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Motown 50 - Yesterday Today Forever

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This Motown Classic T-shirt and others
will be available at the gift shop. (GVPSTUDIO)

Rememba to VOTE too >>>

http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55329

Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Motown Museum closes to prepare for anniversary

Susan Whitall / The Detroit News

If you were planning to visit the Motown Historical Museum in the next few weeks -- plan something else. The Detroit museum, located in Berry Gordy Jr.'s Hitsville complex at 2648 W. Grand Blvd., closed Monday for at least two weeks of freshening up and renovation. The museum will reopen by Oct. 1, according to CEO Audley Smith.

"We're renovating and upgrading, putting in new carpeting throughout the whole museum and doing painting work," Smith says.

The Motown gift shop is getting the most attention; it will sport a more modern look, thanks to Detroit designer Gosden.

"There will be new shelves and mirrors, and more contemporary, edgier gift-shop items, not your typical stuff," Smith says, "although we will still have the standard-bearer T-shirts and mugs."

Gosden designed the newer T-shirts and sweat shirts, several of which have already been for sale this summer. When the museum reopens, there will be even more of his fashion-forward designs, many featuring black-and-white photographic images of Motown stars, like a "Motown Classic" T-shirt emblazoned with Marvin Gaye's face.

The September closing is phase one of renovation plans timed to be complete before next year's series of celebrations honoring Motown's 50th anniversary.
Several weeks ago, after taping a video for "Roll On" at Motown, Kid Rock dropped some hints that he might collaborate with the museum on some projects. Smith confirmed that Rock and his brother Bill Ritchie have made some "real serious" commitments on a couple of projects.

"Both Kid Rock and his brother expressed a great deal of love and affection for all things Motown, and for the museum being in Detroit," Smith says. "It's something they feel should grow and that everybody should step up to the plate and support."

You can reach Susan Whitall at (313) 222-2156 or swhitall@detnews.com.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080910/ENT04/809100379
 
Make way for Motown’s best

Oct. 8 2008 by Gordon Barr, Evening Chronicle

A host of Motown’s greatest acts will celebrate the label’s 50th anniversary with a gig in Newcastle. Entertainment Editor GORDON BARR has the details

THE Once in a Lifetime brand of concerts has proved a huge success over the past few years. Today it announced one of its biggest shows yet – Motown Legends Live.

 The Commodores, Mary Wilson of The Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, The Miracles and JR Walker’s All Stars will be taking to the stage of Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena in June next year, with tickets on sale from Friday.

The show will tie in with the celebration of 50 years of Motown next year and may be your last chance to see these stars perform on the same bill.

The Commodores are one of the biggest-selling groups of the ’70s and had many of the decade’s best-loved hits, including Three Times A Lady, Sail On, Easy and Still and, in the ’80s, Nightshift, for which they won a Grammy.

They were discovered after supporting the Jackson Five and went on to sell more than 60 million records for their Motown releases alone.

In 2002 they were inducted into the US Hall Of Fame. The gig does not feature former lead singer Lionel Richie.

Mary Wilson was one third of the most successful female singing group in recording history. With the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the Supremes became America’s most prolific hit-makers and helped establish the distinct Motown sound that made the band one of the most influential and successful icons of the ’60s and ’70s.

Martha Reeves is Motown’s ultimate soul diva – she started work as an assistant at the label that made her famous. With The Vandellas she had many hits, including Nowhere To Run, Dancing In The Street, Heatwave and Jimmy Mac.

Today, Martha maintains a dual career alongside the music. Most days will find her serving as a member of the city council for her beloved Detroit, and speaking out as the city’s most vibrant and visible ambassador.

The Miracles were the first Motown group to break through, giving the label its first gold record for selling a million copies. Their hits include Tears Of A Clown, Love Machine and Tracks Of My Tears.

JR Walker’s All Stars are known the world over as the Ultimate Motown Party Band, with a performance of unforgettable, non-stop foot-stomping hits including Road Runner, What Does It Take (To Win Your Love), Walk In The Night and Take Me Girl, I’m Ready.

Motown Legends Live is at the Metro Radio Arena on June 23 next year. Tickets go on sale on Friday.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/what...08/make-way-for-motown-s-best-72703-21984295/

Motown legends tour to mark the 50th anniversary of Tamla Motown

The Commodores, Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves, The Miracles, and more

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Commodores, Mary Wilson of The Supremes, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, The Miracles and Jr. Walker's All Stars have teamed up for a tour to mark the 50th anniversary of Tamla Motown.

Tamla Motown Records was originally based in Detroit, Michigan. Founded by Berry Gordy as Tamla Records in January 1959, the company was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in 1960. The name was derived from the words 'motor town', which is nickname for Detroit.

Motown's soul music played an important part in the racial integration of popular music, as it was the first record label to primarily feature African-American artists who achieved crossover success.

The 'Once in a Lifetime – Motown Legends Live Tour 2009' will be playing the following dates:

Tue 23 June Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne
Wed 24 June Trent FM Arena Nottingham (National Ice Centre), Nottingham Thu 25 June Wembley Arena, London
Fri 26 June National Indoor Arena (NIA), Birmingham
Sat 27 June Manchester Evening News Arena (MEN Arena), Manchester
Sun 28 June Liverpool Echo Arena, Liverpool

Tickets have gone on sale today priced at £37.50. To buy tickets, click here.[/FONT][/FONT]

http://www.egigs.co.uk/index.php?a=12532

Radiance will add Motown sound to Philharmonic


Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2008 4:10 AM EDT
After sell-out its Motown concerts last year, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic brings back the popular sound for the opening of its 37th Pops performances this weekend.

The Philharmonic will pay tribute to the women of Motown when they welcome guest group, Radiance, on Friday at the Scranton Cultural Center and Saturday at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Wilkes-Barre. Both performances begin at 8 p.m.

“The name of the concert, ‘A Night of Motown II’ was chosen specifically to reinforce the quality and excitement of this group since they are a sister group to Spectrum which performed ‘A Tribute to Motown’ and R&B last season with the NEPA Philharmonic,” said Nancy Schmitt Farkas, executive director of the NEPA Philharmonic.

Radiance, a quartet formed specifically to pay tribute to the music of the Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas, the Marvelettes and many other female artists from that musical era, has performed throughout the United States, is becoming hugely popular on the pops symphony circuit and are standouts in their home base, Las Vegas....

Read More >>> http://www.citizensvoice.com/articl...8.t.pg24.cv08_philharmonic_s1.1998281_ent.txt
 
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The Supremes—Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross—opening at the Copacabana in New York City, 1965. Courtesy of Motown Museum.

It Happened in Hitsville
After half a century, and several shelves of books about the revolutionary music label, Motown’s story is still obscured by rumors and misconceptions. Founder Berry Gordy Jr. joins a groundbreaking chorus—Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Suzanne de Passe, and other legends—to give an oral history of the Detroit hitmaking machine, the cultural and racial breakthroughs it inspired, and life at “Hitsville,” as well as a true account of Gordy’s relationship with Diana Ross and the rise of the Supremes.
by Lisa Robinson December 2008

When I was 11 years old I was taking black newspapers into white neighborhoods to sell them, because I liked those newspapers, so I thought other people would like them, too. The first week I sold a lot of papers because I was cute. I took my brother the next week and didn’t sell any. One black kid was cute. Two—a threat to the neighborhood. —Berry Gordy, July 9, 2008.

Callin’ out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat? —“Dancing in the Street,” Martha & the Vandellas.

Motown shaped the culture and did all the things that made the 1960s what they were. So if you don’t understand Motown and the influence it had on a generation of black and white young people, then you can’t understand the United States, you can’t understand America. —Julian Bond, N.A.A.C.P. chairman of the board.

