Motown’s departure from its Motor City home in 1972
left a hole in the fabric of the city’s life not easily mended. But for one
brief and magical moment a little more than five years ago, a tight-knit group
of Motown musical magicians moved out of the shadows and into the spotlight,
making at least one corner of the city feel whole again.
We were fortunate enough to be part of a crowd of at
least several thousand folks, gathered in a midtown parking lot, witnessing the
triumphant appearance of some of Motown’s most talented and best loved session
musicians—the legendary Funk Brothers.
The Funk Brothers were far more than simply session
musicians, though. They were the heart and soul of Motown’s distinctive sound,
and they showed the Motor City that they still had the magic in 2003, even as
they approached their 80s—nearly 40 years after recording some of Motown’s most
seminal sounds in Hitsville’s tiny, but famous, Studio A.
We staked our claim on a couple of flimsy folding
chairs in front of a concert stage set in the open near some of the city’s
cultural gems, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Charles H. Wright Museum of
African American History, the College for Creative Studies and Wayne State
University. We knew it would be several hours before the Funk Brothers appeared
on stage, so we enjoyed the opening acts playing that year’s Festival of the
Arts as more and more people filtered into seats behind us. Eager anticipation
built as time for the Motown legends’ show drew closer.
As the last opener left the stage, we ventured a
look behind us. What began as a small crowd numbering maybe a few hundred folks
watching the opening acts with us a few hours earlier, had now swelled to a
crowd of thousands, stretching into the dark behind us so far that we couldn’t
spot where the crowd ended.
Soon, the sharp-dressed Funk Brothers shambled into
the spotlight. If anyone in the crowd had trouble picturing this fraternity of
aging men as “the sound of young America”, the Funk Brothers immediately blew
away any of those doubts as the still-fresh sounding Motown music burst forth
from their instruments.
It was as if the years fell away as we slid each
pristine new Motown 45 rpm record out of its sleeve and dropped it onto the
turntable for the first time. With each note-perfect rendition of a Motown
favorite, the crowd sang, swayed and swooned as they relived their own youth
with the musically youthful men on stage.
A raft of guest singers fronted the band that
evening, but the real stars of the show that night were the musicians who
formerly played in the shadows as Motown greats like Marvin Gaye, the
Temptations, the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson and the
Miracles, Mary Wells and many others first enjoyed their fame in the 1960s.
That night, however,
belonged to the Funk Brothers—no longer “Standing in the Shadows of Motown”.
The show we saw came on the heels of the release of
a documentary film, “Standing in the Shadows of Motown”. The Grammy
Award-winning film provides a small glimpse of the magic we witnessed that
evening, but before long, the group we saw that night no longer performed
together. The recent death of Funk Brother Joe Hunter only underscores the
sense that the night we saw the Funk Brothers was our last, best chance to
relive the true magic that was Motown.
I only wish we, as a metropolitan region, could
recapture even a tiny bit of the positive energy, vibrant music and unity we
experienced that hot September evening.
© Dominique King 2009
I'll never forget it, one of the great concerts of all times. Thousands of folk of all ages and races listening, groovin', singing and dancing with each other.
"Dancin' in the Streets"
Posted by: Tim | January 08, 2009 at 11:48 AM