Talk:The Friends of Distinction

Copyright problem removed
Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-friends-of-distinction-mn0000060476/biography. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. Diannaa (talk) 00:48, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Jim Brown
I can't find a reputable official site that confirms that Jim Brown "discovered" Earth Wind & Fire or had anything to do with them. Any links you find are simply quoting this Wiki page. Earth Wind & Fire's official website history states that they were initially formed by Maurice White & were essentially a Jazz group at the Warner Brothers label until 1972, when Clive Davis saw them performing the type of music they become noted for & bought out their WB contract; it says nothing about Jim Brown. The only connection I can find is Jessica Cleaves, who sang with both FoD & EWF & reportedly had a relationship with Jim Brown. If there isn't an official citation added soon to back up the alleged claim that Jim Brown discovered EWF, it should be removed. Note that Jim Brown's Wikipedia page doesn't note his discovery of EWF nor does EWF's pagePhilOSophocle (talk) 18:23, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

I also couldn't find an official site for FoD, but I read a forum at http://faac.us/adf/messages/213228/210503.html?1275036999 that seemed to have a lot of internal band info that only someone who really knew the group would know, and it said that Jim Brown had a relationship with Jessica Cleaves at one point. I also found a page at The Examiner's website (that Wikipedia won't let me publish its URL because that site is currently blocked by Wikipedia from linking to it) that says that Jim Brown was in L.A. pursuing an acting career & became FoD's manager & hooked them up with RCA. I also found a site at http://www.utopiaartists.com/bio_friends_of_distinction.htm that claims to book FoD (a lot of "agents" claim to book bands & are simply middlemen, mind you), and the page says that Jim Brown financed & encouraged the band in its formative years. This is all I can find, and although it's not official --- assuming Utopia isn't an official manager/spokesperson for FoD as they don't claim on their site to represent FoD as their personal management, just a booking agent, and possibly one of many that book them --- if you take all the evidence as a whole, I believe an objective unbiased person would conclude that Jim Brown indeed discovered FoD in the sense that he found them, managed them & got them their record deal. I also feel that Jim Brown's page should be updated to reflect this.PhilOSophocle (talk) 18:23, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Promo picture
this photo is not of the original friends of distinction Barbara Jean Love. Jessica Cleaves Floyd Butler Harry Elston Charlene Gibson on the recordings listed 104.173.10.237 (talk) 21:04, 3 February 2022 (UTC)