Detroit, Michigan: the two-story building at 2648 West Grand Boulevard looks like an ordinary suburban house—except for the bright-blue hitsville u.s.a. sign above the front porch. The first floor of this national landmark includes a reception area, a room filled with reel-to-reel tape machines and boxes of master tapes, old vending machines filled with candy and cigarettes, a glass-windowed control room, and a recording studio. Studio A, as it is known and preserved in this Motown Historical Museum, was, at the beginning of the 1960s, the room where the Supremes, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, and Stevie Wonder, among others, recorded the hundreds of hits—“Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Heat Wave,” “Nowhere to Run,” “Uptight,” “Bernadette,” “The Tears of a Clown,” “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Shop Around,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “My Girl,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do”—that changed the musical and racial essence of America.

More than 50 books have been written about Motown, its artists, and founder Berry Gordy Jr., including his 1994 autobiography (To Be Loved), in which he attempted to “set the record straight.” And, still, rumors and misconceptions about Motown and Gordy’s story persist. For 50 years now, Gordy, who started the company in 1958 with an $800 loan from his family, has vigorously guarded the Motown legacy—living a private, some might say reclusive life on his enormous Bel Air estate (formerly owned by Red Skelton). A happy, loquacious man who surrounds himself with friends and family—eight children, two ex-wives (his first wife is deceased), 13 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren—Gordy remained mostly silent even when he and some of his artists were angered by the Hollywood movie Dreamgirls. (Gordy states that DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen is “a friend of mine for 40 years and a man of his word,” and Gordy “was satisfied when DreamWorks took out a full-page ad in the trades” apologizing for any implication that Dreamgirls was about Motown, and stating that the true Motown story has yet to be told.) But, according to Motown veterans and those who worked behind the scenes for the label (who still call Berry Gordy “The Chairman” or Mr. Gordy), including Gordy himself, the reality of Motown from 1958 to the end of the 1960s is different from the myth. And, as someone said to Berry Gordy, if the lion does not tell his story, the hunters will.

Born in 1929, Berry Gordy Jr. has been described as brilliant, charismatic, genius, mentor, gambler, philosopher, gangster, ladies’ man, and father figure. At the age of five, Berry, the seventh of eight children, took classical piano lessons from his uncle. As a teenager and then a young man, he worked in his father’s plastering business, sold cookware, served in the Korean War, worked at the Lincoln Mercury assembly plant, and opened and closed an unsuccessful jazz record store. He tried to sell his songs (his very first song, “You Are You,” was written for, and sent blindly to, “Doris Day, Hollywood,” who years later told Berry she never received it) and, eventually, he wrote hits for Barrett Strong (“Money”) and Jackie Wilson (“Lonely Teardrops”).

In the 1950s, Detroit was jumping. Berry listened to Oscar Peterson and Charlie Parker and hung out in nightclubs like the 20 Grand and the Flame Show Bar, where his sister Gwen had the photo concession and he once met Billie Holiday. He was a somewhat successful featherweight boxer, and never forgot the joy in his neighborhood when Joe Louis beat Max Schmeling for the heavyweight championship of the world. “He was black like me,” says Gordy. “I saw the faces of my mother and father and the people in the street, and later I thought, What can I do in my life to make people that happy?” He chose music over boxing (“Both got girls,” he says) and ultimately would start Motown with the help of family members and Smokey Robinson, a young singer-songwriter he met by chance at an audition and who would help put the label on the national map with the No. 1 R&B hit “Shop Around.” For three decades, Motown was, at first, the only major, then the most important, black-owned music company in a business dominated by white-owned record and distribution companies, and, with more than 100 Top 10 hits in its 1960s heyday, it would revolutionize American popular music.

Berry Gordy felt that the differences in people were way less powerful than their similarities. “When I started in music,” he says, “it was for the cops and robbers, the rich and poor, the black and white, the Jews and the Gentiles. When I went to the white radio stations to get records played, they would laugh at me. They thought I was trying to bring black music to white people, to ‘cross over,’ and I said, ‘Wait a minute—it’s not really black music. It’s music by black stars.’ I refused to be categorized. They called my music all kinds of stuff: rhythm and blues, soul.… And I said, ‘Look, my music is pop. Pop means popular. If you sell a million records, you’re popular.’” The slogan of Motown became “the sound of young America,” but, for Gordy, the sound was “rats, roaches, soul, guts, and love.”

The genius of Berry Gordy was that he perceived a vacuum in the musical culture of the nation and he was able to convince young brothers and sisters like me in the black side of town that this was my music, and at the same time convince white brothers and sisters on the other side of town who were listening to the Beach Boys that Motown was also their music. —Dr. Cornel West, Princeton University.

Berry Gordy: I’ve been protecting the [Motown] legacy for 50 years. This music is the soundtrack of people’s lives, and for people all around the world who love this music, who had kids with this music, who were part of making this music, it is my responsibility to not let these people down. I would never let Marvin Gaye’s memory down. But I knew something would come along—like Dreamgirls—which was the result of so many other stories, and people making up stories, that would try and change the history. And after a while, the truth was so obscure. I decided now that it’s the 50th anniversary it’s time to tell the truth and then put it to bed.

Smokey Robinson, lead singer of the Miracles, producer, songwriter, original vice president of Motown: I protested Dreamgirls to the hilt. They’re not going to talk about Berry like that. They’re not going to downplay Motown. They’re not going to take our legacy and make it something negative [for] kids who didn’t grow up with Motown. To make people think this is Motown and make Berry a gangster, no, they’re not going to get away with that shit.

Martha Reeves, lead singer of Martha & the Vandellas (“Heat Wave,” “Nowhere to Run,” “Dancing in the Street”), currently a member of the Detroit City Council: I thought Dreamgirls was a good story, but it had nothing to do with Motown. Motown was more of a nightmare in that we played horrible places on the chitlin circuit, not that dreamland they show in that movie. We played some places that had horse stables in the back with straw on the floor, places where you had to put fire in the wastebasket to keep warm. At the Apollo Theater, when it was raggedy and dingy and dark, before it was renovated, we were in there cooking hot dogs on the lightbulbs. We would eat popcorn and sardines, and drink a lot of water to try to feel full.

Berry Gordy: When Dreamgirls was on Broadway, I didn’t know about it or care much about it—I never saw it. I think the main person they were attacking on that was Diana [Ross], but when they came out with the film, a whole lot of stuff was changed. It was all based on Motown and based on me. I was the central character; it was all untrue. There were no redeeming factors for [the person based on me]—how can you relate that to somebody who has built all these superstars?

(Part 1 of 5 finished)
 
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The Temptations (in mirror, left to right, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin, Otis Williams, David Ruffin, and Eddie Kendricks) prepare for the Gettin’ Ready cover shoot, 1966. By Frank Dandridge/Courtesy of Motown Museum.

Motown was not a normal company. P. Diddy told me he wouldn’t have been able to do what he’s done had it not been for us. But most of them think that I was a gangster, and I have to tell them, “You’re on the wrong track.” People in gangsta rap come up to me and say, “They got Gotti, but they couldn’t get you,” and I say, “Wait a minute—if you think that’s how Motown was built, you’re wrong, because the principles have to be totally different.” The Motown legacy is there to show them—there is another way. —Berry Gordy, May 15, 2008.

Eddie Holland, lyricist of the hitmaking trio Holland-Dozier-Holland, who wrote and produced hundreds of hits for Motown: All of [the owners of] these record companies, especially the independent companies, were buying songs and putting their names on songs that they didn’t write. Berry Gordy did not put his name on songs he did not write. Berry Gordy never did that, would have never done that—it is not in his DNA. His character is much stronger and much more quality than that. It would have been impossible for Motown to develop if Berry Gordy was not an upright kind of a person.

