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To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, NPR is reporting stories that illustrate American life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for our series called America in Pursuit. The history of Motown Records is one of those quintessentially American stories. And as NPR's Don Gonyea reports, it has a special significance in the Motor City of Detroit.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: It seems like every Detroiter has a Motown origin story.
JAMON JORDAN: We had the 45 of Jackson 5, "I Want You Back," and then on the other 45 was "Rockin' Robin."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCKIN' ROBIN")
MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) He rocks in the treetop all day long.
GONYEA: That's Jamon Jordan, the official historian for the city of Detroit. He says Motown created a sense of pride and an identity so ingrained into the fabric of the city that you can't untangle the two.
JORDAN: Motown has become for Detroit what whole industries have become for other cities. Like, when we think of Milwaukee, of course, we think of beer. Pittsburgh and steel. Or Houston and oil, you know? But Detroit? It's not just Detroit and music. It's Detroit and Motown.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE")
THE SUPREMES: (Singing) I need love, love.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHOP AROUND")
THE MIRACLES: (Singing) My mama told me, you better shop around.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEVIE WONDER SONG, "FINGERTIPS (PT. 2)")
GONYEA: Motown Records - founded in 1959 in a modest house on West Grand Boulevard by a 29-year-old Berry Gordy. The label quickly became so big that it gave the city itself a new nickname. The Motor City was now Motown. Berry Gordy had actually worked on a Ford assembly line. He would write songs in his head to break up the monotony of a shift, with the machinery of the plant keeping time. And he brought some of that mindset into his recording studio - songwriters at one job, engineers another and so on. Suzanne Smith is the author of the book "Dancing In The Street: Motown And The Cultural Politics Of Detroit."
SUZANNE SMITH: The Funk Brothers, the Motown studio band, I mean, they literally would play different, you know, licks or, you know, certain bars of music, and they would break them down. And there would be certain pieces of songs that they would just insert in different records, the way in which you'd put a bolt on an axle of a car. You know, in couple of the songs, they would shake car chains in the studio to create a percussion sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOWHERE TO RUN")
MARTHA REEVES AND THE VANDELLAS: (Singing) Nowhere to run to, baby.
GONYEA: There were also historical factors that helped make Motown possible. In the early 20th century, Detroit saw tremendous migration of African Americans from the South. That led to growing neighborhoods like Black Bottom and vibrant entertainment districts like Paradise Valley. Local clubs like the Flame Show Bar showcased talented jazz and swing musicians. Jordan says all that paved the way for Motown's success, even as those neighborhoods would later be lost to federal urban renewal projects.
JORDAN: I can't take you to Paradise Valley because it was destroyed when they built the I-375 and I-75 freeway. I can't take you to the Flame Show Bar. It was destroyed when they expanded the Detroit Medical Center. I can't take you to Black Bottom. It was destroyed through urban renewal. I can't take you to those places, but I can take you to Motown. I can take you to the Motown Museum, where I can play some Motown records for you.
GONYEA: Marion Hayden is a renowned jazz musician who is from Detroit and still lives here. She got to know some of Motown's early session musicians and says you can hear the jazz roots in classic Motown recordings.
MARION HAYDEN: Now, these musicians had that special thing that jazz musicians do, which is to be able to improvise and provide something that is perfect for the moment. And that's what Motown captured.
GONYEA: One example - Motown musicians took a riff from a jazz standard called "Canadian Sunset"...
(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HUGO WINTERHALTER'S "CANADIAN SUNSET")
GONYEA: ...And turned it into the introductory baseline of Mary Wells' "My Guy." Hayden demonstrates for us on her bass in her living room.
HAYDEN: So then you get...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HAYDEN: (Singing) Nothing can you say can tear me away from...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY GUY")
MARY WELLS: (Singing) Nothing you could say could tear me away from my guy.
GONYEA: And if you're a working musician in Detroit today at any level, Hayden says you better know your Motown catalog.
HAYDEN: If you're at a party and someone says, play "Dancing In The Street," they don't expect you to go look in your folder and find a piece of music.
GONYEA: Everybody knows it.
HAYDEN: You should know that.
GONYEA: That universality is emblematic of what Berry Gordy wanted - songs that would appeal to a broad audience, Black and white Americans alike. But let me tell you what else was going on in Detroit back then. Racial tensions boiled over in the summer of 1967. Five days of unrest left more than 40 people dead, mostly at the hands of law enforcement. In other parts of the country, Motown artists were still playing segregated venues. It was a stark reminder that there were limits to music's power to unify. Author Suzanne Smith.
SMITH: White people liked listening to this music. They liked that it made them feel good. But they sure as heck didn't want to, like, have Black people move next door.
GONYEA: Berry Gordy himself was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, releasing recordings of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. But worried about alienating white listeners, he pressed his artists to avoid politics and social issues in their music. That didn't last.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WAR")
THE ORIGINALS AND THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH: (Singing) War.
EDWIN STARR, THE ORIGINALS AND THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH: (Singing) Huh.
EDWIN STARR: (Singing) Yeah.
THE ORIGINALS AND THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH: (Singing) What is it good for?
GONYEA: That anti-Vietnam War anthem by Edwin Starr topped the charts. By the early '70s, other Motown acts like Stevie Wonder and The Temptations were weighing in on the events of the era.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BALL OF CONFUSION")
THE TEMPTATIONS: (Singing) Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration, aggravation...
GONYEA: Despite Gordy's initial misgivings, such songs expanded Motown's impact far beyond that Detroit house where it all got started. In fact, Motown's reach was on full display in 1990 when Nelson Mandela visited Detroit. It was just months after his release from prison in South Africa. He'd been held for 27 years for challenging the country's apartheid regime.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NELSON MANDELA: When we were in prison, we appreciated and avidly listened to the sound of Detroit. Motor town.
GONYEA: He spoke from center field at a packed Tiger Stadium, quoting Marvin Gaye.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MANDELA: Brother, brother, there's far too many of you dying.
(CHEERING)
GONYEA: I was there that night. The energy in that stadium as Mandela spoke those lyrics defies description.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT'S GOING ON")
MARVIN GAYE: (Singing) To find a way to bring some loving here today. Yeah.
GONYEA: That moment captured everything that Motown is - a hometown institution and a global powerhouse. An apolitical music label that fostered political rallying cries. Today, it is still the soundtrack of the city in clubs, at family reunions, in local parks, echoing between innings at a Tigers game and, of course, blasting from car windows in the summertime. Don Gonyea, NPR News in Motown.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS SONG, "DANCING IN THE STREET") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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