FORTUNE RECORDS STORY!

Fortune Records 3942 Third Ave Detroit Michigan

THE FORTUNE RECORDS STORY

Ron Murphy is Detroit’s premier music authority and has worked in the music industry in Michigan for over 40 years. Ron’s story first appeared in a Michigan music magazine called R.P.M. in September of 1983.

The first songs cut in the new (11629 Linwood) Fortune Studio were recorded on a Magnacord tape machine. In 1953, they purchased an Ampex model 350 which was used to record all of the Fortune masters, until the early sixties.

Fortune Records used simple basic recording techniques and just a few mikes that let the quality of the singers voices, and musicians playing shine through without any gimmicks.

Written by Ron Murphy... posted on Soulful Detroit

The first time I visited Fortune Records was February 1960 and I was going to be a singer, so my best friend and I skipped school to go make a demo record. When we got down to the Fortune studio on Third Street and walked in, a man wearing a hat and an overcoat came out said “Hi boys, are you lost or what?”

Then he laughed and I explained that I had called last week about making a demo, then I asked again about the price just to be sure and he said “that’s right, I’ll give you couple of takes on a tape and then cut the dub for $7.50 – so are you ready? I said yes and gave him the money and we went to the studio in the back.

3942 Third Ave in 2001 just before demolition

I recorded one song and went into the control booth to listen back. While listening the man said, “Well how do you like it?” I told him it sounded pretty good. He replied “What do you mean pretty good? I’m giving you my best sound!”

The Fortune Records story started almost 40 years ago. Devora came to Detroit from Cleveland, Ohio and was introduced to Jack Brown through a blind date set up by a friend. Devora was already writing poems and songs, even though Jack was working as an accountant at the time, he liked her songs and encouraged her to send them to a few music publishers.

Devora Brown: songwriter, pianist, record store owner, producer, engineer, song publisher and co-principal of Detroit-based Fortune Records...Jack Brown: co-principal of Fortune Records with their daughter, Janice

By this time Devora married Jack Brown, and in 1947 after little response from other publishers they decided to start a publishing company and record the songs themselves.

Jack and Devora Brown set up the publishing company with Devora’s brother helping out. In 1956 the Browns purchased the building at 3942 Third Street and moved into what was to become Fortune’s permanent home.

When Motown Records started to become successful around 1962, I remember asking Devora how come they let Motown get ahead of them. She replied “We had all those people down here but they sure didn’t play that way for us.”

Unlike most record companies of the 50’s, Fortune Records had a sound all of it’s own. You knew it was a Fortune Record without looking at the label. Just like Motown in the 60’s.

Other than the J-V-B record label started by Joe Von Battle in 1945 (which folded in 1968), Fortune has now become the oldest steady record producer from Detroit, Michigan. Out of all the record companies started in Detroit, including Motown who left, Fortune Records outlasted them all.

Ron Murphy

September 1983

Read More About Fortune Records:

The Fortune Records Story by Rick Richards

ORIGINAL POST ON RETROKIMMER.COM

THE DODGE MAIN STORY

Released November 1, 1996

What an amazing industrial amalgamation of killer musicians! MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, the legendary voice and guitar of Scott Morgan, and the ever evolving incredible Motor City-via-Australia Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman make up Dodge Main, with help from bassist Paul Ill and drummer Brock Avery.

I transferred a VCR tape of this show for Dennis Thompson about 3 years ago. The quality isn't perfect but it captures this historical night in Detroit!

City Slang...

The Dodge Main CD is fantastic! What a great record... thankfully Scott Morgan gave me a copy awhile back... You gotta listen to these samples....

1. City Slang Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 4:36
2. I.94 Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:57
3. Citizen of Time Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Wayne Kramer) 3:48
4. Future/Now Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Rob Tyner) 3:01
5. Fire Comin' Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Paul Ill / Deniz Tek) 4:11
6. 100 Fools Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:38
7. The Harder They Come (full song) WKramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Jimmy Cliff) 2:54
8. Over and Over Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 2:49
9. Better Than That Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Kramer / Deniz Tek) 3:29
10. I Got a Right Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Iggy Pop / James Williamson)

Here is a treat... Dodge Main cover of KICK OUT THE JAMS!

