![]() For starters the title track began with some of the most warped sounds ever to grace a Motown release up to that point. The first three numbers broke the mold that had kept the band confined as a dance-routined and conformist vocal troupe. But when he saw the light it was with spectacular results. In fact it was the band's Otis Williams who first put the seed of the idea into Whitfield's mind. The first foray, and arguably the album that saved Motown's increasingly outmoded ass, was Cloud Nine. What followed were four years of peerless social commentary, groundbreaking arrangements and far out funky soul. Yet in a wise volte face he decided that, with Dennis Edwards replacing David Ruffin as the main voice of the group, he could offer Gordy a new vision of 'psychedelic soul'. Initially the Temptations' producer (and, with Barrett Strong half of the band's song writing team), Norman Whitfield, had poured disdain on the love and peace offered by the Family Stone. In Detroit it must have seemed like another universe to the suited and immaculate pop-by-numbers brigade. In soul circles, only Sly Stone (who had the distinct advantage of being a San Franciscan DJ anyway) had heeded the call of the flower children. More importantly, it effected all strata of society, even the less radical homeland that bought Motown's singles. ![]() Psychedelia, the freeform antithesis of Hitsville's precise tempos and lyrically safe methodology, was now the hip currency of young America. By 1968 Berry Gordy's seemingly insurmountable empire was under attack.
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