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Motown Junkies

~ because it's what's in the grooves that counts

Motown Junkies

Category Archives: Junior Walker and the All Stars

678. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Baby You Know You Ain’t Right”

August 28, 2014

The ingredients all seem to be here for a raucous good-time All Stars jam, but the end result is oddly uninspiring.

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677. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Cleo’s Mood”

August 12, 2014

Berry Gordy was vindicated again, the record both gaining plenty of new fans, and selling well; people bought it and people played it, and I find that heartening. Certainly I like this a lot more than I might once have expected to. (8)

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606. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Cleo’s Back”

April 8, 2013

Don’t get me wrong, this one’s still undeniably cool – I almost feel a compelling need to listen to it while wearing shades and cracking open a cold beer – but if you put a gun to my head and said I had to choose one Cleo, and only one, it wouldn’t be this one. Luckily, nobody’s ever going to force you to make that choice. (7)

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605. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Shake And Fingerpop”

April 6, 2013

Very much the All Stars’ Wild One compared to Shotgun‘s Dancing In The Street, for good and ill. I like it a lot, but I like their previous two singles even more. (7)

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576. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Tune Up”

February 6, 2013

Almost endearingly crazy, and it ends up being entirely likeable. Splendid stuff. (8)

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575. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Do The Boomerang”

February 2, 2013

This is a messy, dirty kind of a record, little-loved and completely at odds with everything else Motown was aiming for in the spring of 1965. It’s also brilliant. Go figure. (9)

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538. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Hot Cha”

October 14, 2012

The obvious skill and proficiency with which Hot Cha has been assembled doesn’t make me like it any more. Less Hitsville or Soulsville, this is more like Dullsville USA. Please don’t do this again, Junior. (3)

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537. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Shotgun”

October 12, 2012

It is just a whole lot of fun. It’s also quite stupid, and proud of it (as with Stevie Wonder’s Fingertips, another unashamedly direct Motown stomper), but that plays in its favour; it’s a gas. (9)

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462. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Monkey Jump”

March 4, 2012

It all balances out, more or less, into a mildly diverting instrumental that doesn’t cause revulsion but doesn’t live in the memory. There’d be much better, and much worse, from Junior Walker yet. (3)

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461. Jr. Walker & the All Stars: “Satan’s Blues”

February 23, 2012

A great start, even if there was better to come. (7)

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MOTOWN JUNKIES

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Motown Junkies

This is Motown Junkies, an unofficial guide to every Motown single ever released, or planned for release, on every US Motown label (or via Tamla Motown in the UK), featuring reviews of each A-side and B-side in chronological order. New reviews appear every couple of days.

Think of it as an unauthorised track-by-track companion to the magnificent The Complete Motown Singles CD box sets, and beyond, with marks out of ten.

I'm NOT Paul Nixon.

FURTHER INFORMATION

More info about the blog (and me) can be found here. If you want to leave a comment on any review, please feel free to do so - all feedback, corrections, disagreements and encouragements gratefully received. If you've something you'd rather not say in public, I can be contacted at fosse8 at gmail dot com.

(Oh, and if you arrived here looking for the Motown Junkies music group, they're nothing to do with me, I'm afraid - but they are very nice people, and they can be found at www.motownjunkies.com instead.)

HOW TO USE THIS BLOG

You can jump straight to the full list of reviews so far in the Master Index, or browse by label instead.

If you're looking for something a bit more specific, you can click an artist's name in the "Artist" menu at the top of the screen to see a little biography and all the reviews we've done for them so far. Only people whose records I've already discussed appear there at the moment - more names will be added to the lists all the time as I work my way through Motown's history, so do keep checking back!

Alternatively, the front page displays excerpts from the most recent reviews, and on the right hand side of the screen you'll see a list of the most recent entries and also a sampling of the most popular entries from the last 48 hours, as well as the latest comments left by visitors.

Dive in, explore and have fun!

LEGAL STUFF

This is an unofficial site, and is not affiliated in any way with Universal Motown, Hip-O Select or any of the artists referred to in the blog.

Where indicated, label scan images appear by kind permission of Lars "LG" Nilsson (as originally prepared for the Complete Motown Singles series).

Digital images courtesy of Gordon Frewin are supplied for use at motownjunkies.co.uk by arrangement. All applicable rights reserved. No unauthorised republication is permitted.

Many label images were kindly provided by Robb Klein, together with invaluable historical research.

All text © Motown Junkies, 2009-19. All rights reserved.

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