By FRED L (67.38.30.7) on Thursday, November 14, 2002 - 07:06 pm:

READING YOUR FORUM I SEE SOME OLD FRIENDS.I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM THEM.
MIKE TERRY
ED WOLFRUM
JACK ASHFORD
DENNIS COFFEY
CLAY MCMURRAY
BOB BABBITT
MY NAME IS FRED L. BRIDGES
E-MAIL fredl218@ameritech.net


FLB

By M.McLeanTech (66.218.59.26) on Friday, November 15, 2002 - 04:40 am:

Dear Fred L.,

Please add my name to your list.

I am going to pretend that I am on your list.

Hello Fred! I know Ed Wolfrum. He is a lover of natural microphone technique.

I know who Bob Babbit is. He is one of the Funk Brothers.

I was the Technical Engineering Department Head (as in the "Head" on a cabin cruiser) at Motown, in the basement of 2648 West Grand Blvd., from January 1961, through April, 1972. My department built all the electronic equipment that was used to record at Motown during that period.

Bob Babbit may be a Funk Brother, but I am one of the forgotten "Nerd Brothers."

We white boys came, each day, with our pocket protectors, and unhip shirts, to slave away in the bowels of Hitsville, so that the machines would be ready for the Tops, and the other artists.

I remember one night when Jackie Wilson was sitting in the lobby, speaking with Berry. I stood right there and watched. My soldering iron and Volt meter and fifteen cents would get me a cup of coffee!

But just as with you: Without our machines, and your managment, the tops would never have been heard by the folks that would become fans.

Suppose that I had not soldered the connections for the microphone cable correctly?

Suppose that you had booked the wrong flight, and the Tops had ended up on stage with the Vienna Philharmonic?

Can't you see how much we all need each other?

Love,

Mike McLean