By Edgar (200.46.13.235) on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 01:11 am:

I will appreciate help from friends in Soulful Detroit: do you know where I can find photos in the internet of Pam Sawyer, Leonard Caston and Jeffrey Bowen?

By Spookey (198.81.26.103) on Friday, March 26, 2004 - 02:20 am:

Pam Sawyer wrote a song for Candy and the Kisses called Together which is a pretty kool girl group song. Have you ever heard it Edgar?

By LadyMystique (216.108.206.177) on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 04:49 pm:

Pam Sawyer...didn't she write for Motown? The other names sound familiar...

By Edgar (200.46.13.186) on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 05:35 pm:

British Pam Sawyer wrote "Love Child" (according to Deke Richards she proposed the "bastard" subject), "Love Hangover", "My Mistake", "You Can't Turn Me Off (In the Middle of Turnin' Me On)", "I'm Livin' In Shame", "Touch", "Nature Planned It", "Just Seven Numbers", etc., etc., etc. She also collaborated with Lori Burton before joining Motown, where she also recorded some tracks.

Leonard Caston wrote and produced "Girl, You Need a Change of Mind", "Keep On Truckin'", "Boogie Down", "Nathan Jones", "I Can't Quit Your Love", "Tell Her Love Has Felt the Need", "Happy", and released a rock gospel album with wife Carolyn Majors called "Caston & Majors."

Jeffrey Bowen wrote and produced The Temptations' "Up the Creek (Without a Paddle)" and "Shakey Ground" and Commodores' "I Feel Sanctified", he also wrote Billy Preston's "Whole New Thing"; produced Rose Banks' only album and wife Bonnie Pointer's two Motown albums, which included her R&B hits "Heaven Must Have Sent You" and "Freedom From My Freedom"; and also worked for Holland-Dozier productions after they left Motown. He was also in charge of good post-Motown productions.

I have burnt three individual CDs with songs Sawyer, Caston and Bowen have written, produced or sung (sometimes including covers by non-Motown artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Bananarama, Bette Midler, The Manhattan Transfer and Patti Austin; songs by non-Motown writers that they produced for other labels, as Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Until It's Time for You To Go", produced by Harvey Fuqua on The New Birth for RCA, or songs where the artist simply played instruments (like Stevie Wonder's contribution to Minnie Riperton's "Lover & Friend.") I want to illustrate the CDs with the photos of Sawyer, Caston and Bowen, but I have searched everywhere without any luck.

These are part of a series I started last year, that I call "The Motown Collection", as tributes to the talents behind the stars (although some of them were also stars, like Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Syreeta and Ashford & Simpson.) I started with Clay McMurray, and will finish soon with volume 20 dedicated to Syreeta. The others are Berry Gordy, Holland-Dozier-Holland, William "Mickey" Stevenson, Ivy Jo Hunter, Johnny Bristol, Norman Whitfield, Frank Wilson, Deke Richards, Henry Cosby and Hal Davis.

By LadyMystique (216.108.206.177) on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 06:47 pm:

Oh OK...that means Pam also wrote with Gloria Jones...I think that's her name.

By Edgar (200.46.13.137) on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 07:04 pm:

Exactly! I'm burning on CD some old stuff right now, and I found an old Quincy Jones album with Minnie Riperton and Leon Ware singing Sawyer & Ware's "If I Ever Lose This Heaven." I don't know who sang the original version.

By LadyMystique (216.108.206.177) on Saturday, March 27, 2004 - 07:24 pm:

Cool thanks!

By mike s (195.93.34.12) on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 09:46 am:

Think the QJ version may have been the original..it was certainly the first version to chart in late 74.
GC Cameron did a version on his '75 album for Motown (which may or may not have been recorded prior to Q)

By Edgar (200.46.13.181) on Sunday, March 28, 2004 - 01:15 pm:

Thanks, Mike