One Song - Boyz II Men's "Motownphilly" w/ Shawn Stockman: Part One

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

What made the music of 90s R&B groups so infectious? This week on One Song, Diallo and LUXXURY welcome 4x Grammy Award-winner Shawn Stockman as they kick off a two-part breakdown of Boyz II Men’s legacy with their debut single “Motownphilly”. They discuss Shawn’s musical influences, Boyz II Men’s early career development, and the New Jack Swing that elevated them to the next level. One Song Spotify Playlist Songs Discussed: “Motownphilly” - Boyz II Men “End Of The Road” - Boyz II Men “I’ll Make Love To You” - Boyz II Men “On Bended Knee” - Boyz II Men “One Sweet Day” - Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men “Bears” - Zebra “Love Said Not So” - Bebe & CeCe Winans “Don’t Believe The Hype” - Public Enemy “1-4-All-4-1” - East Coast Family “Iseha” - Another Bad Creation “Please Don’t Go” - Boyz II Men “I Want Her” - Keith Sweat “Planet Rock” - Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force “A Fifth Of Beethoven” - Walter Murphy “It Don’t Mean A Thing” - Chuck Brown “Brass Monkey” - Beastie Boys “I Want To Be Free” - Ohio Players “Kool Is Back” - Funk, Inc. “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” - Yes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. All those elements back then is what... made music sound so rich and full because it wasn't just a high hat, a snare, and a kick. That's fine, you know, depending on what you're trying to do. But it's those elements. It made it hip because it's those elements that

kids back then could relate to and hear and go, oh, you know, that type of thing. That's why we call it fat. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. Right, right. It was fat. It was a lot of meat on it.

It was fat. All right, today we're talking about a song that introduced the world to a truly powerhouse group. Their slow jams alone have soundtracked weddings, school dances, and let's be honest, a whole lot of intimate moments. I definitely had a few of their songs on my makeout mixtape. Tragically underused, but that's another story. But their first single, not a slow jam at all. It was a straight-up party anthem that can get the floor rocking to this very day. That's right, Tialo.

And we're diving into all of it, which is, why today kicks off a special two-parter. We're taking it back to the beginning to their rise to the top with one of the founding members of this iconic group, singer and songwriter Sean Stockman. That's right. We're talking one song, and that song is Motown Philly by Boys to Men. I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddell.

And I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, and musicologist luxury, aka the guy who whispers, interpolation. And this is one song. The show where we break down the stems and stories, behind iconic songs across genres, telling you why they deserve one more listen. You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before, and you can watch one song on YouTube and Spotify,

so many places. While you're there, please like and subscribe. The sorry guest today is renowned singer, songwriter, and member of the iconic, iconic group Boys to Men. You know his unmistakable tenor from classics like End of the Road. I'll make love to you.

On Bended Knee. And One Sweet Day. day. Together with his bandmates, they have sold over 64 million records worldwide and counting. Let's give a warm welcome. That's insane. A warm welcome to Sean Stockman, everybody. Sean Stockman. Sean, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you. I really appreciate it. I don't know if this show will ever be able to say that our guest today is responsible for 65 million records. So that is an insane amount. So Sean, let's take it back to the beginning of Boys to Men. You, Nate, Wanii, and Mike met at a performing arts high school in Philadelphia.

And to me, it really feels like boys to admit help kick off a whole new era of R&B. And I'm not even trying to be like, you know, grandiose. To me, that's really what it is. You guys, to me, are like the bridge between like a Keith Sweat and Guy era. Sure. And everything that came up later in the 90s when we were talking like 112, who I went to high school with Marvin Scandrick, aka Slim. I think you were slim in your group.

Absolutely. Every group has to have a slim. Everybody has to. A slim for all R&B groups. You guys paved the way for in sync, jagged-edge, so many different types of groups. But, like, when y'all did it, there was no real paradigm.

I was listening to the song Under Pressure and some of the harmonies you have at the beginning of that song. And I was like, what does this remind me? This reminds me of Take Six? Or, like, there are a couple of groups that were kind of doing the Neo-Du-Wop thing. But y'all just did it bigger and bigger.

You were carving out your own lane. Did you see it that way at the time? Yeah. Take Six was a definite influence for us, just what we listened to in high school, alongside New Edition and Guy and Babyface and all of those guys. That was what kids listened to back then, especially kids like us. We went to a performance arts high school, as you mentioned. So harmony and vocals were, you know, paramount.

I want to ask you about something specific for you because I was watching your podcast. And you mentioned that you hung out with, degenerates and and goths. Yeah. I love that. And I'm curious to know what to you made you guys goths? Were you guys listening to Peshmod or like, what are you listening to

that made you think, you know what? We're a little bit different. Yeah, I mean, we listen to rock music. And that's, that alone is considered weird for black kids. Oh, true. I know. Yeah, right, right. I know. You know, so we, but we would listen to like zebra and

yeah. Wow. Yeah, we went there. Yeah. In the middle of winter. What are rocks? These are rock bands. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. Straight up rock. I used to rock music and like zebra led Zeppelin and Def Leppard and Metallica and guys like that.

But it was a blend because at a very early age, I was always into just music. So I didn't really look at it as a black or white thing necessarily, but just music that I liked. I mean, and I wasn't alone. I mean, when you hear Beat it from Michael Jackson. accent. It's heavy guitar. He was like, I got to call it Betty Ben-Hanley. Yeah, right. So it does, it did resonate through out most of us melanated folks, but...

Are you hearing this on the radio or early MTV or do you got older sibling? There was a little bit of both. MTV turning to the White Station occasionally to listen to some stuff and you just tend to connect with it. And that's what I always enjoy. So not to mention, I thought that the cool kids or what the kids that were considered cool were assholes. So, you know, I don't, I don't like assholes. So, you know what I mean? So it's like one of those things where I hung around those people because they loved

me for who I was. And it was like, they were my tribe. Music helped differentiate the different tribes a little bit, as they often do in schools. Well, yeah, yeah, to some degree. I mean, yeah, it's just like any other school. You see the golfs with the swoosh hair and wearing all black. and stuff like that, and they were into the music they were into and stuff like that. Now, I didn't hang around all of those guys, like, but there were a few that I was, I was one

of those guys that kind of could bounce around because I liked R&B just as much as I like metal. Yeah. But the people that I got along with and that I was able to talk to about those different types of admirations of music were the degenerates. What were those cool kids listening to by contrast? They were listening to hip-hop, R&B, gospel. Isn't that ironic? And, you know, stuff like that.