Smokey Robinson: One of the reasons Berry started Motown was because [the distributors] didn’t pay you [for record sales] in those days, especially if you were fledgling. We started Motown so everybody could get paid. And everybody was paid. The beautiful, wonderful, magnificent, incredible thing about Motown was that we began to bombard them with hits. The same distributors who hadn’t paid at first would pay us in advance just to get our records. The disc jockeys would call us and say, “Could we please have the record first?”

Berry Gordy: I did not believe in payola for Motown when people were fighting for my records. Once a disc jockey played “Shop Around,” the phones lit up; that’s how potent it was.

Lionel Richie, lead singer of the Motown group the Commodores and multi-platinum solo recording artist: In the creative world there were a lot of [black] singers. There weren’t a lot of [black] owners. This guy owned the company. Imagine, this is not happening in the 90s. This is happening during the civil-rights movement, during the 1960s—not exactly the greatest land of opportunity for a black businessman. To be a [black] businessman in America then, here’s political correctness: “Yes, sir, no, sir. Yes, ma’am, no, ma’am.” So here’s somebody who’s saying, “Go to hell.” This man took no shit.

Berry Gordy: I never talked to the Mafia, but the rumor was so strong that I was a part of the Mafia that one time the F.B.I. called me down to their office. So when they called me down to the F.B.I. in Detroit, to the division that handles organized crime, well, who wouldn’t be scared? I was concerned, although I knew I wasn’t [involved in] organized crime unless I was being framed, which wasn’t out of the question. They asked me if I was in the Mafia, and I said no. Then they took me to a board and showed me pictures and charts of the Detroit Mafia families. They said, “We’ve been studying you for years, and we cannot find you in any of these charts or families.” And they said either I was the smartest person they knew or I had no ties to the Mafia.

Stevie Wonder, singer, songwriter, producer: Because Berry Gordy owned the company, it was not “tore up from the floor up.” It was something he built. It was not something that somebody else had and passed on to him; it was his and his family’s and all the people who were part of it who built this thing. That alone gives us a sense of pride.

Smokey Robinson: Way before we started Motown, Berry said, “I’m going to work with you and your group,” and he just turned my whole life around. I played him about 20 of my songs, and he critiqued every song. He told me the songs made no sense because I was talking about five different things in one song; the first verse had nothing to do with the second verse, and the second verse had nothing to do with the bridge. He told me a song has got to be a short book, a small movie, or a short story. He taught me how to structure my songs.

Berry Gordy: At Motown, I hired a white salesman to go to the South. I didn’t have pictures of black artists on the record covers until they became big hits. The Isleys had a cover with two white people on the cover. Smokey’s Mickey’s Monkey had a monkey on the cover. No one knew or cared; they thought it was brilliant.

Stevie Wonder: The competition at Motown was not the competition that said, “I don’t like you.” It was more like the Brill Building: it was a challenge to come up with great music, great songs, and to me that was cool. I love Berry to pieces—Berry Gordy was, for my life, a blessing.

Abdul “Duke” Fakir, sole survivor of the original Four Tops (“Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Bernadette,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)”): First thing I did [after our hit] “Baby, I Need Your Loving,” I went to Berry for the advance, because my mama was working as a domestic, and I said I need an advance really bad. Berry said, “What do you need? What for?” I said, “I want to buy my mom a house—she needs it bad.” He said, “How much do you think you need?” I said, “Oh, about $10,000.” He said, “Well, here’s $15,000.” That was the happiest weekend of my life. Bought my mom that house, bought me a Cadillac—powder blue and white.

Otis Williams, sole survivor of the original Temptations (“My Girl,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Cloud Nine”): For the longest time, it was that kind of camaraderie, that kind of family vibe. And old Pop Gordy [Berry’s father] would be there, and he would advise us; when I bought my first home, Pop Gordy came out to my house to make sure I had copper pipes.

Suzanne De Passe, former creative assistant to Berry Gordy, Oscar nominee for screenplay for Lady Sings the Blues, Emmy winner for Motown 25: I was booking bands for the Cheetah nightclub, in New York, and when I told Mr. Gordy that I could never get anyone at Motown to call me back, he said maybe they needed to hire me. They flew me to Detroit, first class, on a seven a.m. flight. I was wearing my little Bonwit Teller suit, had an overnight bag, was picked up at the airport by [Berry Gordy’s] driver in a maroon Fleetwood Cadillac. Then they drove me to Hitsville, and I was horrified; my expectation was that it would be a more opulent, grand building.

Shelly Berger, ran the Los Angeles office of Motown, managed the Supremes and the Temptations: My first trip to Detroit, I wasn’t too crazy about the hotel they put me in—the Lee Plaza. I walked in and said, Are they kidding? They’re trying to impress somebody? They rang me, like November of 1965, and of course the deal [to run the L.A. office] wasn’t made until June of 1966, which is typical of Motown. This is really Motown’s 10th anniversary; it’s just taken us 40 years to celebrate it.

At Hitsville, every Friday morning Berry Gordy would hold a “quality control” meeting for the staff to vote on what records to put out. If you were one minute late, you did not get in. Once even Smokey Robinson was locked out.

Berry Gordy: Motown artists were always punctual. Mostly. Well … not Stevie Wonder.

Suzanne De Passe: I worked there from 1968 until I left, in 1991. And once you work for [Berry Gordy], you never don’t work for him. I think everybody who ever worked for him, even if they don’t still, if they get a call and they can, they’ll be there for him. It’s the pull of his personality and it’s definitely love. As corny as it sounds, that whole family thing is real.

Smokey Robinson: In those early days of Motown, people were outside, lined up for auditions. Like American Idol. Berry is a genius and he’s a very charismatic person, always was. And you can see if you follow his lead, most of the time you’re going to come out on top.

Shelly Berger: You cannot categorize Berry Gordy. Berry Gordy is a leader. Berry Gordy is John Kennedy, Bill Clinton; Berry Gordy can get people to follow him. Motown was like a 1950s MGM musical. Berry Gordy would say, My cousin has a barn—let’s put on a musical. And everybody would follow. He’s got charisma to burn. When Berry Gordy wants to get you, you are got. I don’t care if you come in with a white hood on, you are got.

----
(Part 2 of 5 finished)
 
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The Motortown Revue comes to the Apollo, 1962. Courtsy of Motown Museum.

Duke Fakir: When you signed with Motown, you became part of that family. You’re young and you’re dreaming. We were friends; we played basketball together, we played cards together, we ate together. It wasn’t like, if I got a hit, somebody else ain’t going to get one. Because one after the other, you kept getting hits, and more hits. It just became a wonderful place to make music. There were always sessions going on, 24-7. And the bar just kept getting raised—higher and higher.

Lamont Dozier, along with Eddie and Brian Holland, part of the hitmaking trio Holland-Dozier-Holland: The atmosphere at Motown in the early days was very family-oriented, with the picnics, the company song, the games. But then the competition became fierce, and to stay on top, you had to be on top of your craft.

Suzanne De Passe: There was a great deal of recognition and pride that this music was holding its own against the British Invasion. If you look at the charts when the Beatles were out, the Supremes were right up there. The Four Tops were up there.

Stevie Wonder: I was very excited about being at Motown, being with all those different artists. Martha Reeves was like my big sister.

Smokey Robinson: Berry always made a point of telling us we had to pay our taxes. People think the love at Motown was a myth. People say it could not possibly have been that, and that is exactly what it was, and exactly what it is. When Motown people see each other, there is love in the room.

Berry Gordy: People used to attack me and say it was a conflict of interest: I was the manager, I was the record company, I was the publisher, and I would say, Yes, of course, conflict of interest, but it’s in their favor, you stupid fuck.

