THE MOTOWN SOUND Born in Detroit 1929, Berry Gordy became interested in songwriting as a youth.

1. MOTOWN: The Sound of Integration“This organization is built on love. We’re dealing with feeling and truth. –Berry Gordy 1965Berry Gordy, sounding much like Martin Luther King Jr., created a music empire that exemplified the peaceful integration advocated by Dr. King and reflected the civil rights movement.Motown was established 1 year before Dr. King’s first peaceful sit-it demonstration that began to achieve success in the civil rights movement.Motown became the 1st African American owned label that consistently and successfully groomed, packaged, marketed, and sold the music of African American youths to the white American masses & was a major force in American popular music from 1964-1967.

2. THE MOTOWN SOUND • Born in Detroit 1929, Berry Gordy became interested in songwriting as a youth. • In 1957 he had his 1st success with a song he wrote for Jackie Wilson and established his own publishing company. • In 1959, the same year Don Kirshner had started Aldon Music, he borrowed $800 to rent an 8 room house at 2648 Grand Boulevard to start the MOTOWN RECORD CORPORATION. (Hitsville USA) • He began to produce albums from local artist and had them distributed through other companies such as Chess Records but dreamed of being an independent company.

3. THE MOTOWN SOUND • One of Gordy’s early groups was The Miracles lead by Detroit native William “Smokey” Robinson • The Miracles had some success with songs produced by Gordy and distributed by other labels • In 1960, Gordy co-wrote and independently distributed “Shop Around” by The Miracles and it become a #2 hit • It established Motown Records as a successful independent company. • LISTENING JOURNAL • SHOP AROUND – THE MIRACLES

4. THE MOTOWN SOUND • After the success of The Miracles, Gordy began to build a team around him that would produce some of the biggest hit songs in the country by African American artist at the height of the Civil Rights movement. • In 1964 Congress would pass the 24th Amendment & soon after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. • Martin Luther King Jr. lead the fight in Washington and in the South but Berry Gordy lead the movement in music. • The music was not always political but Gordy, the son of an entrepreneur, who hoped for upward mobility for African Americans, groomed and cultivated streetwise African American teens from Detroit to make them successful in mainstream America.

5. THE MOTOWN SOUND • The MOTOWN TEAM: • In Detroit style assembly line fashion Gordy put together a team of professionals to polish his acts. • Maxine Powell: former owner of a finishing and modeling school was hired in 1964 to polish his acts educate. • Cholly Atkins: well-known dancer and choreographer in the 30’s and 40’s to teach the Motown groups how to move on stage • Maurice King: famed musical director who had worked with Jazz artists to teach stage patter and performance. • The Funk Brothers: Motown’s in-house rhythm section who were local professional Jazz musicians. They played on most of Motown’s biggest selling recordings.

6. THE MOTOWN SOUND • THE MARVELETTES • Discovered at a talent show that they lost, they signed with Gordy and released a song written by group member Georgia Dobbins. • “Please Mr. Postman” became Motown’s 1st number one hit. • LISTENING JOURNAL – PLEASE MR POSTMAN • MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS • Signed while still in high school but had a few flops • Martha Reeves was hired at Motown as a secretary and the group sang back-up on tracks by other more successful acts. • 1963 they hit the charts with the million selling song “HEAT WAVE. • LISTENING JOURNAL – HEAT WAVE

7. THE MOTOWN SOUND • THE SUPREMES • Motown’s biggest selling act and Berry Gordy’s dream project that combined gospel-based pop and R&B with the perfect Motown polish. • Born and raised in Detroit’s housing projects Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and Betty Travis (later replaced by Barbara Martin) started signing together in high school in the midst of the girl group crazy. • They sang together at sock hops and began to win talent competitions around Detroit under the name The Primettes. • They began to pester Motown staffers for an audition and eventually Gordy agreed to sign them if they changed their name. • They picked the new name out of a hat.

