From the vaults of Motown, please feast your ears on Bobby & The Vancouvers, a one and done outfit who had a minor hit in 1968 with "Does Your Mother Know About Me" co-written by Vancouver guitarist and future pot head Tommy Chong.
This band, the album cover, and the music doesn't feel like what was coming out on the Motown label at the time. It has more of an east L.A. Chicano soul vibe to it, even with a few covers of the Motown roster included. The second track here written by Smokey Robinson. I was intrigued by it all, especially by Tommy Chong's claim that his song about an interracial relationship changed the course of the label, and without "Does Your Mother Know About Me" there'd be no "Love Child" and "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." Maybe he was a pot head back then, too.
13 comments:
Man, what a great little song! It's hard to sound "smooth as a breeze" and also make social commentary. Kind of like how Suzanne Vega found a way to get a song about child abuse on the radio, wrapping the message in a great guitar solo with jangle elsewhere.
Hearing a song like this makes me happy our son and his girlfriend didn't need to ask themselves the question the narrator asks here. We're white folks, but live in Atlanta so have always had lots of black friends, and our older son's first girlfriend was black. They dated for a year and seem to have broken up, being at colleges in different cities. But of course she was a part of our family once they started dating.
Yeah. L.A. Chicano Soul, sort of. I got this album at Zody's in the bargain bin. Musta been spring 1970 since the demo record for tne Koss Pro 4AA headphones in the Stereo section was Band of Gypsys that day. "Does Your Mama Know About Me" was a pretty big hit in L.A. on the R&B station during 1968. By the time I got the album it was already a seldom played oldie. I grabbed the CD when it came out in the mid-1990's because I didn't think it'd be in print very long. Art Laboe played DYMKAM on his oldies show quite a bit.
No real monsters here but the time changes in DYMKAM are kind of a trip. No real clunkers either. Solid midling effort. I like the other single too-I Am Your Man.
VR
You had me at Gordy and Chong...
Two very tasty treats. Love the Tommy Chong connection.
I'm not completely convinced it's L.A. Chicano Soul. But it's closer to that than Motown.
The second one sounds like Philly to me.
Def Motown on that intro to Malinda!
@VR: Zody's!! Jeezus that brings back memories of late 60s SoCal, complete with being told to close the school bus windows due to smog alerts, and, apropos of the subject matter of Does Your Mama Know, my first girlfriend, Juanita Jordan, who I was teased about because she was black and I was white.
C in California
DYMKAM is a cool little number that Johnny Otis use to play on his radio show here in Los Angeles in the 80s. Had forgotten about it. Thanks for the share.
I can't stop laughing at "future pothead". Love the music!
I agree with Steve: I'm hearing more Philadelphia than LA or Detroit. But actually, Malinda would segue nicely into something like "Suavecito", from a few years later. Anyway, thanks for sharing these - I don't think I'd ever heard them.
Marc
For those who don't know, Taylor discovered the Jackson 5. He worked as supervisor and producer on much of the debut LP, "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5."
Tommy Chong's co-writer was Tom Baird a very talented songwriter and arranger for the Motown enterprise. The Supremes covered this song on their Love Child LP. Baird, among lots of other stuff, wrote Rare Earth's "Born To Wander."
C In California: Can't say I bought very many records at Zody's, but their bargain bin had stuff for well under a dollar. Occasionally you'd make a good score. I was more of a White Front shopper in the Sixties. Ten bucks would get you three hit albums with Pup 'N' Taco money left over.
Those third-stage smog alerts were just part of life in SoCal. My boyfriend was going to football practice in August with 100 degree plus temperature and smog so bad you could barely see across the field. Breathing felt like smoking a Pall Mall. Don't remember the closing bus windows thing. Sometimes we'd get a rookie teacher from out of state. It was funny, they didn't know there were mountains 10 miles from the school until wind or rain took care of the smog. Inspired Spielberg's L.A. 2017 NOTG episode. But we averted that, thank God
VR
And here’s a stunning version from Formerly of The Harlettes (1978). It features Sharon Redd on lead vocals along with Ula Hedwig and Charlotte Crossley. Check it out here:
https://youtu.be/gPY7QHjWds0
VR - White Front and Pup 'N' Taco. Haven't thought of those places in over 50 years. Yikes!
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