It was when you were auditioning for this group, I think you said, that that was your first time, like, singing gospel, because they had you singing a whin'ens? Yeah, I wasn't a church kid in the traditional sense. A lot of the kids that went to the school were they just grew up in church. Yeah. So hearing these amazing vocalists doing these incredibly intricate riffs and stuff like that made me want to go home and do my homework.

So one of the first albums I picked up was Bibi and C.C. Weinans and just listening to him and how his vocal inflections, like Bibi is one of my vocal heroes, you know. And because I felt his vocal tone was very similar to mine, like we were both kind of second tenors. So like... Second tenor stand up? Yes, exactly, exactly.

So I connected to his voice and tried to learn as many ribbons. as I could, and I just became a sponge and found my own niche, you know. So, but yeah, I sang a BB and C.C.'s song called Love Set Not So Me, Love Set Not So in front of the kids in my choir. And mind you, I was there for a whole year and didn't even know I existed. That's what they were saying. Yeah, until I went on stage and started singing. And even the cool kids had, were like this. Who's that guy? Right.

Who's this skinny, big-eared kids? And right after that, Nate came up to me and said, hey, I got a group. You want to be in it? And I was, yeah, sure. So that was it. Is it at this point then that you start getting into the competitions at school? Sort of, we've heard that there's a bit of a rivalry that started to develop between you. And another group.

Well, no, not necessarily in school, but in the city. there were a lot of groups back then in Philadelphia. Like that was the thing. Vocal groups? Yes. Yes. It was a lot of vocal groups back in Philadelphia. And you had your local kids that could do WOP and hit fly steps.

Because everybody was trying to be like new addition or the new improved temptations or whatever. So you had a lot of groups that put themselves together. And you had some that obviously or apparently had more money than us because they're, clothes and everything, which is so nice. They could go to chess king, an oak tree, and those kind of places. You know, they had the nice slacks. Yeah.

With the nice patent leather shoes. They were all matching. Were you guys matching? Yeah. Yeah. We were matching. But we had to go to tufer's and... I've heard of twifers. Because you could buy two suits for one. You know what I'm saying? Get a lot of value.

So we would buy those outfits with the patent Pleather shoes. Nothing wrong with pleather. I've worn the matching pleather leather jacket with my, with my Acapella group back in the day. It got us through. It got us through. But it's so interesting to hear that even into the 80s,

we have this Philadelphia tradition of kids on the corner doing duwap. Yeah. Because we did a HoloNotes episode. And that's what they were doing a decade plus before, like in the 60s, actually, I think. And they were inspired by what came before them. So that lineage is so interesting. Yeah, that was very much a part of the culture of the city.

You could always walk down the street, you know, in Broad Street or Market Street, and possibly hear somebody hitting a couple of notes. Wow. So. Well, I'm glad you, I'm glad you bring that up because it seems like everybody was like singing and learning their craft out in the open. You know, Amir Thompson, aka Questlove is a friend of the show. Uh-huh.

He's a friend of the show. And he said that you guys, he spotted you guys very early on. In fact, he said that you cheated because you guys had like glitter and top hats or something like that. Is that true? It's true. But it wasn't necessarily. necessarily a competition more where we would win a prize. It was just more so, I mean, you go to school with guys like Amir and Tyreek,

which is Black Thought, he was there, and Amel Arruh from, you know, groove theory, she was there. And Christian McBride, who's an amazing bass player, jazz bass player, one of the greatest working right now. And you have all these top tier musicians and vocalists and stuff like. that when we had put together like a little talent show, whatever, like it was, you know, we had to turn up. So the top hats, no, but the glitter, we did have.

The top hat was an embellishment. Yeah, yeah, it was a little embellishment. But, you know, there was a point where, because Kenyan St. St. Anne was like our signature record. So whenever we would perform it, you know, we had a little move and we would kind of, ah, we would. With the glitter?

Yeah, the crowd. And the crowd goes wild type. David Copperfield, wow. You know what I'm saying? They got magic, y'all. Right, exactly. That's why he thought there was a top hat. He thought y'all were going to put that.

Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, I mean, we all, it's funny because with Amir and just seeing how we've all evolved. Yeah. Like, you know, just watching each other as kids and then seeing how we've developed as adults is pretty cool. Well, according to some, I'm not saying as quest of, according to some, you may have evolved more than others. He told me that you were an amazing rapper. I mean

What can you tell me about the Rambo like a predator flow? Because he told me you got to ask about Rambo like a predator. Okay, okay, okay. I don't remember a lot of my rap, so please don't ask me about it. Surely, definitely going to be a bar. No, I do not know. But yeah, I used to kind of like, I was a big Chuck D fan.

Okay. And I used to love Public Enemy and I used to love LL and, you know, those guys. Yeah. So I tried to be clever with my wordplay back then. And yes, it's cringy now. No, it's not. But I thought that back then I was like really spitting like some real bars. Were you drop into baritone as well like Chuck D or bass?

No, I tried that. Okay. And it just didn't, you know, I had a, you know, girly voice. But the point is, is, yeah, I spent some time on lyrics, and that's all I'm going to say about it. According to him, he said that you had a great flow. And he was like, I can only imagine if we had two ass kicking emcees in the roots. He was like, you could have been their posthinous. Those are his words.

Wow. He said, you could have been the positiveness of the roots. Amir, you're very kind. And I appreciate that. I mean, I've always been fascinated with being a rapper. And what I mean about that is, like, again, the guys I looked up to, they had a type of energy that was more so, they felt like preachers. And when they were rap, it was deeper than just being flossy.

They were like schooling us on things. And it was more so what, that's what I, I, admired the most about my favorite MCs is that they were more than just guys that just wore chains, if any, they were speaking to us. Especially Chuck. Yeah, Chuck was my guy.

And just seeing what he did for me as a young black kid, like he was very much an integral part of me wanting to read more and learn more about black history and all those other things. So it was more than the music, although the music was incredibly dope. The music opened the way, but definitely I will agree that, like, he implanted in us so much black pride that, like,

I think we just assumed that it was always going to be there. Yeah. And you would look up 20 years later and you talk to kids and they didn't have any of it. And you were like, well, was it our parents? I think it was our parents, but it was also like the music that we listened to. Yeah, yeah. What was magical about that time of hip-hop is that even though it was very educational, and very informative, it still made you dance.

Absolutely. That was the secret sauce. Like, I think that they intentionally did. Like, we're going to make something that's going to make people, you know, bob their heads and move. But at the same time, we're going to slide a couple gems of information and wisdom. So if I can ask you about that, by the way, since we're talking about Motown affiliate today, and we're in this moment, taking you back to 1990, 1990, 1991. In that moment, before the band becomes the band that is now at 35-year-old, you know, you are what you are.

