MOTOWN
A look at how the music of Detroit turned into one of the most lucrative businesses in the world and why it left its home.
MARVIN GAYE AND BERRY GORDY JR.
Gaye remained with Motown until 1982, when, after two decades at the label, he would sign with CBS’s Columbia Records to begin working on what would be his final album, Midnight Love. Gaye would continue having success into the early 80’s winning Grammy Awards for his song “Sexual Healing” and releasing a slew of other hits (like “Let’s Get it On”).
In Gaye passed away after a drug fueled domestic dispute with his father, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. At his funeral, Gordy called him “the best of his time” and “a man with no musical equals” comparing his talents to that of Billie Holiday. The pieces below give a small peak into the relationship Gaye had with Berry Gordy and Motown itself.
Gaye was quoted as saying "I record so that I can feed people what they need, what they feel. Hopefully I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time." With such pure intentions, that also happened to translate into an incredibly raw and unfiltered sound. The result was a rich but pure sound that appealed to broad audiences.
BERRY GORDY JR:
Ah, Marvin. Marvin, Marvin, Marvin. If ever a man could sing, it was him. I wish - really, truly, I do – that things had gone down differently between us. I hope that there isn’t any hard feelings over what happened, but it is a business, and we were doing what we felt was right. With that last album we released, the music we had been given sounded great, so we just went ahead and mixed it as we would have with anyone else.
I suppose we could have been a bit more sensitive in our dealing with it. Marvin and I had a relationship, but with everything that was happening in his life and him being overseas, I wasn’t sure how else to go about it. The drugs and the money and everything else… we just wanted to show him that he could put together an album that people wanted to buy and would love to listen to.
I have so much respect for that man though. And I really, truly hope that he knows that. He was one of the greatest voices of a generation and truly transcended any genre anyone tried to classify him with. He refused to be boxed in and I think that the work he did with CBS after he left Motown is evidence of that. I mean “Sexual Healing” is something that I think we’ll be listening to for years to come, and the Grammys? The Grammys speak for themselves. His talent speaks for itself. He truly has no equal.
MARVIN GAYE:
My career? Good question. Hmmm…well I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. I record so that I can feed people what they need, what they feel. Hopefully I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time. None of this is for me. I want to be able to connect with someone, spiritually and emotionally so that we can communicate and let each other know that things may be bad right now but they won’t be this way forever. They’ll get better. Things get better.
Motown is what changed things for me. I could not be more thankful for the relationships that I was able to build with Motown, but I did have a sort of falling out with them - with Berry and everyone else – because of everything that they’d done without me on one of my albums. It was called In Our Lifetime, well it was supposed to be called In Our Lifetime? With the question mark there, but they took it and they changed it so much. It was like they were looking at something that Picasso had done and they said, “Hey Pablo, you’ve been messing with that painting for long enough, let us take a look at it, we’ll add a leg here and an arm there. We know you’re an artist, but you’re behind schedule so we’re just going to finish this for you.” And that was that. I couldn’t work with them any more, after they had disrespected all of the hardwork I had done.
The longer I had been there, the more and more control I had with my work. Save the incident with In Our Lifetime, it was a great relationship. But they had broken my trust and I needed to see some change. That’s part of why I left the country - on top of the divorces and the money I owed the government and my own mental state. And that’s part of why I needed a different label to represent me and work with me when I did decide to come back to music. Berry will always be a friend and I will always care about Anna but it was important for me to move in another direction. So when CBS offered and they were able to negotiate a release for me from Motown, I took it. And that sparked what was critically and popularly, considered to be some of my best work.
