Entertainment For Lively Minds
Nickolas Ashford...
Posted by Inky Fingers on 23 August 2011 - 8:33am.
...has died. It's not a good day for songwriters.
With Valerie Simpson he wrote many fine songs. This is my favourite, and I'd like to apologise on behalf of the British record-buying public for not putting it into the charts.
Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell – Your Precious Love
- More from Inky Fingers.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Just Fabulous
This sad news, coupled with the passing of Jerry Leiber, makes for a very sad day in popville.
and this slice of funk
was an ever-present on the decks in the late 70s
RIP Nick
Very bad day
A pretty remarkable partnership
Here's my favourite
RIP
California Soul - Marlena Shaw
How very sad
Ashford and Simpson were real musical heroes - all the stuff they wrote and, let's not forget, produced for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell - some of the greatest pop-soul ever. Plus - and I dare say I'm in a minority here - their peerless work with Diana Ross in the early seventies...the long version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is an absolute masterpiece (and there's a great version with James Jamerson's bass turned up to 11 tucked away as an extra track on Diana's "Surrender" reissue). Then, of course, there's their albums for Warners in the late seventies - each one a mini-masterpiece - with peerless production values and so soulful.
They came over a couple of years ago to play a Soul Weekender in Birmingham - sadly, no interest from even the specialist soul press - and were just superb. Great band - and went through all their solo stuff, the Marvin/Tammi duets - not a dry eye in the house...especially amongst us balding soulies - and then they did a version of modern soul classic "Top of the Stairs" that they wrote and made famous by Collins and Collins that just blew the roof off.
Afterwards, they chatted for hours with fans and were just such a gracious couple. Sad to see a muted response generally in the press - especially considering the caterwauling surrounding Amy Winehouse's recent demise. Can we expect the Word to do a major retrospective on Ashford and Simpson's "lost output" - or will they just pen a few paras in the obits mentioning Solid...?