LINDSAY SUTTON
IT SEEMS eerie, unreal and mind-blowing – all at the same time. Here you are, in a small recording studio in a house in the suburbs of the American ‘Motor Town’ city of Detroit. The studio may look pretty basic and rudimentary, but this is the home of Motown, the music that inspired a whole generation and changed hearts and minds across the world.
It’s reckoned that Tamla Motown did more to integrate black and white youth back in the strife-torn Sixties than any piece of legislation.
The names of recording stars that came out of this small but highly significant studio still trip off the tongue. Icons of popular music that made their voice heard with a heart, a soul and a purpose.
Take these top ten for starters: The Jackson 5,
Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Jackie Wilson, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
They are all household names, and they all recorded at the Motown Record Corporation, set up as Tamla Motown sixty years ago. History records the momentous day as January 12, 1959.
The studio became the powerhouse of a completely new type of music, the brainchild of one man called Berry Gordy, who will celebrate his 90th birthday later in the anniversary year. He’s still going strong too: five years ago his musical Motown took New York’s Broadway by storm, before transferring to the UK three years later.
It all started out at No 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, when Gordy borrowed from his own family to set up the studio in a converted house, now called Hitsville USA. Apparently, he asked for $1,000 but the family agreed on $800, to be repaid on time and with interest.
As agreed, Gordy did just that, the original loan document being on display in the Motown Museum, which is on the premises too.
When you tour the place, you’re constantly – and quite speedily – ushered from room to room, to keep the flow going for the thousands of visitors who beat a path to the small, homespun studio from around the world. You can tangibly feel the reverence of all those who have walked through the door.
You learn how Gordy, who initially lived above the studio, once worked on the production line for Ford Motors, then took the production line principles and applied them to making records. The house was open 22 hours a day, so that output and ideas were constant, the place shutting down only for a couple of hours between 8am and 10am for cleaning and maintenance.
Every Friday morning, Gordy would hold a quality control meeting, where he would listen to that week’s recordings. Only the very best material was released, with his veto decisive. However, recordings could be re-worked and then released if they finally hit the mark.
Two Marvin Gaye songs, for example, nosedived first time around but made it eventually. They were the all-time classics I Heard it on the Grapevine and the legendary What’s Going On?
On your way round the house, you’re shown a hole in the ceiling, with loft space above it. Underneath it, visitors are encouraged to sing or shout. It was what Gordy used as a crude but highly effective echo chamber.
You learn that everything was done on the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid.
However, even though the structure of Motown was simple, the melodies could be very sophisticated.
Taking fellow black artists from the poor neighbourhoods of Detroit brought in the classic ‘call and response’ elements of Gospel singing, but adding strong backing beats, often using two drum kits, tambourines and trombones.
A tight-knit group of songwriters was vital, as were the ‘Funk Brothers,’ who became the studio band.
Nothing was left to chance. He even incorporated ‘artist development classes,’ where singers from poor backgrounds would be dressed smartly, choreographed and sharpened up in appearance and manner.
Gordy’s aim was to give his artists broad market appeal.
He changed the image of black male musicians and made them acceptable for the young white audience of the time, breaking down age-old stereotypes and prejudices. As Smokey Robinson said later: “We were not just making music, we were making history. Even in the Deep South, audiences were integrating and the kids were dancing and holding hands.” In the studio, there’s the original Steinway grand piano, re-tuned and renovated with money donated by Paul McCartney. Ancient microphones still stand there, next to the visible soundproofing. Outside are the original chocolate and cigarette vending machines used by the stars and the staff.
It’s all very basic. Yet Motown Records became the highest earning
■ For further information about the museum see motownmuseum.org
■ WOW Air, Iceland’s low-cost transatlantic airline, flies from Gatwick and Stansted to Detroit, via Reykjavik, four times a week. Prices start at £179.99 one-way, including taxes. Visit wowair.co.uk or call 0118 321 8384.
■ For tourism advice see visitmichigan.org; visitdetroit. com; greatlakesusa.co.uk
African-American business in America, making Gordy a multimillionaire. You learn that Polygram Records paid $330 million for the Motown catalogue.
Big money in any language, and an even bigger impact on society at large. So dust off your dancing shoes. It’s an invitation across the nation, a chance for folks to meet. They’ll be laughing and singing, music swinging.
Dancing in the street.