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The
timing couldn’t be better for a veteran like Dozier. With
Michael McDonald’s latest album of Motown covers selling
so well, Al Green getting back with Willie Mitchell, and Ronald
Isley teaming with Burt Bacharach, the AC radio landscape is
loaded with listeners longing to hear familiar favorites in
inviting new ways.
Reflections
of ... Everyone will remember every song on Dozier’s intimate
Reflections of... as defining examples of what Berry Gordy marketed
as “The Sound of Young America.” Those same fans
will be intrigued to learn that the origins of those songs came
from a much deeper emotional space...a space that Dozier beautifully
and languorously explores on Reflections of....
“I
thought the people that grew up with these songs might like
to hear them the way they started when the Hollands and I were
first creating them,” Dozier shares. “There was
a reason they started as ballads. In the studio, I’d sit
at the piano and mentally slip myself into a melancholy situation.
This way, the songs would have a lot of feeling. As writers,
it became a habit to start out singing them really slow to milk
the feelings, then picking up the tempo for the Motown stars
to sing.”
On
Reflections of..., Dozier massages your heart right from that
opening track, “Where Did Our Love Go,” moving it
from the Supremes’ bouncy 1964 morning ditty to a deep
in the night moan of unrequited longing complete with a haunting
violin solo from Harry Corzo. He then lends his plaintive tenor
to a relaxed groove through “This Old Heart of Mine”
that eases back on the fervor of The Isley Brothers’ 1966
original. This is followed by a dramatic rearrangement of Martha
& The Vandellas 1963 rave-up “(Love Is Like A) Heatwave”
into a mellower feel-good vibe featuring Gerald Albright on
sax.
And
so it goes, track after hypnotizing track, filled with fresh
new turns of sweet surprise. Can you imagine what could have
inspired such timeless love songs? “To tell the truth,”
Dozier confesses, “75% of the songs I wrote with the Hollands
at the piano back then were all about one woman...my first love
when I was about 12. She was so integral to my life. It didn’t
take long to figure out that when I was thinking about her...my
feelings for her...I would come up with a lot of great ideas,
pretty melodies and things for songs. My philosophy is if you
as the singer are not feeling this stuff, nobody else will either.
So I reached down deep within and gathered up those feelings.
That’s why there is such sincerity within these songs.”
Did the girl ever know she inspired so many million-selling
capsules of love? “Absolutely not,” Dozier laughs!
Mr.
Dozier’s personal favorites are the first single, “I
Hear a Symphony,” and “My World Is Empty Without
You,” epic declarations of adoration. “You have
to be in a mood to do these songs,” Dozier muses. “I
started reminiscing as I was singing and had what I call a miracle
moment. It took me right back to that time of my life and I
got all choked up. My brother, who was engineering, had to stop
the tape a couple of times so I could gather myself. It got
really intense there...remembering.”
A
man of Lamont Dozier’s accomplishments has a lot to remember
beyond the sweetness of first love. Born and raised in Detroit,
Michigan, he grew up listening to his father’s record
collection of seasoned pop/jazz singers.
Between
the Baptist gospel choir he sang in and the classical music
his aunt played on the family piano, young Lamont absorbed both
the power and the beauty to be found in music. By age 10, he
started collecting his own records (from Johnny Mathis to Frankie
Lymon), wrote his first lyrics at 11, added music at 12 and
by the age of 13, knew he wanted to be a singing star.
Lamont
Dozier signed to Motown in 1962 as an artist, producer and songwriter.
A partnership that began with Brian Holland and eventually his
brother, Eddie Holland, led to the prolific trio cranking out
an enviable, record-setting string of classic songs for the
fast-rising company that not only became chart-toping million-sellers
at that time, but have since been woven into the very fabric
of American pop culture. They helped shape Motown into an industry
powerhouse until they left in 1968.
By
1972, Lamont longed to get back to his original musical aspirations.
“It was like unfinished business for me,” Dozier
muses. So he parlayed the mid-west success of his single “Why
Can’t We Be Lovers” into a deal with then-industry
giant ABC-Dunhill. He relocated to California and recorded his
debut album, Out Here On My Own, containing the hits “Trying
To Hold On To My Woman” and “Fish Ain’t Bitin’,”
which scored him Billboard magazine’s Best New Artist
award. Stints on Warner Bros. (including the hit “Going
Back To My Roots”) and Columbia took him into the `80s.
After a few independent releases, he packed up his family and
moved to Europe for two productive years. “Pete Waterman
(of British production trio Stock, Aitken & Waterman) came
over, found me and talked me into going to England. I met Alison
Moyet, Simply Red, Boy George and Eric Clapton--an array of
great English artists that I worked with and hung out with.”
“Two Hearts,” a song on which Lamont collaborated
with Phil Collins for the soundtrack of the movie Buster, earned
the duo a Grammy, a Brit award, a Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination
and Britain’s distinguished Ivor Novello Award.
That
spark of renewed renown led to one last major label album for
Lamont, 1991’s Inside Seduction on Atlantic Records, before
he decided it was time to take firmer charge of his recording
destiny. He and his wife, Barbara Ullman Dozier, started their
own company, sharing the day-to-day business responsibilities.
Lamont’s album, originally branded with the patriotic,
post-9/11 slant Lamont Dozier...An American Original, earned
the soul-pop great a Grammy nomination for “Best Traditional
R&B Vocal Album.” However, because it was only available
over the Internet, few people ever knew it existed. That is
about to change thanks to new business partners, a new company
(Jam Right Entertainment), WEA distribution and a finer title
for the awesome collection of songs, rechristened Reflections
of....
With
everyone from dance music star Mya to alternative rock band
Linkin Park sampling his classics, there is little left for
Lamont to prove. All the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriter
Hall of Fame inductee desires to do now is spread the joy and
beauty of his music and that of others. Those plans include
quality time with his wife and three children, completing his
Broadway musical “Roll Over Beethoven,” launching
new artists on Jam Right, and enjoying a second chance at life
for Reflections of.... — the rebirth of Lamont Dozier
-- reinterpreting the timeless songs that have made him an icon.
“It
always comes back to my love of music and making people feel
good,” Dozier concludes. “I can still remember as
a kid being waay up in the balcony of The Paradise Theatre in
Detroit, gazing down at the giants of music that looked like
little ants on the stage. The people in the audience were laughing
and crying, thoroughly enjoying these artists. I thought to
myself, ‘I want to do that one day.’ I wanted to
contribute in that way to the world...not just as a writer,
but as a singer. Somehow over the years, I got caught up creating
careers for others. My new millennium resolution is to reach
the top of this one last mountain to climb.”
Reflections
of... via Jam Right Entertainment, marks the first of many more
recordings of both new and classic Lamont Dozier music to come.
—A.
Scott Galloway January 2004
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