CGM blog: Talent and ambition

08 Jun CGM blog: Talent and ambition

Here’s a business lesson from my music collection.

Tamla Motown was the most successful independent record label ever. It still defines a genre even though its heyday was nearly half a century ago.

Founded in 1959 by Berry Gordy, a Detroit hustler who tried his hand at many things before settling on record production, Motown’s strapline was hugely ambitious – the Sound of Young America.

Gordy even named the suburban house on West Grand Boulevard where his record company was based (and the Gordy family also lived) Hitsville USA.

He created a talent factory built on a model of the Detroit’s infamous car assembly lines – even abridging the city’s Motor Town tag for his record label (Tamla was merely the best known label of the Motown Recording Corporation – another seemingly ludicrous grand vision).

By working to a plan, Gordy’s aspirations became reality. He invested in youth – all of Motown’s singers, songwriters and arrangers were young and unproven but, crucially full of innovative ideas.

Artists were polished and pushed along a talent production line which included departments for repertoire and choreography including some of the biggest names in pop music history – Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Gladys Knight and Pips, Martha Reeves and Vandellas, Jimmy Ruffin and, later, the Jackson Five and Lionel Ritchie.

Amazingly, between 1959 and 1972 almost all of Motown’s records were recorded in a tinty studio at Hitsville called Studio A (affectionately known as the Snakepit), a cramped, former photographers studio.

Here sat Motown’s resident house band, Funk Brothers.

This is one area where Gordy didn’t experiment. The Funk Brothers were a team of skilled and experienced musicians recruited among Detroit’s jazz clubs, capable of interpreting the ideas of Motown’s songwriters and transforming them into toe-tapping hits.

The Funk Brothers created the ‘Motown Sound’ (another tag) – distinct, identifiable but truly innovative and included one of the greatest bassists of all time – James Jamerson, drummer Benny ‘Papa Zita’ Benjamin, guitarist Robert White and keyboard player Earl van Dyke.

They played on more number one records than The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys combined.

The Funk Brothers were paid shifts and offered little long term stability. The aim was to keep them keen and hungry – so they moonlighted and can be heard in varying guises on any number of Northern Soul classics.

Losing his songwriting talent in legal disputes but keeping a small roster of high profile artists, Gordy relocated Motown to Los Angeles and closed Studio A at short notice.

The Funk Brothers – who hadn’t shared the fame or financial rewards of Motown’s stars – fell out of favour and Motown lost its distinct sound forever.

It also failed to do the right thing by the people who made it all happen.

James Jamerson even had to buy a ticket to watch Motown 25, a TV programme to celebrate Motown’s 25th anniversary – even though he’d played on most of the label’s major hits. He died shortly afterwards.

In varying forms of ownership, Motown has rolled along to today with Stevie Wonder remaining the only recording artist to have been there for the entire journey.

The lesson of Motown? Have great aims, put faith in talent, recruit the best people but remember to do the right by them and learn to reinvent.

For all he has achieved, Berry Gordy isn’t remembered with the affection he ought to command.

Baby, baby – where did our love go?

Chris Green is an author, broadcaster and media consultant – and managing director of all round communications company, Chris Green Media.