Being from Detroit, I feel compelled to put these two tracks up. As I'm sure many of you know, we invented "techno" here and had deep influence on acid house and lots of other electronic forms.
The "Belleville Three" - Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Juan Adkins are usually cited as the fathers of techno, and in many ways rightly so. HOWEVER, it was the music made by Sterling Jones and Paul Lesley, calling themselves "A Number of Names", that produced the first true Detroit Techno side, 1981's "Sharevari".
In 1981, high schoolers Lesley and Jones decided to finalize their long-brewing plans to form a music group. Inspired by Capriccio, the posh and clique-ish party club that they belonged to (one of many at that time in Detroit), the duo recorded "Sharevari" during the summer of the group's year of formation with the help of several others. While Lesley contributed the lead vocals and bass synth and Jones wrote the lyrics, the song was arranged by Judson Powell and Robert Taylor. Taylor also provided the vocals on the chorus, which were mutated by synth effects. Roderick Simpson, who also received a songwriting credit, played the main melody. Sheila Wheaton and Ira Cash provided the backup vocals that followed the chorus in a quasi-call-and-response manner.
"Sharevari," as a song title, was a play on the name of another Detroit party club, Charivari. Additionally, the club Charivari took its name from a chain of upscale clothing shops, so Lesley and Jones opted to alter the spelling of their song in order to sidestep any possible legal issues. They took an unfinished version of the song into one of the Charivari parties, had it played by DJ Darryl Shannon, and - judging from the crowd's reaction - discovered that they had something big on their hands. Legendary radio jock the Electrifying Mojo was in attendance at the party and invited the unnamed group that was responsible for the song to WGPR to join him in the booth for one of his shows. The group obliged, and while they were in the studio with Mojo, they talked about not knowing what to call themselves. Mojo suggested A Number of Names. The moniker stuck.
I'm gonna tell you, I was around when this dropped and it was fucking legendary in its time. An amazing record that still gets spun in clubs around the world...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLMGmJzp29Y[/youtube]
Their second track was called "Skitso". When the original Capriccio 12" of "Sharevari" was circulating, "Skitso" was the track occupying the other side. Here's the bottom line - "Sharevari" probably sounds better today and is more representative of where Techno would go, but "Skitso" was the track that drove everyone up the wall. This song was very hard to find for a long time, but after a few people posted versions of "Sharevari" on YouTube, it was only a matter of time before "Skitso" showed up as well. Here is the definitive, longer version of "Skitso" that resounded around Detroit in the early 1980s:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqzi3HxxtjI[/youtube]