Yeah. Before you had formed fully, and this song is one of your first songs that you recorded. Yes. In your mind, are you thinking, because the sound of the song is so unique. It's actually, there's a lot of bomb squad that I hear in the production of the song, right? Did you, in your mind, think that this band, as it's evolving, did you have a sense that it might be slightly more in this direction, in that direction, the mix that it ended up being? At the end of the day, we were just kids doing music that we liked. and music that we listened to.

And it just was, it just so happened that it was inspired by production teams like the Bomb Squad. Like those guys, again, I was a huge public enemy fan. And it takes a nation of millions is probably one of the greatest albums ever created. And in the moment you're making this record, that is the record. Yeah. On everyone's cassette player. So our producer at the time, Dallas Austin, who all, also listened to the same type of music,

knew how to incorporate a lot of those components to our music, because we like the switchups and the beats and the 808, like, pounding and things of that nature. So, yeah, that was very much, I guess you could say, intentional. And, you know, we wanted our songs to bang just as hard as is,

don't believe the hype. Don't believe the hype is a sequel. As an equal, can I get this through? Absolutely. Well, before we go any further, let's play a little bit of the iconic video for Motown Philly. Here's a clip. When was the last time you watched this?

Been a while. And it's funny because the girl playing the trumpet, shout out to Tyshell. Most of these people were from our high school. Really? They all went to our school. We saw the Questlove cameo in there too. Yeah.

So a lot of the few people that you see, like the girl taking the picture. Yeah. Yes. Her name is April. Okay. Her husband was LaShawn Daniels, who used to be the songwriter for Dark Child, who passed away a few years ago. Yeah, okay.

Rodney. Yeah, Rodney. So, but we were all friends. Like, you know, we were all friends, and we all grew up together and that whole thing. So, again, seeing that, it's funny because just seeing the connections of we wanted to make sure everybody or as many people as we could from our school and people that we knew were. incorporated in the video so everybody can watch it and bug out and you know because you're still in high school right when you make this which means that you get to come to school the next day when it's on MTV exactly and reap the benefits exactly well in 91 when it came out

Wanye was the only one still in school okay I graduated in 1990 okay so I just missed it oh man it would have been the king of school right right right would have been special oh it'd have been crazy can we can we talk about your look in this video because yeah I mean like look at me right now. I am wearing a baseball hat with a cardigan. Like, you know what I'm saying? I can't tell you how much that video and everything that you all brought in that.

And by the way, it does not even necessarily match the image on the album, you know, cover. Yeah. Because on the album cover, you guys got on, like, you know, it's like the fur, leather jackets and all that. But like here, like I will say, from the second of that video came out,

again, I was in Atlanta, the idea that you could be a nerd, a black nerd specifically, and be cool, a blur, A blurred, yeah. Listen, man. Yeah. It meant something to us.

No, no. Listen, and it's so funny because now, yeah, I've noticed that the quarter zips are coming back. I was just going to say that. And you got guys wearing khakis and loafers and a whole nine yards. That's really just us. Like, that's the vibe that we were trying to exude. And just to give flowers. Bivens.

Yeah, Bivens. Yeah, Biv came up with that collegiate look. The glasses with the cardigan sweaters and the old ties and stuff like. like that. And even though we... Right. And even though we were from the hood, we didn't exude that energy.

If you know what I'm saying? Yeah. We weren't hood dudes, like walking around, like toting pistols or anything like that. We were very studious kids, you know, that sang in choirs

and sang classical music. Yeah. And Biv saw that in us. So he was like, you know, we're going to scratch the original cardigans and stuff like that,

even though the cardigans was the first phase. Right. By the way, though, I also had a denim shirt that I would wear a tie with. Like, you know, like, whatever you guys You were inspired by this video. Sartorily in any video, I was absolutely down with it. There were a lot of looks on the

Biv Entertainment label. And that leaves me to talk about one of the most interesting music videos of all time. I've been dying to bring this up on an episode of one song. The East Coast Family Video. Oh, okay. So, first of all, I think you guys were the first people to coin the phrase East Coast Family.

Am I right? Like I think I heard, was it Waniye or Nate who said he wrote East Coast Family? He wrote that. Okay. Yeah, Nate wrote that part. For those of you who don't know, one of the greatest music videos of all time is the sort of promotional video for Michael Bivens' label. It's one for all for one.

Yeah, all for one. And we're just going to play a clip of it. And I do have some questions. Play us a clip from East Coast Bay. I'm sure you do. Hayden. The goat. Hayden's the goat.

Hayden's the goat. He's got that shirt tucked in, boy. Yeah, you know, saying, the blue with the blue boys there. A casual move with the jacket over the shoulder. The spelling of white guys. Yes. Genius. Yeah, yeah.

By the way, they only throw it up there a half second. Yeah. Right, right, right. Look at all the people around that tape. I really did think it was wit jizz when I saw it at first. That's a different group. Right, completely. They're going to get banned for Blockbuster videos and shit like that.

We don't have time to talk about every artist in this video. I'm interested to see what questions you. But by the way, I just want to point out Yvette Nicole Brown in this video. She's Yvette. You know, there are a lot of people who went on to have, like, very interesting. I even saw Hayden in an interview from maybe two years ago talking about, you know, he's still singing. So, like, everything is like, you know, it's a great video. But I just have to ask, like, what was it like to be, like,

In this video, there's so many people on this song. You guys definitely go last because it's like, you know, last and definitely not least. Here's our marquee artist. That was the whole lot. What was it like being on set for the East Coast family video? It was very hot. I remember that because I think we did it somewhere in Texas when it was like. Oh, wow.

I would have sworn that was like Philadelphia or something. No, that was like in Houston or something like that. And why we chose Houston, I don't know. I don't remember. I do remember we were on the road with. at the time. Yeah, we took time to fly out, do the video, and head right back out to tour. But it was cool because everybody had a chance to get together and it was, it really was all for one at that point. We were all very much in support of one another and we loved each other and supported everybody's

careers and all that other stuff. And it was just a good time. But it was quick though. Because like I said, we did our part and then we bounced. Another bad creation, I have to point this out because I learned it this week. You guys are on the chorus. At least some of you are on the chorus for Aisha, one of the great songs of this period.

