The Gospel of 2022
COURTESY OF ‘THE MAN UPSTAIRS’
This glorious institution
This edifice of enlightenment
This abbey filled with sacred texts and hymns
And shrined behind beautiful walls
With space for each and every one of us
And I ain’t talkin’ ’bout no church
But it is a church, of course, a place of worship – one whose gospel of music many of us follow: Hitsville U.S.A. And above is the poetry of Ben Will, named by the Motown Museum as spoken word artist of the year in its annual “Motown Mic” competition. The Detroit-born creator won that honour for his wonderful Griot’s Tale (available in full via this link) and it was one of 2022’s highlights.
Poet Ben Will, in praise of Hitsville U.S.A.
There was more to enjoy these past 12 months. Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson seemed particularly active. Berry Gordy Jr. and Mickey Stevenson were newly hailed at industry events. A vintage gem from Motown’s jazz catalogue became available once more on vinyl, and a feast of Snakepit instrumentals was served up in that most unfashionable format, the compact disc.
The heritage of the Temptations continued to prosper, as Ain’t Too Proud played to cities across the United States, and preparations were made for its London debut in 2023. The legend of the Four Tops may follow in those stage-musical footsteps, but in the meantime, sole survivor Duke Fakir offered an engaging autobiography, and “Reach Out I’ll Be There” was honoured by the Library of Congress.
There were, too, moments of sadness: the passing of eleven souls associated with Hitsville in one way or another. So where to start in looking back? Well, since that was once was the title of a Stevie Wonder compilation…
This past May, Wonder received an honorary doctorate at Michigan’s Wayne State University, in recognition of accomplishments such as his civil rights advocacy and, in the words of WSU president Roy Wilson, “more than 50 years of soulful art and artistry.” After the ceremony, the musician proved that with a cappella versions of “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” and “I Just Called To Say I Love You.”
‘IF YOU UNDERSTAND LOVE’
Later that same month, Wonder appeared – doubtless for a substantial fee – at a commercial event staged by The CW television network in New York, where he played “Superstition” with an amended lyric line to name-check his host. A more political Stevie was on show on December 4, when he staged an online concert for the phone-bank volunteers of Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, who was striving for re-election in Georgia against an opponent endorsed by former president Donald Trump. That night, Wonder’s setlist included “Higher Ground,” “Love’s In Need Of Love Today” and “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate.” (Two days later, Warnock secured his Senate seat.)
Nor was Wonder done with 2022, showing up at the December 11 inauguration of Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass (he played “Living For The City”) and then, on December 17, presenting his annual House Full of Toys charity fundraiser at the Microsoft Theater. There, he sang a cross-section of his hits, preceded by guest stars Gregory Porter, Jody Watley and Trombone Shorty. “If you understand love,” Wonder declared after a standing ovation, “you can’t spend one second entertaining the spirit of hate.”
Stevie at the latest House of Toys fundraiser (photo: Lester Cohen)
Smokey Robinson stepped up his concert commitments in 2022, including appearances at the Stagecoach country music festival in Indio, California and Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium. His product-endorsement side showed up during the year, too, in the form of a new video e-card from American Greetings, featuring a performance of “My Girl” (his relationship with the firm goes back to 2017).
Robinson on the road means he cheerfully chats to the media, albeit with familiar tales. “I feel as good if not better than I did when I was 50,” he told the Toronto Sun in June. He can also still generate gold: the Recording Industry Association of America certified Anderson .Paak’s “Make It Better” – on which Smokey was featured – for the sales equivalent of 500,000 copies. The last time Robinson garnered gold? “Being With You” in 1981.
From gold to platinum: namely, the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, at which none other than Diana Ross performed on June 4, outside Buckingham Palace in London. She was one of various stars honouring the country’s longest-serving monarch; three weeks later, the superstar ruled the Glastonbury Festival’s legends slot, before an estimated 200,000 souls. The two events were part of a busy summer for Ross, returning to the U.K. concert scene for the first time in years. “She wiggled and shimmied and modestly sashayed,” noted The Spectator. “She’s not lost an ounce of pizazz in 60 years,” suggested the Evening Standard.
