The Commodores (1974) Assembly Line

An album track from their Motown debut, Machine Gun, the album is an underrated funk rock gem in itself and differs greatly from Lionel Ritchie slow piano ballads which would later dominate the band. Co-written by Gloria Jones who originally sang Tainted Love in the 60s and was a part of T Rex in the 70s though her boyfriend Marc Bolan this song features musically a nice mix of a catchy chorus, dirge organs, ecstatic vocals and horns and a great drum break that has been sampled quite a bit. All about the social concious lyrics of Motown acts like the funkier Temptations, with lyrics about the assembly line and fixed route of people in terms of careers, discrimination and  about following their dreams. It's fun with an important message; "From the moment you're born you're on the assembly line, keeps on messing with your mind.". The song is packed with great memorable lyrics such as "To save our future children, the ones we haven't made" or "From the moment they're born, you know.. from the moment they're wrong, they're wrong". It's shame there weren't more songs like this from them as they entered the disco era.