Yes, Juan Ye and I. That's fantastic. Before our stuff came out, we did a lot of behind the scenes work. We did a lot of songwriting and background vocals and stuff like that for ABC. and an artist that Biv had a rapper name,

MC Brains. And Nathan... N.C. Brains was already big, I feel like, at that point. I feel like he'd come over to Biv, right? Yeah, I mean, he was a kid out of Cleveland that, you know, I guess caught the attention to Bib and everything. So, you know, we would, you know, write stuff for him. And again, some of the times I might be getting a little misconstrued or whatever.

But for the most part, that's what we were doing until our music came out. just a lot of background work. Cooley High Harmony, your debut album. The very first song on there is a song called Please Don't Go. Yes. I will come clean and say that that is one of my favorite songs of any genre ever. Like, it's so... I'm not mad at you, man.

Bro, listen, it does something that I think all the best songs do, which is it starts one place and it's a fantastic place to be. But then at some point, it goes to a completely different place. You're like, oh, it's like finding out something new about something. somebody you already like, but then finding out they have another skill. Like, like, literally, when you go to the end of this song, instead of me talking about it, play us just a little bit of please don't go. My feelings are so deep for you that I won't get to go. Listening to that, right?

Mm-hmm. We were still in high school recording this. So we were at the time being taught how to sing classical music. So we were singing Bach and Vivaldi and. Beethoven and Handel's Messiah and all this other stuff. So when I'm listening to it, my diction is so perfect.

I was just going to ask you. It's about clarity, right? This is clarity. So it was a contrast to gospel maybe? Is that a little bit more? Yeah, so it wasn't hood at all.

It was very polished. It wasn't hood. Because that's... You hit the note specifically. Yes. And the diction... The syllable. It was very...

And I remember... Cyllable to note correspondence. Yes, and I remember that was very important when we were singing, make sure that you, people hear every word that you're saying and don't make it, you know, what kids would consider mumblemouth now. Like, now it's the exact opposite. It's like, don't let people know what you're singing. So, you know, I just found that funny because I'm just hearing that.

I got accused of talking proper at my all-black, you know, middle school and high school. But this was my absolute favorite. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why me and some guys at my high school formed an a cappella group. Like, we were just like, oh, we just want to sing, please don't go. And while I have you here, Sean, I want to sing a bit of please don't go. And I want you to rate me on a scale of one to ten, ten being, damn, we could have used them, boys, to them in, or one, please do go.

All right, so here we go. Do I get to reach you two? Yes, you do. I can't wait. All right. All right. Oh, man. Oh, man.

All right. 13-year-old of you. Can't believe this is happening. This is a Dream Cup true. I'm going to see the lyrics the way I remember them. Now, your way, temptation may come, but when I get caught up with you, but when I get caught up with you, but when I get caught up, oh, I let go. That's a long cause. That's a long cause.

You know, I've never been formally trained. How about this? Never been formally trained. I admire your passion. Your chutzpah. That's the worst thing I've ever heard of my life. It was a lot of passion. I felt you on that.

Bro, let me say your bravery. We all felt that in the room. You know, you gave it your all. And that's good. When you play Atlanta and someone doesn't show up, me. I'll give you mind I'm in the fifth row Okay

I have no regrets man because you know what when I say that that song I come to this episode as a real fan Di I have no regrets in life Masterful dodging of the answer by the way I have no regrets in life

do you one to ten that was a ten nothing wrong See how easy it is There you go There you go That's it

Get out. There it is. That's official. So for your debut single, Motown Philly, you've got this combination of two iconic cities, two iconic music cities. Motown on the one hand with Motown Records, Detroit, Supremes, you got Smokey Robinson, et cetera, et cetera. And then you've got Philly, MFSB, you've got Gamble and Huff. In your mind, at the time this was being, I don't know if it was explained or how is this concept, first of all, created with the group? And second of all, how did it take form musically in the choices you were making?

Yeah, this was a concept, the idea was created by Mr. Michael Bivens, who was again just on point. He was just in a zone at that time. It was his vision to create a song that meshed the two cities together because, coincidentally, us being signed to Motown and being from Philadelphia to powerhouse musical towns who had their hay, but kind of fizzled out, as most things do, it returning through us. Bringing back some of the traditions of both of those musical towns. Exactly. What were the elements of both, if there was sort of a mission statement, was it like, you know,

maybe the look of Motown meets the blank of blank. It was the, we were the blend of both entities, us being signed to Motown and understanding the traditions of Motown, the tops, temptations, and Smokey Robinson, as you mentioned, and being obviously from Philadelphia, which that DNA was innately in us, because we were from there, we felt like we were the, I guess, the chosen ones in that sense

to bring back balance to the force, I guess, so to speak. So it was really one of those things where Biv having a foresight to see these connections. And he literally just told us, hey, make a record called Multi Filly. And he gave us a brief description as to why.

And Nathan and I put pen and paper to Dallas Austin's track. That's crazy. And Biv wrote the rap that basically encompass what the story was about. It's, Bulltown Philly is a four and a half minute. Bio. Yeah, bio.

So it's more of a vibe, not very specific. Because in the 60s, I think of Motown as being a very 60s. That was the Hay. The Hayday was the 60s. Yeah. But the whole thing was it being back again. a modern form. Okay.

Like, we are elements of that, but in today's music era. You know what I'm saying? It is rather ballsy on your debut single to sing about being back again. Yeah. But that makes a lot of sense because it's Motown. It wasn't pretentious at all. It was just, it was really just us putting literally one and one together. Yeah.

Sign to Motown. We're from Philadelphia. Motown, Philly. That's it. You're going to synthesize both of them with your unique. in this new era with these four new people. And, and it made it without, I mean, I guess by osmosis, we didn't realize what we were doing,

but it made people ingest it easier. Because once you hear the harmonies and stuff like that, the first thing you think of is Motown or the Philly sound. Like, so it all made sense. It gave you like a reference point. It gave us a reference point. And it gave people understanding of what we meant, without us having to sit and explain,

what the hell is Motown Philly mean? Like, the song itself explained it. It's brilliant. When you heard harmony, when you heard to do Wob stuff and all the other stuff, you instantly got it. It was really brilliant. Your introduction to the band is a mission statement

that we are going to explain to you and sing about so it'll all be impossible to miss. That's it. And we just did it organically, and we wrote basically what we felt Motown Philly meant. Okay, well, we're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, we're going to break down the beat,

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See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Welcome back to one song. We're hanging out with Sean Stockman. And we're about to dive into the stems of Boys to Men's debut single, Motown, Philly. Sean, Dallas Austin, he comes up from Atlanta. He's already got this New Jack swing beat in his pocket. What went through your mind when you first heard this beat?

