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Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power, by Gerald Posner
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In 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building’s entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted “Hitsville U.S.A.” The kitchen served as the control room, the garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company’s name was Motown.
Motown cuts through decades of unsubstantiated rumors and speculation to tell the true behind-the-scenes narrative of America’s most exciting musical dynasty. It follows the company and its amazing roster of stars from the tumultuous growth years in Detroit, to the drama and intrigue of Hollywood in the 1970s, to resurgence in 2002.
Set against the civil rights movement, the decay of America’s northern industrial cities, and the social upheaval of the 1960s, Motown is a tale of the incredible entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy. But it also features the moving stories of kids from Detroit’s inner-city projects who achieved remarkable success and then, in many cases, found themselves fighting the demons that so often come with stardom—drugs, jealousy, sexual indulgence, greed, and uncontrollable ambition.
Motown features an extraordinary cast of characters, including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. They are presented as they lived and worked: a clan of friends, lovers, competitors, and sometimes vicious foes. Motown reveals how the hopes and dreams of each affected the lives of the others and illustrates why this singular story is a made-in-America Greek tragedy, the rise and fall of a supremely talented yet completely dysfunctional extended family.
Based on numerous original interviews and extensive documentation, Motown benefits particularly from the thousands of pages of files crammed into the basement of downtown Detroit’s Wayne County Courthouse. Those court records provide the unofficial—and hitherto largely untold—history of Motown and its stars, since almost every relationship between departing singers, songwriters, producers, and the label ended up in litigation.
From its peaks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Motown controlled the pop charts and its stars were sought after even by the Beatles, through the inexorable slide caused by their failure to handle their stardom, Motown is a riveting and troubling look inside a music label that provided the unofficial soundtrack to an entire generation.
- Sales Rank: #698842 in Books
- Published on: 2002-12-24
- Released on: 2002-12-24
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.53" h x 1.16" w x 6.40" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 368 pages
From Publishers Weekly
This useful but often flat history of legendary Motown Records is the first music-related work by Posner, who is best known for his books on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy (Case Closed) and Martin Luther King Jr. (Killing the Dream). As in his previous works, Posner is at his strongest demonstrating his meticulous research skills, most notably scouring court archives in Detroit to reveal details of how Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. often unfairly and unscrupulously dealt with artists whom he helped discover, like Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. For Posner, the history of Motown is the history of Gordy, who "was a manipulator who loved stoking competitive fires," according to Marvin Gaye. The book is probably the best single compendium of stories about Gordy and his business dealings with family and friends, although many of the stories have appeared in more restrained versions in autobiographies by Gordy, Gordy's ex-wife and Ross. Posner's wealth of detail will be of immense service to future writers on Motown. But while Posner is excellent at getting all the details down about the creation of many hit recordings, his writing doesn't convey the richness of the music itself in the same way as Nelson George's did in Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound. And while Posner shows that Motown was not a mob-run company, as has been implied in other books, his interest in investigating all of Gordy's business dealings leads him to suppositions based on depositions by ex-employees that he admits no one "was able or willing to confirm."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
What? Another examination of Motown Records and "the great-grandson of a slave" and former Ford assembly-line worker--that would be Berry Gordy--who founded it! Well, the oft-told Motown tale is quintessentially American, what with Gordy and his stars' storybook rise from poverty to fame and fortune. Of course, Dame F didn't smile equally on every character in the Motown saga, which is why much of Posner's attention goes to the label's tangled legal machinations, perhaps best illustrated by Gordy's convoluted dealings with the Jackson 5, who weren't the only Motowners who resorted to litigation to remedy arrangements with Motown's boss; Posner includes details and documentation about matters ranging from Florence Ballard's dismissal from the Supremes and how the egalitarianly named trio morphed into Diana Ross and the Supremes to lawsuits filed by such other Motown mainstays as the songwriting team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland. (Was Motown VP Smokey Robinson the only happy camper?) Most of what Posner presents has been aired before, though seldom as relentlessly and with as much documentation. Like other '60s icons, Motown turns out to have had a side seamy enough to rival that of the Kennedys' Camelot. Posner roasts Motown to a turn to feed pop-culture fans' taste for destroying the idols they once worshipped. Delicious. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
The book that answers the questions about the Motown nobody knows . . .
• Is there any truth to the rumor that the Mafia grabbed control of Motown after Berry Gordy ran afoul of violent loan sharks?
• Which Motown diva was almost run down by a station wagon after a blowout with a rival?
• How did Hollywood and the film industry sink Motown’s film business after the tremendous promise of Lady Sings the Blues?
• What famous star hid from Gordy that he was the father of her first child?
• What was the secret scheme one former executive says the company developed to steal millions of dollars in “suitcases of cash” from artists and songwriters?
• Which Motown star had a violent fight with Gordy on the day JFK was assassinated?
• Was the death of the Temptations’ Paul Williams by a single gunshot a suicide, as ruled by coroners, or a murder to silence him, as suspected by some colleagues?
