Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140038
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: YURI KAGEYAMA ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DEARBORN, MICH. LENGTH: Long
It's the story of how a high school dropout quit his job on a Ford assembly line to pursue a musical dream and emerge king of a recording mega-empire.
And it's the story about the invention of an unmistakable, raw yet stylish sound - the thumping bass, the jangling guitar and popping drumbeat that still help define the unmistakable and legendary Motown Sound.
Motown Records Corp. founder Berry Gordy finally tells his story in a new nostalgia-laden, 400-page autobiography, ``To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown.''
``This is my story in my own words,'' Gordy said in an interview while promoting the book. ``I wanted to set the record straight.''
Founded in 1959, Motown shattered the color barrier in the music industry and changed the sound of American music through countless hits: ``I Heard It Through the Grapevine,'' ``My Girl,'' ``Ooo Baby Baby,'' ``Stop in the Name of Love,'' ``For Once in My Life'' and more.
Gordy's book, which was five years in the works, is his major project since he sold Motown to MCA Records for $61 million in 1988.
At 65, the stylishly dressed Gordy is energetic, gesturing earnestly with his hands to make his points, and he's warm and generous with his hugs.
Having signed books all afternoon as part of a promotion tour - a change of pace for the publicity-shy Gordy - he says he's tired. But he doesn't show it, quick with his jokes and relentless in coming to Motown's defense.
``Misinformation, rumors,'' he says of the accounts that have accused Motown of wrongdoing. ``You can only do a company that's as great as Motown by values, integrity, honor.''
Martha Reeves of the Vandellas, Temptations leader Otis Williams and the late Mary Wells of ``My Guy'' fame have accused Motown of underpaying its artists. Motown also was accused of unpaid royalties in a lawsuit by the legendary Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team.
Gordy denied it all. Motown may have been strict, he said, but it also did a lot more for its singers than many companies. But the artists weren't going to remember that, especially when they suddenly were being wooed by bigger companies with bigger bucks.
``And you're not going to think, `Well, wait a minute, these people invested in me when I was nothing, they developed me, they taught me how to sing, dance, walk, talk.' You aren't going to think of that because you're only human,'' Gordy said.
As a tiny black-owned company that produced hit after hit, he said, Motown was singled out. And he said he was too busy before to take the time out to defend Motown.
``I didn't want these young people who're trying to duplicate what I did with Motown to not know the real story,'' he said of his decision to write the book.
``If they tried to emulate what I'm doing, thinking that I built this wonderful great company by devious ways - I was in the Mafia, or I cheated artists, some of the stuff they've heard over the years - there would never ever be another Motown because you don't do it that way.''
The rumors that Motown was linked to the Mafia started, Gordy says, because he hired the best man for a job - an Italian-American, Barney Ales, in the sales department.
Gordy was called in by the FBI for questioning, a meeting that ended with an agent asking for his autograph.
``But even after that FBI clean rating, somehow the Motown-Mafia story kept resurfacing. `They gotta be crooks! How could one of the most successful and independent record companies in the world be owned and operated by a black man without being crooked?''' Gordy writes sarcastically in the book.
Using Gordy's personable, disarming voice to tell the story, the book makes his climb to success seem almost effortless. As he tells it, he simply followed his heart.
Ever the hitmaker, Gordy moves from one touching moment to another. He glosses over the negative, such as Marvin Gaye's long fight with drugs and Motown's move to Los Angeles in 1972 that left some feelings bruised in Detroit.
Pressures from the community, fans and artists made his decision to sell an anguished one, Gordy says. But he was losing money and, more important, his passion for the job.
``I, who had prided myself on always being ahead of the game, had fallen behind,'' he writes. ``The real reason was, I was just tired. I didn't want to do it anymore. It had long stopped being fun for me.''
If he had stayed, the music part of his business may have been in better shape. But he was ready for a new challenge.
``And so the natural thing was to go into the movie business and TV business. That was a natural expansion. I'd done the music thing,'' he said.
Gordy's first movie, ``Lady Sings the Blues,'' was nominated for five Academy Awards. It starred Diana Ross as Billie Holiday, with Richard Pryor and Billy Dee Williams as co-stars.
Gordy still owns Jobete Music Co., whose lucrative song catalog includes the famous Motown hits. As chairman emeritus, he remains a consultant to Motown, now owned by PolyGram.
He is surprisingly frank in his book about his infatuation with the shy teen-ager he groomed into a star but eventually lost as a lover, Diana Ross. He even outlines an unsuccessful attempt to make love to her, although he's careful to add a later attempt that worked.
Gordy and Ross never married. But as Gordy acknowledges in his book, he is the father of Ross' oldest daughter, Rhonda.
``Diana did not want me to write about that love scene I wrote about because she's a very private person. She's a very classy lady who did not want me to talk about any kind of personal relationship, especially not sex of all things,'' Gordy said.
However, Ross is among those who praise the book on its cover, as do Dick Clark, Lee Iacocca, Hugh Hefner and Sidney Poitier.
``I also wish he had told me he loved me, as he says in the book. Maybe things would have been different - and maybe not,'' Ross wrote.
``Even though I loved her to death and I knew what she was doing from my heart, I just let it go because I wasn't understood by her,'' Gordy said. ``She's still confused. And, you know, it is a love story.''
The book's title comes from one of Gordy's early works, a lyrical composition recorded by Jackie Wilson.
``And though I didn't know it then, I had found the key to who I was and all that I ever wanted - to be loved,'' he wrote.
Gordy's wish to be a hero like Detroit's Joe Louis propelled him toward his vision.
The love of his family sustained him as he grew up, teaching him the virtues of hard work and honesty. His father was a church-going plastering contractor and grocery store owner; his mother, a schoolteacher.
Gordy started Motown with an $800 loan from his family. Many of his seven brothers and sisters worked for Motown.
Motown was like a big family. Creative youngsters flocked to Hitsville USA, Motown's studio. Recording sessions were long boisterous parties. And a receptionist who jokingly threw in her line helped Gordy compose ``Money.''
Motown makes for some incredible storytelling.
``It is so simple and so real that no one likes to believe it,'' Gordy said. ``Motown is a fantasy, but that doesn't mean that it can't be true. It was a dream that happened to have come true. That's just what it was.''
Berry Gordy, ``To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown,'' New York: Warner Books, 1994, 432 pages.
by CNB