It was dope. Yeah. Coincidentally, when Biv gave us the idea, to write this Moldown Philly record, Dallas just so happened to have this in his stash. So with him, us going through a lot of his tracks, we came up with this one. We were like, yo, we want to do that.

And what did Dallas done up to this point? Up to this point? Not much. Yeah. He was in high school, too. He was on your age? Yeah, he'd done TLC's first down. Not yet.

He hadn't, okay. That wasn't there yet. Like, he did that after us. He was signed at the time to, they named Joyce Irby, who was part of a climax. Okay. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so, yeah, he was signed to her.

And the deal was pretty whack. So he wasn't able to do a lot of stuff. But we were kind of, I guess you could say, his first big project. Yeah. Yeah, he was just a young kid, too, just like us trying to get on. And he was incredibly talented. He had a lot of dope ideas and everything. The songs that we brought to him, he would bring to life.

Yeah. And that was pretty much what encompassed Cooley High Harmony. Like that was us in Dallas. It was him taking sort of your ideas, these song ideas that you guys have been working on in school. Yeah. And sort of like bring him to a final point. Yeah. So and that's pretty much it.

We didn't have the production prowess that he possessed yet. Yeah. So a lot of the songs like, please don't go in Lonely Heart and This Is My Heart and songs that we already had written, We just brought to him, gave him some direction as far as like how we wanted it to sound. And then he just took the ball around with it. All right. Let's try and get inside Motown, Philly, as we deconstruct this beat, luxury. Where should we start?

Let's start with the beat. The beat. Let's listen to the kick and snare. And right off the bat with just these two elements, we already have a little bit of that East Coast swing or that new jack swing. And we're going to talk about that in just a minute. Okay. First, let's just listen. Just kick and snare.

But that syncopated kick is. already given us something a little bit. Yeah. Right in there, we're already getting a little bit of that swing feel. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This is at the height of Teddy Riley's career. Absolutely. The godfather,

the inventor of New Jack Swing. And everybody was trying to emulate that energy. He was very influential in R&B production. Dallas being the great producer that he was and understanding what made a track a great one. He took element to that, but then he added his own flavor to it as well because Dallas has his own style. Right. Let's hear a little bit of, since you mentioned Teddy Riley, one of his productions that would have been influential.

Certainly one of my first exposure. I think a lot of people think of New Jack Swing is beginning in this moment with one of a handful of songs that compete with the first one. But a contender is certainly this one. This is Keith Sweat, I want her. Yep. That's a good one. I love that. So let's pause for a second and talk about what that bounces, the New Jack Swin'down.

It was all about the stabs. The stows are big part of the sound You know what I mean? Like it really It was all about Those stas Orchestra hits Yeah a little synthesized

We've got those coming up We're going to break those down Yeah like like just simulated orchestra sounds Late 80s early 90s Those were all Yeah Everything Like everything was all about the big hits

And the stabs And along with the pop Pop-Bap bap Pop-Bap Like everything had to be just so huge and had like dynamics and all that other stuff. And the stabs kind of replace the crash in a lot of ways.

Yes. And they make it updated in modern sound. Yes. It was like a new thing to do. Yes. And they're hearkening back to, we're going to get into that exact sound in Motown Philly. Yeah.

Because there is a similar sound that's slightly different. Yeah. But yeah, it harkens back to the kind of famous Planet Rock uses it, the Orchestra 5. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Because that just got you up. going, you know, when you heard that.

And it's also a new sound that comes from a different tradition. It's from the orchestra. Yes. But it's in an R&B song with electronic elements. So it's this cool blend of new, like these genres are cross-pollinating. And it was actually, yeah, a natural progression because

if before those, I don't know if you guys might be too young to remember, there was this one disco record that used Beethoven. Oh yeah, a fifth of Beethoven. From the CERDA-Nate fever sound record. Like so a lot of it, yeah, it was all about those hits. And that was just kind of like synthesizer companies like Yamaha and Corg and Rowland

and all those guys implementing that in the keyboards where producers could get their hands on it and do it their way. Exactly, right. Well, listen, let's just talk briefly about New Jack Swing because we brought it up. What is New Jack Swing? And we have a deeper dive into this. We can go back to our Far Side Epit. episode for running, I gave you a pretty long breakdown. So the summarized version of it, so we can talk about this song, is when we say swing goes back a long way. Swing is the essence of

jazz. Yes. Swing is in a lot of things, and we'll talk about that. But literally, we're describing that in between an eighth note, you can have a straight eighth that goes da, one, and two, and three. But as you start to change where that's, if there's two eighth notes, what happens in the middle to be a 16th note, it could be da-da-da-da-da-da-da, or it can be da-da-da-da-da. Yes. That tiny little difference. Yes.

And where do you put the middle 16th note, in between two eighth notes? If you put it right in the middle, it's straight, da-da-da-da-da. But if it starts to be a little delayed, that tiny thing, it's the essence of jazz. It's the essence of new jack swing. Yes. And that's what we're hearing just right there in the kick and snare that we heard of Motown. Absolutely. thus the moniker because there was a swing feel to it,

which made the horns and everything that much more complimentary. Because the great thing about that genre of music is that it did have elements of music that we've heard before. Teddy Riley being the genius that he is growing up listening to gospel and hip-hop and R&B music, he knew how to reach back. So a lot of the music and the keys that he would play, very Duke Ellington and Count Basie and... Man, little trolls. So when you hear it, you could strip down the modern day beat and then put a Count Basie beat under it and it would match perfectly. Because that was the essence of it.

the thing that made it different is he put a hip hop beat to it. Yeah. Because. And the sounds, the specific choice of sounds, those louder drums that are sample make a big difference. Those louder drums that were influenced by the bomb squad. And a lot of the hip hop producers Herbie Love Bug,

who was another guy. Yeah, who incorporated a lot of that swing type of energy to it. And just made it modern day. And then you throw in a synthesized bass. boom, boom, bum, ba-bon. You know what I mean? It gives it a new bounce, quote-unquote,

because it's actually an old bounce. Exactly. Right. So, again, that's just genius at work. I think, just to put an exclamation mark on that, I will point out that Quest was like, he thinks that Motown Philly is a jazz song in sheep's clothing.

Like, in other words, like, to him, he feels like there are elements of it that could have been right at home in Cab Calloway's catalog. Again, we listen to Take Six. Yeah. And Take Six is just an Acapella Big Band group. Absolutely.

A lot of their harmonies were influenced by big band. So us being influenced by that and doing a version, a very meager version of comparison of our own, yeah, you can say that it definitely has some jazz. You can hear the big bag, 100%. I can help draw that connection too for our listeners. Just to perfectly illustrate this conversation, here is a 1931 jazz swing song.

