Talk:Hal Davis

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So, is this a page about Hal Davis or an autobiography of Ron Brown? I'd say this one is in serious need of revision. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.111.164.221 (talk) 02:44, 3 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for pointing this out. I removed the text below from the article page due to violation of WP:NOR.  Much of it is interesting so I put it here in the hopes that someone could find reliable, published sources to cite for any of the information that may be notable and relevent.  The text had been added by user Olschbplyr (who claims to be Ron Brown) on 2009-06-21.  When I first saw it on my watchlist I didn't look closely and assumed it had been added to the talk page, not the article itself, or I would have reverted it right away.  hulmem (talk) 14:11, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

"Never Can Say Goodbye should also be added to Hal's list of production credits. I can verify this because I, Ron Brown, former West Coast Motown Bassist, played on it. We recorded it at the The Sound Factory on Selma in Hollywood.

That session was particularly memorable because the late Gene Page, one of the greatest Pop Arrangers I had the pleasure of working with in the business, had written a nice bassline for the song from a keyboard perspective. However, being a student of James Jamerson, I felt that a different type of bassline could work a little better for this song.

Well, after getting down to about the 30th take, Hal was now very frustrated and came out of the control booth to see what could be done to get this song finished. I said to him, Hal, I think that a different bassline would work better on this song. He said, "ok man just play it, just play it." He went back in the booth, they turned the recorder on and the first thing that came off the top of my head is what's on the recording. The rest is history... two or three million in sales later.

I had also done a lot of other recording sessions for Hal, so when Stevie Wonder came to Los Angeles in 1966, Hal invited me to play in the band for Stevie. That live performance event took place at a club called "The Trip" which was next door west of the Playboy Club on Sunset Blvd. The the late Richard "Pistol" Allen, Motown drummer, had also come with Stevie from Detroit for that performance.

Being a student of James Jamerson caused me to become very excited at the opportunity to play with Stevie because of the musical marriage between him and Jamerson I had come to love on his songs during those years at Motown. It was my favorite music.

We opened the evening with Stevie's hit Uptight. Well, those sophisticated folks in the club all immediately jumped up on their feet before I had finished the Bass intro. What a great show it was and what great fun we had. I will long remember it. I remember the same thing happening with Stevie and us in 1968 at the Lion's Club in Mexico City.

I have worked with almost all of the artist mentioned in the first part of this page. This experience has become all the more heartfelt to me with the recent loss of Michael Jackson. I did a live performance with him and his brothers in San Francisco for Motown's 15th Anniversary. Gladys Knight was also on that show who I also played for.

I also played on many of their other earlier songs that came out of the The Corporation (Motown) a production company Berry Gordy formed with Deke Richards, the late Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell and himself, which produced The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson solo, and Jermaine Jackson solo."