There might also have been some sashaying in the Ross household (that luxurious new property in Miami Beach, perhaps?) on November 15, when her Decca debut, Thank You, was revealed as a Grammy contender in the best traditional pop vocal album category. She’s had 13 prior nominations, but never a win; this time, her competitors are Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, Norah Jones and Pentatonix – none of whom were born when the solo Ross first became a Grammy nominee, in 1970.
‘IT WON’T BE LONG’
Like Ross, Robinson and Wonder, Otis Williams maintained his public profile throughout 2022, whether through new music (the Temptations’ album, 60, released in January), recruiting new members (Jawan Jackson in June, singing bass), hitting the road (the group toured the U.K. with the Four Tops during the autumn) or posting videos on social media (a tour of his California home, most recently). As he told Minnesota’s Star Tribune just before the Temptations played the State Fair in August, “No one’s stopping me but the man upstairs.”
The same could be said for Duke Fakir, although he confessed that the Tops’ recent trek across Britain was his last. “I haven’t figured out when I’m going to stop completely,” he admitted to a local journalist, “but it won’t be long. Sometime in ’23, I’m almost positive of that.” Which is not to say he won’t continue with efforts to bring I’ll Be There, the musical, to the stage in Detroit and, perhaps, to Broadway.
That apart, Fakir recalls in his memoir the occasion in 1959 that the Tops recruited Detroit drummer Roy Brooks for their Las Vegas debut. Four years later, the musician and the vocal quartet were to find themselves signed to the same record company. This past November, Brooks’ first (albeit only) album for Motown’s Jazz Workshop label, Beat, was reissued on vinyl. “Brooks was a deeply swinging drummer of uncommon creativity, flexibility, fire and conceptual imagination,” wrote Detroit jazz authority Mark Stryker.
There, in the National Recording Registry
Meanwhile, other jazz-schooled players of Hitsville were showcased by Ace Records in its 2022 release, All Turned On! This 24-track CD featured instrumentals by Earl Van Dyke, Choker Campbell, the Funk Brothers, Johnny Griffith, Jr. Walker & the All Stars and others, assembled and annotated by Keith (Don’t Forget The Motor City) Hughes.
Among the magicians heard on All Turned On! is guitarist Joe Messina, whose synchronicity with compadres Robert White and Eddie Willis underpinned countless Motown hits. Unfortunately, he is united here with others from Hitsville who died during the course of the past 12 months:
R. Dean Taylor, on January 7, at age 82. Among Motown’s more intriguing artists, the white Canadian earned credentials first as a songwriter, then as an artist in his own right with the chart-topping “Indiana Wants Me.”
Meat Loaf (aka Marvin Lee Aday), on January 20, at age 74. He and Shaun Murphy (aka Stoney) made Stoney & Meatloaf for Motown’s Rare Earth imprint; the album was released in September 1971, and reissued in mid-2022. “It was absolutely a great training ground,” Murphy said of their Motown experience.
Joe Messina, on April 4, at age 93. “Joe was a great musician who mentored many others,” former Motown arranger Paul Riser told the Detroit Free Press, “and there were so many guitarists who followed him.”
Reginald “Sonny” Burke, on July 5, at age 76. This keyboardist/arranger/conductor was a key figure in Smokey Robinson’s post-Miracles career, and one of the most in-demand session musicians of his day, as this Chicago Sun Times obituary makes clear.
Lamont Dozier, on August 8, at age 81. Motown Records’ ascent to greatness without this extraordinary songwriter/producer and his fellow geniuses, Eddie and Brian Holland? Impossible to imagine, pointless to try.
Mable John, on August 25, at age 91. Motown’s first female solo signing, whose career did not lack for Berry Gordy’s personal commitment – but did lack hits. A later, long association with Ray Charles validated her talent.
Ivy Jo Hunter, on October 6, at age 82. The co-author of “Dancing In The Street” and “Ask The Lonely” was an introverted soul, but, he said, “I don’t think that there were any artists that I didn’t like working with.”