Motown taught the artists how to deliver a song in the recording studio and trained them for the stage. The house band—the Funk Brothers—had the extraordinary bassist James Jamerson and drummer Benny Benjamin. Famed choreographer Cholly Atkins was hired to teach dance steps, bandleader Maurice King was the tour conductor, and former actress and modeling-school owner Maxine Powell groomed the acts and showed them how to conduct themselves on- and offstage.

Martha Reeves: None of us was perfect or professional when we first arrived. I was a little boisterous. I might have had a habit of profanity. Maxine Powell had a charm school, and what she came to Motown to teach was self-worth, body language, how you should be at all times photographable.

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Berry Gordy and Diana Ross in Las Vegas, circa 1966. By Robert Gordy Jr./Courtesy of Motown Museum.

Maxine Powell, head of the (now closed) Maxine Powell Finishing and Modeling School: Most of the artists were rude and crude and speaking the street language when I met them. Diana Ross and the Supremes thought they knew what direction they wanted to go in. They said they were sophisticated when they got to Motown, but that was not true; sophistication takes years, and young people are not sophisticated. The Supremes were acting snooty, especially Diana Ross. I taught her [about] being gracious and classy, because classy will turn the heads of kings and queens.

Smokey Robinson: I don’t care who you were or who you became, two days a week you had artist development. Marvin Gaye, me, the Supremes, the Temptations.

Duke Fakir: Everyone was scheduled to go to those classes; we were scheduled about three times a week. But they used to call us rebels—we probably went six times in two or three years.

Maxine Powell: I told them they had to be trained to appear in the No. 1 places around the country and even before the Queen of England and the president of the United States. Those youngsters looked at me and said, That woman is crazy: all I want is a hit record.

It was December 27, 1964. I was 10 years old, and I tuned in to watch The Ed Sullivan Show.… It was a moment that changed my life. —Oprah Winfrey, on seeing the Supremes on TV.

Diane Ross (later Diana), Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson were three teenagers from Detroit’s Brewster Projects in a group called the Primettes, who sang backup for the Temptations. They hung around Motown, eventually got signed, were supported by the label for four years before they had a hit, and became Motown’s most commercially successful and biggest international act with No. 1 singles such as “Baby Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” and “Back in My Arms Again.” When Florence Ballard’s drinking caused problems within the group, she was replaced by Cindy Birdsong, and in time, Diana Ross went solo. And while it may not have been public, it was common knowledge within the Motown family that Diana and Berry were lovers (and that he was the father of Rhonda, one of Diana’s three daughters).

Berry Gordy: Diana Ross was just as cute as she could be. We gave her a job for the summer, and everybody loved her in the company—she was the sweetheart of Motown. She was just so innocent. Ed Sullivan loved her. She was the personality of the group—the big eyes and all. And she was incredible with her showmanship; she was the magic in the group.

Smokey Robinson: There were so many talented kids in our neighborhood: Diana lived four doors down from me; Aretha Franklin lived around the corner—I’ve known her since I’m six years old. The Temptations lived across the avenue. Diana and I dated for a while … long before she got with Berry.… I love her. I know her since she was 10 or 11, so she doesn’t diva me. We love each other.

Stevie Wonder: I loved Diana Ross’s voice. And I had a crush on her; when I came to Motown, she walked me around the building and showed me different things—she was wonderful.

Martha Reeves: I love Ross. That’s what I call her—Ross. When I first got to Hitsville, [the Supremes] weren’t old enough to get in clubs, and sometimes we’d slip her in; I’d pick her up in my car. I sort of took her under my wing.

Suzanne De Passe: Once I was with Cindy Birdsong at the Essex House in New York and the elevator stopped and the doors opened, and there, in a Pucci dress, holding her Maltese puppy, with a Sassoon wig and shoes covered in the same material as the Pucci dress, was the breathtaking Diana Ross—more glamorous than any human thing I’d ever seen in my life. And I stood on the sidewalk and watched Diana get into her own limousine and watched Cindy and Mary get into their limousine together and off they went. I stood there like the poor little match girl, thinking, one day …

Berry Gordy: It’s very clear why I fell in love with Diana—because she was my star, and she came from the bottom up. With her it was not only fun, it was just like heaven working with her because she would surpass anything … and she always kept her self-esteem. She always told me, “If you think it, I can do it.” And she did.

Lamont Dozier: We were working for the Marvelettes until that fateful day when [Marvelette] Gladys Horton did not want to record “Where Did Our Love Go.” I gave the track to the “no-hit Supremes,” who did record the song, which turned out to be the first No. 1 out of 12 No. 1s for the group.

Eddie Holland: After “Where Did Our Love Go” became a hit, [the director of sales] said we have to keep these girls hot. They’re the flagship of this company, because they’re spreading over to such a wide audience.

Smokey Robinson: Diana Ross was the most hardworking, most diligent student at artist development. Everybody else would be gone and she would still be there. Diana Ross wanted to be … Diana Ross.

Shelly Berger: The bigger [the Supremes] got, the more difficult it was for Florence. She was drunk; she was missing shows; she was detrimental to the group.

Berry Gordy: It just came time when it was best for them to split up. I don’t really remember my part in that—I was always objective. The fact that I went with Diana Ross—she never took advantage of that and I never gave her an advantage. She didn’t want any favors; she wanted to do what was right. If she got more attention at Motown, it was because she was good; it was all about the work. That’s why we broke up. We always said [we would] if [the relationship] came in the way of her work. I knew she wanted to be a superstar.

Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration, aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation—ball of confusion … that’s what the world is today. —“Ball of Confusion,” the Temptations.

To some in the turbulent 1960s, Motown was, as Otis Williams says, “a soothing ointment to a troubled soul.” To others, it was seductive pop music—more sophisticated and accessible to a white audience than the raw, gritty sounds of Stax Records or James Brown. It was infiltration; the hits were all over the radio, and the stars were on The Ed Sullivan Show and at the Copacabana. The Beatles covered the Berry Gordy compositions “Money” and “Do You Love Me.” And the Motortown Revue (the Temptations, Martha & the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Supremes, the Four Tops) got on a bus and set off across America, into a still-segregated South, where they encountered racial unrest, protest marches, and violence. When the Temptations first performed in some southern states in the mid-1960s, a rope down the middle of the audience separated blacks from whites; by the time the Temptations returned in 1968—five years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recorded his “I Have a Dream” speech for Motown’s Black Forum label—that rope was gone.

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(Part 3 of 5 finished)
 
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Berry Gordy and Stevie Wonder listen to a tape. By Joe Flowers/Courtesy of Motown Museum; digital colorization by Lorna Clark.

Berry Gordy: For black people, bigotry was a fact of life. We grew up with that—that’s why Diana and I started calling each other “Black.” No one wanted to be called black at that time—“black” was considered a negative word in the 60s among the people we knew. This was before black was beautiful. People said “Negro.” But I said, “A word is a word, and I want ‘black’ to mean love.” Diana called me “Black” and I called her “Black.” We wanted people to be proud of being black.

Stevie Wonder: I was eager when I was told that I’d go out on tour, but the excitement was sort of cut short by the fact that there was a performance in Alabama and the [groups] were on the bus—can’t remember who it was—and I heard that [someone] shot at the bus. It scared me. It was a scary situation.

Martha Reeves: I had a shotgun put in my face. I was trying to get off the bus to use the restroom. He was right there with the gun, saying, “Don’t another one of you niggers get off that bus.” We said, “We want to use the restroom.” And he said, “You better get out of here.” One of the guys said, “I’m Bobby Rogers of the Miracles. Don’t you know about the Miracles?” And he says, “Get back on that bus,” called the sheriff, says, “These niggers are trying to take over my filling station.” He didn’t know we were down there to make music, not war. He thought, because there’s a bunch of black people on the bus, we were Freedom Riders.

