One for the Dance Floor: Get Ready by Rare Earth
Song Title: Get Ready
Sung by: Rare Earth
Released: February 18, 1970
Recorded: 1969, Hitsville (Detroit, Michigan)
Genre: Psychedelic Soul
Length: 2:48 (21:32 album cut)
Label: Motown (R-5020)
Writer(s): Smokey Robinson
Producer: Rare Earth
As I wrote in the introduction to this series, it all relates to song and those “… school-sanctioned social events, especially for those in junior and senior high school, … the dances they threw”. Finding a way for male teens like myself to get passed the notorious “ness” brothers — awkwardness and self-consciousness — in junior and senior high represented a big step. Especially true for one who somehow found the nerve to ask another to join them out in the middle of the gym floor to shake a leg.
With the opposite sex and to the beat of popular song, no less. Can’t minimize the leap this represented. The music of the time more than helped bridge gaps, at least temporarily. Got young people moving and made social interaction that much easier for the woefully inexperienced. Naturally, this act and interplay extended to include dancing at wedding receptions, quiceañeras1, and house parties that were rite of passage for the hormone-fueled lot of us. The latter gathered in here.
While growing up I had been taken by family (either dad’s or mom’s) to some weddings and their receptions, along with the occasional 15-year-old coming out fiesta. House parties though, up until my first year of high school, were rare. Maybe there one or two during my last year of junior high2, and they could be a bit intimidating. Usually, you knew only the people you came with. And the strangers there ranged from my age to young adult.
Oh, and stocked with some cheap beer and wine3, with nary a parent in sight.
But, until you or your friends got a driver’s license and could borrow a car or get a ride from an older sibling, you walked or maybe took a bus to the house party. Which limited you to the local area4. And asking your mom or dad to take you there… well, the humiliation that would be wrought from your peers would make it the last such mistake you’d make this side of eighteen. Luckily for me, 1970 brought some positive changes that would have a massive effect.
Namely, going through my high school’s Driver’s Training Program5, getting my learner’s permit at 15½, and my DL at sixteen. Woohoo! Thereupon, if I could borrow someone’s vehicle, not just the local festivities could I attend. Which was how I made my initial trip down the 91 freeway to Carson, California6 for a New Year’s Eve house party that year. Forever memorable for the girl I met and danced most of the night with to one anthem in particular.
The song that became forever frozen in my mind on that day actually was released back in February as the ’70s initially took hold. By a group unique for the mix of music that catapulted them up the Pop and R&B charts: Rare Earth. As Mark Deming recalls:
“Hailing from Detroit, Rare Earth were a band inspired by the Motor City’s twin legacies in hard rock and soul. Their biggest hits saw them covering classic Motown songs of the past, while their sound found a middle ground between full-bodied rhythm & blues and tough bar band rock & roll.”
Signed by Motown for their Rare Earth label, the band splashed on the scene with their cover of the Temptations’ hit from ’66, Get Ready. Penned and produced by the great Smokey Robinson, the group made up of entirely white members struck a chord with their driving, rock-tinged version of the soulful hit. It got heavy play on AM airwaves, and across the racial divide that made up my high school and L.A. as a whole. Lots listened and danced to the 2:48 minute single7.
Yet, it was the album cut that spanned FM station play, and on this night. Didn’t know the DJ put on that 21:32 minute LP version after the opening chords when I strolled over and asked the girl I hadn’t met before to dance with me. Whew, I thought when it was finally over. We seemed to get along, so we continued to dance to other songs. But when Get Ready played again, followed by another replay right after midnight, it was she who beckoned and led us back on to dance floor each time.
So, danced to one song, for over an hour, to bring in 1971 — and I never saw that girl ever again.
The entire series can be found here.