So a few days a ago I was talking to Dennis Machinegun Thompson on the phone and he told me how great Dodge Main was. MGT told me what an incredible mix of players that composed Dodge Main. So we wrote to our very busy friend Deniz Tek and asked him to write his take on this moment in Detroit Rock and Roll History.

Deniz Tek tells the Dodge Main story...

Dodge Main

I got a call from Patrick Boissel, who at the time had recently taken over Greg Shaw's BOMP and Total Energy labels. He suggested assembling a band to be based around me and Wayne Kramer for a studio recording. Wayne's rhythm section, Paul Ill and Brock Avery were included.

Wayne came up with the name "Dodge Main" after the monolithic abandoned Chrysler assembly plant in Hamtramck, Detroit. I flew out to LA, and was put up in a motel in Burbank. During the day, we recorded in a little studio in east Hollywood.

In the morning before heading over to the studio, I wrote songs for the album, reworking lyrics and so forth. We did some older material from the MC5 and (Radio)Birdman, but also wrote some completely new tunes.

It all took about a week. Scott Morgan was in town and joined for some vocals. Wayne produced the sessions, keeping a tight rein on things, and he later mixed the album. Mark Arminski did the brilliant cover artwork. I got paid a small token amount and had all my expenses covered.

SCOTT MORGAN "FUTURE NOW" at the State Theater Greasy show!

Later, Dodge Main assembled in Detroit for a benefit at the State Theatre for local guitarist Phil "Greasy" Carlisi who had to have cardiac surgery. On that occasion, Dennis Machinegun Thompson played drums, and we added some Rationals material to round out the set, including, I think, "Guitar Army" and "Respect".

HERE IS DENNIS THOMPSON'S DODGE MAIN STORY

We also played a show in Cleveland, with Gary Rasmussen on bass and Scotty "Rock Action" Asheton on drums. Wayne and Margaret have a tape of that show which is rumored to be of high quality. They have suggested releasing it at times, but it remains in the vaults at Muscletone Records, Wayne's label. For a while Dodge Main was a revolving door of Detroit/Ann Arbor based musicians. They did some shows without me. The recording was out on both vinyl and CD, and still sounds great. It has stood the test of time. -D

Thank you Dennis and Deniz!!!!

ORIGINAL POST FROM RETROKIMMER.COM

RIO & STRIHO RIDE AGAIN JULY 18TH AT CALLAHAN'S

Mark your calendar - Rio & Striho ride again!
 

Rio & The Rockabilly Revival & Carolyn Striho return to Callahan's Music Hall, July 18th! 

If you were at the last Rio/Striho show you know it was absolute standing room only - 

we will let you know the minute tickets go on sale!

EMINEM STRUGGLING WITH DEPRESSION OR SMART BUSINESS

 

Just read this interview with the mighty EMINEM...Turns out his absence was depression which after studying his childhood, that is not surprising...But we thought is was brilliant of EM to step back and let the posers get their junk out of the way...He is back now and better than ever....

The Full Huffington Post Interview is Here

During Eminem's hiatus, West released three successful albums -- "Late Registration," "Graduation" and "808s & Heartbreak" -- and Lil Wayne put out two -- "Tha Carter II and "Tha Carter III" -- in addition to compilation records. Eminem considered "dissing everyone" in a song that he now says would have been "career suicide."

"There were times that it didn't feel good to be me," he said, referring to his past struggles with drug abuse. "I think deep down I just wasn't happy with myself, man, you know? There were some really dark moments in there, when I think about my thought processes when I was a high a lot. It wasn't good and it certainly wasn't me. I'm not even that sort of person." Read more...

