Collecting Motown?

[Premium Stuff]

You can't really consider Golden World/Ric-Tic/Wingate or Inferno/Impact to be Motown labels because their activity pretty much ended when they were purchased, mainly to eliminate competition.  If anything, those creative organisations were killed by Motown.

Apart from Edwin Starr (and to a lesser extent The Fantastic Four) Motown weren't very interested in the artists or the catalogues, they were more interested in the studios - Golden World became Motown Studio B - and some of the staff: two examples being Inferno's Harry Balk who headed Motown's A&R department and Duke Browner who did some writing and producing.

 

Gordy was focused on major stars and major hits so the purchases of Golden World/Ric-Tic/Wingate and Inferno/Impact were bad news for many artists, writers and producers.  An obvious example is JJ Barnes who should have been a priority artist but sadly he wasn't valued at Motown.

 

So although those companies were bought by Motown they aren't part of the Motown story, they represent what had been going on in the shadows of Motown.

 

Another point to consider is that if companies such as Golden World and Inferno had remained independent, they might have survived and grown so they could have made a difference to the local music economy when Motown left Detroit for Los Angeles.  Detroit was rich in talent but Motown's domination proved to be unhealthy. 

 

Ironically, we should be thankful that Motown were unable or unwilling to resolve their dispute with Holland/Dozier/Holland, otherwise we wouldn't have had the Hot Wax/Invictus/Music Merchant labels which provided a nice alternative for a while.

 

I'm a big Motown fan and I recognise their remarkable achievements but competition is healthy and necessary.

 

Paul

 

Nice post Sir 

 

Richard

[Premium Stuff]

And Mr Shard commented elsewhere on the thread 

 

While Im on re Motown bit harder to get esp hits in M- than that discussion suggests. I ain't even got "Dancing in the street" yet !

 

 

Cheers

 

Richard

[Wilxy]

Although I have collected rare and Northern since I was a teenager I have never collected Motown.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are some decent records on those Motown labels.

 

If I was thinking of starting to collect US Motown - don't know why 

 

Supposing I decided to, what are the top tips for a fledgeling US Motown collector please?

 

Cheers

 

Richard

Go for it Richard.....IMHO a superb portfolio, that from experience, and purely from a collecting perspective, has always been a favourite of mine above others! 

[Guest turntableterra]

big job richard, and probably a little late. im collecting motwn to m1900 need about 300, tamla full need about 50, rictic issue need 12 and demo need about 20, gordy need about 30, and soul need about 4, also have almost all of the pic sleeves,need 3 . the harder ones are, in my experience, the later 70`s stuff like commodores and teena marie (completist only) and some of the obscure thingds like granny hillbilly.  there is a lot of hard items, it just depends on if you  want the lot or just northern. the first supremes will cost you 800 quid, satintones angel 800 and all the early stuff. so first you need to decide what it is you are wanting. an example of how hard it can get is that a simple "road by the place" was released twice within 15 numbers.....and whole lotta woman has 3 versions..... which would you want.. like i said, a big job

Edited January 18, 2014 by turntableterra