Just 50 Years Ago...

On my drive this past week listening to my favorite news program, The Morning Edge at KTSA, I was anticipating another round of political rhetoric. When you begin to consider the disk jockeys as your morning commute passengers, you think you know them, their likes, when they're going to "zing" someone or make a profound (or so they think) statement. I was about to zone them out (change the channel) and listen to NPR or even something country since most of what I see along Hwy. 181 is country, at it's finest, I might add. But hold on there...Trey Ware caught my attention when he started talking about Motown. It's 50 years old. How could that be? Motown was around when I was growing up...of course, I would have been coming into the era of "I want my own radio." So, I kept the Morning Edge on the radio dial, thinking they would tell me something I didn't already know. In the summer of 2007, I learned a lot about Motown from a couple of friends over for a Labor Day pool party and a couple of margaritas. Until that day, I thought Motown was about slow dancin', with your fella, on a Friday night at the Texas City Teen Club, and thinking "we're so cool." Of course, all of us at Texas City Teen Club thought we were "real fine" back then. So, for all of my high school friends, as well as new friends and family, here's a bit of history. 50 Years Ago, in January, a young fellow, aspiring to be a great songwriter started a record label in Detroit, Michigan. The chances of this young fellow, Berry Gordy, Jr., making his claim to fame in a time that the country was clearly divided by race was highly unlikely. He was a boxer, he worked in the ford Factory and had not done well owning a small record store. He had written songs...think Jackie Wilson...but no fortune did he find. Much like the world today, with our divorce population "off the chart" (excuse the pun), he found himself the father of 3 little ones, broke and out of a job. To the good fortune of many generations to come, his family loaned him $800 and he started a record company that we all now know as Motown Records. Motown Records employed, at one time, 450 employees, with an average age of 23 years old. Perhaps they were the "nerds" of their time. But what talent they had and memories they evoke when we hear that wonderful music. I've been to Detroit only once in my life, had dinner at a very "hole in the wall" restaurant where you had to knock on the door to be let in, but the highlight was touring Hitsville, U.S.A., the Motown Museum. Actually there were 8 houses on Grand Boulevard in Detroit that operated as record manufacturing companies. It was truly a walk back in time for me, a time when life was really simple, puppy love seemed very real and corruption and greed just were not in my vocabulary. Motown was responsible for the great sounds of artists like Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder...people we all can identify with their music and reach into our own treasure box of memories to take us back to innocent places in our younger lives. Of course, my high school years were also mixed with the Beatles and a lot of my classmates were quite taken with the British bunch but not me. I was definitely a Motown, Elvis, Beach Boys kind of girl. Just mix it all up. The one time in my life I really liked to dance. Well, slow dance that is. I still do like to slow dance...just seems that I've become a lot more Uptight, as the song goes. During this week of the inauguration of our new President Barack Obama, the talented and great Berry Gordy, Jr., will rightfully take his place and be amongst the artists he helped make so popular. This is the anniversary of Motown, it's another celebration of the great Dr. Martin Luther King, and the inauguration of our First African American President. When I watched the inauguration, there was no doubt in my mind that Dr. King was there, in spirit, knowing that the time had come...At Last...for Hope and Unity. Anybody out there know "Who are the Funk Brothers"? I first learned of them that lazy, Labor Day over margaritas and good friends watching "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" and we all listened to music of our time, danced around the living room (now like 50+ goofs) and all said "remember this one?" Fun times, fun people. I had never heard of the Funk Brothers but soon learned they were the House Band for the Motown Sound, especially in the '60s. They had their fingerprint all over the sounds we all recognize as Motown. From "Shadows, that I've now watched many, many times, these were fellows who were trained for late night jazz clubs. James Jamerson was the bassist and probably the most critical of the musical bunch. Like the song, he made you want to dance. There were others, Benny Benjamin, Pistol Allen and Uriel Jones were principal drummers and there were the guitarists Robert White, Joe Messina and Eddie Willis who all helped to pull it together, with little to no credit. Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a wonderful film documentary that I hope many will have the chance to watch, especially now, and better understand how it took all this talent to create the sounds we so often whispered sweet nothings in the ears of our dance partner, or called and played a song, only to hang up because we chickened out when the other answered. Did you ever do that...thought so. I mean really...didn't you ever have a boyfriend or girlfriend who whispered the words of a Motown sound into your ear while your dancing the night away? Baby Love, You Are the Sunshine of My Life? Enjoy the January Playlist and take a step back in time. ~Babs