Otis Williams: We went to places in the South where they would tell us, “We don’t serve niggers. You can’t eat here, can’t use the bathroom.” We’d have to go back out, get on the bus, the bus would have to go down the road and everybody had to go out into the bushes. The Four Tops and us had to watch each other; when the Tops was on, the Temps would stand on the side of the stage with bats or whatever. I didn’t take guns with me, but some of the Tops did.

Martha Reeves: We took our baths and showers mostly in Greyhound bus stations and train stations. That’s how we kept clean. But [later on] when we got to the venues and we started singing, people would change, attitudes would change. Once we got in there and sang the music, people would turn into warm human beings, as opposed to people putting the dogs on you and chasing you around with billy clubs.

Shelly Berger: After I started managing the Temptations, when they toured in the South, I had a clause in our contract that if the audience was not integrated we didn’t have to play and we had to get paid.

Martha Reeves: There was a time when guards stood in front of the stages with clubs, and whether it was a white person or a black person, if they got up to intermingle in the audience, they’d club them. Then Smokey Robinson, who would open the show, said, “Wait a minute—I want you guards to stand back. This is good music, it’s dance music, and people are going to get excited, but they’re not going to fight or cause any harm to one another. So don’t hit another person with those sticks.” He stood up for us, and I love him forever for that.

Smokey Robinson: In Detroit you could not go into the white areas unless you proved you worked for somebody. But the kids in those areas would write us letters: “We’ve got your music, we love your music, we’re so glad you’re making music, but our parents don’t know we have it, because they’d make us get rid of it.” A year or so down the line, we’re getting letters from the parents: “Our kids turned us on to your music. We’re so glad you’re in business; your music is so uplifting.”

Edna Anderson-Owens, Berry Gordy’s administrative assistant in 1972, currently co-C.E.O. of the Gordy Company: I had come out of the civil-rights movement, had come from the South. I never thought of [Motown] as just being a record company, even as an entertainment company. It was more than an entertainment company. In a sense it replaced the civil-rights movement for me; it became another movement. It became more of a cause.

In 1967, Holland-Dozier-Holland wanted to leave Motown for another label a year before their contract was up. Berry Gordy sued the trio for $4 million. HDH countersued for $22 million. The nasty lawsuits and countersuits went on for more than 30 years before they ended, in 2004.

Berry Gordy: I love these guys and they love me, but they obviously wanted to get away so bad and do their thing. All my people said, “Just give them a few thousand dollars and the case is over.” My legal fees were astronomical, but I said, “No, I cannot settle this for anything”—it [would] mean they were right.

Eddie Holland: Berry Gordy was paying artists, producers, and writers when most companies, including the majors, were not doing so. We were making more money than our peers were making. By far. But [later], you get lawyers involved, and it took on a life of its own.

Berry Gordy: Harold Noveck was my tax attorney, and his brother Sidney was my accountant. Anytime we got in any trouble we didn’t worry about anything, because [the Novecks] would spend a thousand dollars to find a penny. The books had to balance, all the time. So whenever I would sue somebody or someone would say the artist didn’t get paid, I’d say, “Hey, you’re barking up the wrong tree.” In order to protect the legacy, if somebody would tell an outright lie, I would sue them and I would always win, because the truth will win if you can afford to fight for it.

Shelly Berger: I used to refer to the Noveck brothers as the Malach Hamovis—that’s Yiddish for the Angels of Death. They were very, very conservative. Since Motown’s fiscal year was on the calendar year, December 31 was the end of the fiscal year, and each year I’d book the Supremes in some great place where we could all go for Christmas and New Year’s and bring our families—whether it was Tahoe or Miami. Then the Noveck brothers would show up on December 26 to tell Berry Gordy, “You’re going to lose everything and you’re insolvent.” So … for four days we’re living in absolute misery, because the Malach Hamovis had come.

Lamont Dozier: The lawsuit was just our way of taking care of business that needed to be taken care of—just like Berry had to take care of his business which resulted in the lawsuit. Business is business, love is love.

Eddie Holland: Think in terms of a family member that you have a disagreement with. It was a molehill turning into a mountain. He’s a fighter, I’m a fighter, and so, through the lawyers, we fought for many, many years, and he wouldn’t bend and I wouldn’t bend. That’s what happens when you get two bulls locking horns. But the love never left.

Brother, brother … there’s far too many of you dying. —“What’s Going On,” Marvin Gaye.

Marvin Gaye started out at Motown as a drummer who wanted to sing Sinatra-style ballads. Ultimately, he had R&B-styled and pop hits and became Motown’s sex symbol.

Berry Gordy: Marvin had a divided soul. He looked upon me as a father figure and friend, but he wanted to have his own independence, and he would disagree with you all the time just for the sake of disagreeing. At the same time, he was a pure, wonderful, spiritual person who was looking for truth, honesty, and love. But I had major fights with Marvin Gaye because he did not think it was legal to have to pay taxes. He was convinced that it was not lawful, and I said, “Well, I don’t want to debate that with you, Marvin, but I do know if you don’t pay your taxes, you’re going to jail.”

Eddie Holland: Marvin was quick, easy to work with. He had a magnificent ear. He had a magnificent talent. He was the only artist I’ve ever worked with in my life that could hear me sing the song one time and say, “O.K., give it here.”

Berry Gordy: I heard the album [What’s Going On], and I thought it was really meaningful, but he was a pop singer, and I told him, “Marvin, think about your great image that you built up: do you really want to talk about police brutality?” I could see he had pain and passion and he wanted to awaken the minds of men. He said, “B.G., you gotta let me do this,” and I was really hesitant. Not for me, but for him. I didn’t want his career to be gone. I said, “O.K., Marvin, but if it doesn’t work, you’ll learn something, and if it does work, I’ll learn something.” So I learned something.

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(Part 4 of 5 finished)
 
ABC—easy as 1-2-3. —“ABC,” the Jackson 5.

The Jackson 5 were five brothers—Jackie, Jermaine, Tito, Marlon, and lead singer Michael, who was nine years old at the time—from Gary, Indiana, who had been seen at the Apollo Amateur Night in New York City by Motown musician Bobby Taylor [of the Vancouvers] and drove with their father, Joe Jackson, to Detroit to try to get an audition with Berry Gordy.

Suzanne De Passe: I was in my apartment at 1300 East Lafayette Street in Detroit—where many of the Motown artists lived—and Bobby Taylor called up and asked me to come down to his apartment, he wanted me to see something. I said no; I wasn’t about to go to a man’s apartment. But he said, “Come on,” so I did, and he opened the door and there were all these kids sort of strewn across his living room. He clapped his hands and went, “O.K., everybody, this is Suzanne de Passe and she works for Berry Gordy and you need to sing for her because she can get you the audition.” They sang and I was blown away. So the next day I told Mr. Gordy on the phone what I’d seen. And I said, “I think you should sign them. These kids—” And he said, “Kids? I don’t want any kids. You know how much trouble it is with Stevie Wonder and the teachers, and when you’re a minor you have to have a special chaperone, and court approval of the contract, and it is a problem.” So he said no. I had to really muster up all my courage to go back to him and say, “Really, I don’t think you can afford not to see these kids.” Finally he agreed to see them.

