The Fifth Dimension on Motown

[remicks]

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--- Finally ! 1978 and there's the Fifth Dimension making music for Motown. Probably a dream come true for them. Too bad by this point Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. had already parted the group.





I don't know how much attention this second Motown LP got ..... not much most likely. Must have been a big let down for The 5D.
When I picked it up recently, I thought I'd be most interested in the one song on it written by Ashford & Simpson ; the only cut produced by ( LOVE HANGOVER / DON'T LEAVE ME THIS WAY) producer Hal Davis.

That song , EVERYBODY's GOT TO GIVE IT UP greatly disappoints , is not intended for the dance floor ...nor has it anything to do as a tie-in to Marvin Gaye's GTGIU groove. It's a minimally lyriced , mindless mid-tempo number:

Everybody's got to give it up baby, sometime
So you might as well be mi-iiine
Give it up sweet baby
Give it up
You've got to give it up sweet baby

how touching

Well the rest of that side is more of the same , the title cut HIGH ON SUNSHINE is a formidable Commodores imitation ( as in SWEET LOVE) and this cut probably provides the Fifth Dimension their most Motown sounding offering here .
--- so its off to the "B" side .

Here we find our disco rewards

SWAY (5:40)

starts off with a beat, horns and ....castanets!

The theme here is ....swaying .... as in rocking your baby ... and fittingly this song has a very ROCK YOUR BABY feel to it . Had it been released in 1975 it surely would've gone over readily. The repeat of
sway !
sway!
sway!
wit cha babe
is repeated by the men of the group ( and Jim Gilstrap) with the ladies chiming in sparingly ... very bouncy organ/ scratchy guitar music, like Jesse Green's NICE AND SLOW . The two brief breaks feature a steel drum sound like that of T-Connection (it's King Errisson). Nice flute solo, some party chatter ...much organ ... If you like that spry Miami Sunshine sound this will not disappoint. It had to have sounded dated in 1978 , restricting its club playability ... but now thirty years later, who cares. That is one plus in getting familiar with this music so long after the fact.

That cut alone makes this LP worth seeking (at a fair price , I paid five bucks) but then there's also the next cut SKYWAY (4:12) which at closer inspection is co-produced by Hal Davis as well , (along with group manager Marc Gordon).

Now if you can suffer through the lead male vocal which has that Arthur Prysock/Larry Graham, lounge lizard quality and if you can put up with lines like:

I'm gonna fly like a bird in the skyway
I'm gonna live my life and do it my way
And every time time I let something stop me
It wooooon't stop me it won't stop me , it won't stop me nooow

.. if you've managed to endure this for two thirds of the song, there's then a pay off --- a change out that's quite a pleasant surprise .... suddenly the song goes into that muzzled horn/ Dr. Buzzard sound of CHER CHEZ LE FEMME (quite successfully too) ...... Rumba !
Had the entire song been structured like this .... it could've done something.

Motown, so often disco-clueless (producer Hal Davis once commented that no one at Motown liked disco ) ,
didn't extract either of these cuts or invite in a new ear to remix them ... so here they both remain forever hidden on side two of this LP .


but particularly because of SWAY, I'm considering this LP a keeper .....







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[eddie]

Nice review Remicks as I figured it would be highly inconsistent yet there would be something on there that would be decent. I came across it when looking at the Ashford and Simpson double disc compilation and noticed the Fifth Dimention had covered "Everybody's got to give it up".

[needlefingers]

Here is another release of The Fifth Dimension on Motown.

FIFTH DIMENSION STAR DANCING LP OG DISCO FUNK '78 PROMO - eBay (item 360026862674 end time Mar-01-08 17:27:16 PST)


Do you know this one?

[Salsoul1975]

I think the Fifth Dimension did a song for the TGIF movie; it didn't appear on the soundtrack, though.

[remicks]

Eddie: Nice review Remicks as I figured it would be highly inconsistent yet there would be something on there that would be decent

Thanks Eddie. I enjoy the process of putting these forgotten and unknown (to me) LPs on the turntable and seeing what's there ! (I guess we all do)
Always hoping for something worthwhile and pleasantly surprised when there is ...

Originally Posted by needlefingers

Here is another release of The Fifth Dimension on Motown.

FIFTH DIMENSION STAR DANCING LP OG DISCO FUNK '78 PROMO - eBay (item 360026862674 end time Mar-01-08 17:27:16 PST)


Do you know this one?

I'd be most interested in reading someone's thoughts on this , the first Motown LP put out by the Fifth Dimension
(1978 also ....two albums in one year)

Judging from the track list's titles and song lengths that LP was perhaps even more geared toward the disco market .... (???)

