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"Heaven Help Us All" has a great uplifting Motown sound to it, with feelgood gospel backing vocals, but the truck driver's gear change is almost inexplicable. Unlike the majority of cases, this song features an abrupt gear change after the very first chorus. My pet theory is that Stevie Wonder mischievously decided on the spur of the moment that he'd go for it, and the rest of the musicians were forced to follow. Why else would he suddenly go up a key when everyone else is quite happy where they are? Well, perhaps the answer lies in the lyrics: "Heaven help us, Lord hear our call when we fall". In a flash of inspiration, he thought he'd do the opposite and rise up, perhaps to be closer to heaven.

In any event, the gear change is so badly executed that I always go weak at the knees with shock. Heaven help anyone who has to listen to this stuff.

Listen!

Related stuff

This prompted me to visit the official Motown site, which is divided up into two distinct sections. "Classic Motown" has an interesting timeline tracing the history of the Motown sound, with audio clips along the way, and a Motown Jukebox which plays short snippets of various hits. "Motown Now", a front for Universal Studios, represents stuff recorded on the Motown label since 1988 and features details of new artists, upcoming gigs, and the like. Mysteriously, in between the "Motown Classic" and "Join the Motown mailing list" buttons is an unmarked link to the Parental Media Guide website.