Don't mean the thing if it ain't got that swing. It's a 1965 recording, but to illustrate the point, here is jazz jazz swing. What you're hearing on the ride symbol is da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That's a sped-up version of the same da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Right. That was explaining earlier. Yes, absolutely. Causing on that middle...

Or poised that-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, exactly. And the modernization of that, which brings us back to our song, back to your song, back to Modan Philly, is there's a longer Deep dive we'll do another day about all of these rhythms, but Chuck Brown famously the DMV, the go-go version of this,

of that same song, you can hear how it becomes updated and helps influence New Jack Swing with his cover of It Don't Mean a Thing if it ain't got that swing from 1986. Hey. Yeah, you can't have swing without that bounce. Without that bounce.

Like, that's the bounce. That's what swing is. It's that bounce. And a lot of that has, even that Chuck Brown record, you know, it takes me back to not me. I would live back then, but just listening to like a lot of the speakeasy music that a lot of us black folks. You know, our grandmas or your grandpa used to go to and, you know, they used to drink alcohol from a jug. From the tub. Yeah, you know what I'm saying?

And all of that. used to have these places where even the tempo was kind of similar in the sense where, you know, the ladies used to wear their skirts and they used to do their little sashet up on their man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was fly back then, too. Absolutely. The Motown Philly, it's just the embedded in this song, there's the Motown Philly that you were explaining. But there is also this black tradition, this jazz tradition, this Harlem tradition.

Because of that swing, it takes us all the way back to Duke Ellington and the 30s into the modern day. Yeah. If it doesn't make you do this, it doesn't. It don't have that bounce. It's got to have that bounce. Don't mean a swing if they ain't got that. It doesn't mean a thing. It ain't got that swing.

That's it. Let's get back into the stems. And that go-go beat makes its appearance even more explicitly with this sound. This is, I'll play it for you, then I'll explain what it is. Yeah. I'll give you some context.

Yeah. So we're really explicitly getting that swinging 16th note. That's the go-go, which is the name of the instrument. Have you ever seen the double bell, the percussion. I thought it was a cowbell. It's a double bell.

It's a double bell. One's a little higher than the other one. So that's the agogo. Yeah. And then the entire beat all together. And that last element in there

is, of course, a very famous break beat. The funky drummer. It's the funky drummer breakbeat with, I think, an 808 kick just boom on the downbeat. Yes.

That's Dallas Austin. Putting it all together, very bomb squad style. Very bomb squad style. And all those elements back then is what, made music sound so rich and full because it wasn't just a high hat,

a snare, and a kick. That's fine, depending on what you're trying to do. But it's those elements, the percussive bells, the cowbells, if you will, and those samples and stuff like that. It made it hip

because it's those elements that kids back then could relate to and hear and go, oh, you know, that type of thing. That's why we called it fat. You know what I mean? Right, right. It was fat.

It was fat. It was had a lot of meat on it. It was fat. The inclusion of the sample gives it great because you're literally using a sample so it has embedded in it a little bit of the vinyl sound. Yes. You can tell it's from something older

but mixed with something newer. We were the elements that cleaned all of that up vocally. Because we were a, A contrast. Yes, we were the contrast. And that's where the not too hard, not too soft came from. The fact that you heard the beat and you couldn't deny it to beat when it kicks in.

It's hard. But then we're singing. You're smooth, smooth. You know what I'm saying to it? So that was the, I guess, the beautiful dichotomy of what they need. That's kind of the 100%. In a way, there's a little bit of the, not thinking, as I'm thinking about, there's a little bit of Motown, Philly in that as well. Because when I think of Motown, since their 60s recordings, they have more of that sort of reverby, simpler sound.

100%. Because it's before the 70s and you get the smooth, slick MFSB, TSO, Sound of Philadelphia kind of thing. 100%. That was very much a part of us. And all we did was just implemented in our style and in our way. Here's another sample I found that drove me crazy for 20 minutes until I figured it out. That horn. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I can isolate it to give you a little clue. Oh, wait, I know what that is. Oh, yeah, yeah, brass monkey. That's the one! That funky monkey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah. Again, back then producers were freaking geek scientists

that would take a sample. As opposed to those cool scientists. Yeah, exactly. You know, right, exactly. They're better. That would take, like, say, a four-bar sample and shrink it to just one half of a beat. Just to get a sound.

Just to get a sound. And this was before all you spoiled kids was able to just kind of take and manipulate stuff with a graph and all the other stuff. You had producers that had a little wheel on the MPC 60. Yeah. And that you had to... And beep, beep, beep, nope. Which is what I think Dallas used an MPC 60 for this one, right? Yes.

You use an MPC. And you use those. You save the file. And then you would run it through the board to then mix it again and then give it more EQ, the way that you wanted to sound, then you run it back into the drum machine and then you'd do some more. It was a process to get that one sound.

Yeah, it was really, like producers really had a grueling job to create the library of sounds that they made because they designed all of them, opposed to now... There's so much that comes in just your basic. 100%. You had to know your records. Maybe you had ultimate beats and breaks,

but for the most part, you either found the sounds in the world. There were no spliced, There's no sample libraries yet. There weren't sample CDs yet. There was ultimate beats and breaks. There was a handful of sources out there. Sure.

But for the most part, it's your ear, and it's your creativity, and your knowledge of the machines. And also, because you knew other producers were using the same beats and breaks, you wanted to make sure that your sounds were completely different from somebody else's. Yeah, I liked the way he did it, but I'm going to do it this way. Right. So that's, you know, a producer back then. Let's hear it in the mix.

Here's what it all sounds like together with that. The final step, which we now know to be Brass Monkey. Those guys wanted to sing. He came up to me and said, what's your name? What's your name? Hey, that's when he broke into his rap. Right on. So let's jump into the next layer.

The beat layer was mostly comprised, if not exclusively, I would say, of samples. So here's the baseline, and I'm going to start bringing in other elements. These are all, I believe, performed by hand. They sound pretty human. That's definitely how it. Yeah. With the piano? And then, of course, we've got to bring in the horns.

That's him, too. Yeah. Yeah. They're so synthetic sounding. Yes. That they have a charm to them. Yes. Yeah.

I never thought they were real horns, but we all appreciate when they come. Yeah. Yeah. That was, again, the synth horn was the thing to do, almost like back in the 70s when you heard Ohio players play, I want to be free. And you hear, like, you know, we knew they weren't strange. But like, it's Elena. This sim string. Yeah.

