Professor Eddy

Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye Enjoy this weekend's Billboard soul top 20 from 1974, counting down from 20 to 1! 😊 It is a special year to me, because 1974 was the year that I discovered pop music.  The Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart from exactly 50 years ago mainly contains a lot of classic (Motown) soul, with some early disco here and there. Only some lyrics are no longer acceptable in 2024. For instance, Bobby Womack mainly wants a woman to clean the house and prepare delicious food for him and Leon Haywood seems to justify domestic violence by stating that problems should be kept indoors. Ecstasy Pleasure & Pain, Spinners, Billy Paul and MFSB are the representatives of The Sound Of Philadelphia, or Philly Soul for short, the sound that would start the disco craze in years to come.  The sessions for Diana & Marvin , a duets album by then super stars Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, started in 1971 and took until the beginning of 1973. Diana Ross told in an early 1973 ...

Every now and then it’s time to listen to “the sound of young America”, to quote Motown founder Barry Gordy. Enjoy! One of the songs on this cloudcast is Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye. According to Allmusic his philosophy is summed up by this couplet: "There's only three things that's for sure/Taxes, death, and trouble." In 1973 Gloria Jones recorded an LP for Motown, Share My Love . She is most famous for her sixties northern soul classic Tainted Love , although it was not a hit record at the time when it was released. In the 1970s she became the girlfriend of British superstar Marc Bolan, the singer of glam rock band T-Rex. Their time together came to a tragic end, when Jones drove her car into a tree and the T-Rex singer died next to her. Tracklist: The Originals – Down To Love Town (1976) Bobby Nunn – Do You Look That Good In The Morning? (1983) Rick James – You And I (1978) El DeBarge With DeBarge ‎– You Wear It Well (1985) Leon Ware – I Wanna Be Where You Are ...

The movie The Comeback Trail with Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones inspired me to make this cloudcast. One of the songs on the soundtrack is Rock The Boat by The Hues Corporation, which made me think of the European off shore pirate radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s. They were the ones that played AM pop with its powerful sound. In the mid-70s the more sophisticated sound of FM radio replaced AM radio and around the same time, due to new laws, pirate stations, like Radio Veronica and Radio North Sea near the Dutch coast, were forced to stop broadcasting. That marked the end of an era in which pop music became what it is today. The closing track is from Marvin Gaye’s soundtrack to the movie Trouble Man : “Trouble Man might not be as immediate or universally relatable as Gaye's soul-searching on What's Going On or his later sensual fixations, but a deep listen will show it's very much part of the same overarching genius that touched all of his work.” (...

Marvin Gaye's You're the Man was intended to be the follow-up album to his masterpiece What's Going On , but after the release of the title track as the first single, Gaye withdrew its entire release. This was in part due to the poor sales of the song, as well as the fact that Gaye's political views were different to those of Motown boss Berry Gordy. For these reasons, You're the Man was long considered a "lost" album. Last month it has finally been released to celebrate what would have been Gaye's 80th birthday on April 2. It is still a pity that it took so long. I chose to play the funky track The World Is Rated X . Enjoy this funky disco party! Tracklist: Tuxedo – The Tuxedo Way (2019) Grey & Hanks – Dancin’ (1978) Thelma Houston – Don't Know Why I Love You (1977) Teddy Pendergrass – The More I Get, The More I Want (1977) Soul Survivors – Expressway (To Your Heart) (1967) MFSB – Let’s Go Disco (1975) Archie Bell & th...

Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye (Jim Britt) Motown moved all of its operations to Los Angeles in June 1972, with a number of artists, among them Martha Reeves, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Motown's Funk Brothers studio band, either staying behind in Detroit or leaving the company for other reasons. By re-locating, Motown aimed chiefly to branch out into the motion-picture industry, and Motown Productions got its start in film by turning out two hit-vehicles for Diana Ross: the Billie Holiday biographical film 'Lady Sings the Blues' (1972), and 'Mahogany' (1975). The typical Motown sound disappeared because of those priority changes, but the company still produced great records, like the ones from Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and discovered new artists, like Rick James and The Commodores. 'Ain't It Funny (How Things Turn Around)' was made during the sessions for Marvin Gaye's masterpiece 'Here my dear'. The theme of the...

A few love making grooves, combined with a couple of romantic West Coast pop and new wave songs. One of them is ‘Breakfast’ by The Associates. They were Billy Mackenzie (‘William’ in ‘William, it was really nothing’ by The Smiths) and Ian Rankine. After a few singles and two albums, 1982's ‘Sulk’, was the group's definitive statement that sold very well and it was named album of the year in Melody Maker. Following the LP's success, a promotion tour and a record deal was set up in the US, but Mckenzie cancelled it all at the very last moment. Rankine went mad and left the group for a solo career. Mackenzie kept the name 'Associates' and booked a studio with producer Martin Rushent to record an album, but the final result never saw the light of day. A few of the tracks later appeared re-recorded on 1985's ‘Perhaps’. One of the tracks on the album is the closing track of this mix, ‘Breakfast’. In the 1990s the career of Billy Mckenzie went downhill. After the death...

