{"id":3568,"date":"2010-10-17T09:38:53","date_gmt":"2010-10-17T13:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=3568"},"modified":"2010-10-17T09:38:53","modified_gmt":"2010-10-17T13:38:53","slug":"a-belated-hail-to-general-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/a-belated-hail-to-general-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"A Belated Hail to General Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rYsOmIUAfEQ?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I saw it in passing the other day, but I never got around to posting notice of the passing of <strong>General Johnson<\/strong>, driving force of the <strong>Chairmen of the Board<\/strong> and other late-&#8217;60s\/early-&#8217;70s AM radio soul-pop acts that kept an increasingly outdated mode of music on the shelves a little bit longer than it might have been kept otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>As a boy, hearing this stuff fresh on the AM radio, mixed in with classic Motown hits from 5 years earlier, it never occured to me that Johnson&#8217;s contributions were those of a sort of anti-visionary, or a rearview-mirror visionary. Understandably we often applaud artists for their ability to be &#8220;5 years ahead of their time,&#8221; but I think it&#8217;s time to applaud Johnson for his ability to be 5 years <em>behind<\/em> his time\u2014in a good way. For those not quite ready to leave behind razor-sharp hooks, blatant downbeats, and songs composed for their strength of their catchy titles\/choruses rather than any deep, personal meaning, General Johnson had set about the task of, as Ray Davies might put it, &#8220;preserving the old ways from being abused.&#8221; I don&#8217;t know if this occurred to anyone at the time of the songs&#8217; releases, but as I think about it now, hits like &#8220;Give Me Just a Little More Time,&#8221; &#8220;Patches,&#8221; and &#8220;Want Ads&#8221; may have been the slightest bit &#8220;old fashioned&#8221; compared with the &#8220;happening&#8221; music of its time, but the recordings had all the life of their times. They were <em>of the moment<\/em>, the way a middle-aged person still hopes he or she can be now and then. More power to the General for this unusual knack.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c2cQ47VVzU0?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>If you don&#8217;t get what I&#8217;m getting at, here&#8217;s <strong>Honey Cone<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Want Ads,&#8221; one of those slightly past expiry date hits I&#8217;m talking about. In 1970 even <strong>The Supremes<\/strong> were attempting to move beyond the standard Motown template, but this song epitomizes the label&#8217;s mid-&#8217;60s innocence. Also for comparison, at this time, think about the funky hits of <strong>The Jackson 5<\/strong>. &#8220;Want Ads&#8221; has just enough funk to sound contemporary, but it stops short of that added <em>oomph<\/em> that would characterize contemporary funk, such as one of those instrumental breakdowns in any of the early J5 hits.<\/p>\n<p><em>NEXT: Rock Town Hall&#8217;s Official Eulogy&#8230;<\/em><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"400\" height=\"602\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"data\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"400\" height=\"602\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\" data=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/rip400x602.swf\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I saw it in passing the other day, but I never got around to posting notice of the passing of General Johnson, driving force of the Chairmen of the Board and other late-&#8217;60s\/early-&#8217;70s AM radio soul-pop acts that kept an increasingly outdated mode of music on the shelves a little bit longer than it might <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/a-belated-hail-to-general-johnson\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}