Artist:     Lamont Dozier

Album:     Reimagination

Label:     Goldenlane Records

Release Date:     6.6.18

100

BUY DIGITAL

BUY PHYSICAL

In the summer of ’64, I was just 17 and putting in many a hard day’s night in a Top 40 bar band on Long Island, when I developed a slight distaste for music out of Motown. Stuff I had been listening to since the days of Berry Gordy, with “It’s What’s In The Grooves That Counts” on his purple-labeled 45s. It was all because of one particular song that would get played no less than two to three times on the jukebox over the course of every one of our 15-minute breaks. That song, it turns out, was one that the artists also had a strong distaste for. In fact they tried to refuse to cut it, just like all their label mates at Motown did. Very fortunately for them, Lamont Dozier, one of the song’s writers and staff producers, prevailed and had them have a go at. And GO it did, along with a love from the listening public that took the Supremes by storm to the top of the pop music world.

I have been anticipating the release of Lamont Dozier’s Reimagination for about a year now. But when I first pressed play and heard those ingrained handclaps that kicked off “Where Did Our Love Go,” I grimaced…but then quickly smiled, as the claps faded like footsteps down the hall at 2648 W Grand Blvd. Detroit, aka “Hitsville USA.” For the next hour, I was taken on an incredible, magical musical journey that was so much more than history, nostalgia and hit-tune production. By the time the first few cuts had played, I came to realize and appreciate just how strong these songs always were. Just pure, great songs with melodies that married the lyrics till death do them part.

The album title rings completely true to the concept here, and it goes deep beyond that. For that I tip my hat to the program director of mythical radio station FM-KWTC (Fred Mollin-Knows Who To Call) to sonically help him carry out his visions as a record producer. Lamont agrees with me, and does so in his heartfelt thank you note to Fred that I just wish were in a slightly larger font. I make no bones about it, I’ve been a devotee of Mr. Mollin’s work ever since I discovered Jimmy Webb’s “10 Easy Pieces” back in the last century.

At the root of the solutions that fully conquer problems that sometimes appear in collections of this type, you have Lamont’s strong mature voice, one with all the chops and that extra edge at putting across what he originally wrote, both musically and emotionally. Now here is where the reimagination kicks in and the fun really starts. Be they Fred Mollin’s arrangements, production suggestions, combined with the incredible singers he called on, like Gregory Porter, Jo Harmon, Lee Ann Womack, Rumer, Graham Nash, Marc Cohn and several more, who all seem perfectly teamed to the songs they contribute to. For example, Gregory Porter, who is as smooth as pudding, gets a littler raspy and you hear just a touch of Ray Charles on “How Sweet It Is.” Then there are the high-voltage musical savants like Bryan Sutton, Larry Paxton and Jim Hoke who make it sonically obvious that they contributed much more than just showing up and playing flawlessly. They have reverence and sympathy for the songs. All kinds of keyboards and an amazing-sounding grand piano, let Gordon Mote’s contributions in just his touch and dynamics alone, take you to a higher place.

The boilerplate PR on this collection is that they are stripped down versions of Motown mega hits. “Stripped down” is a sad old Chevy up on blocks, minus its wheels and radio. Now imagine just an acoustic guitar with tone to die for, along with a fantastic part that Bryan Sutton came up with, doing the heavy lifting throughout “Baby I Need Your Loving” and you can bet the The Tops would spin around and say LORD HAVE MERCY!. A Wurlitzer electric piano sets out the moody drama that is inherent in “You Keep Me Hanging On” and then like a ghost, a Hammond B3 appears in the track adding a touch of color that Vanilla Fudge brought to their signature cover of it. For me, I was transported back to the Action House on Long Island in 1967, listening to the Fudge perform that song before they ever recorded it.

This is no stripped-down record, it’s a true work of art, loaded with less is more, subtle and beautiful touches that enhance, but never get in the way of what was there all along. Terrific soulful songs, from probably one of the most successful teams in pop history, Holland, Dozier and Holland. It closes with “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” a duet with Jo Harmon and a choir, that should have anyone who hears it reaching out to a friend and spreading the good word about how great this collection is. Speaking with Fred Mollin, he told me, “I will never produce a more historic project.” I said, I could imagine probably one more Fred—call it M&M-MM:  McCartney & Mollin-Makin’ Music. Imagine that! Until then, though, Reimagination is Fred’s truly great, historic project.

—Ken Spooner