Tracklisting:

A1 You Are The Reason (I Feel Like Dancing) (2:48)
A2 Hold Me (5:27)
A3 Going Through The Motions (4:07)
A4 You Are The Most Important Person In Your Life (4:14)

B1 Star Dancing (4:13)
B2 You're My Lifetime Opera (3:36)
B3 Slipping Into Something New (2:56)
B4 We Could Fly (4:05)
B5 A Good Love (4:52)



Anyone ??




By the way these two albums were the final two for The Fifth Dimension ....... that was it .....

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[remicks]

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Hopefully someone knows something about that first Motown LP by The Fifth Dimension .

In the meantime I've become even more interested in them .

For instance just realized they were one of very few acts outside the Motown compound to have an early hit off of an Ashford and Simpson song . During Ashford and Simpsons successful writing period for Diana Ross and The Supremes and Marvin Gaye ..... The Fifth Dimension scored with their tune

CALIFORNIA SOUL
#25 Billboard Hot 100 1/11/69
* Top 10 Soul :

( strong drum beat ..... shades of future Eddie Kendricks???) :

CALIFORNIA SOUL



and then in 1974 check out this Whitfield-esque bongo drumming , string swirling, wah wah guitar playing, dance themed message song by them :

Saturday night in Harlem
hey hey every thing's alright
you can really swing and shake your pretty thing
the parties are out of sight

love this line :

Sunday morning here in Harlem
Now, everybody 's all dressed up
While the hip folk gettin' home from the party
and the good folk - they just got up !!

HARLEM





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[Pierre Declercq]

Originally Posted by Salsoul1975

I think the Fifth Dimension did a song for the TGIF movie; it didn't appear on the soundtrack, though.

I think they were two songs :
You're the reason I Feel Like Dancing With 2:48 1978 from lp Star dancing
Dance All Night (written by Willie Hutch) [?]

[remicks]

Originally Posted by Pierre Declercq

I think they were two songs :
You're the reason I Feel Like Dancing With 2:48 1978 from lp Star dancing
Dance All Night (written by Willie Hutch) [?]

DANCE ALL NIGHT (written by Willie Hutch (?) ) .... is one of those songs that gets partly played within the movie, but doesn't appear on the TGIF ST ??

That title is not listed on any of their albums either .... so, this a lost Fifth Dimension disco song ????

What does it sound like?

________________________

Cancel that ...
Pierre Declercq, I just did some further searching and found this on another thread:

ol'skinflint: Cuba Gooding is listed as the artist of "Dance All Night". I just watched the film and hit "pause" when the songs and artists were listed at the end.

Still, we've got this other Fifth Dimension song : YOU'RE THE REASON I FEEL LIKE DANCING from the STAR DANCING LP as one of the numbers chosen by Motown as a contribution to the TGIF film.
(Produced by Harold Johnson ....who commanded piano and organ for Eddie Kendricks' KEEP ON TRUCKING and BOOGIE DOWN )

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[Pierre Declercq]

Yes, my mistake. I did the same (pause on the end credits of the dvd) and Cuba Gooding sings «Dance all night». The song doesn't appear on the two albums Cuba Gooding released while in Motown (M7-897R1 - The First Cuba Gooding Album [2/78] and M7-919R1 - Love Dancer - [4/79]).

The full list of songs in the movie is on this page : Thank God It's Friday (1978) Soundtrack

All people who contributed to the movie (including composers) :
Thank God It's Friday (1978) - Cast and Credits - Yahoo! Movies

[remicks]

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Just wondering if this song moves others here the way it does me ???

Made the mistake of watching this performance while researching this thread and now its haunted me all week . ( )


IF I COULD REACH YOU


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[remicks]

Originally Posted by remicks

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and then in 1974 check out this Whitfield-esque bongo drumming , string swirling, wah wah guitar playing, dance themed message song by them :

Saturday night in Harlem
hey hey every thing's alright
you can really swing and shake your pretty thing
the parties are out of sight

love this line :

Sunday morning here in Harlem
Now, everybody 's all dressed up
While the hip folk gettin' home from the party
and the good folk - they just got up !!

HARLEM

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So disappointed this video has disappeared . Came back hungry for it and ... its gone .....

HARLEM was originally written and performed by Bill Withers and Barry Lederer listed that version as amongst his all time favorite dance tracks. ....


Here though, is the song as performed live (audio) by The Three Degrees :

HARLEM The Three Degrees

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..... and added August 15 '08 to youtube:

Bill Withers HARLEM
(live)

.... lets see how long this vid lasts ......

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