Motown 25: Thirty Years Later

Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, and Forever first aired back in 1983, and it was an event that almost everyone I knew watched. We had fewer options for television viewing then, of course, and a special featuring the greatest stars of Motown was too exciting to miss. The show provided an overview of the history of the famous recording company based in Detroit and demonstrated just how deep a cultural impact the acts from the label’s first twenty-five years had. It was a nice evening of nostalgia for those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, in particular.

Recently, the special was rebroadcast—well, most of it anyway—on public television as part of a fundraising drive. I decided to revisit the program thirty-two years after that initial showing to see how well my memory of it has held up. Of course, it’s most famous for introducing the “moonwalk” to viewers when Michael Jackson wowed the crowd during his performance of “Billie Jean” from his then-new Thriller album. Oddly enough, that moment wasn’t even the best of the night from my perspective of more than three decades later.

·         Dick Clark showed up to talk about how black musicians had a lot of obstacles to overcome (i.e., racism, a word he didn’t or wouldn’t use) in order to become successful. For example, many stores that catered primarily to white customers wouldn’t sell albums that had black faces on them, leading to such atrocities as the album cover of This Old Heart of Mine by the Isley Brothers having a photograph of two white people canoodling on a beach. Crazy. (Clark didn’t mention but the clips revealed that his show American Bandstand made a big difference too. He showcased a lot of performers from Motown over the years and helped to make the label one that young people sought out.)

·         Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) from TV’s WKRP in Cincinnati introduced a segment whose sole purpose seemed to be to give short shrift to some of the greatest early Motown artists. The broadcast only featured snippets of “Heat Wave” by Martha Reeves, “My Guy” by Mary Wells, and “Shot Gun” by Junior Walker. Almost all of those songs and singers made history, but they were definitely slighted by the producers of the show. I hope that they were allowed to perform the entire songs at the actual event, but for the sake of time, their moments were just reduced to thirty second clips. (By the way, WKRP in Cincinnati had ended more than a year before the Motown special was broadcast. Why were these two characters brought back for this event?)

·         After some clips of the kinds of dance moves for which Motown groups were noted—such as the Pips backing up Gladys Knight—the Temptations and the Four Tops gave a master class in synchronized moves. The sing-off between these two groups was one of the highlights that I recalled with pretty good accuracy. They had a lot of great songs, and they could still sing them beautifully.

·         Marvin Gaye was so sly and just so sexy. He talked to the audience about how music intertwines with history before launching into “What’s Going On.” It was a brilliant transition, and he performed the song with just a piano for accompaniment. A breathtaking moment.

·         The medley of songs by the Jackson 5 brought a smile to my face. They made such good music together, and the group was never quite the same after Jermaine left. He was back here and youngest brother Randy (Jermaine’s replacement) also joined in, making it the Jackson 6, I suppose. Randy, by the way, was very hot. He was wearing a torn shirt that left his nipple exposed many years before sister Janet’s Super Bowl fiasco. (Yet no one made a fuss about Randy’s nipple. Odd, isn’t it?) Another brother had on a sparkly, see-through shirt that was far too covered up by a jacket, but his body just couldn’t quite compare to Randy’s. No, I don’t recall that brother’s name. I could never keep all of the Jackson brothers’ names clear once I got past Michael and Jermaine (and, obviously, Randy).

·         Michael Jackson famously wanted to sing his new song “Billie Jean,” not just the old stuff with his brothers. He wanted to sell some records on his current label and apparently only agreed to appear if he could do his latest hit. During what is an obviously lip-synched performance, he moonwalks twice, but it’s only for a couple of seconds each time, not the lengthy moonwalk across the entire stage that I thought I saw originally. In retrospect, it’s not quite as astonishing an event as we might think, but it certainly signaled a change in the way that Jackson would be respected as an artist. The audience in the theater certainly enjoyed his performance; it’s one of the few ovations of the night.

·         I personally enjoyed the duet of Smokey Robinson and Linda Ronstadt on “Ooh Baby Baby” and “Tracks of My Tears.” Robinson reunited with the original Miracles early in the show, but hearing the blending of his and Ronstadt’s voices on these two classics was amazing. How bittersweet to watch this performance now that Ronstadt has lost the ability to sing due to Parkinson’s.

·         I love Diana Ross, and one of the highlights of my life in recent years was getting to see her perform live at the Hollywood Bowl. However, she was and is quite the diva. She got to anchor the final segment of the show. She was, of course, one of the members of one of the biggest groups in popular music history, the Supremes, later known as Diana Ross and the Supremes (there’s a sign of a growing ego). She showed up at the Motown 25 spectacular on her own first, though. She got to sing one of her solo hits before bringing out fellow former Supremes Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong to join her on “Someday We’ll Be Together.” She, however, remained the center of attention, even taking a few steps to block Wilson from the camera at one point before relinquishing lead vocals to her one-time rival. Birdsong, wisely, stayed out of the way of both Ross and Wilson.

·         Ross brought out everyone for the final moments of the special. It’s touching to see her reunited with Richard Pryor, her costar from Lady Sings the Blues. She’s also there with Michael and the rest of the Jackson 5, whom she “introduced” on their first recordings. She coaxed label founder Berry Gordy to join everyone on stage (although Mary Wilson had technically beaten her to it) even though she and most of the Jacksons and Gaye and a lot of the other acts had left the label to make more money. She seemed to think that she got to bring the Motown “family” together. Who else could have made such a reunion possible?

·         El DeBarge was apparently a much bigger deal than I remembered. He gets a prime spot of real estate during the closing number. DeBarge, his family’s namesake band, was popular for less than a decade, but he’s given more exposure than many of the greatest artists in the history of music.

I think quite a lot was cut in order to have enough time for all of the pledge drive nonsense. One of the prizes for pledging was the full version with additional bonus material. A lot of acts from the early years were not invited, and only selected artists were given time to perform. It’s a very hit-and-miss evening, to be honest, but thankfully, some of the reunions (the Jackson brothers, the Supremes) were captured on film since this would mark the last time they would, actually, be together.