8. THE MOTOWN SOUND • THE SUPREMES • Signed in 1960 the group recorded over 40 songs for the next 3 years and meet with very limited success. • In 1964 after the Motown handler left the company, The Supremes were “reassigned” and the company began to take new interest in the group. • They began to re-polish their image and new songwriters were assigned. • They were pushed to top TV shows and made 20 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show among other popular variety shows. • They soon stumbled on to a formula for success and repeated it over and over with a string of hits like… “Where Did Our Love Go” “Baby Love” “Come See About Me” “You Keep Me Hangin On” “You Can’t Hurry Love” etc…etc…. & • LISTENING JOURNAL: STOP! IN THE NAME OF LOVE

9. THE MOTOWN SOUND • Motown Records had great success with creating a new girl group sound but also had great success with a revamped male doo-wop sound as well. • THE TEMPTATIONS • In 1957, 18 yr old Otis Williams started a doo-wop group with friends called The Distants and released a song on Warwick Records • Later they added 2 more members and became The Elgins • While performing at a local club, Wiliams meet Berry Gordy in the bathroom between sets. • Gordy signed them to Motown and began to polish their image…first thing to go the name, he renamed them THE TEMPATIONS and set his team on them to produce some hits. • Their biggest hit was a Smokey Robinson song that was answer to a previous hit by Mary Wells “My Guy” • LISTENING JOURNAL- MY GIRL

10. THE MOTOWN SOUND • THE FOUR TOPS • The Motown team revived the career of other former doo-woppers. • Levi Stubbs, Renaldo Benson, Lawrence Payton, & Abdul Fakir grew up together in Detroit in the 1940s. • They released a single on Chess Records in 1956 • In 1960 they had signed to Columbia Records but failed to chart • In 1962 they signed to Riverside Records & also had a string of flops. • In 1963 Gordy signed them, put them in tuxedos and paired them with his songwriting teams and produced two number 1 hits “I Can’t Help Myself” & “Reach Out I’ll Be There” plus several other chartbusters. • LISTENING JOURNAL • I CAN’T HELP MYSELF

11. THE FOLK REVIVAL: Songs of Protest“There are other things in this world besides love and sex that’re important – Bob Dylan In 1963 only a year before the historic 24th amendment, the first baby boomers had entered college and were starting to become aware of the world around them.The foundation for 1960’s protest music was laid at the turn of the 20th century by the International Workers of The World (IWW). Members of the group THE WOBBLIES penned the first protest songs in the USA as part of a drive to achieve equality for the American Worker.

12. FOLK ROCK • WOODY GUTHRIE • Would continue the IWW’s legacy of protest songs. • Born in 1912 to a poor family in Oklahoma, he left home at age 16 and wondered the southwest during his teens. • While visiting his uncle in Texas he learned to play guitar and played on street corners and worked odd jobs. • In 1937 he got a job performing and hosting a show on KFVD in Los Angeles on which not only did he sing but read radical newspaper articles over the air. • In 1940 he moved to NYC and wrote a daily column for the Communist Party’s newspaper. • After 2 years in the merchant marine during WWII he returned to NYC and penned many of 1000 songs including “This Land Is Your Land” “Billy The Kid” etc….

13. FOLK ROCK • WOODY GUTHRIE • “I sing songs of the people that do all the little jobs and the mean dirty hard work….” – Woody Guthrie • His motto was emblazoned on his guitar read: “This Machine Kills Fascists” • Another folk singer named Pete Seeger quit Harvard to join Woody on the road to sing songs about the American Worker. • Seeger penned such as “On Top Of Old Smokey” & “Good Night Irene” • Seeger, Guthrie, and others were all very politically motivated people interested in doing what they could for the music they loved and for social action. • In the 1950’s protest singers were targeted by Senator Joseph McCarthy as communist sympathizers and were quickly blacklisted by the recording industry and fell into disrepute across the nation. • The groups would never regain their pre-Red Scare popularity until the early 1960’s when college aged Baby Boomers rediscovered their message. • LISTENING JOURNAL – WOODY GUTHRIE “This Land Is Your Land”

14. FOLK ROCK • BOB DYLAN • The convergence of the civil rights movement and folk music on college campuses lead to the rise of Bob Dylan & his brand of protest folk music. • Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in small MN town to Jewish owner of a hardware store. • Felt prejudice all through high school and never “fit in”. • To cope he turned to music, first to Hank Williams and also to late night blues radio broadcast. • He loved country and R&B and naturally early Rock & Roll. • In the late 1950’s folk music reached the Midwest and Dylan was hooked. • He began performing in coffee house around the U of MN under the name Dillion, later changed to Dylan. • When Dylan heard Woody Guthrie while still in MN he became a disciple. • He would travel to NYC to see a dying Guthrie in the hospital

