"Take a Stroll Thru Your Mind" by The Temptations which clocks in at 8:33
"Friday the eagle flies, and so do I." What?
"I wonder did you hear me when I said: the eagle flies on Friday, and so do I."
Holy moly. What?!
Believe it or not, writing this 8+ feature has led me to seek out and listen to all kinds of new/old songs longer than eight minutes that I'd never really paid any attention to before. For example, did you know that Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell has three 8+ songs on it? Or that there's a Jamiroquai song that's 8:49?! Do you even care? Nah, me neither. But sometimes my adventures in listening have brought to my attention things I'd never otherwise know about, but find curiously fascinating. We'll just cite "Take a Stroll Thru Your Mind" as Exhibit A. Watch out for lots of questions marks below.
Now, questions have been posed here before in 8+ land, and for this particular question perhaps the truth is that I'm simply vastly undereducated in this genre/time period, but I mean... what I'm saying is... huh?! Look at that album cover. That's a Motown record?! The... those lyrics quoted above about the eagle flying (the ridiculously coded drug reference) come from a song by The Temptations?! The Temptations did lots of drugs and were hippies and wrote songs about it?! What?! Nuh uh. What's next? Reality TV is actually fake?! Tom Cruise is gay?! Cats and dogs can actually be friends?! Middle class Americans who shop at Walmart are destroying their own jobs and local economy by supporting Walmart's Chinese vendors?! My whole world is turning upside down.
If, like me, you've always thought of The Temptations as a group of suit and tie wearing guys who sang "My Girl" and "Just My Imagination" then prepare to have your mind blown. Listen to the song. It's like a nerd interpretation of "Doriella Du Fontaine" or something. I mean, I've always known that doing lots drugs (and then writing music about the experience) was somewhat of an inevitable career path for bands in the '60s but The Temptations too?! Damn. And the way they come across sounding like a public service announcement mixed with beat poetry mixed with psychedelic jazz mixed with, well, The Tempations is just priceless. Are there random hand drums peppered throughout the song? Do they mention the circus? Is that "My Girl" they're singing in the beginning...just riffing on some vocals as if they're strolling down Haight Street sharing a doobie? Is there a walking bass line the entire eight and a half minutes of the song? Does it end with a massive crash of a gong? You bet.
Buy Psychedelic Soul HERE on Amazon.
EAR FARM's 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. In the recent past these songs were featured on EF's 8+:
Deerhoof - "Look Away"
Tan Dun - "Symphony 1997: II. Earth (Yi3)"
Jane's Addiction - "Three Days"
Joanna Newsom - "Monkey & Bear"
Depeche Mode - "Never Let Me Down Again" (Split Mix)
This Mortal Coil - "Dreams Are Like Water"
The Church - “Chaos"
Alex Skolnick Trio - “War Pigs"
To see a full list of every song featured in EAR FARM's 8+ click HERE.
01 February 2007
8+
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7 comments:
I WANT to stroll down the Haight sharing a doobie with a Temptation, then we could bemoan (topical alert) Mayor Newsom's recent philanderings before playing hand drums in the park.
CHOICE?
Hey slick,
The eagle flying reference is from T-Bone Walker's "Stormy Monday Blues," as in they call it Stormy Monday. Check it out by the Allman Brothers or Cream or a thousand others. Norman Whitfield's the one doing the writing and producing, not Dennis Edwards and company, dig?
yikes, anonymous. you really took offense to this, eh?
Aww yeah. In 73 they did an album called Zoom which featured an epic title track about going into outer space. The bomb.
Thanks for hitting up some funk on this one, Matt. Even if it's the funk laced with reefer.
It should be noted that this is track 10 from the 2003 US version of 'Psychadelic Soul' (is wasn't featured on the 2000 UK version). But originally, it was on 1970's 'Psychedelic Shack'.
Just to clarify something for you... The line "The eagle flies on Friday" is referring to "payday" as in the eagle that is on our currency, money, cash, dollar bills etc. The more eagles we get paid, the higher we can fly... if thats your thing of course.
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