Visiting Detroit By Rob Moss Part 5

People who reside in the largest city, or the capital, of a country seem to have a pompous air of superiority and an apparent belief that they are, in some way, better than their fellow citizens. This is certainly true in Britain, where most Londoners appear to believe that they are life’s leaders – the special, ‘chosen’ ones who were sent to civilize and refine the rest of us. How else could the BBC ‘Soul Britania’ television series manage to attribute the entire development of black music in our country to the people and places in the capital? In America, people from New York and Los Angeles hold this ominous distinction, and in Canada it is undoubtedly the residents of Toronto who strut around in a state of bloated haughtiness and self-importance; thus prompting the following witticism. Question. How many people from (insert name of large city) does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer. One – they hold the bulb and the world revolves around them. A similar philosophy tends to exist in the music industry, although today, all forms of competition from independent companies has been extinguished as the few corporate ‘giants’ have all major markets safely dominated, and control is firmly centred in Los Angeles. It wasn’t always so however.

At the dawn of modern musical development, in the 1950s, when mass consumption of recorded works began, it was possible for small independent companies to have a shot at the big time. One of the largest niche markets nationally has always been the indigenous black population, and thousands of small independents emerged to exploit the financial potential contained therein. Labels like Atlantic Records in New York, Chess in Chicago, Duke/Peacock in Houston and King in Cincinnati were early pacesetters. In the spirit of the ethnic separation that existed in American society at the time, there was even a chart created to measure the relative success of ‘R&B’ records, as they were known. This market was of no particular interest to the major labels however, because they could make far more money out of the lucrative ‘pop’ artists that dominated sales figures. And the bulk of them were white. Whites had the numbers and they certainly had the money. This is not to say that the odd black performer didn’t achieve popular success. Several did, but they were firmly in, what today would be called, the ‘Adult Contemporary’ category and usually of no interest to the younger ‘rock and roll’ audience. R&B records were frequently ‘covered’ by white artists, after being toned down or ‘softened’ for commercial consumption, in America and elsewhere. People like Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Cilla Black, Rolling Stones, Lulu, Moody Blues plus many others, including The Beatles, either began their careers directly off the backs of black creativity, or made music that was heavily influenced by R&B stylings. Two small independent record companies emerged in the early 1960s that would revolutionize popular music and shift the centre of attention away from the biggest cities. Stax Records in Memphis and the Motown group of labels from Detroit would enjoy previously unseen levels of commercial success that would herald the ‘soul’ era, signal the emergence of black music to the forefront of popular culture and elevate many other ‘smaller’ cities like Chicago and Philadelphia into the spotlight. These relative upstarts usurped New York and L.A. – and they resented it greatly, to the point where record executives in both cities began scrambling to find their own interpretations of the phenomena – most failed.

In the autumn of 1994 Berry Gordy Jnr. traveled to his home city, Detroit, from Los Angeles, to launch his autobiography ‘To be loved’. He appeared on a local talk show on television station WXYZ with Levi Stubbs and Abdul Fakir, of the Four Tops, to promote the book and talk about his career, before a ‘live’ studio audience. I was fortunate enough to have been invited by Joe Hunter and Frank Bryant to attend the filming and join them in the Green Room before and after the show. Our fellow guests included a somewhat strange array of minor Detroit performers including Motown Tour manager and one time flute and saxophone player Thomas ‘Beans’ Bowles, Frances Nero, George ‘Gino’ Washington, ‘King for a day’ Stewart Ames, Herschel Hunter and several members of The Valadiers. It later transpired that ‘The Valadiers’ included Stewart Ames, and that the same quartet also performed at various ‘oldies’ shows as The Latin Counts, The Reflections and The Shades of Blue! Only in America. Mr. Gordy’s entrance onto the sound stage was greeted with enthusiastic applause and cheering by the audience. The first question he was asked seemed to encapsulate the whole theme of the show and led to a tiresome and irritatingly long discussion about whether everyone who worked for Motown received their true and adequate rewards, with Frances Nero, of all people, leading the charge. “In hindsight, do you regret leaving Detroit and moving your operation to Los Angeles?” Answer “Yes” We were treated to the usual version of the entire Motown success story being like a fairytale adventure based on ‘Rats, roaches, soul, guts and love’ – an interpretation only believed by PR personnel and serial sycophant Sharon Davis surely? A bash on the piano with the Tops, which included some reciprocal back slapping, several plugs for the book accompanied by a gushing endorsement by the presenter and then a couple of dull questions from audience members rounded it out. His favourite colour is blue and he drinks coffee and enjoys doughnuts. At the backstage gathering afterwards I was quite surprised to see him surrounded by four bodyguards, or ‘consultants’, ‘associates’ or whatever they were, who made it difficult for anyone with the timidity to want to speak to him, to actually converse. Not sure who would want to ‘get’ him. He didn’t recognize Joe Hunter, pretended to remember the generic white male group and was considerably smaller (shorter) that I expected. But, I managed to exchange pleasantries with him for a couple of minutes, and, against the express orders of the head ‘protector’, got him to autograph my James Jamerson book. He seemed a bit surprised that I didn’t have his tome at hand.

