Dancing In The Streets

It started as a small business with a $800 loan from family members.

It became one of the most amazing start-up businesses since World War II.

"It" is the Motown Record Corporation.

Motown!

You'd think, having grown up in the shadows of Berry Gordy Jr.'s famous enterprise, that at some point previously I would have actually visited the historic landmark where artists like Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Jackson Five, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, and The Temptations, had gotten their individual and collective start.

Yeah, you'd think.

So when Chris Grindrod - in Detroit with his wife, Ketra, for both his and his father's birthday - contacted me about spending some quality time together during my 12-day Michigan summer vacation at the birthplace of Hitsville, USA, well ... who was I to turn down the opportunity?

Twist my arm, please!

Chris, Ketra and I spent about three glorious hours at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, part of a tour group of about 50 from across the world who took in the sights and sounds of music history. Our tour guide was more than up to the challenge, filling our ears and brains with stats and facts and details like a seasoned professional, not an early 20s Broadcast Arts major from Wayne State University in his third week on the job.

The exhibits include a fascinating collection of historical photographs, artwork, music, costumes and other memorabilia from the Motown era. Each item tells a story - from the explosive popularity of Motown’s artists throughout the world to the amazing detail on the rise and tragic fall of Marvin Gaye.

Gordy, a former boxer and automobile worker, got his start as a songwriter for local Detroit acts such as Jackie Wilson, whose single "Lonely Teardrops", written by Gordy, became a huge success. When Gordy got his first royalty check, it was for less than $2. He and Robinson talked about the meager earnings, and he quickly realized the more lucrative end of the business was in producing records and owning the publishing.

What, exactly, makes the "Motown Sound"? According to The Supremes CD boxed set liner notes, the Motown Sound was crafted with an ear towards pop appeal, typically using tambourines to accent the back beat, prominent and often melodic electric bass-guitar lines, distinctive melodic and chord structures, and a call-and-response singing style that originated in gospel music. Pop production techniques such as the use of orchestral string sections, charted horn sections, and carefully arranged background vocals were also used. Complex arrangements and elaborate, melismatic vocal riffs were avoided.

Gordy designed the "Motown Sound" like a factory. The studios remained open and active 24 hours a day; artists would often go on tour for weeks, come back to Detroit to record as many songs as possible, and then promptly go on tour again; everyone in the house was called upon to add backing vocals or sounds, as needed. Gordy held weekly quality control meetings to ensure that only the very best material and performances would be released; if any one person at these meetings thought the song being reviewed had no chance of success, it went back to the mixing board ... or down the tubes altogether.

Our guide also noted that one interesting thing about the "Motown Sound" was the positive messages its songs presented to listeners. Upbeat messages, even in the slow songs, were a common theme. Additionally, the performers had help grooming their images and dance movies, their attire and hairstyles. Motown artists were told their breakthrough into the "white popular music" market made them ambassadors for other black artists seeking broad market acceptance, and that they should think, act, walk and talk like royalty, so as to alter the less-than-dignified image commonly held by white Americans in that era of black musicians.

The "echo chamber" was a very cool feature of the house. Before the age of synthesizers and computer-aided recording, Motown engineers created special sound effects by ingenious means. The innovative echo chamber is basically a hole cut in the ceiling; when the famous “Studio A” was in use, the effects created by the echo chamber were relayed to the recording studio. They can be heard on recordings such as "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Dancing In The Streets." Other record companies quickly created their own versions, in an attempt to capitalize on the Motown idea.

Speaking of "before computers," in 1959 Motown created its first recording studio, "Studio A," which was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We experienced "Studio A" as part of the tour, just as it was with original instruments and equipment used during Motown’s Detroit era. We got to stand where Motown greats stood and recorded their hits. We also got an up-close view of the original control room equipment used to record the "Motown Sound": a three-track recording console from the early 1960s that was upgraded to eight-track capacity by Motown’s in-house engineering department. (It replaced a two-track recording console that was used to record Motown’s earliest hits; voices and instrumentals were recorded on separate tracks which enabled producers and engineers to adjust the individual elements of a song after the recording session was over.) As broadcast majors ourselves who worked with reel-to-reel and equipment which by today's standards seem primitive, both Chris and I marveled at the similarities to when we first got into radio.

Motown was all about diversity, too, which might explain its 45 subsidiary record labels (in varying genres); from Motown to Tamla, from Rare Earth to Black Forum, there was an amazing range of ways for Gordy to get his artists aired. Our host explained part of the rationale was to keep radio stations from blocking Motown-contracted artists due to the prevalent racism that existed at the time. (Tamla is actually the company's original label; Gordy founded Tamla Records several months before establishing the Motown Record Corporation. Gordy originally wanted to name the label "Tammy" Records, after the popular song by Debbie Reynolds from the 1957 film Tammy and the Bachelor - which also starred Reynolds. When Gordy found the name was already in use, he decided on Tamla instead.)

Two staples of the Motown Sound were the studio band The Funk Brothers and the songwriting trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland (Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland). According to our guide, The Funk Brothers - keyboardists Earl Van Dyke, Johnny Griffith, and Joe Hunter; guitarists Joe Messina, Robert White, and Eddie Willis; percussionists Eddie "Bongo" Brown and Jack Ashford; drummers Benny Benjamin, Uriel Jones, and Richard "Pistol" Allen; and bassists James Jamerson and Bob Babbitt - played on more number-one records than The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys ... combined.

One cool tidbit none of us knew until the tour was the background on how Martha Reeves got into the music business. According to our host, Martha was actually working at Motown as a receptionist when her big, and surprising, break came about. She was beckoned to help with background clapping and finger-snapping in the echo chamber, did a bit of impromptu singing, and grabbed the attention of Gordy ... who told her, basically, go find a few friends, and we'll make you a singing group.

Sometimes, timing and location is everything. What was it Martha sang? "It doesn't matter what you wear, just as long as you are there ... so come on - every guy grab a girl everywhere around the world ..."