| Yes, there ARE errors in the book (as there are in most publications - books, magazines, newspapers, etc.)
About a year ago I recieved an e-mail from Jerry Fuller, the composer and producer of many hits, including "Show and Tell" by Al Wilson (RIP) in which Allan Slutsky (Dr. Licks) mentioned 3 factual errors in the book and his desire (with the book's publisher, Hal Leonard) to do a revised version, correcting those 3 factual errors and, I'm sure, correcting the errors in the musical notation, too . . .
"ALLANS REPLY:
Hi Jerry,
Thanks for writing. I was originally told by James Jamerson Jr., Jamerson's wife, and several other people that he had been the bassist on that track. My apologies to Dennis Parker. Plans are in the works between Hal Leonard (my publisher) and myself about doing an updated version of "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" so I'll put a correction in there. I'll also put a mention in BASS PLAYER magazine who will definitely interview me when the new book comes out. There are two other facts that have come to my attention in the the two decades since I wrote the book that need to be corrected also.
When you research someone's entire life and talk to more than 300 people, things like this happen in spite of crosschecking. I never put down anything unless a minimum of three people had given me the same info. Still, truth falls through the cracks of time—bad union records, faulty memory on people's parts, etc. There are probably 50,000 facts in the book and if only three have come to light as being incorrect, I'm OK with that.
Jamerson has endured a similar situation on a much larger and bigger stage for four decades. For years, famed West Coast bassist Carol Kaye claims she played "Bernadette," "I Was Made To Love Her," "Baby Love," "Ain't No Mtn. High Enough," and dozens of other Motown tunes. She has never provided one shred of evidence and no one backs up her claims (as you have with Dennis). In fact, everyone she insists would corroborate her claims vehemently denies them and says she's crazy. She's gone on radio numerous times and said these things, books, dozens of magazine articles, she lives on the internet spouting this BS 'til this day, and she had the ultimate forum for bassists (BASS PLAYER Magazine and earlier, GUITAR PLAYER Magazine) backing her story up since she was on their advisory boards and they had no reason to doubt her.
I get several hundred emails a year either asking me about the issue and Carol's sycophants have been pushing her agenda online for years. In other words, major damage was done to Jamerson's reputation. So I'm obviously very sympathetic to Dennis' concern being that I've defended Jamerson's rep for so long.
As far as the amount of damage that has been done to Dennis, all I can say is, thankfully, it hs been minimal. In the two decades the book has come out, I've received upwards of ten thousand emails and letters. Amongst these correspondances, no one has ever written or emailed me about "Show And Tell" and it took Dennis more than fifteen years to even hear about the credit discrepancy. With all due respect to a great bass performance, a great song, and a wonderful job you did as writer and producer, the people who bought and read "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" were concerned about the Motown tunes. The mention of "Show and Tell" was just an (incorrect) aside amongst a long list I included of tunes Jamerson played outside of Motown. No one ever wrote me about any of those other tunes either. To the Motown crazed audience, that bought the book, if it wasn't a Motown track, it was off their radar.
Nevertheless, Dennis is more than entitled to his hurt feelings and I will try and rectify the situation. He played a masterful performance and deserves his credit. I will fix it in the new book.
All the best,
Allan Slutsky
Please forward this to Dennis."
Last edited by deaf pea : 12-23-2008 at 11:40 AM.
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