15. FOLK ROCK • BOB DYLAN • Dylan began to perform at clubs in Greenwich village and began to write his own songs of social protest. • His girlfriend at the time who was involved with CORE, a civil rights group, fueled Dylan’s passion for writing and recording topical material. • Dylan’s 2nd album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, released in May 1963 featured many topical song including “Blowin’ In The Wind” which became and anthem for the civil rights movement. • Dylan’s 3rd album, The Times They Are A-Changin’ , broke the top 20 and the title track became a battle cry for the emerging social revolution. • Dylan reinforced his politicized music through a number of public demonstrations & concerts including refusing to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show when CBS banned him from singing one of his songs, and performing at many civil rights rallies including the famous March On Washington headed by Martin Luther King Jr. • LISTENING JOURNAL – The Times They Are A Changin’

16. FOLK ROCK • Joan Baez • Dylan’s female counterpart in protest music • Daughter of a Mexican born physicist and Scotch-Irish mother who taught English drama the dark skinned Baez felt discrimination from an early age growing up in a small town in upstate NY. • In the 1950’s the family moved to Boston and she began performing folk music in coffee houses around Harvard. • In 1959 she debuted professionally to 13,000 people at the 1st Newport Folk festival and her fame began to spread. • From 1960-1962 she recorded 3 albums all of which hit the top 20 and in Nov of 1962 Time Magazine featured her on the cover. • She like Dylan boycotted concerts and TV shows that she felt strongly against and participated in civil rights rallies and demonstrations. • LISTENING JOURNAL – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

17. FOLK ROCK • Phil Ochs • Texas born son of a Jewish army doctor and became a journalism major at Ohio State University. • Got his 1st guitar by winning a bet the JFK would win the 1960 election. • Describes himself as a “singing journalist” • His 1st album in 1964 included anti-Vietnam war songs written in 1962 long before the anti-war movement had even begun to take shape. • He performed with Dylan, Baez, and others at the 1963 Newport Folk Fest • He was an activist who not only took up the civil rights banner but brought awareness to other causes such as striking miners in Kentucky who were engaged in a bloody battle with mine owners trying to bypass laws of the Mine Safety Act. • LISTENING JOURNAL – I Aint’ Marching Anymore

18. FOLK ROCK • Richie Havens • Born in Brooklyn in 1941 he grew up in an African American neighborhood organizing doo-wop groups and singing gospel music. • At age 20 seeking artist stimulation he headed for Greenwich Village and began frequenting poetry readings and folk music shows before deciding to pick up a guitar himself. • Havens' reputation as a solo performer soon spread beyond the Village folk circles and soon was working with Bob Dylan’s manager • His reputation grew and his career took a major turning point at the 1969 Woodstock festival. • He was the first performer, he held the crowd for nearly three hours (in part because he was told to perform a lengthy set because many artists were delayed in reaching the festival location) • LISTENING JOURNAL - Freedom

19. FOLK ROCK • Peter, Paul, and Mary • This folk trio comprised of folk singer Peter Yarrow, one time broadway singer Mary Travers and stand up comic Paul Stookey, took the new folk sound to mainstream radio. • Managed by Bob Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman, who had a vision for a more accessible form of folk entertainment. • Propelled by Grossman’s vision the trio hit the charts in 1962 with versions of Pete Seeger songs and had a number 2 hit with Dylan’s song “Blowin in the Wind” • This hit with Dylan’s song not only brought Folk into the national spotlight but Dylan as well. • LISTENING JOURNAL • BLOWNIN IN THE WIND – PETER,PAUL, & MARY

20. FOLK ROCK • DYLAN GOES ELECTRIC • Dylan’s album, Bringing It All Back Home, released in early 1965, edged toward an electrified blues rock sound. • One side of the record was acoustic tunes very similar in nature to Dylan’s previous work. • On the other side of the album Dylan was backed by Chicago based electric blues group the Paul Butterfield Band. • This side included songs such as Maggie’s Farm and Subterranean Homesick Blues. • The popularity of this album was fuel by a filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker accompanied Bob Dylan to England to make a film about the singer/songwriter's British tour. • The promo for the film (a short film of the song Subterranean Homesick Blues) became an underground iconic hit with images that would be reproduced for generations to come. • LISTENING JOURNAL – Subterranean Homesick Blues