There, child, I won't have to listen to your line. There is a charm, as you say. Yeah. There's always a moment when the sound is first used that there's some maybe cynicism about it by, you know, haters. Yeah. But then it becomes what Stevie used. So I want to use it because Stevie used it. It's like auto tune.

Auto tune is hated. And then at some point somebody like T-Paid, who can sing. Yeah. Comes along and uses it. I want to hear some of those orchestra stabs that we were talking about earlier. Yeah. Okay. Because I will just say for my purposes, orchestra stabs, I associate them with like, not just,

you know, the black music I was listening to, but like the Pet Shop boys. You know what I mean? And like, there's a lot of those orchestra stabs in like the British music. Sure. Absolutely. So I'll just say we were talking a moment ago about the orchestra stab as kind of a cliche or it hadn't become one yet. It was in the midst of becoming one, meaning a sound that you would hear often in the genre.

It's a staple of the genre. From Planet Rock onward, having a stab sound to maybe replace a crash is something you would come to expect by the mid to late 80s, certainly. Yes. So this particular synth stab, I'll show you the source. I'll play it for you in context and then I'll show you where it comes from. The way that it's triggered like that, I love that because in the mix it sounds kind of, it sounds like scratching. Yes. And it feels like that might have been the intent.

That was the intent. That was definitely the intent, right? For sure. So what he actually did was he took this moment from the song Cool Is Back by Funk Inc. From 1971. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

He took that little chop. Yeah. And he pitched it up about seven, I'd say. So there it is, seven. Yeah. And once you get to seven, it becomes this. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's to your point, because you said a lot of people would use the same sounds, be like, oh, I don't want it to sound just like, you know, Dallas is. I want to sound just like teddy's. Yeah, you want to be different. And the cool part was being creative on how you use the same elements that somebody else did.

Like, yeah, I like that, but I'm going to do it this way. And that's the cool. And I don't know if Dallas, if Dallas would have used the coolest back original source, or if he used it in yes, as owner of a lonely heart, which also uses that same sample. That's true. He might have

sampled. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's really just, and also it has to suit the key. Multown Philly isn't a key of D. Yeah. So he had to put the He had to pitch it exactly how.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there are the strings. The dramatic strings. Yeah. Such drama. I'll bring some other things in now. That's very Teddy Riley. That's very Teddy Riley.

Riley-esque as far as like, again, he was heavily influenced in what things sounded like back then. So you wanted to have those elements because that was hot. That was hot. You wanted it to sound like, but different from at the same time. Similar but different. The key to producers, songwriters, singers, rappers back then was to not sound like anybody else. And yet to sort of fit in isn't the right word. But you want to have it be evoking something that's.

familiar in the world you want to be in, but uniquely. Again, we listen to each other. So, again, by osmosis, it's going to sound similar because we're all in the same house, so to speak, if you know what I'm saying? But it's almost like a painting. Everybody's going to interpret it different. And I always say, like, you know, like playing guitar, for example, I can give my guitar to 20 guitar players and they're going to play it 20 different ways.

That's a great way to think about that. So that was really the point to music was to not be, as we used to say, a biter. Yeah. Are you suggesting there's a lot of biting going on in contemporary? Let's just say it's really hard to tell one artist apart from the other these days. Because everybody's doing the same thing, singing the same way, running through the same machines, through the same melodine and the same auto tune. Same slice list.

I hear those a lot. Yeah, all of that. So it's harder to differentiate one female artist from another female artist, even down to the look, opposed to back in the day, like I used to look at my heroes as superheroes. Biz Marquis had a superpower. Big Daddy Kane had a superpower. Chuck D had another superpower.

BDP had a superpower. Like, and you can tell them all, they were all different. L.L. had a different superpower. Like, so everybody. everybody's goal was to not sound like that man, opposed to now where everybody wants to sound like that man. A little bit. Yeah.

Instead of Batman is that man. You know, so that's really what it is. And that's what made, you know, and I'll extrapolate vehemently with people as far as why I think 90s music was pretty much the last era decade. of great music. People will say 2000s, and that was awesome. But even 2000s was only up to 2000, maybe eight. So this wasn't even a full...

Yeah, so the 90s was the last inventive, creative decade. That's interesting, yeah. To me, in music, because, again, it was us. modernizing what we heard from the past. So you're updating a lot of sounds and techniques and you're synthesizing them in new ways. And we're making them brand new. And you're making them brand new in that synthesis.

And we brought attention those obscure records, those obscure artists and sounds that people weren't paying attention to. So we were also giving back. Because thanks to those samples, those artists, those songwriters were able to get paid to. They're actually got some compensation. You know what I'm saying?

And so we were the first generation. Because it was after the business market decision. To do that. Yeah. So that's why I think 90s music was the greatest ever. It's amazingly special. And not just in R&B either. If you look at a lot of the music that was made in the 90s, think about it.

We were, we had video budgets of $5 million. Like, like, like, well, you did. Well, yeah, yeah. But what I'm saying is four seasons of lonely. was $2 million to make. Like, that was a video. That was, they have nothing to do with anything. So you can, you can imagine all of the money.

Because we had to buy the CD. We had to buy the tape. Yeah. We had to buy all that. You got to imagine all of the money that was being made. I will say the 90s is definitely the last time that artists were getting compensated for what they were bringing to these corporations. I think that part is undeniable because as soon as the iPod came out, it started to.

Here's another reason why the 90s was great. you could be a songwriter and have just as big a house as an artist just by writing songs. You didn't have to do anything else but write a song. Ask a songwriter in 2025 how much they made.

And even if that song wasn't a hit, if your song was track 8 and not even released as a single, you could still make a living. Because trust me. Because trust me, outside of Boys to Men music, me and the guys would write songs for certain artists,

you know, on the side. Yeah. And those checks were sweet. Like, you know, I can have like one record on an obscure artist. His artist's gold. And I get a check in six months. And it's like, whoa, I didn't have to leave the house. You know what I mean?

So, again. But we're glad you did leave the house. Well, thank you. It was important. But yeah, but that's why, again, I think from such a wide range of reasons why the 90s was the best era ever. I think we hear everything you're saying. I think one thing that's undeniable

is the amount of time and effort you guys took, even when writing to a song like this, a beat like this, with your vocals. Like the amount of effort that it took to make those harmonies work and those stacks work, kind of like without comparison. And we're going to get into that in our next episode. That's right.