Most helpful customer reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
Meticulously Researched, but more bitter than necessary
By Karl Miller
Motown Records is either a) a hallowed sanctuary of soul music best left to be adored from afar, or b) an empire built on dirty dealing and abuse (both emotional and monetary) best exposed as an example of exploitation. Or maybe it is both. Gerald Posner has a hard time making that decision, despite a well researched and historically well documented survey of Berry Gordy (and family's) legendary contribution to the music business.
Posner has crafted a study of Motown that presents its founders, and stars as less-than-perfect (though most often well-likable) pioneers in business and entertainment, working together, though often butting heads with each other, in defining a company built on a legendary sound. Everyone is familiar with most of the players - The Gordy Family (this book delves into the family more so than most other Motown studies, and makes clear that Berry was the head, though not the sole talent of the family), Marvin Gaye (who is painted as a head case through much of the book), Diana Ross (Posner adds some new "legends" to this diva's conduct file, none of them pretty or flattering), Stevie Wonder (both respected and severely exploited, given his youth), Smokey robinson (probably the smartest businessman in the Motown stable), and others. Posner shoots down the legendary "mob-connection" tale, but fills his book with court records, verified statements from insiders, and previously published facts to present a company where competition between artists fueled the hit pipeline, but with severe cost to artists (Florence Ballard's story is still painful to read) and creativity.
This book is a great, enjoyable read in many parts, but it fails to capture any of the joy of Motown. You are left feeling sorry for many of the artists you have come to love over the years. For this reason, I'm glad I saw "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" before reading "Motown: Money, Power...", for that movie is a celebration of the most important element of the Motown legacy - some of the best music ever recorded.
53 of 60 people found the following review helpful.
Well-written but...
By A Customer
This book is the most intelligent and best-written opus on Motown currently available but why couldn't the distinguished and experienced Gerald Posner get his FACTS right? I can't believe prominent authors working with prominent publishers and I assume capable editors are stumbling all over the place these days. "Georgeanna Dobbins Tillman" as she's referred to is TWO people, Mr. Posner. Georgeanna Dobbins was one of the five original Marvelettes and cowrote "Please, Mr. Postman." She was replaced by Wanda Young before the group began recording for Motown. Georgeanna Tillman was a different person, also one of the original five.
Also: Gladys Horton was not replaced as lead singer in the Marvelettes by Anne Bogan. Well before Horton left Wanda Young has assumed the lead on records, though in person both ladies alternately led. Bogan came into the group as a background singer, only recording leads on two album tracks, one of which was pulled for a single. The final Marvelettes album was a Young solo project; Young never refused to move to L.A. nor did the Marvelettes ever make a decision to break up. They just found themselves in Detroit with no record company. Much worse: Martha Reeves not even being told the company had moved.Also: Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne were not in the Supremes the same time; Laurence sang with the Jean Terrell-led group, Payne replaced Terrell.Also: Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong did not decide to do the "Return to Love" tour. Diana Ross got the original offer, then called Mary Wilson, who wasn't in the mood to get low pay, no profits from merchandise sales and work as an employee of Miss Ross, with all the attendant disrespect implied (when Ross complained that all Wilson would have had to do is "show up" that really inflamed Wilson. "Why, after devoting my life to keeping this group and its legacy alive would I just want to 'show up,'" she asked). Wilson did at the very last minute agree to join the tour but was told it was too late. Birdsong was not involved at all, though she didn't give up hope for such a tour. Wilson also was much insulted by the souvenir booklet for the tour, which almost no one saw, which mentions her exactly once following Birdsong's name as continuing as a Supreme after Ross left the group, just one more example of Ross's habit of rewriting history (she does not in any way acknowledge that the group started as three girls who became equally beloved by the public, not a lead singer with two backup voices in the shadows).And there's much else wrong and much missing...particularly the saga of the post-Ross Supremes, who labored working for a record company which was making darned sure the group didn't in any way overshadow Ross or equal its success with her as a member. Many acts central to the story, such as the Lewis Sisters, are missing; the saga of the one-man graphic arts department which had to create album packages of what were almost always just randomly-gathered tracks; and much else is gone. The definitive work on Motown and Ross are the books written by Randy Taraborrelli--he gets it all, gets it right and exudes a tangible love for and fascination with the company, the music and people. This new book is beautifully written and elegantly presented but it's SO frustrating to run into the errors which renders this a classy book but classy in a dumbed-down world.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
I have read this before!!!!!!
By Marcus Pitts
I say that as a title because while reading the book I felt like I was re-reading other books that I have read before on Motown. It was almost quoted word for word in many stories which made it difficult to keep my interest. I enjoyed parts of it because I am always interested in new information that I didn't know which is what I though the book would reveal. I love finding out information on business practices and how a company became successful. The section on the royalties, sales and payments was by far the most interesting to me. Overall Gerald Posner didn't do a bad job, I just think that the story has been told so many times by so many people that it is really hard to come up with anything new or original without referencing previously published material. From a die hard Motown fan and I would dare to call myself a self proclaimed Motown historian the book also had questionable facts. However, someone else who doesn't know the history of the company as much as I do may find it good reading. Before you take it at face value I suggest you do some cross referencing and basically do your homework regarding the facts in this book.
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