2000 Great Songs #1414: Ma

How many 17-minute 2-chord vamps does a Top 2000 really need? Well, apparently two (so far).

Detroit's Rare Earth, one of the few all-white acts on Motown, had already released some fantastic (and underrated) R&B albums in the late 60s and early 70s when they decided to go all in on some absurdly over-the-top funk. For the title track of 1973's Ma, they took a basic two-note bass riff and stretched it as far as they could, breaking it down into myriad jams, bursts of blues and funk and psychedelia, always that insistent pulse in the background. Did they need all 17 minutes of this? Of course not! (They cut it down to a respectable 5 minutes for the single, 10 if you count the instrumental b-side.) But like the Velvets' "Sister Ray," it's a sometimes-thrilling exercise in a band just soaking up as much studio time as they could get away with to stretch out a bit and give the listener plenty of room to get lost in the groove.

Abbreviated single version:

Live 2022:

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