If I had a pound for everytime I have come across an error writen about the band over the years I would be a wealthy man lol. I did once think about starting a thread on this subject to see who could come up with the funniest mistake they had ever read about R.E. The best places to find mistakes are books on Motown, I have some real gems in my collection. When the British magazine Record Collector reviewed the Spectrum issue "The Collection" from memory I think there were 8 factual errors
A classic example is I recently picked up a book on Blue Eyed Soul in a shop and it told me that Norman Whitfields production of the Get Ready Album was not very good lol.
Here's another Richard. This one was spotted today on www.classicbands.com/rareearth:
Rare Earth proved that they could also write original material when "I Just Want To Celebrate" made it to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.
and from the same piece:
"The group signed with the label in 1969 and in a brilliant marketing move by Motown executives, it was decided to match the band's name with their new record label: Rare Earth"
And here was me thinking the Motown execs made very little in the way of brilliant marketing moves where Rare Earth is concerned!
Here is another real gem. Back in 1985 a book come out on Motown, I noticed there was no mention of R.E. so I dropped a line to the publishers asking why, their reply was pure gold. I quote:
"With reference to your query about the inclusion of Rare Earth, we felt that, although they may have recorded 11 albums for Motown they only had one hit single(Sympathy) and did not achieve the widespread popularity of many of the other artists". Priceless Dave, don't you agree.
Of course we all know that the British band RARE BIRD recorded Sympathy lol.
Rare Bird. Yes, their records were always next to Rare Earth's in the racks. As for "Sympathy", I know it was their only hit single, but I couldn't sing it to you, so that gives you a clue as to how much of an impression it made.
The publisher of the Motown book probably now runs the Motown vaults and re-issue Dept!!
On a positive note, I just grabbed my copy of "Views", the book by Roger Dean who was famous in the 1970s for his record sleeve artwork, paticularly for Yes and Uriah Heep. He was responsible for the inner sleeve artwork of "One World" as we all know. The painting is featured on Page 35 of his book and the accompanying text quotes Rare Earth as "a white band on the Motown label and one of their biggest acts". Now that's more like it!!!
More inaccurracies. The line-up for this 2 on 1 CD on ebay is years out of sync. I presume this info is taken from the sleeve of the CD? Even then, they still get one of the names wrong. Rod Richardson?
Hi everyone, I want to bring the discussion up to date. Any inconsistacies previously mentioned no longer exist because as of February 2008 "Bitches Ghost" no longer exists. I have moved on to do more professional work including a new album I refer to as a Mini-CD. I'm using that term because there are only five songs on it. For that reason it is selling for only eight dollars. This is a trend I may stick with for future recordings, I like it. All five songs are new, original and in my opinion some of my best work ever. I will be writing more new songs about Panama. It is my new home and there are a lot of new & exciting things happening here musically right now. I'm currently in the process of restoring and updating my web site. It isn't fully functional yet but if you're interested check it out, www.rodrichards.com
Rod brought this threat back up to date (Welcome back Rod!!) and I noticed your post (see above) about "Sympathy" by Rare Bird.
Well, in case you didn't see my mini-review on another thread, I saw Marillion at a recent charity concert (Fish was also on the bill interestingly). They performed an acoustic version of "Sympathy" and I recognised the number instantly!!
Good luck with the mini CD Rod. Has the golf career taken second place to music now?
MIKE DID REPLACE JOHN....PETE HAS BOOK AVAILABLE ON HIS WEB SITE @www.peterrivera.com and RALPH HAS A BOOK CALLED "ROAD THROUGH MOTOWN" YOU CAN GET THAT THRU AMAZON.COM. BOTH BOOKS ARE VERY GOOD. WARM REGARDS MARK M
Thanks Mark for the info. My reply was referring to this post from an anonymous person. But I will check into these books. jim krstulovich springfield illinois