The book itself is pretty tame stuff, all things considered, and squarely aimed at Muggles. No shocking confessions, outrageous admissions or salacious accusations here, and he’s careful to preserve the wholesome image that he insisted Motown’s PR machine always portrayed publicly. No one argued, everyone worked together in peace and harmony, there were no petty jealousies, every employee was grateful to work for him and ecstatic with their rate of pay etc.,etc. Yeah right. In reality, he created and led an incredibly competitive organization, exhibited fantastic judgment and insight in policy and business decisions, and communicated effectively with a wide and varied range of people. He was also incredibly fortunate to have so many talented people, in all areas of expertise, at such close quarters. Many people in Detroit believe that the same kind of success could occur again, today, if someone with Berry Gordy’s organizational skills was around, such is the pool of musical, technical and creative talent that STILL abounds in the city. Gordy’s true genius lay in the strategy he employed to ensure that his product was attractive and appealing to the full range of potential clients, particularly the rich, white market. He did this by producing simple, commercial music, with a distinctive ‘sound’, that was almost impossible to copy or imitate, but which would cross ethnic lines and produce lucrative returns. The fact that plagiarists and copyists, with the notable exception of The Beatles, who, by including three Motown songs on their first album, did a great deal to expose the label to a wider white audience, could not imitate Motown acts effectively gave him a clear path to commercial success. And with a seemingly endless supply of great songs from the various ‘in house’ teams of writers, his small independent, black owned label soon out sold many of the major companies. Gordy’s grasp and understanding of the crucial importance of promotion, distribution and collection, particularly at the outset, and his appointments and strategies in these areas, was the one single factor that ensured his success. If only his book would have addressed these issues.

Instead, we rely on snippets of rumour, speculation and second hand information to piece together his operational style and business acumen. Clay McMurray began his own small record label in the early 1960s and provided some insight into the domination Gordy exerted on the local scene when he explained the frustration of trying to get one of his records played by local radio stations “ I could just about afford to take one or two DJs out for lunch, whereas Berry Gordy was taking ALL of the label owners out for dinner!” When faced with the policy that radio stations nationally employed to only play or plug one record from each label, Gordy released his artists on a variety of different labels, thus ensuring that he would have multiple records played at the same time. His practice of allowing a producer, or songwriter(s) to work with one of the leading acts ONLY if the last record they produced was a big enough hit, meant that competition in and around the studio was fierce. Incredibly, Smokey Robinson ‘lost’ The Temptations to Norman Whitfield when ‘Get ready’ didn’t achieve the success level Gordy required, and he never got them back! He realized, relatively early, how important his stable of talented and unique house musicians were to the organization, and saw to it that they rarely went out ‘on the road’ and, consequently, that they were always available for recording. When he discovered that many of these same individuals were working for other local rival companies, he unsuccessfully attempted to fine them into submission, before signing several of the most valued up to binding, long term contracts. Ultimately, in 1966, he purchased the biggest of his rivals, Ric Tic/Golden World from Ed Wingate and ensured a kind of exclusivety. He knew the importance of technology, and embraced any technical innovations and improvisations with vigour, sparing no expense to upgrade and improve the quality of the recording process. The time gap between releases was relatively short to ensure that distributors paid their bills on time, otherwise they would not get the latest release, and therefore lose potential revenue. It would be interesting to discover why Gordy never registered his record sales with the pertinent authority, and consequently, how Motown never received any ‘Gold’ or ‘Platinum’ discs. Rumours persist that some Motown releases were ‘bootlegged’ so that revenue wouldn’t have to be disclosed. His second wife, Raynoma, was caught at it in New York and narrowly escaped retribution.

Some of the most fascinating insights into the Motown modus operandi concern the way the music was recorded and ‘mixed’ for release. Here are just a couple. Because most people in the 1960s would have initially heard music on the radio, either at home or in a car, the technicians at Motown began to adjust the recordings to sound more dynamic within the constraints of this medium. It is believed that a car interior was installed in the Motown studio to more closely replicate the sound, so that amendments could be more accurately carried out to the ‘sound’ of the single release. Album tracks would be mixed differently because they would be more likely to be played at home on a console stereo. As an example, a listen to the single version of Four Tops’ ‘Something about you’ and comparison with the album (Four Tops Second Album) version will confirm the sharp differences. The practice of recording different artists on the same song, and then releasing the ‘best’ one, or recording another artist on the same song, but with a totally different arrangement, was frequently employed at Motown. The unused versions would frequently turn up as album tracks, thus saving money.

Motown wasn’t the only company to create hits in their own image. A revamped cinema in a tough neighbourhood in Memphis cranked out hits too...

Rob Moss

http://www.hayleyrecords.co.uk