Robert Gordy, on October 21, at age 91. “He was absolutely the best lil’ brother anyone could ever hope for,” said Berry Gordy of the sibling to whom he gave responsibility for running Jobete Music, after minor, pre-Motown chart success as Bob (“Everyone Was There”) Kayli.
Janis Gaye, on December 3, at age 66. The object of Marvin Gaye’s desire, and his muse for most of the ’70s. “There is no sweeter girl in all the land,” he wrote and sang in “Jan,” sealed into his 1974 album, Marvin Gaye Live!
J.J. Barnes, on December 10, at age 79. Associated with Motown for a minute-and-a-half, but a revered figure in Britain’s Northern Soul movement thanks to music he made for Ed Wingate and Don Davis.
Bertha Barbee McNeal, on December 15, at age 82. Co-founder of the Velvelettes, whose “Needle In A Haystack” defined not only the group’s talent, but also exemplified the alchemy of Motown ’64 and its sunny uplands ahead.
Bertha Barbee McNeal: she was really sayin’ something
For several of the above, the Motown Museum paid public tribute, knowing how much of these individuals’ lives was shaped within the walls of Hitsville. From June to October, the Museum also marked the 60th anniversary of another influential force, the Motortown Revue, showcasing the tour’s history with a series of stand-alone displays along the Detroit River. Dubbed “A Culture in Motion,” these featured explanatory text, vintage photos, postcode images and QR codes linked to songs.
“This is how they began to spread the magic of what became the Motown sound across the country,” noted Motown Museum chairwoman/CEO Robin Terry at the exhibit’s media launch, “and then even begin to break down barriers as they did what they did best.”
What Motown did best was similarly acknowledged at two other ’22 ceremonies – the induction on June 16 of the firm’s onetime A&R chief, Mickey Stevenson, into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, and the final edition on September 25 of the Heroes and Legends (HAL) Awards, founded by Janie Bradford – as well as at the fifth Annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television on December 5, when Berry Gordy was presented with the Icon award for his achievements in the movie world.
In recent years, the HAL Awards have essentially functioned as a Motown family reunion, fine-tuned by Bradford’s peerless contacts and her history as one of the “first five” employees at Gordy’s fledgling business. “With so many passing on,” she told the Detroit Free Press just before this year’s ceremonies, “with so few of us left, it’s gotten harder to pull it together each year, to keep the excitement going.” Among those at the farewell gathering were Gordy himself, Stevie Wonder, Duke Fakir, Martha Reeves, Thelma Houston and Blinky Williams.
‘YOUR MAGIC, TOO’
On the other side of the country, an event with reunion elements of its own took place in late October: Detroit A Go Go, the five-day festival organised by British entrepreneur Phil Dick and launched in 2017 to celebrate the city’s importance to U.K. music fans. Former Motown acts such as Kim Weston, Carolyn Crawford and the Velvelettes have appeared there, but Dick has signalled that the 2022 edition was the last, primarily due to organisational demands. As such, the headline performance by J.J. Barnes – less than two months before his death – seemed an appropriate adieu.
Another remarkable year, then, inspired by the abbey of sacred texts and hymns. In the last lines of his Griot’s Tale, poet Ben Will struck an insightful note in reminding listeners of the doubt and skepticism which initially greeted Berry Gordy’s application for a loan from the family savings fund:
And when you quiet that voice that tells you what you can’t do
You will find…
Your magic, too.
Closing notes: sure, there was more classic Motown in ’22. Lionel Richie’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, for one. The publication of Gladys Horton’s memoir, for another. Not to mention new music from Charlene, more vinyl reissues from Spain’s Elemental Music, a visual retrospective from Life magazine, and the announcement by Marvin Gaye III about a musical being developed to celebrate his father’s life and times. That blue building on the boulevard continues to inspire…
New Year’s Day notes: for those with access to BBC-TV in real time or the iPlayer, you might want to make a note that on January 1 at 22:00, BBC2 will broadcast When Motown Came To Britain. This one-hour documentary from Wise Owl Films looks at the Motortown Revue’s U.K. tour of 1965, largely from the perspective of the British fans. No one who saw those shows will ever forget.