"Shotgun" is the Motown classic that sounds nothing at all like a Motown classic. Junior Walker and the All Stars' roadhouse R&B juggernaut is untamed and unbound - a wild card in a catalog synonymous with sequinned style and silk-trimmed sophistication. Released on Motown's Soul subsidiary in early 1965 (a pivotal year in the company's commercial and creative ascent, thanks to crossover blockbusters including the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself [Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch]" and the Supremes' "Stop! In the Name of Love"), "Shotgun" delivers gutbucket grooves to rival the grittiest, greasiest records from competitors Stax and Atlantic, but despite topping the Billboard R&B charts for four nonconsecutive weeks, it remains an outlier in the Motown canon, its primordial energy unmatched by the label before or after - a tantalizing taste of a more incendiary Motown Sound that might have been.
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