’s Going On”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Marvin Gaye – "Got To Give It Up" (1977)

This is such a groovy place

All the young ladies are so fine!

"Got to Give It Up" was a #1 hit for the late Marvin Gaye in 1977.  "Blurred Lines" was a #1 hit for Robin Thicke in 2013.

Earlier this month, a Los Angeles jury found that "Blurred Lines" (which was written by Pharrell Williams) infringed Gaye's copyright on "Got to Give It Up," and awarded Gaye's family $7.4 million in damages.  

Marvin Gaye

I don't care how rich you are.  When you got to give it up to the tune of $7.4 million, you feel like you just got it up your you-know-what.

Writing in the New Yorker, Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu opined that not only was the jury's decision a mistake, but that the correct legal outcome was so clear that the judge shouldn't have even let the case go to the jury.  

According to Wu,

There is no question that Pharrell was inspired by Gaye and borrowed from him; he has freely admitted as much.  But, by that standard, every composer would be a lawbreaker.  The question is not whether Pharrell borrowed from Gaye but whether Gaye owned the thing that was borrowed.  And this is where the case falls apart.  For it was not any actual sequence of notes that Pharrell borrowed, but rather the general style of Gaye’s songs.  That is why “Blurred Lines” sounds very much like a Marvin Gaye song.  But to say that something “sounds like” something else does not amount to copyright infringement.

Copyright law is a hot mess.  Every time I've tried to figure out copyright law as it applies to music recordings, I've ended up with a headache.  But maybe I can explain a few things that will help you understand this case.

Robin Thicke

First of all, you should understand that Gaye's copyright extended only to the notes of the song – what you would see on sheet music for "Got to Give It Up" – and not the way those notes were performed on the song recording.

For example, both songs feature a falsetto lead vocal by a male singer, and both songs use a cowbell in a similar fashion.  Williams may have chosen to incorporate those elements in "Blurred Lines" because he was influenced by Marvin Gaye's use of them, but Gaye's copyright does not extend to a falsetto lead vocal and the use of a cowbell.

As a result, the judge ruled that the Gaye family's lawyers would not be able to play the sound recording of “Got To Give It Up” in court because it might influence the jury unfairly.  Instead, the  jurors were instructed to compare “Blurred Lines” and “Got To Give It Up” only on the basis of their melodies, chords, and lyrics.  

The judge did allow the jury to listen to a stripped-down version of Gaye's song.  (Assuming that some of the jurors couldn't read music the judge may have felt that he had to allow that.)  The Gaye family's lawyer also called expert musicologists to testify about the similarities between the two compositions.  

Juries are often influenced by the credibility and likability of the litigants.  Robin Thicke certainly didn't help himself when it came to winning friends and influencing the people on the jury.

Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus

Before the trial, Thicke told the media that "Got to Give It Up" inspired "Blurred Lines."  But in his deposition, the singer said that he was drunk and high on Vicodin during those interviews, and that what he said in those interviews was untrue.  He also admitted that he asked for a co-writer's credit on "Blurred Lines" even though Williams wrote the song almost singlehandedly.

More from Professor Wu:

The Gaye estate’s victory was an accomplished piece of lawyering . . . . The estate’s lawyers, taking advantage of the fact that Gaye is considerably more popular and respected than Thicke, made a dispute between two groups of wealthy people seem like a battle between good and evil.  Rather than focussing on what Gaye’s estate actually owned, the trial became a referendum on Thicke’s character.  As for that, the verdict was already clear.

Personally, I wonder if the jury had a problem with Pharrell's stupid hats:

Some of the biggest names in the songwriting business have been found guilty of infringement, including the legendary Brian Wilson.  

From the Los Angeles Times:

Wilson [told a story about] one of his group's big early hits, "Surfin' U.S.A.," which he built on melodic elements of a song by of one of his rock 'n' roll heroes, Chuck Berry.

"I just took 'Sweet Little Sixteen' and rewrote it into something of our own," Wilson, 72, said during an inyerview.

He was surprised — and not a little hurt, he said — when Berry's publisher later suggested that he'd done more than pay tribute to Berry, charging that "Surfin' U.S.A." plagiarized Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen." Berry prevailed and writing credit and publishing royalties were signed over to him.  

(Note the songwriter credit)

The Beatles had their share of copyright problems, too.  Chuck Berry also argued successfully that the Beatles' 1969 hit "Come Together" infringed Berry's "You Can't Catch Me."  And former Beatle George Harrison lost in court when the publishers of the Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine" claimed that Harrison's solo hit "My Sweet Lord" had copied the earlier song.

Stevie Wonder was one of the many prominent musicians who questioned the jury's finding that "Blurred Lines" infringed "Got To Give It Up."

I don’t think it’s a steal from Marvin Gaye.  I’ve been through lawsuits for songs and all that.  I think that the groove is very similar but you have to remember [Pharrell] is a big fan of Marvin Gaye’s so that’s okay.  But the song is not like Marvin Gaye’s.  It is not the same.

(You're probably think I quoted Stevie Wonder just so I could say something tasteless like "Even a blind man can see that the jury was wrong."  Sorry to disappoint you, boys and girls.)

Other musicians were gleeful that the jury administered a legal spanking to Robin Thicke – either because they are envious of Robin Thicke's commercial success, or because they are envious that he got a hot naked chick to appear in the "Blurred Lines" video with him:

Here's a mashup of the two songs so you can compare them for yourself:

Here's "Got To Give It Up":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: