Visiting Detroit Part 7 By Rob Moss

Visiting Detroit Part 7


Holidaying in Detroit is probably not everyone’s idea of an ideal vacation. Though the weather is scorching in the summer, there are no beaches or swimming facilities to speak of. No English pubs serving Watney’s Red Barrel. No ‘Full English breakfasts with all the trimmings’ and no Sky TV showing football at all hours of the day and night. In fact, you’ll be lucky to even find out the scores. You can visit ancient relics, although I’m sure they wouldn’t take kindly to be referred to in quite those terms, see where many of the recordings were made and have a sporting chance of finding that precious vinyl, if, of course, your interests lie in these areas. Probably not the kind of trip to take the wife and kids on – unless you’ve managed to brainwash them to the extent that they share your passion, and this is extremely unlikely. Travelling to America by air from anywhere in Europe will usually take a minimum of seven hours, owing to the headwinds that typically slow progress on the outbound journey. It will be shorter coming back for exactly the same reason. Flying is one of the most tedious, frustrating and mind numbing activities we are forced to endure in our modern world. And it is not enhanced by the moronic range of films available that are targeted at the four children on the flight who may actually understand and enjoy them. Add to this the constant and continuous high pitch screaming and wailing of the inevitable baby (ies) in the next row (doesn’t anyone use dummies anymore?) and the old man, in close proximity, who periodically insists on moving the phlegm in the back of his throat to the nasal cavity in the centre of his head with that awful sound that resembles a ship leaving port, and you have abject misery. The feeling of elation as you actually leave the aircraft, not forgetting to, hypocritically, thank the flight staff for orchestrating this brief visit to hell, is a unique experience. Like many airports around the world, Detroit Metro is at least 20 miles from the city. A hire car is essential and should be booked, and prepaid, from home. Read the fine print too, because you will be expected, nay forced, to buy a full tank of fuel at a hugely inflated price. Try to return the car empty. Big respect goes to those who manage to push the car onto their property, dropless, before leaving . This is an art only the truly skilled can perform. Although Detroit has the second highest murder rate in the US, it has always been a safe place to visit, in my experience. I tend to stay in one of the townships beyond the city boundary as close to one of the major highways that criss cross the city, as possible.

For those interested in finding records, there is a mistaken notion that the city has been stripped bare and that pickings will be slim. Very little is slim in America. Even the word is rarely used. Sadly, as many of the ‘old timers’, who would have bought records during the 1960’s, pass away, their collections are sold by surviving relatives to local record shops and find their way onto the market. One seasoned shop owner told me that there is more rare soul vinyl being found around Detroit today, than ever before. Unbelievably, there are also greater numbers of local, young collectors who have realised not only the value of old vinyl, but the quality of it too and prefer to keep records rather than sell them. The ‘old’ music is no longer seen solely as a source of income to opportunistic entrepreneurs selling to foreigners, but as a source of entertainment and enjoyment for everyone and anyone who takes the time to savour the creative pleasures it contains. The problem for shops however, is that even with the auctioning power of E-Bay, the ‘turn around’ time involved to actually sell and receive payment for a record is long, and can severely affect cash flow. Unless the records are in the higher value bracket, punters can expect to pay in a formulaic way – ‘half of the Manship book price, in dollars.’ seems to be the norm. It is also possible to buy more modern records or ‘unknowns’, especially if they are not in the price guides, for relatively little because the sellers are completely dependent on the books, and have no other objective way of assessing price or value. On rare occasions acetates or oddball promotional items can be purchased quite reasonably. I was fortunate to find an 8” Jobette acetate of an un named female singing a song called ‘Music to my ears’ which, although it only has a scant backing, possesses excellent vocals. The best place to visit in search of vinyl is undoubtedly Peoples Records in downtown Detroit, near Wayne State University, where proprietor Brad Hales has a constant flow of records coming into his shop, and an extensive range of singles and albums in stock.

Brad’s interest in the music has extended to him organising a ‘Soul Nite’ in Ann Arbor on the first Friday of every month in a funky establishment called the Blind Pig. Ann Arbor is about 45 miles west of Detroit and, because it is home to a large university, has an extended population of younger people. I was fortunate to have been invited to DJ at the venue in the early part of August this year, even though the only records I had with me were those I had found on the trip. As it turned out, my little box of 45s was enough and the three of us (Brad and his mate Robert too) entertained the crowd all evening. There were over 250 people in the club that night, all under 30, and mad for the music. It didn’t matter what was played, the dance floor was packed. No moans, no elitism, no one upmanship, none of the petty problems that seem to dog the scene over here. The atmosphere was electric and reminded me of my first visit to The Torch all those years ago, when we were young and didn’t know! The fact that the bar provided the DJs with unlimited bottled beer and we all shared the door takings (although I took my share in records from Brad the following day) made it one of the best nights I’ve experienced in an extremely long time. There were even a group of people who had driven up from Pittsburgh to attend. As it turned out one of them even knew our own Des Parker, and relayed greetings from him.




The weekend improved even more when the Detroit News was published on the Saturday morning. It carried a front-page story called ‘Get your groove back’, which focussed on the resurgence in interest in Detroit records from the 1960s and 1970s, the prices some of them fetched and some of the local record shops that were specialising in finding and selling this material. There was even a photo of ex Golden World staffer and songwriter, Hermon Weems, who was working at People’s designing and painting the advertising awnings at the front of the shop. All this made me wonder if the music we all love so much is FINALLY going to be appreciated and valued by the residents of Detroit – it certainly seemed that way in Ann Arbor.
(site note: can view a scam of the Detroit News article at the end of this article)


One of the most satisfying visits I made was to the legendary Mike Terry’s house to deliver his copies of the July issue of Manifesto. He is by nature a humble, shy and modest man, yet seemed to be genuinely excited and proud to finally see the kind of recognition and respect I had been telling him many of us felt for him over here, in words and pictures in these pages. He has been very ill over the past two years, and is only now beginning to recover. As you might expect, the articles triggered many memories for him which he shared as we sat on the balcony of his house. He singled out the HDH sessions at Motown in particular as the most enjoyable, recalling how Lamont Dozier would lead the sessions from his piano and explain how he wanted each instrument to sound. He implied that the Holland brothers didn’t take as much of an active role in the studio as Dozier and how chord sheets would litter the floor as they were discarded after use. I was fascinated to learn how the Snake Pit got his name. It was because of all the wires that ‘snaked’ their way across the studio floor. Simple. After a long hiatus, Mike Terry has been working on musical projects again, and I was privileged to watch him work with Fred Bridges and Richard Knight on an album they are producing for ex Royal Jokers and 21st Century lead singer Willie Jones, at Fred’s studio in downtown Detroit. Mike also took me over to meet one of the true Detroit icons that, in all my years visiting the city, I had never met – Richard ‘Popcorn’ Wylie. I spent an afternoon with him listening to scores of anecdotes, stories and explanations, but this hardly scratched the surface of his total experience. He, too, has been ill and now needs a wheelchair to get around. I was supposed to see him again, but couldn’t because he was not well enough. Next time.



One of my greatest finds on this visit was a book- or a catalog (sic) to be precise. I came across it at the home of a record dealer I always visit who just happened to bring it out with some albums. The cover is self explanatory – ‘CATALOG January 1959/March 31, 1967. Jobette Music Company, Inc.’ It contains the titles and writers of every song published by Motown’s licensing arm during that period in alphabetical order, whether they were released or not. For ‘train spotters’ like me it is a veritable diamond mine of fascinating information and mysterious conjecture. There are literally hundreds of songs by respected writers that we will probably never hear or discover who performed them. Many are by writers from other cities who were employed by the company to supply songs, particularly in Los Angeles and New York. West Coast writers Helen and Kay Lewis have over 30 songs listed, and Gary and Chester Pipkin provide over 20, most of which were never released. New Jersey’s George Clinton and various song-writing partners have almost 40 songs credited, but the greatest contributors, by far, are Sidney Barnes and George Kerr who have a whopping 90 song titles listed.


There are only a few recognisable songs that were actually used by the company. When Motown bought out Ed Wingate’s Golden World/ Ric Tic Company in 1966, they purchased the Myto Publishing Company too yet only about half of the songs make it into the catalogue. There are scores of errors and omissions including ‘Ask the lonely’ being credited solely to Mickey Stevenson, to the exclusion of Ivy Hunter and ‘In the pocket’ is shown as written by Joanne Bratton, George Clinton and Rosie McCoy but ‘Our love’ (the same song) credited to Joanne Bratton, George Clinton, Sidney Barnes and Mike Terry! Many titles have their full or original names. ‘Behind a painted smile’ is shown as ‘Behind a faded smile.’ ‘Heart trouble (without your love)’ is written in full, ‘Think it over (Before you break my heart) and Suspicion’ don’t mention ‘Reconsider’ or ‘Baby have mercy on me’ at all.
One of the most interesting titles is ‘Can’t satisfy’ which is listed as the work of Holland/Dozier/ Holland not Curtis Mayfield. This was because, when the record was released, and Motown heard it, the similarity to this ‘Old heart of mine’ was too close for comfort. A deal was worked out whereby the release went ahead, but Motown received all royalties and commissions. The song writing credits were obviously corrected too. Many well known rare soul titles make it in including ‘You turned my bitter into sweet’, ‘Angelina oh Angelina’, ‘You won’t say nothing’ and ‘Sleepless nights’ to name a few. Sadly, I’m still re reading it...
Rob Moss
http://www.hayleyrecords.co.uk



Site note :
Thanks yet again to Rob for passing on another great read
The amount of articles he has submitted must be now well into double figures on here
As always feel free to use comments to pass on views etc sure they be appreciated

Related links
News story on Peoples records new store after the recent fire
http://www.modeldmedia.com/developmentnews/peoples14108.aspx
Mike Terry Sax God
http://www.soul-source.co.uk/rare-northern-soul-words/rare-northern-soul...
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