A Soulful Tale of Two Cities

philly does Motown

1. Higher Ground - Jean Carne 4:17
2. Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing - Bunny Sigler 6:01
3. Ain't That Peculiar - the Philly Degrees 4:46
4. Dancing in the Street - Kathy Sledge 4:50
5. Knocks Me Off My Feet - Russell Thompkins, Jr. 4:28
6. Fire and Desire - Bunny Sigler and Jean Carne 9:28
7. The Girl's Alright - Phil Hurtt 3:57
8. Just My Imagination - Ted Mills 5:40
9. Isn't She Lovely - Jimmy Ellis 3:58
10. Ooh Baby, Baby - Bunny Sigler 5:10
11. My Cherie Amour - Major Harris 4:39
12. My Baby Loves Me - Barbara Mason 4:14
13. Baby Baby, I Need You - Phil Hurtt, Carl Helm and Bunny 3:37
14. Just Ask the Lonely - William Poogie Hart 4:07
15. Got To Give It Up - Bunny Sigler 6:35

Motown does philly

16. Ain't No Stopping Us Now - Ali Ollie Woodson 6:22
17. Betcha By Golly Wow - Freda Payne 4:12
18. Me and Mrs. Jones - Lamont Dozier 6:03
19. One of a Kind Love Affair - the Velvelettes 4:27
20. Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time - Carolyn Crawford 5:25
21. Love Won't Let Me Wait - George Clinton 4:34
22. Love Train - Bobby Taylor 4:32
23. When Will I See You Again - Freda Payne 4:17
24. Close the Door - Lamont Dozier 5:31
25. For the Love of Money - Ali Ollie Woodson 6:09
26. Expressway to Your Heart - George Clinton 2:54
27. Sunshine - Bobby Taylor 4:25
28. TSOP - Masters of funk.soul & blues 6:50
29. Sadie - Bobby Taylor 4:48
30. When the World Is At Peace - George Clinton, Bobby Taylor 7:21

Format:2 CD
This is a very interesting album. One of the biggest trends in Soul music over the past few years has been that complete "cover albums" have become more and more popular. Some people don't like this trend, because they want to hear completely brand new music. Others don't like the trend, because they think that for some reason these songs "shouldn't be touched" and want them treated as "museum pieces frozen in time". Still others feel that Classic Soul artists shouldn't be releasing any new albums and feel that fans should kinda/sorta be content with the music these artists produced 20 - 50 years ago

However in my opinion the whole idea of having artists who didn't originate classic songs "re-do them in their own style" speaks volumes about both the greatness and timelessness of the songs themselves. This is why we sometimes use the term "Black American Standard Music" to describe the phenomena, treating this music as "standards" is exactly what we should do, in my opinion. What's so terrible about taking on the responsibility for elevating the culture we have created?

The two disc set called "A Soulful Tale of Two Cities" takes this idea even a step further and has artists associated with the "Motown Sound" doing songs that were originally done as a part of the "Philly Sound". And conversely has artists associated with the "Philly Sound" doing songs that were originally done as a part of the "Motown Sound".