A Long-Lasting Message

MOTOWN’S DIVERSION INTO THE WORLD OF ROCK

The Suzuki Hustler is a five-door, SUV-styled hatchback, available with automatic or manual transmission, and 660cc engine capacity. It’s known as a “kei” car, which is the smallest category of car which can be driven on Japanese expressways. In that country, the vehicle has proved popular.

And the soundtrack of a Hustler TV commercial in 2024 featured a 53-year-old minor hit by one of Motown’s first rock bands.

Huh?

The story of the Messengers is not unfamiliar: that is, how this Midwestern five-piece opened for British hitmakers the Dave Clark Five at Chicago’s Arie Crown Theater in July 1966, where they were seen by (and impressed) Holland/Dozier/Holland associate Jeffrey Bowen. It appears that H/D/H – at the height of their creative and commercial influence at Hitsville – were looking to broaden their musical outlook.

“They were the ones who brought us to Motown,” the Messengers’ founder (and bassist) Greg Jeresek recalled for me during research for Motown: The Sound of Young America. “But what we didn’t realise when we got there was that H/D/H was in a huge political war with Berry Gordy, because they were wanting to set themselves up as independent producers, with their own label. As that rift between Gordy and H/D/H became more intense, we got caught up in the collateral damage without even knowing it.”

In retrospect, Jeresek’s account hints at some of the internal workings – and politics – of Motown’s A&R operations during the mid-1960s. “Right from the start, there were issues with producers,” he said. Having signed to the firm circa late ’66, the Messengers cut tracks with H/D/H protégé R. Dean Taylor, including a version of “That’s How Strong My Love Is,” Otis Redding’s 1965 R&B hit. “RDT wanted most of his songs for himself, so that caused conflicts. H/D/H then assigned Ivy Jo Hunter as their surrogate, who, along with Jeffrey Bowen, attempted to produce us in the H/D/H Motown mould.”

In April 1967, the band cut “My World Is Empty Without You” with Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, then “I’ll Keep Holding On” and “Seek And You Shall Find” with Hunter.

***The Messengers: ‘In a strange position’***

Another session yielded their version of Eddie Holland’s “Leaving Here,” taped in June. “The basic track was recorded at the Motown studio on West Grand,” continued Jeresek, “with the Funk Brothers doing most of the tracking. Unfortunately, this ‘marriage’ did not work very well, and Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson were asked to do ‘California Soul’ for us.” (The songwriting couple had recently joined Jobete, and that particular Messengers side was produced by Bowen). “It was also a disappointment in my view.”

“Eventually, RDT did release several of his tunes to us, and we were left to produce these on our own with occasional oversight from him at the Golden World studios that Motown had recently purchased. This was the opportunity I had been waiting for, as I was an early geek and had knowledge of audio systems. So it was easy for me to learn how to use the studio, and, since we were left alone, a lot of tracks were laid with just the band and myself.” In September ’67, the Messengers’ Motown debut, “Window Shopping,” was released as a Soul single, with songwriting and production credits for Taylor.

While recording in Detroit that summer, the group had experienced first-hand the race riots (or rebellion) which wracked the city. They were staying in the Lee Plaza Hotel at 2240 West Grand Boulevard, “which was within a mile of the Motown studios,” noted Jeresek.

“I remember spending most of the day and night, kind of on the floor away from the windows, because you’d have bullets coming through sometimes, and tanks in the street. It was very exciting in one respect, and very life-threatening in another.” Just weeks after the catastrophe, Motown went ahead with its first national sales convention in Detroit, attended by distributors and other industryites. The Messengers were among those chosen to play for the guests.

***Released on Rare Earth in September 1969***

Still, “Window Shopping” was not a hit. “We were in a strange position,” Jeresek added, “because one part of the company wanted to push us forward – which is why we played the convention – and another part, which was more aligned with Berry, didn’t want to have anything to do with us.” Matters were not helped by Harry Balk’s arrival to run A&R. “He was very old-school, an East coast music guy, very set in his ways. We were trying to move forward with music, and he was trying to move backwards.”

When Motown launched rock label Rare Earth in 1969, the Messengers were among its first acts with an album release (most of its contents had been recorded during the previous two years). It made no visible sales impact, but the band continued to work the live circuit.

“The group also needed to be reconfigured,” said Jeresek, “so I replaced myself and two other members with better talent and began to record once we returned to Milwaukee from Detroit.” This led to their second Motown single, “That’s The Way A Woman Is,” featuring a new lead singer, Michael Morgan, who also co-wrote the song. The July 1971 release stalled midway on the Billboard and Cash Box pop charts, but took off early the following year in Japan, spending four weeks in the Top 5 there.

“If you listen to it,” Jeresek concluded, “two elements stand out – and I wished I’d understood it at the time. One is it’s very staccato, which is akin to some of how Asian music is put together. The other is that it starts with this drum riff, where the drummer is playing on the shell of the drum, very clickety-clackety, which also mimicked a lot of the percussive elements of music they’d be familiar with. It was a blend which seemed to resonate.”

In 2005, “That’s The Way A Woman Is” was featured in a Japanese sports drink commercial, and then last year, in the Suzuki TV spot. “Let’s go to the most fun tomorrow,” brightly declares the voice over the music, “in the new, enjoyable Hustler kei-car hybrid!”

Some messages apparently resonate over the decades.

Tokyo notes: thanks to Steve McClure, Rie Nakaya and Kiyo Yokoyama for their help with information about the Messengers’ success in Japan. There, the group’s “That’s The Way A Woman Is” was titled “気になる女の子.”

Music notes: a brief taste of the Messengers’ time at Motown can be heard on this West Grand Blog playlist. However, their one and only album for the company (as pictured above) does not appear to be available on streaming services. Also, Spotify seems to have mixed up its Messengers, since under its “Artist” category, tracks which have nothing to do with the group appear alongside those which do. C’est la vie, I guess, or whatever the Japanese equivalent is.

Self-promotion notes: for anyone interested in Motown’s brief rock adventures, a chapter of (ahem) my book with Barney Ales is devoted to the subject. It’s called “Fill Your Head With Dirt” (the chapter, not the book). Among others, I spoke to the two execs who ran the Rare Earth label, Joe Summers and Al DiNoble, as well as Andrew Loog Oldham, who produced albums by several of the acts signed there.