Miniature titled "Fortune Turning Her Wheel" from the L'Epistre d'Othea folio, 1450
R. Dean Taylor's an interesting character - a pianist and songwriter from Toronto in the '60s, he somehow ended up working at Motown, releasing singles on the label's VIP imprint. He was a goofy-looking white dude with a bad haircut, and his songs were definitely on the odd side as well. His first single for VIP got yanked at the last minute, robbing the world of the potential hit "My Ladybug (Stay Away From That Beatle)". In '67, he released the spooky "There's a Ghost in My House", possibly his best-known song because the Fall had a minor hit with their excellent cover version in the late '80s.
Between those two singles, Taylor released this track, "Let's Go Somewhere", in 1965. It's a song about discrimination, so you can see why Motown might get behind that - until you listen carefully to the lyrics, which are clearly about the persecution of "hippies" by "squares". Co-written by Brian Holland and produced by Lamont Dozier, the song has a great sound to it - that kinetic tambourine line creates an interesting energy, and the backing vocals on the chorus by Sally Furman give it a "northern soul" vibe, but I can't help but picture this guy singing the song. I'll never understand how Taylor ended up at Motown but I'm glad he did, if only because he went on to co-write one of my favorite songs, the Four Tops' "I'll Turn to Stone".
"Let's Go Somewhere" by R. Dean Taylor
2 comments:
R. Dean Taylor also had a pretty big hit with "Indiana Wants Me". The song was famous for having a siren sound effect in it that was so realistic that cars would pull over when it was played on the radio. I believe they then re-released it without the siren, much to the relief of AM radio listeners in 1970.
My wife loved that song when it was a hit—she made us buy a copy of the album when we found it at a garage sale. I was happy to get it because it has a cover of "Two of Us," a seldom-covered Beatles tune. (I sort of collect Beatle covers.)
Klinger:
I was reminded of your comment about this song when I heard Taylor's '68 single "Gotta See Jane" for the first time this week. It's a cool song and worth checking out.
I'm interested in hearing "Indiana Wants Me" - unfortunately, it looks like all of Taylor's LPs are out of print, and there don't seem to be any good Taylor compilations out there.
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