Member-only story
Crate Diving in Modern America
New Records, Black Country
Digging through the past
Full disclosure: some of my crates are stored in Discogs!!!
So, with that open-aired secret out of the way, once I learned that in the shuffling madness of a 60’s locomotive breath, Diana Ross and the Supremes released a “Country” album: The Supremes Sing Country Western & Pop (Motown MT-625, 1965), I had to have it. I paid around $15 for a Good cover and Very Good piece of vinyl, with covered renditions of these fine tunes: “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” “Lazy Bones,” and “Rock and Roll Banjo Band.”
Does it seem weird that in 1965 Berry Gordy decided that his best all-female act should try to win over the hearts and purses of Nashville-loving fans? I know that many acts from other genres were trying to show the world that genres weren’t exclusive and that, racially-speaking, music might be our way to each other. Still, no one much considers this attempt a success.
Try to find Tina Turner’s venture into Country for anything reasonable, though, and you’ll understand some of the differences between those with country soul and those without. [And on Medium, be looking soon for stories from Steven Hale and Jeffrey Harvey on the Black Country sub-genre!]