The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh

10 NOWHERE TO RUN, Martha and the Vandellas Produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier; written by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland Gordy 7036 1965 Billboard: #8

Holland-Dozier-Holland's greatest triumph? Extracting legendary music from a singer as distinctive as Levi Stubbs is one thing; pulling it out of a singer as moderately gifted as Martha Reeves is another. And "Nowhere to Run" is one of the definitive Motown 45s: huge drums and popping bass propel a riffing horn section, while the frantic lead vocal recites straight pop verses with a gospel bridge. HDH's deployment of echo and EQ enables the record to begin at the height of excitement and sustain it all the way through. Some elements of this arrangement -- the baritone sax undertow, particularly -- have almost the same feel as the lighter records being made in New Orleans in the mid-sixties. But what adds weight and power to "Nowhere to Run" ' s shrieking paranoia -- what makes it Motown is the rhythm section. Bassist James Jamerson is justly celebrated today as one of the two or three most creative players on that instrument ever, and there's as much to be said for drummer Benny Benjamin, another of the remarkably distinctive session players Motown never credited. On "Nowhere to Run," Benjamin simply explodes all over his tom-toms. Thanks to them, this relentlessly rhythmic record ranks with the most fearsome of all time.

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