I never met a girl who makes me feel the way that you do (You're alright) Whenever I'm asked who makes my dreams real, I say that you do (You're outta sight) So, fee-fi-fo-fum Look out baby, 'cause here I come And I'm bringing you a love that's true So get ready, so get ready I'm gonna try to make you love me too So get ready, so get ready 'cause here I come (Get ready 'cause here I come now) I'm on my way (Get ready 'cause here I come) If you wanna play hide and seek with love, let me remind you (It's alright) But the lovin' you're gonna miss and the time it takes to find you (It's outta sight) So, fiddley-dee, fiddley-dum Look out baby, 'cause here I come And I'm bringing you a love that's true So get ready, so get ready I'm gonna try to make you love me too So get ready, so get ready 'cause here I come (Get ready 'cause here I come) I'm on my way (Get ready 'cause here I come) (Get ready) If all my friends should want you too, I'll understand it (Be alright) I hope I get to you before they do the way I planned it (Be outta sight) So tiddley-dee, tiddley-dum Look out baby, 'cause here I come And I'm bringing you a love that's true So get ready, so get ready I'm gonna try to make you love me too So get ready, so get ready 'cause here I come (Get ready 'cause here I come) I'm on my way (Get ready 'cause here I come) Be it out of space (Get ready 'cause here I come now)
- A quinceañera (also fiesta de quinceañera, quince años, fiesta de quince años, quinceañero and quinces) is a celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday. It has cultural roots in Mexico and Spain[1] and is widely celebrated by girls throughout Latin America and latino households in the United States. The girl celebrating her 15th birthday is a quinceañera (Spanish pronunciation: [kinseaˈɲeɾa]; feminine form of “15-year-old”). ↩
- What is now termed as “Middle School”, LAUSD’s structure back then had elementary school (grades Kindergarten – 6th grade), junior high school (7th – 9th), and high school (10th – 12th). ↩
- It was at these events where I learned about the classics like Ripple, Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, Coors Beer, and Colt 45 malt liquor. And don’t you dare ask for a soft drink. ↩
- South Gate and nearby Huntington Park, Cudahy, Lynwood, or cross the tracks in Florence. Downey, too, was close by, but that was a white-collar community and blue-collar types and minorities would be chased away by the hosts or law enforcement. ↩
- This included my mother signing the permission slip to allow me to watch the infamous Red Asphalt movie in Driver’s Ed. class; its graphic content made to frighten young teens into safe driving. ↩
- At the time, Carson was a very young city, first incorporated in 1968, and had its hardships. It sits between Long Beach to the east and Torrance to its west, and before becoming a city, was used as a dumping ground (literally and figuratively) for its neighbors. So, it was dotted with garbage dumps, auto dismantling centers and waste treatment plants. Before it rectified itself and infrastructure, when it rained many of its streets regularly flooded over sidewalks. Still, Quentin Taratino would use some Carson locations for his 1997 movie, Jackie Brown. ↩
- Our high school dances thankfully only played the short version of the song. ↩
It Rains... You Get Wet 
6 Responses to “One for the Dance Floor: Get Ready by Rare Earth”
Love the Rare Earth version of Get Ready. Different music vibe from Smokey Roberson’s.
Try Tom Petty’s version of Little Bit of Soul.
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Thank you, Bev, and that’s a wonderful Tom Petty song cover. Much appreciated. 🙂
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Great song and great memory. At my first boy-girl party we had a dance-off on “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” to see if someone could dance the whole 17 minutes. Everyone lost interest after 3 or 4.
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I think I recall a similar challenge at someone’s house (not a party) with “In-a-Gadda-da-Vida”. Probably an unofficial rite of passage. 😉
Thanks for the continuous music comments, Rick. Much appreciated. 🙂
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“So, danced to one song, for over an hour, to bring in 1971 — and I never saw that girl ever again.” If she had dark hair and blue eyes, I think I met that girl ten years before you did. Memories . . . .
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” If she had dark hair and blue eyes…”, she’d certainly be striking. And wouldn’t that be something? Thanks for adding that possible connection. Much appreciated. 🙂
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