{"id":1691,"date":"2008-09-18T11:59:53","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T15:59:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-05-28T13:40:18","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T13:40:18","slug":"norman-whitfield-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/norman-whitfield-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Norman Whitfield Permanently Stationed on Cloud Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Norman Whitfield<\/strong>, the producer-songwriter most responsible for dragging Motown into the second half of the 1960s and making the label’s music at least tolerable for the whitest of rock fans, has died. Despite my poke at those of you who fail to dig the beauty of the earlier model of Motown’s output, I love Whitfield’s work. Come on, you Rockist lunkheads, for Norman’s sake go back and learn to dig the earlier stuff too!<\/p>\n

From The Guardian<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Whitfield’s big chance came when Holland-Dozier-Holland stormed out of Motown in early 1968 in a row over profit-sharing. Inspired by Sly and the Family Stone’s wild arrangements, he wrote the hard-driving, socially aware Cloud Nine with lyricist Barrett Strong (who is himself currently recovering from a stroke) for the Temptations. Despite Gordy’s reservations over its perceived pro-drug message, it changed Motown overnight. Suddenly, topical comment and audacious psychedelic arrangements were on the agenda, and Whitfield-Strong were on a roll: Ball of Confusion, Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, War and Smilin’ Faces Sometimes all smouldered with tension and paranoia befitting the era of Vietnam, Nixon and the Black Panthers. War actually sounds like war; Ball of Confusion is indeed a ball of confusion.<\/p><\/blockquote>