PHOTOS FROM EMINEM.COM

THE MC5 ON THE COVER OF THE ROLLING STONE

Some called the MC5 (for "Motor City Five," after their home base) the first '70s band of the '60s. The group's loud, hard, fast sound and violently antiestablishment ideology almost precisely prefigured much of punk rock. There was, however, one crucial difference: The MC5 truly believed in the power of rock & roll to change the world. The band first formed in high school and came to prominence in 1967–68 as the figureheads (or "house band") of John Sinclair's radical White Panther Party.

At concerts and happenings the band caused a sensation by wearing American flags and screaming revolutionary slogans laced with profanities. In 1968 the MC5 went with Sinclair to Chicago to play while the Democratic Convention was under way. Its debut LP (#30, 1969), recorded live in 1968, captured the band in typical raw, revved-up, radical form, and embroiled Elektra Records in controversy over the title tune's loud-and-clear shout "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!"

Some stores refused to stock the album; in response, the MC5 took out strongly worded ads in underground papers and, to Elektra's further distress, plastered one offending store's windows with Elektra stationery on which was scrawled, "Fuck you." Elektra and the MC5 parted company shortly thereafter, but not before the band had cut another version of "Kick Out the Jams," with "brothers and sisters" substituted for the offending expletive. (It was available as a single and on some subsequent issues of the album, against the band's wishes.) READ MORE ON MACHINE GUN'S BLOG

BOB SEGER LIVE BULLET BEST LIVE ALBUM IN ROLLING STONE

"Live Bullet" by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band was named by Rolling Stone readers as the best live album of the 70s

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Live Bullet was recorded live at Cobo Arena, in front of a hometown audience spurring him into a great performance. But what really sold Live Bullet is how these terrific songs are delivered with a ferocious, committed intensity.

This might not be much more than a simple rock & roll album, but it's one of the best of its kind, establishing Seger, in the eyes of skeptics, as a first-rate performer and writer.

Here, "Heavy Music," "Get Out of Denver," "Turn the Page," and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" all become hard rock classics, as does the band itself. It's a rare occasion when a double live album captures an artist at an absolute peak, while summarizing his talents, and that's exactly what Live Bullet does.READ MORE

SONIC'S RENDEZVOUS BAND BUNDLE!

Sonics Rendezvous Band Bundle : Detroit & The Second Chance 3 discs !

3 Discs of LIVE SRB for the price of One !!

DETROIT MASONIC HALL

CD EARS059 5060174955891

1.Intro Dangerous

2.Song L

3.Sweet Nothin’

4.Electrophonic Tonic

5.City Slang

Recorded Saturday 14th January 1978 at The Masonic Temple Theatre Detroit

Unaccredited support to The Runaways & The Ramones

There has been much talk about this show, did they do it or did they not? Even the remaining band members don’t agree. There is no documentative proof (SRB were not billed as support). Although many shows on this tour, did, have an opening act. We ourselves were advised at the time of our SRB Box set that a tape we were given and advised to include was in fact a recording of the near legendary, if not short, MASONIC Temple gig. We later found out that it was in fact NOT a recording of one whole concert let alone The Masonic Hall, with the exception of ‘City Slang’, which is from the show.

This is a good quality Bootleg recording; we tracked down the individuals responsible for recording this show who confirmed where it was and when. Upon listening one can tell immediately this is a larger venue than any other live SRB recording.

So after much speculation and heated discussion this is it all five songs ..The Complete Show !
PLUS

Second Chance Feb 22nd 1977 97:35
Disc One:

1.Electrophonic Tonic
2.Dangerous
3.Its alright
4.Earthy
5.Soul Mover
6.Cool Breeze
7.Like a Rolling Stone
8.Do it again
9.Hearts

Disc Two:
10.You gotta succeed (if you really try)
11.Asteroid B612
12.Step by Step
13.Keep on Hustlin’
14.Song L
15.City slang
16.Empty Hearts (encore)