We're going to get into the vocals in our next episode. You do not want to miss hearing the isolated vocals of this man and the rest of the group on this classic track so be sure to hit play on part two when it comes out next week. All right, One Song Nation,

it's time for one genre, our friends at Discogs, challenged us, they challenged us, to do a deep dive into a subgenre and share a few records we think are essential listening. Just a reminder,

we at one song use genre as a way to talk about music with shared sensibilities, not as a way to rigidly define the music. Yeah, we don't like to rigidly define much. rigid. We're not definers. We're not rigid definers. None of the above. Genre has porous edges and borders. And today is no exception because we're talking about garage rock. That's right. Is it about garages? Is it about rock? It's a little bit of both. Let's face it.

I mean, I think when we were talking about garage rock in general, we were thinking it's sort of the first DIY music movement. I mean, I think that's right. I think that in the mid-60s, like after the British invasion, after the Beatles, you have a whole bunch of really inspired bands that are like, wait a second, we can get a bunch of guitars and drums. and do this ourselves, you know, minus the songwriting and all the other things that production techniques of George Martin. But the idea of forming a band, which maybe we take for granted a little bit, and sometimes we think about as being maybe a punk thing, I think it's safe to say that Garage Rock was maybe a little bit of punk rock before there was punk rock. It's a little bit like when Boystamint came out and everybody at my school to say, hey, we can form an Acapella group.

There's something to that. All you need is a couple guitars, a drum kit, three chords, and a dream. You don't even have to be that great of a singer. But there is an incredible amount of incredible music that comes from this period of time, which again is maybe with roughly the mid-60s into the late 60s, where there's just an explosion of bands that get to cobble together enough money to put out a handful of maybe 45s, maybe never really literally get beyond the garage where they are practicing the music. Or that abandoned warehouse on the other side of the train tracks. Which is where the expression comes from. You literally just get in your garage. A garage a lot of times. Play loudly for maybe just the amusement of yourself, some neighbors,

and whoever buys that 100 copies of that 45, you do put it out. That's true. A lot of the songs in this genre are more cult classics than songs that blew up in the traditional sense. And they may have been lost to time, were it not for the existence of this first record, which I'm going to talk about. This is Nuggets. This is not the original version. That would be way too expensive for me.

I did look on discogs before I broke down and bought a reissue, but it was a little too pricey, too rich for my blood. Ironically, so, given what it is, is a compilation of a bunch of those, early garage rock bands who might have been lost history had it not been for this compilation, which was put together by Lenny K. Before he was with Patty Smith in Patty Smith's band, he worked at a record store in New York and was just a big fan of garage rock. So he compiled, along with Elektra Records, as he puts it, original artifacts from the first psychedelic era 1965 to 1968. And this is where you get a bunch of one-hit wonders that weren't even

hits themselves, but a bunch of songs, they're almost all the bands. like the electric prunes, the standels, the knickerbockers, the leaves, the blues magoos. There's so many good songs on this compilation, though. I will say I do own this on CD. Yeah, that's okay. But this is a great compilation. Some of my favorites include, liar, liar, pants on fire, you know it's as longer than a telephone wire by the castaways.

And then there's nighttime by The Strange Loves, which was later covered by Tones on Tail, one of my favorite bands. That's between Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. tones on tail. Great band. And the rest of this record, and by the way, it should have you said, this is a two record set, but there are many, many compilations that this first edition spawned in the Nuggets series. And then there's all kinds of copies like the Pebbles series. The idea of compiling hard-to-find records from older artists that may have been lost to time where it not for the compilation process, if it wasn't spawned by Nuggets, it was certainly popularized by it.

And now we sort of take it for granted. Rino Records didn't exist until a little bit later. It was probably inspired in part by the success of this record. What about you, Diallo? What's your garage rock pick of the week? Mine is going to be this album by The Seeds. The Seeds is one of my favorite garage rock bands. And this one I didn't know about until I went on discogs and did a little bit of research. And I found out it's called Raw and Alive.

It has some of my very favorite songs by this group, including Can't Seem to Make You Mine, such a great song. Up in her room, pushing too hard. these are some great, great songs Buy the Seeds, but this album has a very funny story because it's called Raw and Alive and it says it was recorded at Merlin's Music Box,

which was a pretty famous coffee shop, I think on Sunset Boulevard here in Los Angeles, in the 1960s, but guess what? Ron Alive may be alive because it turns out that they tried recording a live concert of theirs, not even at Merlin's as it turns out. And lo and behold, they didn't like the quality of the

sound and they didn't even love the crowd reaction. So they went to the studio, they recorded their music live, and then added audience sounds. Oh, they recorded it in the studio and then had audience sounds like typed in. So, I mean, like, they didn't just take the studio version and put audience sounds over it, but this is a live recording with no audience. Suspiciously, if you look on the pictures on the back, there's no crowd. I kind of love. Well, there's this one picture of this random hugging, I think, SkySacks.

I think that's pretty much him. but just suspend your disbelief and pretend. I like a good con job. But by the way, the seeds is a great group. They broke up right after this album, failed to chart. But it's a great introduction to some of their biggest songs. And again,

whether you're talking about, can't seem to make you mind, pushing too hard, up at her room, just some great songs by a kind of forgotten band, except they're not so forgotten because now that people have discovered them, people are covering their songs.

So check them out, the seeds. So those are our one, genre picks, check out our list on Discogs.com. And we know there are so many more garage gems out there. So please let us know some of your favorites in the comments. Yeah, please do. As always, you can find us on Instagram and

TikTok. You can find me on Instagram at Diallo, Dioa, L-L-O, and on TikTok at Diallo and you can find me on Instagram at L-U-X-U-X-U-Y and on TikTok at Luxury-X-X. And you can follow our podcast on Instagram and TikTok at At One-Song podcast. For exclusive content,

You can also watch full episodes of One Song on YouTube and Spotify. Just search for One Song podcast. We'd love it if you'd like and subscribe. Also be sure to check out the One Song Spotify playlist for all the songs we discuss in our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. That's right. And if you made it this far, you're officially part of the One Song Nation. Show us some love.

Give us five stars. Leave a review. And send this episode to a fellow music nerd. It really helps keep the show going. All right, luxury, help me in this thing. I'm producer, DJ, songwriter, musicologist, and KCRW DJ every Friday. night from 10 to midnight luxury. And I'm after writer-director

and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. And this is one song. We will see you next time. This episode was produced by Melissa Duanyans. Our video editor is Casey Simonson. Our associate producer is Jeremy Bimbo, mixing by Michael Hardman. Engineering by Eric Hicks. Production supervision by Razak Waken.

Additional production support from Z. Taylor. This show is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Waddings, Eric Wile, and Leslie Guam.