Catalunya Calling

Dennis Coffey

Motown, Detroit

It started in late 1968 with a marvelously fuzzed out guitar riff at a Motown recording session. But Dennis Coffey's electrifying axe-for-hire didn't just fuel the Temptations' psych-soul classic 'Cloud Nine' (amongst countless other Hitsville hits), it staked a counter-culture freak flag in Berry Gordy's Sound of Young America, and helped usher in an era of ultimate breaks and beats that reigned supreme through the 70s. Coffey and his Detroit Guitar Band’s repertoire of funk bombs – 'Scorpio' 'Getting It On,' 'Son of Scorpio,' 'Ride Sally Ride,' 'Theme from Black Belt Jones' etc. – enjoyed much-deserved prolonged life when the likes of Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa started spinning them at South Bronx park jams late in the decade. But by then Coffey and partner Mike Theodore had already gone on to produce and record a number of disco and Loft classics (C.J. & Co.'s 'We Got Our Own Thing' and 'Devil's Gun'; his own 'Wings of Fire') that bookend-ed the era before returning to his native Detroit. His distinctive fretwork now sample fodder on too many digi-age tracks to keep track of, Dennis still resides back home, where he gigs with great frequency and popularity, forever the pride of the Motor City.