Lionel Richie: Suzanne’s assignment was to take this new group called the Jackson 5 out on tour, and she was looking for an opening act. They set up an audition at Lloyd Price’s Turntable, and she came in and basically saw the Commodores play. I was the novelty singer—I only did two songs: “Wichita Lineman” and “Little Green Apples.” We got the gig, but what helped us tremendously was they allowed us to be in the room with them while Suzanne was briefing them on how to deliver their stage show; it was the education of life. She had to teach them how to put their place settings on the table so when they ate with royalty they would know how to do the silverware. You got the etiquette course while you got the singing and dancing. What I learned most was whatever you do, if you sing, dance, juggle, whatever it is, you do it in the first song. Because they may not stick around for the second one.

Suzanne De Passe: The extraordinary part for me was to be a witness to the incredible impact that the Jackson 5 had on the public and the public had on them. When we started out we could go everywhere—we could go shopping, we could go get hamburgers, we could go to rehearsal. And within a very short time we were mobbed and could go nowhere.

Lionel Richie: This little kid [Michael] did everything in the first song. I kept waiting for Suzanne to tell me what the real secret was, that Michael was a midget, because it couldn’t be anything else. Then I realized, That’s a real 12-year-old kid. I would watch him play with water balloons backstage, anything that kids do, and then he’d walk onstage and turn into this full-grown entertaining monster.

Suzanne De Passe: I had no mechanism to measure the magnitude of what I was doing. I was killing myself working, but I was responsible for everything with the Jackson 5—except the records—for what was to become one of the most seminal groups to influence young black kids ever.

Smokey Robinson: I’ve known Michael since he was 10 or 11. He is the best who ever did it. The singing and the dancing and the records—the whole package. But somewhere … he just got lost. It’s easy to do.

By the end of the 1960s, Berry Gordy felt he’d done everything he could do in Detroit, and with an eye toward movies and television, he relocated Motown to Los Angeles. Some—Suzanne, Smokey, Diana, Stevie—followed him. Others, back in Detroit, felt betrayed. Acts eventually left for other labels, among them Marvin, the Jacksons, and, after starring in the Gordy-produced, five-time-Oscar-nominated Lady Sings the Blues and the Gordy-directed Mahogany, Diana Ross. New artists joined the label, but it was never the same, and by 1988, Berry Gordy was tapped out financially and drained emotionally. Told by the Noveck brothers that he was insolvent, millions of dollars in debt, he sold the Motown name, record catalogue, master recordings, and artists’ contracts to MCA Records for $61 million. (Five years later, Polygram bought it from MCA for $325 million.) In 1997, Gordy sold one-half of his Jobete publishing company to EMI for $132 million, and in 2003 and 2004 he sold the other half to EMI for a total of $188 million. After initial reluctance, Stevie Wonder, who had a clause in his contract that gave him the right to approve or block any sale of Motown, finally gave Gordy his blessing but, to this day, is a recording artist on the Motown label, now a part of the Universal Music Group

Stevie Wonder: We just had to work [the business] out, but I stayed at Motown because, more than any other company, they gave me my freedom. Because they knew me, and Berry loved me and I loved him.

Edna Anderson-Owens: The Motown music spoke to every walk of life. Motown was colorless. And the whole Motown thing was not heavy-handed or hard-hitting—it was very subtle, because you were seeing people in beautiful gowns with beautiful behavior. It was another kind of thing that came through. Anytime there’s somebody successful and representing you well, you’re proud.

Smokey Robinson: When I saw that Motown was beating Berry up and beating him down, and he was getting these calls from the black leaders telling him not to sell—“It’s our heritage”—well, he’s my best friend, fuck Motown. I went to him and told him to sell this sucker and go buy your island. An island with a moat. And surround your island with warriors. And dare somebody to call you and even ask you about a record.

Stevie Wonder: Motown brought people together; it had this infectious kind of music, and before you knew it you were clapping along to it and rocking to it, and the songs were all positive. Even if you had a love song, there was something to learn from it.

Berry Gordy: Motown educated people through song. You have no control over your emotions when you hear a song—it makes you dance, makes you sing, makes you happy, sad. We just wanted to do music for the world. Motown is a magical something that has never been seen before and will never be seen again. Because the world has changed for the worse. And to have a company like that is probably impossible now. It was too simple to be believed.

Edna Anderson-Owens: I wanted [Motown] to be respected throughout the world for what it is. I’m very proud to say I’ve been involved with this. It’s like I had an opportunity to walk with Dr. King; it has such great meaning throughout the world. It ultimately satisfied my quest for being a proud black person.

Martha Reeves: You can’t really have a good house party unless you play some Motown.

Lisa Robinson is a Vanity Fair contributing editor and music writer.

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(Part 5 of 5 finished)
 
I just finished 2 0f 5, need a snack before I read the rest, lol. Nice read.
 
Video: HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY MOTOWN

The history, stories and stars of Motown's 50 years


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A new video will premiere on freep.com each Monday, Wednesday and Friday until they hit 50.

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Motown Celebrates the 50Th Anniversary Of The Music That Changed the World


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January 12th, 2009 Marks the 50th Anniversary of Motown – Yearlong Celebration Kicks Off
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  • Motown Montage
  • Clips from: The Miracles
  • Shop Around
  • Gladys Knight
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  • Please Mr. Postman
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http://www.prnewswire.com/broadcast/36548/press.html
 
There is something magical about Motown that 50 years on still takes your breath. No other record company could do what Motown did in 10 short years.
 
Gordy about why he did not want to have the young Jacksons at first: He said Stevie Wonder and his mother were "not easy" and cause of that he did not want any other child.
Oh, wow, Stevie must have been a wild child.
 
^^ Stevie wasn't that wild, lol. He just didn't let blind stop him from doing what he wanted. :lol: He also told the original Supremes to finish high school before auditioning for Motown again, they didn't listen. :lol:
 
Thanx a lot for the articles, links, and pictures-MsMo, Jamal(troubleman).

In other words, Stevie tried hard to do his own thing and made it, which is admirable.
 
These Are the Breaks: The Motown Sound's Influence on Hip-Hop Sampling

Calling Out Around the World: Motown Turns 50

by John Bohannon

For any influential group in the hip-hop game, specifically in the early 1990s, Motown's stamp of approval and its variety of subsidiaries were undeniably influential.

Talking about the art of sampling without including Motown is like talking about soul music without Otis Redding or rock ‘n’ roll without Elvis—it just doesn’t quite complete the puzzle. The house that Berry Gordy built has been integral to the conception of hip-hop, its implementation of sampling, and the growth patterns of a music that advanced the urban streets of New York and slowly but surely took over the streets of the world.

While sampling has held its niche in the underground of hip-hop, legal problems have forced it out to the forefront, unless an artist with stature like Kanye West or Q-Tip takes the time to get his samples cleared. For any influential group in the hip-hop game, specifically in the early 1990s, Motown’s stamp of approval and its variety of subsidiaries were undeniably influential. Everyone from alternative groups such as A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, to critical darlings like Common and the Roots, to mainstreamers like Tupac and Biggie have all had their hands in Hitsville U.S.A. This is partly due to the volume of records Gordy’s empire was pressing by the late ‘60s—enough for every beat digger to get his fair share of obscure breaks.

Although said obscure breaks often dominate, some of Motown’s best sellers would go on to provide the foundation for some of the most well known breaks. If it was a big seller the first time around, might as well try it again, right? The originators of mainstream hip-hop, Run DMC, found chops in the Temptations’ classic “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, while Public Enemy used some of the band’s lesser known cuts, such as “Psychedelic Shack” and “I Can’t Get Next to You”. There are a number of reasons why these prominent hip-hop artists found comfort in the grooves of the Motown sound.

