MISERY / LET'S ROCK by BARRETT STRONG

Two early R&B sides from Detroit's legendary Tamla stable, and two tracks which shed some light on the foundations of the then undefined 'Motown sound'.When Barrett Strong recorded 'Money' in 1961 it became Tamla's biggest seller to date and set a ball rolling whereby Berry Gordy's small enterprise would soon become the lead player for soul and R&B, first in Detroit and then nationally and indeed internationally, scoring hit after hit. Prior to that recording, however, Tamla's output was rather more exploratory, and here we find on 'Misery' a beautifully downbeat piece of soulful melancholy with superb instrumentation. Earlier still, 1959's 'Let's Rock' is a low-fi, uptempo soul rocker, one of those transitional songs which sit in the Rock & Roll of the 50s but contain somehow an echo of what was to come in the 60s as soul music took over...