Bad Sounds on the hidden heroes of Hitsville USA

It started off as Tamla Records and then a year later was incorporated into “Motown Records”. Named after the “motor city” of Detroit where the company and its original studio was based, Motown was the label that gave us Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Temptations, The Marvelettes, The Isley Brothers, Stevie Wonder (AS A LITTLE KID!!!), The Jackson 5 (Michael Jackson AS A LITTLE KID TOO!!!!), and my main man Marvin Gaye. I mean Seriously? All from one label.

So this label did to the recording industry kinda what McDonalds did to the fast food industry which, now that I’ve written it down like that, sounds awful. I can forgive you for thinking that though (if somehow you’ve lived under a rock your whole life and you’ve never heard a Motown track), but the result was actually pure magic and dominated the charts for over a decade. They essentially had a manufacture line, incredible songwriters that would pen these super sweet pop songs with incredible hooks (these guys were often credited as “The Corporation”…yuck) but they were masters of the art of writing a pop song. Look up what these guys wrote as well as these bangers…

Holland-Dozier-Holland – "Stop In The Name Of Love"

Smokey Robinson (wrote for other Motown artists as well as his own act ‘The Miracles’) – "Get Ready"

Norman Jesse Whitfield – "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"

Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson – "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

William Mickey Stevenson – "Dancing In The Streets"

“The Corporation” often featuring label founder Berry Gordy (this was an unashamed way to keep the publishing money running into the company, rather than directly to the writers…but still the songs are incredible!) – "I Want You Back"

The thing is, Motown wouldn’t be Motown with just great songs. That’s where part two (and my personal fav part) of their factory line approach comes in. The Funk Brothers. These guys were the house band at “Hitsville USA” (Motown records HQ), and they put the soul into those songs. They made it cool. But they weren’t seen as artists, they were just employees of the company and therefore they got paid a daily wage. They literally punched in and out of work like Fred Flintstone. These poor guys never received any royalties for the incredible work they produced on the 800+ songs that Motown released, and were never credited on the records they made. In fact, it wasn’t until a documentary produced in 2002 (Standing In The Shadows Of Motown) that these guys started to get the credit they deserve. They are responsible for writing and recording unbelievably iconic parts of huge hit songs that pretty much everybody on earth knows (for example the guitar melody on the intro to "My Girl" wasn’t written by “The Corporation”, that instantly recognisable riff was written by guitarist Robert White, a Funk Brother).

Possibly one of the most talked about members of the Funk Brothers is James Jamerson. This guy was a pioneer of modern day bass playing, despite the fact that he only ever used one finger to pluck the strings (he nicknamed it “The Hook” haha). After going to work in Studio A (aka “The Snakepit”) at Hitsville in the daytime, he would spend his nights moonlighting in Jazz and Blues bars (as most of the Funk Brothers would). Maybe it was the Jazz influence, or maybe it was just pure boredom that inspired Jamerson to be more adventurous than the average ‘pop’ bassist of that time. He would play more than just the traditional root note and the fifth, he played chromatic lines, and syncopated rhythms, and would play notes that inverted the chord being played, essentially changing the harmony and feel of which ever hit they were laying down that day.

Legend has it that Marvin Gaye sought out James Jamerson to play on the title track of his masterpiece of an album “What’s Going On?” but when he didn’t turn up to the session they went searching for him across the bars of Detroit, and eventually found Jamerson who was totally wasted. When they eventually got the bassist into the studio he was so drunk he couldn’t even stand up, and so recorded the song (a song he was totally unfamiliar with) whilst led on his back on the studio floor … in one take. It’s an amazing performance. An almost classic example of a “tortured genius” James Jamerson suffered from alcoholism, and depression from a lack of recognition that he so clearly deserved, and he died at the young age of 45 from liver and heart failure.

For me though (and people who don’t “know” just won’t get it but) the coolest cat in the gang was a guy called Jack Ashford. “Oh yeah?” I hear you say… “was he a funky ass drummer? or some crazy guitarist?” No. This guy was a percussionist, and he made playing the tambourine an art form unto itself. The frikkin tambo! Tambourines aren’t lame guys! They’re awesome, and they make everything better. Check out the tambourine on ‘War’ by Edwin Starr… its impossible! For me, the sound of Jack Ashford shaking that tambourine is the mark of a true Motown hit, whether he’s really going for it, or just accenting the snare drum; that’s the sound, that’s what makes it sweet, and soulful, and exciting all at once. I think the producers were well aware of that too, and that’s why its always super loud in the mix.

These days I know that a lot of people (deffo from my generation) can sort of write off a lot of the hits made by The Funk Brothers at Motown. All those incredible hits are almost taken for granted now… staples and obvious tracks played at any “oldies” club night, or second rate birthday DJ sets. There’s a reason they are staples though: they’re just really really awesome. If I’m totally honest with myself, my introduction to Motown was probably through watching Sister Act as a kid (that opening medley is still dope af). But I think its fair to say that a Motown hit is instantly recognisable and is practically a genre of its own. That “sound” with more soul than you can shake a stick at and more hooks than an alcoholic bassist, that was down to these guys. These songwriters and musicians that were never recognised as geniuses, just employees of the factory of hit songs that was Motown Records. They were masters of what they did and they have had arguably the biggest impact on popular music ever. Recognise. So Ronald Mcdonald can you can Mc do one. It’s the burger flippers that make the magic.