Some exquisite Northern Soul to kick off your 2017

Starting to rethink the entire matter of teaching rock & roll history on the community-college level, something I will be doing when the spring semester begins, as I have every spring since 2002. In the early days, the age range of my students was much greater than now. In fact, in the early days, some students were older than me. That hasn't been the case for several years. The range has pretty much narrowed to the commonly-regarded age bracket for college students: 18 - 23. In those days, my vinyl collection was still up here in the office, and I'd take LPs and 45s into class to let students have a visceral interaction with those artifacts. Alas, with all those records in plastic tubs in the basement now, that's not available to me as a teaching tool. So I'm left with using current technology to attempt to convey the experience of getting one's music from a delivery form that was an integral part of the listening experience.

Anyway, you may see more just-because music posts for a while, as I re-examine what it means to be the steward of the passing on of some kind of insight to be gleaned from this particular angle of approaching 20th century American and Western history.

Had not listened to this gem for a while. Darrell Banks recorded for the biggest of Detroits non-Motown R&B labels in the 1960s, Revillot. Hence he never became the big star that Marvin Gaye, the Miracles or Supremes became.

The reason this arrangement still has that unmistakable 60s Detroit vibe to it is that Mike Terry, whose mighty baritone sax was such a key element of so many Motown hits, can be heard here.

Which is not to overlook Banks's masterful turn as a soul stylist nonpareil.