21. FOLK ROCK • DYLAN GOES ELECTRIC • In 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival Dylan unveiled his new electric sound and brand of songwriting to the folk community. • Many Folk performers, including legend Pete Seeger, tried to prevent Dylan from taking the stage with his new electric band mates the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. • Seeger even threatened to cut the power cables with an ax. • When he unleashed “Maggie’s Farm” on the crowd some where shocked, horrified, and some even compared it to capitulation the enemy as if MLK Jr. did a cigarette ad. • Dylan, angry and shaken, stormed off stage & grudgingly reappeared alone for a short acoustic set. • Discouraged by not undeterred Dylan continued in the electric vein and a new era of folk was ushered in. • Though ridiculed by folk purist, Dylan’s new electric sound secured him a national audience with the #2 song “Like A Rolling Stone” his first official hit • LISTENING JOURNAL – LIKE A ROLLING STONE.

22. ELECTRIC FOLK ROCK • ELECTRIC DYLAN INSPIRES LEGIONS OF ARTIST • Dylan’s new mix of social conscious music mixed with the energy of a loud electric Rock & Roll band inspired many artist to emerge in this new style or to transform themselves. • Dylan’s new style was beginning to have an effect on emerging artist just as much as The Beatles. • John Lennon himself took notice of Dylan’s social conscious music and was moved after meeting with Dylan after a benefit concert The Beatles were performing. He would lead The Beatles into a whole new musical direction after being affected by his new friendship with Dylan. • Dylan going electric is said to possibly have been inspired by him taking a liking the Lennon after this meeting. • There were a host of new acts that pulled from the duel influence of The Beatles and electric Bob Dylan

23. ELECTRIC FOLK ROCK • THE BYRDS • One of the 1st groups to be rooted in Dylan and The Beatles was the LA band THE BYRDS formed of Roger McGuinn, Michael Clarke, Chris Hillman, Gene Clarke and a young David Crosby. • After receiving a test pressing of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” from Dylan’s producer THE BYRDS covered the song before it came out. • The rearranged the song and introduced bouncy vocal harmonies and a ringing 12-string electric guitar ala The Beatles. • The song was a massive hit rising to the top of charts. • LISTENING JOURNAL – MR TAMBOURINE MAN

24. ELECTRIC FOLK ROCK • THE LOVIN’ SPOONFUL • Formed by John Sebastian who had backed several folk groups in Greenwich Village before forming the Spoonful. • Sebastian admitted that Dylan’s music was a driving force behing the group but also attributes the sound of the band’s music to the upbeat style of the British Invasion bands. • They had top ten hits in both 1965 and 1966 with several songs including their biggest hit in 1966 “Summer In The City”. • LISTENING JOURNAL • SUMMER IN THE CITY

25. ELECTRIC FOLK ROCK • SONNY & CHER • Cher, a former back-up singer for The Ronettes, scored a hit with a Dylan cover “All I Really Want To Do”. • She formed a duo with her then husband Sonny Bono and the pair released several chart toping hits in the Dylan/Beatles style • LISTENING JOURNAL – I GOT YOU BABE • THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS • After the split-up of their two previous folk groups—The Mugwumps and The New Journeymen — bandmates Denny Doherty and John Phillips formed a new group, which included John's wife Michelle. • The last member to join was Cass Elliot, though chief songwriter Phillips never wanted Elliot in the group as he was convinced that there was no way they could succeed in the music industry because of her size • LISTENING JOURNAL – CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’

26. ELECTRIC FOLK ROCK • SIMON & GARFUNKEL • Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel were 2 high school friends who in 1957 had attracted national notice as “Tom & Jerry” with a song “Hey Schoolgirl” and had appeared on American Bandstand. • 1964 after being influenced by the folk boom they reemerged with a collegiate image and an album of soft harmonies • “Wednesday Morning, 3AM” featured a Dylan song and the Paul Simon tune “The Sound Of Silence” • The Sound Of Silence became a number one hit in 1966 when Tom Wilson (Dylan’s Producer at the time) remixed the track by adding drums, percussion, and electric guitars. • The track received even greater exposure when it was placed on the soundtrack of the classic movie THE GRADUATE starring a young Dustin Hoffman, as a a recent college grad with no well-defined aim in life • LISTENING JOURNAL • THE SOUND OF SILENCE