Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Classic Motown Tour Photo!
Topic Started: Sep 9 2016, 01:42 PM (122 Views)
kenj28

http://i2.wp.com/www.mcrfb.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Motor-Town-Revue-Poster-Detroit-Fox-Theater-1965-1966.jpg?zoom=3&resize=450%2C651
All these future greats for $2.50!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
U Thant
Member Avatar

thx for the link
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kenj28

Ethos Logos Pathos
Sep 9 2016, 03:30 PM
thx for the link
You're welcome, wish I could open it!
Edited by kenj28, Sep 11 2016, 11:23 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
MrsMommy

So many of them got ripped off as young people, that I cannot go to bat for Motown. I have read so many autobiographies, and one thing stays consistent: Berry Gordy Jr. used black talent to enrich himself and cheat his many teen-aged money-makers. It is truly despicable!

Had a white man or white business treated these fabulous and talented men and women like Berry did; there would be hell to pay, and nobody would be celebrating him or his dirty business model. The "pictures" are beautiful, but the reality of their lives is criminally sad.
Edited by MrsMommy, Sep 13 2016, 01:15 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kenj28

kenj28
Sep 11 2016, 11:21 AM
Ethos Logos Pathos
Sep 9 2016, 03:30 PM
thx for the link
You're welcome, wish I could open it!
Which books did you read? Because the Motown artists books I read, said no such thing. I've read books, by Otis Williams, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and others. None of that in there. You should read the Vanity Fair Article "It Happened in Hitsville" they refute all those Motown myths. The were surrounding him at his Hollywood Star ceremony, they mostly all came back for Motown 25.They also always thank him when they receive career awards. No other label has produced as many legends as Motown. Of course a super successful Black company will be undermined by the media and some of the public.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
U Thant
Member Avatar

kenj28
Sep 13 2016, 06:27 PM
... Otis Williams, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and others...they refute all those Motown myths. The were surrounding him at his Hollywood Star ceremony...they also always thank him when they receive career awards.
Do you think this is actually how it was?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
MrsMommy

kenj28
Sep 13 2016, 06:27 PM
kenj28
Sep 11 2016, 11:21 AM
Ethos Logos Pathos
Sep 9 2016, 03:30 PM
thx for the link
You're welcome, wish I could open it!
Which books did you read? Because the Motown artists books I read, said no such thing. I've read books, by Otis Williams, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and others. None of that in there. You should read the Vanity Fair Article "It Happened in Hitsville" they refute all those Motown myths. The were surrounding him at his Hollywood Star ceremony, they mostly all came back for Motown 25.They also always thank him when they receive career awards. No other label has produced as many legends as Motown. Of course a super successful Black company will be undermined by the media and some of the public.
You didn't read enough, or it was a very long time ago that you did.

You won't hear anything bad from the likes of Otis Williams, Smokey Robinson, or Diana Ross---although Ross did admit that her man (Berry Gordy) had ripped her off too, which is why she hired her own financial team, and then left Motown. Otis Williams was ripping the Temptations off left and right. Even though you don't hear his voice on any of their hit records; he organized it with Berry that he would be the only well-paid Tempt. Martha Reeves, was poor and said sweet things about Berry and Motown, hoping that he would remember her in her old age, and grace her with the royalties she deserved. Michael Jackson died before he could put pen to paper to tell the real nitty gritty of Motown. There was a reason why the Jackson's left Motown.

And Mary Wilson wrote the book that started it all: She revealed how they got rich off of all of the performers (except Smokey---he was Motown's V.P.). They started off as ghetto kids, and believed everything Berry told them "I love you. We are family. I will take care of you." They used those kid's money like an ATM. They didn't own anything they had----it all belonged to Berry and Motown. They didn't allow them to have separate legal representation or help them to grow financially or academically. If they complained, they were told that they would be cut, and didn't own anything, and would be poor. They were slaves on a plantation.

It is not a myth that the performers used Motown's lawyers in signing their contracts, nor that they were mistreated and ripped off. They kept them from growing educationally and professionally by keeping them on a short leash----meaning they didn't actually own what they had, and got paid very little. It's like the rappers you see today, who use their friend's or agent's homes and lease cars just to stunt on television. They don't have shit.
Edited by MrsMommy, Sep 13 2016, 07:12 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
kenj28

MrsMommy
Sep 13 2016, 07:10 PM
kenj28
Sep 13 2016, 06:27 PM
kenj28
Sep 11 2016, 11:21 AM
Ethos Logos Pathos
Sep 9 2016, 03:30 PM
thx for the link
You're welcome, wish I could open it!
Which books did you read? Because the Motown artists books I read, said no such thing. I've read books, by Otis Williams, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and others. None of that in there. You should read the Vanity Fair Article "It Happened in Hitsville" they refute all those Motown myths. The were surrounding him at his Hollywood Star ceremony, they mostly all came back for Motown 25.They also always thank him when they receive career awards. No other label has produced as many legends as Motown. Of course a super successful Black company will be undermined by the media and some of the public.
You didn't read enough, or it was a very long time ago that you did.

You won't hear anything bad from the likes of Otis Williams, Smokey Robinson, or Diana Ross---although Ross did admit that her man (Berry Gordy) had ripped her off too, which is why she hired her own financial team, and then left Motown. Otis Williams was ripping the Temptations off left and right. Even though you don't hear his voice on any of their hit records; he organized it with Berry that he would be the only well-paid Tempt. Martha Reeves, was poor and said sweet things about Berry and Motown, hoping that he would remember her in her old age, and grace her with the royalties she deserved. Michael Jackson died before he could put pen to paper to tell the real nitty gritty of Motown. There was a reason why the Jackson's left Motown.

And Mary Wilson wrote the book that started it all: She revealed how they got rich off of all of the performers (except Smokey---he was Motown's V.P.). They started off as ghetto kids, and believed everything Berry told them "I love you. We are family. I will take care of you." They used those kid's money like an ATM. They didn't own anything they had----it all belonged to Berry and Motown. They didn't allow them to have separate legal representation or help them to grow financially or academically. If they complained, they were told that they would be cut, and didn't own anything, and would be poor. They were slaves on a plantation.

It is not a myth that the performers used Motown's lawyers in signing their contracts, nor that they were mistreated and ripped off. They kept them from growing educationally and professionally by keeping them on a short leash----meaning they didn't actually own what they had, and got paid very little. It's like the rappers you see today, who use their friend's or agent's homes and lease cars just to stunt on television. They don't have shit.
I read their books when they came out. Michael Jackson did write a book. They left Motown because they wanted to write and produce their own songs. Martha Reeves was furious when Dream girls implied Berry Gordy did them wrong.Please read the Vanity fair article and these books. You are believing myths instead of the people who were there. Duke fakir of the Four Tops said Gordy gave him an advance of thousands of dollars to by his mom a house. The Tempts are not poor and Otis was the leader not the lead singer , like Harold Melvin. His artists influenced him to make the Musical to clear up all the lies out there. The songs are always owned by the songwriters at any company . The Motown artists are doing quite well. Diana Ross is always praising Gordy and so is Gladys Knight. They've done numerous tributes to him. They were not ripped off and never claimed to have been. The owner always makes the most money, that's in any business.I take the words of those who were there.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create a free forum in seconds.
Learn More · Register for Free
« Previous Topic · Entertainment · Next Topic »
Add Reply