Book Review: Recollections: The Detroit Years: The Motown Sound By The People Who Made It by Jack Ryan, Thomas Saunders (Editor)

“Callin' out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat?"
--Martha Reeves 

Jack Ryan didn’t need to hear it through the grapevine that the time was right — April 14, 1960 if you’re a stickler for details — for Berry Gordy, Jr. to set up shop for the Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan. He was born and raised, lived and worked all his life in the Motor City, and as an entertainment writer who had an opportunity to rub shoulders with and interview many of Motown’s movers and shakers and up and comers, he compiled a lot of first-hand and authoritative accounts and know-how. And it all goes into making the wide-ranging yet informal and conversational Recollections: The Detroit Years: The Motown Sound By The People Who Made It such an engrossing and enjoyable read, one that will take you back while it fills in any musical or biographical gaps you had or didn’t even know you had until now.

While Gordy himself isn’t the main focus here – that would require another book entirely (and already has, a few times over) – his presence is continually felt as a guiding force throughout Recollections. Anyone who remembers, or who currently views, footage of the such Motown performances of such essential artists as the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, the Contours, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, Rare Earth (not the only or the earliest white group on the label), Mary Wells, Gladys Knight and a Pip or two or three from the 1960s-’70s heyday, can’t help but be impressed by the stage presence, appearance, and overall professionalism conveyed not just through the singing and the songs, but by the choreography, costumes, and charisma. This kind of quality control, so to speak, was driven in part by Gordy’s primary desire that his acts have cross-over commercial success, sixties-style, that they appeal not only to black audiences but to all segments of society as their hits keep moving down the assembly line of the star-making machinery. (Remember, the early years of Motown also coincided with – though it usually rose above — the safe, bland early sixties era of pop music: Fabian, Frankie Avalon, a time BB [Before Beatles], Elvis in the army and then in bad movies).

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for San Diego Union Tribune Books (R.I.P.). For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores, and most recently was purchasing manager for San Diego Technical Books. …

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