For one, Motown always stuck to the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) philosophy. One of the most important aspects of a legendary break comes from its ability to be used in repetition; if it becomes too complex, then it is less likely to work its way into the mind of its listeners. A strong backbeat begets an optimum break, and Motown had strong backbeats in spades. The Motown Sound always revolved around the backbeat of drummers like William “Benny” Benjamin, Richard “Pistol” Allen, and Uriel Jones to carry everything else forward, and it was typically accented by Jack Ashford’s tambourine and the rhythmic basslines carried by the legendary index finger of James Jamerson.

The collective of musicians known as the Funk Brothers forever changed the face of music up until Motown’s move from Detroit to Los Angeles in the early ‘70s. Both throughout their heyday and through the art of sampling, the Funk Brothers’ style of layering several guitar lines atop a syncopated drummer affords their records a sound unlike anyone else’s.

When sampling drums, the feel and volume are of utmost importance—this is why John Bonham has always been one of the legendary sampled drummers. Though Benjamin, Allen, and Jones didn’t pound the kit, they played it with a pure finesse that, when syncopated with an overdub of the same break, truly comes to life. For example, the drums on the Four Tops’ classic “Reach Out I’ll Be There” are crisp and at the front of the mix, something that legendary producer Norman Whitfield had a golden ear for.

The orchestral arrangements used to elaborate many of the classics on Motown became another backbone in the hip-hop sound. Providing atmospheres to a beat unlike any guitar or bass could ever achieve, the sweet sound of strings layered behind thick beats led an entire new generation of hip-hoppers to different sonic territory. Elements like the string arrangements on Motown records, the horn arrangements that followed James Brown, and the sparseness found in jazz contemporaries such as Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus, and Sonny Rollins helped put hip-hop on a new scale. It allowed the beats to take on a life of their own, creating atmospheres to get lost in behind the lyrics. This may have been what opened up a world of beat records and gave labels like Stones Throw a lifelong supply of influence. It was about getting past drums alone and into a world of atmospheres where the beats no longer needed lyrics to be a creative force.

While we could go into a book-long discussion on the quintessential samples used by artists of Motown songs and artists, that could become irrelevant to a certain extent. What’s important to realize is how the aesthetic territory explored by the Funk Brothers, Whitfield, Gordy, and the wonderful recording artists for the beloved Detroit label and its subsidiaries influenced the aesthetic process in the world of sampling. The sonic territory explored in the Motown lab is a cornerstone in the similar territory explored decades later by a new generation of African-American innovators.

For one, the late J Dilla, producer of classics by A Tribe Called Quest, the Pharcyde, and countless other underground icons, is a man of Detroit blood and holds the sounds of Motown near and dear to his heart and sound. It may not have been his samples per say, but his aesthetic approach is very similar to that of the Motown Sound. His beats have always been based on the K.I.S.S. method, and his drums always crisp (even when they were raw-sounding drums).

Motown will forever stand on its own as a timeless entity in the realm of popular music. For a younger generation, knowing about Gordy’s legacy may not be at the top of one’s priority list. But for a generation of hip-hoppers that have been exposed to the music of Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, et al through a new styling of music suited to their tastes, the sound of the cut-up beat is one that sends them headlong into a world of wax. Through this, they are exposed to a sound unlike any other, a sound that is gracing the radio each and every day and staying relevant through a new medium—one method sustaining another.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/featur...-motown-sounds-influence-on-hip-hop-sampling/

Manufacturing Motown

Calling Out Around the World: Motown Turns 50

Like the nameplates on the auto industry's productive output, Motown's headline acts were brand identities under which cultural commodities were sold.

For kids like me growing up in the 1960s in a working-class suburb of Detroit, the music of Motown was more than just something you tuned into while flipping through the radio dial. It was a source of major civic pride—“The Sound of Young of America” emanating from the Motor City to rule the national airwaves like the muscle cars that reigned on streets like Woodward Avenue, the main drag that bisects the metropolitan area from the foot of the Detroit River downtown up to the city of Pontiac 20 miles to the north...

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/69384-manufacturing-motown
 
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Motown, one of the greatest things ever to happen to music!!!
 
I recently saw Michael jumping around with his cute afro on TV and I jumped off my chair in exitment! :D He sang I Want You Back in the commercial


Lol, and right now as Im writing this there's another commercial on TV were theyre using ABC. :rolleyes: :cool:
 
This one's for you Troubleman :cheeky:

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What's Going On: Marvin Gaye's Liberation from the Motown Sound

by Charles Moss

When Obie Benson of the Four Tops brought him a song he had co-written with Al Cleveland, Marvin Gaye found something that had reflected the way he had been feeling ever since Tammi Terrell's death -- anger, sadness, and disillusionment about his friend's death and the chaotic world around him.

Berry Gordy, Jr., head of the Motown Record Corporation, ran a tight ship. As much as the music was the soul of the business, the business was the soul of the music. From 1961 to 1971, Motown had 110 Top Ten hits. Artists such as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, and the Supremes contributed to the label’s success. It was Marvin Gaye, though, who had become Motown’s number-one male recording artist in the 1960s.

Motown’s success was built upon a certain musical foundation. “The Motown Sound”, as it was officially called and trademarked, was a brand of soul music with a distinctive pop music influence. It included several signature elements ranging from prominent electric basslines to the use of various orchestral sections and a gospel-style singing treatment with a lead and back-up singers.
As much as Gaye had helped develop and popularize this sound, he began to feel stagnant in his musical role at Motown. By the late ‘60s, Gordy’s assembly line-like production took a toll on the artist.

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What's Going On

(Tamla/Motown; US: 21 May 1971; UK: Import)

Though he had recorded plenty of duets throughout the decade with other leading female artists at Motown (Mary Wells and Kim Weston, most notably), it was his work with Tammi Terrell that proved to be the most powerful. Songs like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Your Precious Love”, and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” defined the famous duo’s relationship; at least, that was the rumor.

When Terrell collapsed into Gaye’s arms during a concert in 1967, it was the beginning of a three-year bout with a brain tumor, resulting in her death in 1970. Gaye had watched his friend slowly wither away. When she died, it sent him spiraling into a deep depression. He refused to record or perform and spent most of the time alone, confined to his home.

Terrell’s death, however, would become something of a catalyst for Gaye’s artistic reinvention. Through television news broadcasts, Gaye saw the racial, political, and social problems that were plaguing the world, manifestations from the explosion of political and social activism that took place during the late ‘60s. As he wallowed in his seclusion, Gaye read letters from his brother Frankie serving in the Vietnam War. They described the confusion and frustration he and other soldiers felt fighting in a war that had no just cause. Many black soldiers at the time felt doubly conflicted, drafted to fight and die for a country that refused to accept them because of the color of their skin. These observations, along with the loss of Terrell, motivated Gaye to question his role in the world and at Motown.

Gordy set a high standard for his musicians and singers at Motown and was strict about quality control. For those artists who desired a bigger role within the music recording process, this meant limited creativity beyond the prescribed Motown Sound. Gaye, on the other hand, had an ever-growing desire to fully produce his music. Though he often collaborated with his producers and other musicians, offering suggestions on how to improve the songs, he yearned for the creative control that the role of producer would entitle him.

When Obie Benson of the Four Tops brought Gaye a song he had co-written with Al Cleveland, a songwriter at Motown, he found something that had reflected the way he had been feeling ever since Terrell’s death—anger, sadness, and disillusionment about his friend’s death and the chaotic world around him. After Gaye read the lyrics to “What’s Going On”, Benson urged Gaye to record the song himself. Upon agreement, Gaye collaborated with the two songwriters and eventually took complete creative control of the song’s production.

