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Tamla T 54037 (B), March 1961
B-side of He Lifted Me
(Written by Norvis Grant)
Pedestrian, upbeat gospel, done absolutely by the (Good) book. As with the considerably more absorbing A-side, He Lifted Me, lead singer Mae Gooch is once again the key to this record making any kind of impact at all. Here, on what turned out to be the Gospel Stars’ last Motown release for over two years, she again sings with such verve she sounds like she could strip the paint off the walls, but she takes a while to hit her stride, the much faster pace blunts her attack, and the effect is much less inspirational. Even if it wasn’t a complex or clever song, He Lifted Me was still interesting; this is just a plain vanilla gospel workout, it sounds like literally a hundred other plain vanilla gospel workouts, and – unforgivably for a religious tract – it’s boring.
Unfortunately, this disappointing B-side is the start of a rather ropey run of underwhelming releases; after a promising start, Motown seems to have spent the entire spring of 1961 in something of a rut, with no hits (of any kind) and no good records (never mind future classics). Buckle up, it gets a little bumpy for a while now.
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
You’re reading Motown Junkies, an attempt to review every Motown A- and B-side ever released. Click on the “previous” and “next” buttons below to go back and forth through the catalogue, or visit the Master Index for a full list of reviews so far.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in The Gospel Stars? Click for more.)
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| The Gospel Stars “He Lifted Me” |
Mickey Woods “Poor Sam Jones” |
Motown Junkies 
“vanilla gospel workout” <===Love this description Mr. Nixon. Too bad I can't find the version by The Gospel Stars. Since I've been on the blog, I've been able to trace the history of Motown through its singles, so to speak. It is very interesting and amazing that Motown was able to keep the shop open with so many rough years. I had the impression that most people still do, which is Motown started off with nothing, but hits.
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My grandmother was in gospel stars in 1961 and she is still alive she is 108 today and doing well
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Its an ok gospel song the choir really catches me in this one with their sweet harmony lol love that lol
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I actually find this more interesting that the A-side. It’s not quite right … or is it? The chorus part is like the first 8 bars of a 12-bar blues; then there’s an extra bar (like Dylan adding a few strums between versus). So the chorus section is 9 bars long (4+5) – but so is the lead! The overall for is two 9 bar phrases! The second half again with four bars of I, then goes IV, then the super-cool gospel I/5 (the true antecedent of the Brian Holland/BrianWilson/McCartney revelation … they just took the trademark gospel chord and put it on all the other scale degrees as well) and then from that to II7 V I IV I V.
So all told, it’s:
I I I I (4 bar phrase)
IV IV I I I (5 bar phrase)
I I I I (4 bar phrase)
IV I/5 II7 V I IV I V (5 bar phrase)
It’s very odd, but it’s intentional – they do it this way each time. I bet if they’d turned Brian Holland and/or Jamerson loose on this for about 15 minutes they could have turned that promising last phrase into a really special hook.
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WHAT??? You only give this a “2”!!! This is a very nice uptempo Gospel number with good energy.
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I’d give it a “5”.
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