The Irrelephant Man: Everybody R'n'B Now

In light of the tremendous success of Channel Ten's Everybody Dance Now, it appears that Australia was not ready for a series of poorly choreographed dance-offs posing as a star vehicle for American "R'n'B" artists. But there is no need for the producers of Everybody Dance Now to throw the baby out with the bath water, as they did have some components of a thoroughly entertaining show. Head-to head duels. Tick. R'n'B artists. Tick. Sarah Murdoch as host. Maybe not so much. See where this is heading?
If we are going to have a battle between legendary rhythm and blues technicians, we may as well start at the very top. The crème de la crème of the R'n'B world. The heavy-hitters that made R'n'B music so popular in the second of half of the 20th century. I'm talking about a battle between north and south, polish versus passion. Hitsville vs Soulsville. Detroit vs Memphis. It is of course a battle between Motown and Stax Records.
But the question is: who's side are you on? Can't decide? Excellent. It gives us a chance to take a closer look at the teams, and more importantly listen to some fantastic tunes.

Motown Records:

Launched in January 1959 by Barry Gordy, Motown was up and running early with it's first hit, "Money (That's What I Want)" by Barrett Strong, reaching No. 2 in the charts by August. Motown's first No.1, Smokey Robinson's' "Shop Around" came a year later and kick started an astonishing run of 110 top-ten hits between 1961-1971. The label was underpinned by songwriting by the likes of Strong, Robinson, Norman Whitfield and the indomitable trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, and were responsible for the creation of the Motown sound, a simple yet distinctive, tambourine-heavy style that had massive crossover appeal. The Motown sound was produced by a core of musicians who became known as the Funk Brothers, who went on to play on more number one records than The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys combined.

Stax Records:

Also founded in the late 1950's by siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, Stax and it's various subsidiary labels cranked out over 800 singles and 300 LP's in a 14 year period. Like it's northern rival Motown, it was responsible for the creation of it's own style of R'n'B music, the Memphis sound. The Memphis sound was of a somewhat grittier nature than Motown, and was typified by melodic horn sections and driving bass lines and drum beats. Amazingly much of Stax's output during that time was written and produced by what became known as the Big Six - Isaac Hayes, David Porter, Al Jackson Jr., Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper and Donald "Duck" Dunn, on top of their own roles as artists in their own right.

Head to Head:

So if this were to come down to a song for song contest between the two R'n'B behemoths who would be involved and what would they play? With apologies to the artists that missed out, here are some prospective line-ups: