Motown ’23: Macro and Micro
OF GAINS AND LOSS, OF GASMS AND GOLF, AND MORE
Considering that the first release on Tamla Records was recorded 65 years ago this month, it’s quite remarkable how energetic and ubiquitous are those responsible – by choice or association – for sustaining the legacy of Hitsville U.S.A.
This year, for instance, has seen both Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson continue to perform across the United States, while the Temptations and the Four Tops (albeit with only one original member each) have been on the road, too, whether separately or together.
Robinson also pitched a new album into the market, while the re-release of a Marvin Gaye classic was augmented by 18 previously-unissued recordings. Stevie Wonder was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters by New York’s Fordham University (as he was by Wayne State last year) and even performed a new song on the occasion, said to be from a forthcoming album, Through the Eyes of Wonder.
Two Robinson generations: Tamla and Claudette
Some months earlier, Wonder was present when Robinson and Berry Gordy, Jr. were praised to the heavens as recipients of the Recording Academy’s MusiCares award, an annual charity fundraiser held during Grammy week. Wonder jazzed up the night’s conclusion by performing the Miracles’ “I’ll Try Something New” (with a harpejji) and joking, “All of my appreciation, respect, love goes to you, Berry – who thought I couldn’t sing.”
The birthplace of all that prodigious talent, the original Motown HQ on West Grand Boulevard, earned its own share of attention during 2023, not only for receiving more money for its expansion plans but also for being showcased once again on a Thanksgiving Parade float in Detroit. Another big American brand – Amazon – sponsored the float and donated $175,000 to the museum for its Hitsville Next talent programme.
The year had its share of sorrow. In addition to the deaths of principal figures (of which more later), there was the tragedy of former Supreme Cindy Birdsong. Described as being “in a vegetative state” after a series of strokes, she was in October put under a temporary conservatorship in California to allow county officials to oversee her care and finances, while her siblings tackle a dispute with others who had been caring for her.
Health issues also afflicted the Four Tops. Original member Duke Fakir was absent from the quartet’s October show at Detroit’s Fox Theatre while recovering from a medical procedure, and lead singer Alex “Lex” Morris (he joined in 2019) had to go to hospital in the city in April because of breathing and heart difficulties. To make matters worse, Morris was, by his account, racially profiled, mistreated and put into a straight jacket, because hospital staff didn’t believe he was one of the Tops and thought he was mentally ill.
CARRYING THE TORCH FORWARD
The Tops’ frequent bill-sharing companions, the Temptations, had a generally positive 2023. Their sole original member, Otis Williams, was active on social media, while also promoting the group’s concert dates whenever possible. “I consider it to be my God-given responsibility to protect and maintain the integrity of The Temptations brand and carry the torch forward so that future generations of fans can enjoy it as well,” he declared on Twitter/X in March.
“I still love being a Temp,” Williams subsequently told the Toronto Star as Ain’t Too Proud continued its successful North American tour and returned in December to the Canadian city. In London, however, the musical failed to fulfil commercial hopes, opening in April and closing in September. Poor reviews didn’t help: the script “limps from one fragmentary episode to another,” noted The Times. “On a drab marquee set, the songs aren’t always treated with the respect they deserve: too many are cut short or shoehorned into the plot.”
Giving thanks to Amazon (photo: Brian McCollum)
Other Motown music makers were subject to criticism this past year. On his summertime roadshow with Earth, Wind & Fire, Lionel Richie mixed “hammy with cheesy,” wrote one critic, at Minnesota’s Star Tribune. “All night long, he kept poking fun at how long he’s been around…and how his fans (and himself) used to dance back in the day.” The reviewer added, “When it comes to schmaltz, Richie rivals Cecil’s Deli, in business in St. Paul since 1949.”
Smokey Robinson’s new album, Gasms, also earned its share of criticism – mostly for an unsubtle title. “When you’re young and you have those exploratory feelings about sex, you haven’t lived long enough to know the value of it,” he told Vanity Fair. “So yes, I have a different attitude to it, but I still feel sexual.” In addition, the singer/songwriter felt the need to juice up his media anecdotes by citing his long-ago affair with Diana Ross.
During her busy year, Miss Ross did nothing so tasteless. A good portion of time was taken up by the prep and delivery of her “Music Legacy Tour,” which traversed the U.S. during June and July. The reviews were positive. “Ross delivered not one, not two, but three selections from Lady Sings The Blues,” noted Billboard of her June 29 show at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, “demonstrating exactly why her performance as jazz pioneer Billie Holiday received an Oscar nod.”
Later in 2023, Ross crossed the Atlantic for dates at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and in Holland and Belgium. She also hailed a fellow superstar: during a September date on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” world tour, Ross stepped onto the stage and sang “Happy Birthday” to the newly 42-year-old. “This is the legendary Diana Ross,” Beyonce beamed to the California crowd, and to her surprise guest, “There would be no me without you, and thank you so much for all your sacrifice and your beauty and your grace.”
At least one other Hitsville alumni is known for such qualities. On November 10, the Motown Museum unveiled an exhibit devoted to Claudette Robinson’s life and career, complete with rare photos, stage costumes and other memorabilia. “It’s really special when we get the opportunity to not just tell the broader Motown story and the story of Berry Gordy,” she explained to the Detroit Free Press “but [also] to really go down and tell what we call a micro-story. What better story to tell than the one woman who was in the all-male group called the Miracles?”
Four Tops: standing in the shadows of golf
Micro or macro, Claudette’s ex-husband had stories of his own to tell in ’23. One concerned his former manager, Eric Podwall, who in August lost a seven-year lawsuit against Robinson over allegedly unpaid commissions. Another tale was that of Smokey’s Soul Town, a year-round SiriusXM station curated and hosted by the man himself. Launched in November, it features classic Motown as well as music by other soul and R&B artists.
One month earlier, Robinson took part in the video series of shows hosted by American’s NPR Music, known as Tiny Desk Concert. His 30-minute live set comprised “Being With You,” “The Tears Of A Clown,” “Quiet Storm,” “Cruisin’ ” and two tracks from Gasms, namely “If We Don't Have Each Other” and “Beside You.”
The Motown maestro closed the year with an interview for Golf magazine, talking about his 54-year love affair with the sport. “I’ve gotten many ideas on the golf course. I’ll start humming a melody that I’ve never heard, or some words will come, or a phrase. It just happens.” He also name-checked Robert Gordy for introducing him and others to the game, including the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye.
“Some of my greatest times in Detroit were playing golf with Smokey at Palmer Park,” Gaye once told biographer David Ritz. “We fell in love with the game around the same time. Berry, too. Seemed like it was the leisure sport we’d won the right to play.” It was, of course, stardom which earned Gaye that particular right – stardom typified a half-century ago by Let’s Get It On.
There was renewed interest in the album via an updated deluxe edition, out digitally in August and physically in October (on red vinyl, no less). The background to the package was detailed at a Grammy Museum panel session on August 23 with Smokey Robinson, David Ritz and writer/producer Jimmy Jam, moderated by Universal Music VP Harry Weinger. (Another deep dive into the album was published in August by author/academic Andrew Flory.)
This year saw closure in the long-running U.S. lawsuit over whether contemporary star Ed Sheeran’s hit, “Thinking Out Loud,” infringed “Let’s Get It On.” In May, a New York jury ruled in Sheeran’s favour; in September, the family of the song’s co-writer and producer, the late Ed Townsend, withdrew their action.
Dr. Wonder at Fordham U (photo: Bruce Gilbert)
Another of 2023’s legal disputes involved Berry Gordy and the movie, Spinning Gold. This was a dramatised biopic of the late Neil Bogart, a record executive whose colourful career included signing two acts, the Isley Brothers and Gladys Knight & the Pips, away from Motown. Gordy filed suit against the filmmakers in June, targeting “a fraudulent and made-up storyline in which [he] is wrongfully and dishonestly portrayed as a thug and a mobster who goes so far as to order a murder for hire.” The defendants, including Bogart’s son, Timothy, are seeking to have the case dismissed; a hearing is scheduled for January.
An Isley Brother was one of this year’s departures: original group member Rudy died on October 11 at age 84. He had been a Baptist minister for much of his later life, and released a gospel album, Shouting For Jesus, in 1996. Among others associated with Motown who, sadly, garnered obituaries this year were:
Barrett Strong, one of the first Hitsville U.S.A. hitmakers with “Money (That’s What I Want),” on January 28 at age 81. Some time after “Money,” he became one of the company’s most vital and successful songwriters in partnership with Norman Whitfield. “When he’s gone, he’s still giving melodies to the world,” said Bishop Charles Ellis III at Strong’s funeral in Detroit.
Paul Justman, director of Standing in the Shadows of Motown, on March 7 at age 74. He made documentaries and music videos (including Diana Ross’ “Muscles”) but none more celebrated than the 2002 film about the Funk Brothers, highlighting their central role in Motown’s creativity and growth.
Greg Perry, songwriter/producer in the Holland/Dozier/Holland circle, on March 15 at age 75. Almost inked to Jobete Music, he opted instead for H/D/H after they quit Motown, working with Freda Payne, the Honey Cone and the Chairmen of the Board.
Clarence Avant, former Motown chairman during the post-Gordy years, on August 13 at age 92. He was one of the U.S. music industry’s most influential talent managers and entrepreneurs; in 1967, he facilitated Mickey Stevenson’s post-Motown label, Venture Records.
Irish Grinstead, a member of girl group 702, on September 16 at age 43. The trio was discovered by New Edition’s Michael Bivins; their most successful Motown release was a Top 5 pop and R&B hit in 1999, “Where My Girls At?”
Katherine Anderson Schaffner, co-founder of the Marvelettes, on September 20 at age 79. “Please Mr. Postman” is sealed into Hitsville history as the firm’s first crossover Number One hit. “We may have been from Inkster, but we kicked the door open for everyone else at Motown to walk through,” Anderson told author Marc Myers in 2016.
Conny Van Dyke, one of Motown’s first white acts, on November 11 at age 78. The actress/singer did sessions with Smokey Robinson, Mickey Stevenson and Clarence Paul during 1962, but only one single (“Oh Freddy,” written and produced by Robinson) was released.
Chairmen both: Clarence Avant with BG (photo: Jon Platt)
In closing (nearly) this 2023 round-up, it’s a moment or two with a pair of U.S. presidents. In July, Barack Obama released his latest summer playlist – a full 41 tracks, including this Motown quartet: Martha & the Vandellas’ “Nowhere To Run,” the Four Tops’ “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” and Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady.” (Let’s hope he’s on hand when Martha Reeves’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is installed, the fundraising for which hit its $50,000 target this past May.)
In late November, it emerged that Stevie Wonder has requested a meeting with the current POTUS to make sure that black community issues are not ignored during next year’s presidential election. “He’s very concerned about the black agenda falling along the wayside,” a journalist told White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who could not confirm whether Wonder and President Biden would get together.
But let’s conclude with a more modest matter, albeit one directly connected to the moment of Motown history mentioned at the start. The Michigan Department of Transportation is currently mulling over how (or whether?) to keep preserving the United Sound recording studio where Berry Gordy produced Tamla 101 – Marv Johnson’s “Come To Me” – in December 1958. It’s at risk from ongoing plans to modernise Detroit’s I-94 highway; MDOT bought the building and an adjacent site in 2018. Three local “community engagement” meetings have been held by the department this year, but no firm outcome seems in sight.
To sustain morale into 2024, supporters of United Sound may want to turn to lyric lines from Marv’s hit: “Tell me baby that you love me so/Love me, love me, love me till you can't no more.”
Hall of Fame notes: one other piece of Motown-related news in 2023 was the induction, finally, of the Spinners into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November. “The other guys…are gone,” said the group’s sole original surviving member, Henry Fambrough, “but they’re still with us any time we sing.”
West Grand Blog is taking a holiday break. See you on the other side, with luck.