Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Motown celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. So it is a good time to have another Motown intros quiz. The last one was random; this one has a theme: one song from each year from 1962-82 (skipping the fallow year of 1974), in chronological order. Before the purists accuse me, I have cut the looong intros of two songs so as to get to their recognisable meat and beat. No act is repeated as billed, but a few make appearances in different guises (as soloists and part of duos; as soloists and in their bands; bands with and without headliner etc).

As always, each of the 20 intros is 5-7 seconds in length. I will post the answers in the comments section by Monday, so please don”t post your answers. If you can”t wait till then to find out what the blasted number 9 is, please feel free to e-mail me or, better still, message me on Facebook. If you”re not my FB friend, go to www.facebook.com/amdwhah and become one.

Intros Quiz ““ Motown 50 edition

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Incidentally, I had a long post on Michael Jackson written and almost ready to go, criticising the Diana-reprise mass mourning by those who last Thursday morning would have cheerfully cracked jokes about the man’s private freak show life, and wondering how on earth all those people who propelled MJ into the charts after his death failed to own Off The Wall or Thriller before he died. But everything that had to be said has been covered elsewhere (best of all, perhaps, by Simon Price in The Independent); there is no need for me to add to it.

Much as I love Off The Wall, much of Thriller, some of Bad, and lots of the Motown and Jacksons stuff, I enjoyed the plethora of mean-spirited jokes. And, shame on me, I contributed to them. So on this blog’s Facebook page’s status, I offered: “Will Elton redo one of his hits for Jacko’s funeral? ‘Don’t Let Your Son…’ Nooooooo!” Next day Andrew from Texas alerted me to a news article reporting how Elton John, performing a gig for celebs as he learnt of MJ’s death, played a song in tribute to the late superstar. And guess which song…

But I am beginning to see Simon Price”s point when he writes: “”What if Michael really did pay off the Chandlers because he just wanted the whole thing to go away? What if Michael really was so innocent he merely wanted to recapture his childhood with those sleepovers? What if, when he told Bashir “˜when I look at children”s faces, I see God”, he was being sincere? What if, in short, Michael really was ““ to quote his own “˜Thriller” video ““ “˜not like other guys”?”

We”ll probably find out if and when more kids reared on “Jesus Juice” and Barely Legal porn come out to tell their stories. (And the pun was entirely unintended.)

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More Intros Quizzes