What a horrible quality photo!! It’s the best I could do when trying to track down pics of this mysterious musical master! You may not know Rod Temperton, but you KNOW Rod Temperton. The dude has written some of the dopest, groundbreaking and most memorable music in the history of humankind/supafunkadelicishdoperythms….and he’s white.
Rod Temperton wrote a little song you might remember called THRILLER.
But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves. It all started back in the 70′s when dorky looking white British dudes could go out there and kill it on stage every night. Rod cut his musical teeth with a band called HEATWAVE.
This is a pic of their second record, but I recommend starting with their first album “TOO HOT TO HANDLE”.
Dig this -
YOU KNOW YOU ARE THE SHIT WHEN ALL 5 BLACK DUDES IN THE BAND GIVE PROPS TO YOU (THE WHITE ORGAN PLAYER).
-Way to match outfits guys -
Not to be pidgeonholed by the “PIMP FUNK” genre, Rod really proved his worth when he was hand picked by Quincy Jones to write for Michael Jackson’s first solo effort OFF THE WALL.
After writing the title track, he banged out the karaoke spectacular ROCK WITH YOU.
In reality, the list of amazing material he’s composed is too much to get into, so I’ll condense it into some of “my faves”.
George Benson- Give Me The Night
Anita Baker – Mystery
Brothers Johnson – Stomp
Bob James – Sign of the Times (NOT ON YOUTUBE, BUT SOOOO DOPE)
Even LL COOL J/BOYZ II MEN got into it (via MJ)
but i’m sure he can explain it better than me.
ROD TEMPERTON=THE BLACKEST WHITE MAN IN MUSIC.
-ZF
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Tags: groundbreaking funk, i gotta be this great, white british dudes who play and write black music