"In 1972, things were rapidly shifting in Marvin Gaye's world. He was coming off of one of his most wide-reaching hit albums with 1971's instant classic What's Going On, and his recording contract with Motown subsidiary Tamla was renewed for a cool million dollars and total creative control, making him one of the most successful R&B artists of his day." (Quote: Allmusic.com ). Previous parts of the series: Best Of 70s Soul . Tracklist: Marvin Gaye – 'T' Stands For Trouble Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway – Where Is The Love Barbara Jean English – Baby I'm A Want You Ernie Hines – Electrified Love The Staple Singers – I'll Take You There Bill Withers – Use Me Ronnie McNeir – Extra, Extra Lyn Collins – Think [Jski Extended] Mandrill – Lord Of The Golden Baboon Joe Tex – I Gotcha The Politicians Featuring McKinley Jackson – The World We Live In Eddie Kendricks – My People... Hold On Jimmy Castor Bunch – It's Just...

A tribute to one of the most gifted, visionary, and enduring talents ever launched into orbit by the Motown hit machine: “ Marvin Gaye blazed the trail for the continued evolution of popular black music. ” (Jason Ankeny) Enjoy! Tracklist: The Durutti Column – The Truth (2010) The Impressions – Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (1971) Quincy Jones & His Orchestra – Ain't That Peculiar (1965) Ike & Tina Turner – I Heard It Trough The Grapevine (1969) Mongo Santamaria – Too Busy Thinking About My Baby (1969) The Funk Brothers – Ain't No Mountain High Enough (1960s) Gato Barbieri – Latin Reaction (1977) Fred Wesley & The JB's – You Sure Love To Ball (1974) Leon Ware – I Wanna Be Where You Are (1976) Grover Washington, Jr. – Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (1972) The Three Degrees – Distant Lover (1975) Stanley Turrentine – I Want You (1976) Dianne Reeves – I Want You (2013) David Fathead Newman – Distant Lover (1978) Quincy Jones –...

Summer Soul Station goes Motown! In the past I remixed a couple of Marvin Gaye songs. ‘Inner city blues’ is my most recent one. I used bits and pieces of German band leader James Last. He gave the song the summer feeling I needed for this mixtape. The track from Kelly Rowland is from her new album ‘Here I am’, her first one on Motown. She sings about Summer Soul Station , I suppose: ‘We gotta do it, do it all day, like the radio!’ She promoted her album with a wardrobe malfunction last week… I will play the original version of ‘Walk away Renee’ someday as well, because the Four Tops did a cover version of it. Enjoy this summer of Motown! Full tracklist: Kelly Rowland & Rico Love – All Of The Night (2011) Marvin Gaye – Inner City Blues [Professor Eddy vs James Last Re-edit] (2011) Martha & the Vandella s – Heat Wave [David Elizondo Mix] (2008) The Temptations – Beauty Is Only Skin Deep (1966) The Four Tops – Walk Away Renee (1967) The Originals – Call On Your ...

I used two tracks of The Durutti Column , ‘Brother’ and ‘The Truth’ (from their excellent new album ‘Pean to Wilson’) and the original version of Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ to create a stripped down, melancholic version. I added a men’s choir to build a kind of a requiem atmosphere. I hope you like my effort! The rest of this episode is the usual mixture of soul, funk, disco and boogie. And there's a little bit of nu-disco or electro (or whatever you may call it) from Sally Shapiro as well. I like the lyrics of her song, they are really funny! Tracklist: Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On [Eddy’s Durutti Column Edit] (2010) Gloria Jones – So Tired (1973) Arnold Blair – Trying To Get Next To You (1975) Major Lance – It's Must Be Love Coming Down (1970) Greyship Daviz – This Groove Is On The Loose (1983) Dynamic Superiors – Nobody’s Gonna Change Me (1975) CJ & Co – Get A Groove In Order To Move (1977) Sister Sledge – You Fooled Around (1980) KC & the Suns...

I gathered lots of funky gems in this mix, from the early seventies to the here and now. The edits in this mix are shorter versions of the originals. Bumpy Green blows more than 9 minutes for instance, so I took away a little bit of the middle section. I rebuilt Marvin Gaye's 'A Funky Space Reincarnation' for this mix. The original version of this song (from the album 'Here my dear') has been used for a Dior commercial to promote 'J'adore', with Charlize Theron in it. I’ve always liked Swiss experimental duo Yello. The song I picked is from their latest album ‘Touch Yello’. They show on 'The expert' how James Brown would have sounded if he was still alive today. The Roy Ayers track can be found on Can You Dig It , which came out on Soul Jazz Records. Run to the shops for the brand new Al Kent album, ' Secret Sounds '. It's great! I chose 'Reverb is your friend' for this 'Funk ain't a word' mixtape. Full trackli...

Funky chill grooves for chilly autumn evenings. Special attention for one of the best Motown remixes ever, done by a certain guy called Professor Eddy… ;-) It’s a rework of ‘Falling in love again’ by Marvin Gaye, from his excellent album ‘Here, my dear’ that was dedicated to his ex-wife Anna Gordy (sister of Motown boss Berry Gordy). To support her financially Marvin and Anna agreed on giving her the royalties of the album. But that was a mistake, because the album didn’t sell at all. And Anna was furious when she heard the lyrics. They were all about their relationship and their legal battle afterwards. His career was slipping through his fingers and eventually Marvin Gaye ended up broke in Oostende (Belgium). Nowadays it’s really a mystery why the album wasn’t a success, because it’s one of his best records. I added a different beat to ‘Falling in love again’, some keyboards and a few other things. I stayed as close to the original as possible, because it’s such a good track. The ...