“What’s Going On” was recorded in Motown’s Studio A on June 1, 1970. Gaye enlisted Motown’s now-famous studio musicians, the Funk Brothers, to record his altered version of Benson’s song. But instead of hanging back in the control room, as most producers do, Gaye intermingled with the musicians, playing piano and creating new sounds. He brought in Chet Forest, who was known for his experience in the realm of the big band genre, to assist with the musical arrangement, as well as an assortment of percussionists playing everything from conga to woodblocks. Gaye even beat on a cardboard box with a pair of drumsticks to create a more hollow percussion sound. The result was unlike anything else in the Motown catalog.

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Gordy refused to release it. Claiming the song was too political and too weird to be released as a Motown single, he was convinced the song would never become a hit. After all, it didn’t fit into the Motown Sound formula. Gaye, in response, refused to record any more songs for Motown until the company released it as a single. Eventually, Gordy gave in and the song “What’s Going On” was released in January 1971.

The finished product was a mix of Gaye’s intuitive genius, sheer stubbornness, and happy accidents. The first was the accidental recording of an alto sax warm-up. It happened to be just the sound Gaye was looking for as the song’s introduction. The second was the accidental mono playback of a two-track tape, each with a different vocal recording. The two tracks were played at the same time instead of separately for comparison purposes as Gaye had originally requested. Gaye liked what he heard so much that he used this technique as a trademark of his music.
Instead of the usual three back-up singers Motown often required, Gaye enlisted a background chorus to support his own soul-dripping voice as he walked around the studio, mike in hand, taking in as much of the magic in the room as he could. When it was released, the single quickly rose to the top of the charts. Gordy immediately called on Gaye for an accompanying album.

Though Gaye had an idea of what he wanted for the rest of the album, he wasn’t anywhere near finished writing the remaining songs for it. With the help of Benson, Cleveland, and a few other Motown songwriters, Gaye finished writing the other eight songs, enough for a complete album. After the initial recording, arranger David Van DePitte helped Gaye take the separate pieces of voice, instruments, and studio effects and compile them into a consistent and revolutionary album full of beauty and concept.
The songs of What’s Going On are told from the point of view of a black soldier returning home from fighting in a white man’s war. It is an unrecognizable America, filled with racial violence and uprisings, political strife and protests. The album is a question-inducing commentary about change, love, and hate.

As songs such as “Save the Children”, “Flyin’ High (In the Friendly Sky)”, and “What’s Happening, Brother” seamlessly flow together as one musical journey, they describe much more than falling in love, hanging on to love or losing love. In fact, many of them aren’t about love at all, at least not the romantic kind of love that Gaye had so often sung about in Motown’s earlier days. The songs on this album describe a realistically bleak world in which death and violence occurs but where hope hangs on—but just barely. The album begs the question, “Who really cares?” It was a complete slap in the face to the pre-packaged feel-good vibes of Gordy’s Motown Sound.

The cover of the album is a starkly lit close-up of a bearded Gaye wearing a black vinyl raincoat in the rain. His semi-smiling face stares toward the distance; a look of subtle confidence perfectly captures the tone of the album, but even more so, the way Gaye felt while making it. It was a dramatically different piece of cover art for Motown, much different than the superficial poses so characteristic of Motown’s usual material. It was a simple yet powerful image so pure that it exposed the truth in Gaye’s eye, the truth that couldn’t be ignored. Gaye had found himself and had set himself free.

The album produced two more hit singles, “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” and “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”. Instead of quickly fading away as Motown albums often did, What’s Going On stayed on the charts for over a year and sold over two million copies by the end of 1972. It was not only the first Motown album to list its session musicians—the Funk Brothers—in the liner notes, but it was also the first Motown album that could not be simply categorized as “soul” or “R&B”.

Though later songs such as “Let’s Get It On” and “Sexual Healing” have defined Gaye as a sex-inducing, sultry-dipped crooner for millions of horny men, his album What’s Going On offered a truer definition of Gaye—the musical genius and revolutionary who broke free from the Motown Sound.



Marvin Gaye -

What’s Going On / What’s Happening, Brother

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/special/section/calling-out-around-the-world-motown-turns-50/
 
if anyone's familiar with the genius Stones Throw dj/producer Madlib, he made one of the best sets in celebration of M50, for BBC's 1Xtra radio:


Madlib, Kon & Amir - The 1Xtra All Star Mix Show - 3rd August 2008

Madlib's Mix

MARTHA REEVES - Anyone Who Had A Heart
EDDIE KENDRICKS - Intimate Friends
THE TEMPTATIONS - I'm A Bachelor
GROVER WASHINGTON - Loran's Dance
THE JACKSON 5 - Sing A Simple Song
MICHAEL JACKSON - People Make The World Go 'Round
THE TEMPTATIONS - Runaway Child Runnin' Wild
TAMMI TERRELL - Come On And See Me
THE JACKSON 5 - Little Bitty Pretty One
FOUR TOPS -Still Water
UNDISPUTED TRUTH - Brother Louie
WILLIE HUTCH - Sunshine Lady
SUPREMES - Oh be my love
SUPREMES - Now the Bitter, Now the Sweet
STEVIE WONDER - Tuesday Heartbreak
SYREETA - Baby Don't You Let Me Lose This
Light My Fire
Light My Fire
Light My Fire
ELAINE BROWN - I Know Who You Are
ELAINE BROWN - Child in the world
JERMAINE JACKSON- Castles of sand
EDDIE KENDRICKS - Girl You Need A Change Of Mind
THE MIRACLES - Do It Baby
THE SUPREMES - Its time to breakdown
UNDISPUTED TRUTH - I Saw You When You Met Her ??
That crazy break beat! ??
JACKSON 5 - Is great to be here
MARVIN GAYE - Too busy thinking about my baby
JACKIE JACKSON - Is It Him Or Me
THE CRUSADERS - Listen and you'll see
THE COMMODORES - Funny Feelings
UNDISPUTED TRUTH - Walk on by
THE COMMODORES - Unknown
RICK JAMES - Fire It Up
STEVIE WONDER - Think Of Me As Your Soldier
STEVIE WONDER - Look Around
THE MARVELETTES - My Baby Must Be A Magician
RARE EARTH -Get Ready
EDWIN STARR - Easin' In
THE TEMPTATIONS (breakbeat)
THE TEMPTATIONS -Can't get next to you
STEVIE WONDER - Rocket Love
YVONNE FAIR - Let Your Hair Down
STEVIE WONDER - You can't judge a book by its cover
RICK JAMES - Cold Blooded
GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS - If I Were Your Woman
FOUR TOPS - I'll Be There

Amir’s Mix

KENI BURKE/ keep on singing
MANDISA/ summer love
WEE/ try me
EXIT/ detroit leanin
FRED PRESCOTT AND THE JEFF BAND/ come fly with me
FIVE SPECIAL/ the more i get to know you pt 2
THE UNIT BAND/ the groove
JAMES KNOX/ let the music move ya
BACKYARD CONSTRUCTION/ i want your lovin
FRANK EDDIE/ together

Kon’s Mix

JAMES AND BOBBY PURIFY-"I'm Your Puppet"-Bell Records
LEE MOSES-"Time and Place"-Front Page Records
LEE DORSEY-" A Lover Was Born"-AMY Records
PLEASURE WEB-"Music Man Part 2"-Eastbound Records
JULIUS BROCKINGTON AND THE MAGIC FORCE-"This Feeling (Freedom) Part 1"- Burman Records
EARNEST JACKSON-"Love and Happiness"-Stone Records
DEE EDWARDS-"Why Can't There Be Love"-GM Records
PERFECT TOUCH-"Merry Go Round"-Morning Glory Records
THE CHOSEN FEW-"We Are The Chosen Few"-Mod-Art Records
EUGENE BLACKNELL-We Know We Got To Live Together Part 1"-Seaside Records
JODI GALES-"You Gotta Push"-Savern Records
 
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