Motown: Behind the music

Crisis Forum

film

Just mention Motown and a whole galaxy of beloved singers and songwriters immediately springs to mind. But scant thought is ever given to the Funk Brothers, the tightly knit band of studio musicians who created all of those unforgettable grooves.

The band was the one constant in the vintage Motown Sound before the company left Detroit for California in 1973. They were involved in more hit records than Elvis Presley, the Beatles. the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys combined. For 14 years, they toiled in anonymity in "the Snakepit" - the basement of the legendary house known as Hitsville, U.S.A., at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit.

When the new documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown hits theaters in November, however, the spotlight will finally shine on this colorful cast of characters whose music fueled the careers of the Temptations, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells and countless others. They also moonlighted for other record companies despite prohibitions by Motown. Such hits as the Capitols' "Cool Jerk," John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" and Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher" bore their stamp.

The film is a funny and an often exuberant story of the camaraderie among a band of jazz musicians whose talents far exceeded the demands of the R&B tracks they turned out. They were generally overlooked while the company's stars, producers and songwriters all became legends. The men tell their often bittersweet stories, recalling the eccentric personalities, comical studio antics, marathon recording sessions and battles with personal demons. For some, this public recognition comes too late.

The film takes its name from a book co-producer Allan Slutsky published in 1989 about bassist extraordinaire James Jamerson, who had died six years earlier. While researching Jamerson's life, he came to know the other dozen musicians who'd been recruited by Berry Gordy from Detroit's thriving nightclub scene, and the book told of them as well. Slutsky says, "I knew I had stumbled upon the last great unmined musical story of the '60s."

Director Paul Justman keeps the narrative moving by deftly interweaving interviews, re-enactments, archival footage and band performances of classic tunes with contemporary artists. By the time the film is over, you feel that you really know these remarkable individuals. Listening to them talk is almost like being reunited with an old familiar friend.

Jamerson was the dominant figure through it all, despite his heavy drinking.

Tambourinist Jack Ashford tells how Jamerson was once so wasted that he couldn't sit upright, but pulled the nearimpossible feat of playing the demanding bass line on Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" lying flat on his back. Pianist Earl "Chunk of Funk" Van Dyke banged the keys so hard in his "gorilla-style" playing that his instrument had to be constantly retuned. And there's the story of Robert White, who was so shy that he was afraid to tell a waiter that he was the one playing that evocative guitar on "My Girl."

The Funk Brothers get quiet as they remember the chilling day they received word in the studio that brilliant drummer Benny "Papa Zita" Benjamin, a drug addict, had died. They speak with pride of what they accomplished and without bitterness toward a company that dimissed them after all those years with a simple note on the studio door that read simply "there is no work here today."

Fortunately, the director never lets

things become maudlin, always picking the right moment to inject some humorous anecdote, or shifting to one of the exhilarating performances by the reunited band where singers such as Joan Osborne, Bootsy Collins, Gerald Levert, Chaka Khan, Montell Jordan, Ben Harper and Me'Shell Ndegeocello gleefully strut their stuff. Other than brief appearances by the Temptations' Otis Williams and Martha Reeves, the filmmakers consciously avoid involving Motown's well-known stars, since it was their shadows that the musicians were trying to step out of But the music doesn't suffer at all as the contemporary singers give fresh perspectives on the timeless material.

A soundtrack featuring the film's live performances came out in September. Among the highlights are Osborne's wrenching "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," Levert's fiery "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" and Bootsy Collins' boisterous "Do You Love Me." The soundtrack will be featured in a deluxe edition set, due out early next year, that will feature a second CD expected to include 16 classic Motown tracks stripped of the vocals and strings to emphasize the music of the Funk Brothers. A DVD version of the movie with additional interviews and a concert at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles is due out next spring.

Motown has one of the most closely protected catalogs in the music industry, but Slutsky says this film has more than 30 songs in it thanks to company founder Gordy. Each song serves as a fitting reminder of the enormous contribution the Funk Brothers made to popular culture.

"I'll admit my view may be a little twisted, but when you think Motown, it's the story of the incredible studio band with a revolving set of vocalists," Slutsky says. "They were the continuity. They were the reason Motown sounded the way it sounded."

Steve Jones is a music critic at USA Today.

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Nov/Dec 2002
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