The Strength to be Strong

A CAREER WHICH WORKED OUT ‘REAL SMOOTH’

The amount of recognition for Barrett Strong upon his sad departure has been remarkable. That he was a modest man makes it all the more gratifying.

      The news reports and obituaries began accumulating from Sunday (29) at quite a pace, including those from the Associated Press wire service, New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Billboard, Guardian, Washington Post, The Times, Le Monde and various BBC channels. Even the Financial Times weighed in. These and others featured a depth of detail which in mainstream media would have been hard to imagine, say, 20 years ago for all but the most-famous singer/songwriters.

Barrett Strong, pictured in 2019 (photo: Dan MacMedan, USA Today)

      Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum went well beyond the obvious, drawing upon his previous interviews with Strong, including one as recently as 2019. Another Michigan music man, Gary Graff, filed a thorough obit for Billboard.

      Some commentators got very specific about Strong’s work. In The Nation, for example, John Nichols focused on “War,” setting it in context and citing it as “America’s most urgent anti-war song,” while British writer Richard Williams (in his blog, The Blue Moment) singled out Strong and Norman Whitfield’s progressive gem with the Temptations, “Smiling Faces Sometimes,” complete with credit for the musicians on the track.

      As has become de rigeur on such occasions, Berry Gordy issued a statement in tribute and in sadness, referring to “Money (That’s What I Want)” and the Strong/Whitfield partnership: “Their hit songs were revolutionary in sound,” he declared, “and captured the spirit of the times.” (Occasionally, one longs for something a little less generic from the Chairman; after all, “Money (That’s What I Want)” truly was a milestone in Motown history.)

      Similarly, the Motown Museum sketched Strong’s accomplishments, although this included one rather odd reference on Twitter to “Edwin Starr’s ‘Where I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)’.” It should have read, “Marvin Gaye’s ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)’,” but perhaps that’s nit-picking.

THE DISPUTE OVER ‘MONEY’

      Predictably and appropriately, several media reports mentioned the dispute over the original authorship of “Money (That’s What I Want)” between Gordy and Strong, and how the latter’s name was removed from the 1959 copyright registration for the song three years later. The most thorough account remains that published in 2013 by the New York Times, which interviewed Strong and included comments from Gordy’s representatives. “Songs outlive people,” said the man whose voice (and piano) gave “Money” its magic. “The real reason Motown worked was the publishing.” Strong added. “The records were just a vehicle to get the songs out there to the public. The real money is in the publishing, and if you have publishing, hang on to it.”

The classic pose, circa 1959

      The retrospective recognition of Motown’s extraordinary accomplishments in the 20th century – artistically, commercially, racially, politically – is one reason why in 2023 the death of someone like Strong earns such extensive media coverage. The almost-primeval nature of “Money (That’s What I Want)” helps, as does its influence on so many other musicians and singers, the Beatles included.

      Perhaps there’s another reason: the fact that Strong was modest, even though his distinctive, timeless work could have fuelled an ego beyond measure – but didn’t. He was accessible, yet laid back. And whether or not he deserved the co-authorship credit for “Money (That’s What I Want),” Strong seldom showed bitterness about that in interviews, nor did he allow the dispute to define him. That was for the songs to do.

      “It is a love of mine for life,” he told me 30 years ago, musing about his work. “The business has been good [to me], I haven’t had any real problems with it. I am sort of a laid back person, who doesn’t get too excited and get off into [negative] things. I have proved myself as a writer, and I proved myself as a singer to some degree. A dream of mine is to prove myself as a producer.”

      The royalties earned from Strong’s platinum-plated songbook with Norman Whitfield gave him the comfort and security to make such statements, of course. So did the recognition of industry peers, as when he was drafted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and the like in later years.

CELEBRATION AND ASSISTANCE

      After he had a stroke in 2009 and needed help with medical and assisted-living expenses, support was there. In 2011, performing rights organisation BMI and the Nashville Blues Society organised a fundraising gig for that specific purpose with such artists as John Ford Coley, the McCrary Sisters and a youngster whom Strong had mentored, Eliza Neals. Two years later in New York, blues singer Neals produced a tribute to Strong and his work, with proceeds to aid him. BMI and CBS Radio undertook something similar in Detroit in 2016, involving Joe “Pep” Harris of the Undisputed Truth, Carolyn Crawford, Pat Lewis, Spyder Turner and Strong’s son, Chelson, among others.

      Those were not the first occasions to celebrate the Mississippi-born, Michigan-raised “Money” man. In the 1990s, he took part in songwriter showcases at New York’s Bottom Line club, one of which yielded his own, low-key performance of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.”

A BMI celebration, 1968: from left, Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, Ed Cramer, Berry Gordy

      Strong’s post-Motown endeavours from the 1970s onwards aren’t as well-known as his Hitsville U.S.A. output, nor was there much about them in the past week’s media coverage. Longtime admirers are familiar with his recordings for Epic and Capitol, of course, as well as for independent labels. Indeed, he set up one of his own, Blarritt Records, in Detroit in 1995, where Eliza Neals worked as a secretary. Later, the two of them collaborated on dozens of songs. “I’ve been writing with Barrett Strong since right out of college,” she told the Jersey Journal in 2018. “I’ve learned so much working with him, he's really been my mentor.”

      Did Strong acknowledge Berry Gordy as a mentor, leaving aside the “Money (That’s What I Want)” dispute? He showed no acrimony in a 2001 interview with Detroit’s Brian McCollum, recalling when he said to the Motown founder: “Thank you for letting me be part of your dream.” Still, it’s possible that he didn’t know then that his name had been removed from the original registered copyright.

      What’s not in doubt is the debt Strong owed to others at Motown. They include Eddie Holland, who signed him as a songwriter in 1966, years after his first exit from Gordy’s business. When reteamed with Norman Whitfield, he made the most of the opportunities to create for the firm’s A-list artists. Together, the pair was responsible for 39 songs which reached the Billboard Hot 100, including five Number One hits. “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” spent more weeks (seven) at the summit than any other Motown release of the 1960s, ’70s or ’80s.

      “We just had a feel for one another,” Strong recalled for me. “I knew Norman before, of course. I was into the style of music he liked, and he was into the style I liked. Whatever ideas we had, we would have stacks and stacks [of them] on paper, and then put everything together. For the whole period of time we worked together, it worked out real smooth.”

      A modest understatement, indeed.

Credit notes: the first song written by Berry Gordy, Janie Bradford and Barrett Strong – or at least the first to be copyright-registered, in October 1959 – was “You’re Too Young.” This was recorded by Strong, although unreleased at the time. Its three-way writers’ credit was matched by that for “Money (That’s What I Want),” registered a few weeks later, until the Boss had Strong’s name removed in 1962.

Music notes: any digital playlist doing justice to the work of Barrett Strong with Norman Whitfield would consume hours, if not days, of listening. So this WGB compilation (on Spotify) is only a passing reminder of their creativity, together with one or two other Strong titles from before and after that partnership. In the physical world, the best package was 2004’s The Complete Motown Collection, curated by Paul Nixon, complete with a bumper selection of previously unissued Strong tracks. There have also been a number of public domain albums, pulling together his early Motown recordings, including one from Not Now Music which benefits from liner notes by Kingsley (The Motown Reader) Abbott.