Where Did Our Love Go: The Rise and Fall of the Motown

I don't want the gossip, I want the music. Nelson George gives that to us in this excellent book. Yeah, there are some cool insider/gossip tales here, but it doesn't overwhelm the reader. We hear in detail about how Berry Gordy rose up from a humble existence to create the greatest recording company in the history of music. We read how Holland-Dozier-Holland crafted some of the greatest songs ever, and how the finest backup band, The Funk Brothers, put it all together behind some elite singers. George breaks it all down very well, doesn't pull punches, yet doesn't overreach. No bias here for against artists, producers, musicians, and singers: It's written like evenly across the board. A must-read for not just soul music fans, but anyone interested in a great American story.

One of my smartest purchasing decisions was to pick up this work by Nelson George in June 1986 when it was still in hard cover. I've never let it out of my sight since. Time has proven it the precursor of a deluge: `Dreamgirl,' & `Supreme Faith' by Mary Wilson (1986, 1990), `Temptations' by Otis Williams (1988), `To Be Loved,' by Berry Gordy (1994), `Inside My Life' by Smokey Robinson (1989), `Dancing In The Street' by Martha Reeves (1994), and `Between Each Line of Pain and Glory,' by Gladys Knight (1997), among others. I bought them all and I read them all. By far the worst, was the October 1993 work by Diana Ross, `Secrets of a Sparrow,' which was quickly named the worst non-fiction work of the year by People magazine. I couldn't argue with them.`Where Did Our Love Go,' on the other hand, proves a truth we discovered in the day of the very music it chronicles: no amount of tepid covers surpasses a towering original. Perhaps because Mr. George was not an insider at Motown in the 60s, his history of the company is so objectively good. I've read it many times in over 16 years, and haven't found a date or factual mistake.And it is balanced. The wonderful music of those glory days in Detroit is given the respect and affection it deserves, as well as the how-it-came-about details. Mr. George acknowledges as most of us do, that Motown's 60s sound is timeless, and is going to outlive Berry Gordy, the artists whose names appeared on the labels, and we baby-boomers who were weaned on it.Yes, the who-struck-John stories of disappointment are delineated fairly too: the career declines and /or disappointments of folks like Martha Reeves, Gladys Knight, Chuck Jackson, Marvin Gaye and, especially Florence Ballard. But unlike the recollections of the authors listed above, `Where' is not told by a writer needing to come out smelling blameless or put-upon at the end.All these years later, `Where Did Our Love Go,' by Nelson George remains the single most essential biography of Motown Records you can own. Buy it anyway you can manage to, even used - just don't ask to borrow mine. Beyond it, there are two companion works you should also seek out for some fair and detailed `inside' looks of Motown in those days: `Divided Soul,' David Ritz' account of Marvin Gaye's life, which appeared first in 1985, and might have been helped in its excellence by the fact that its subject was no longer around to censor it or `advise.' Finally, from 1989, J. Randy Taraborrelli's `Call Her Miss Ross,' could likely be a dozen times more factual and objective than the 1993 work of the former Supreme herself could ever be!

Although a little short on photos (it was obviously not the authors' intention to be another photo book), this is in many ways the best book for someone really interested in the subject of Motown to own,in that the author pulls no punches. Other books on this record company/hit machine of the 60s & 70s suffered from censorship by the record company's head and his people. This book does not suffer that hinderance, and it allows us to read what really went on behind the scenes. It was not such a happy family with Berry Gordy Jr. as the paternal head as it is often depicted. An excellent book, both readable and informative, and well worth getting hold of for all fans of the music who want to know what really went on as the records were made and the tours were run.

Part of the success of Motown lies in Berry Gordy's tight control over public relations. Put simply, he would not cooperate with reporters until and unless he knew, and approved of, the nature of their stories in advance. In "Where Did Our Love Go", Nelson George breaks the mold. This is an unauthorized biography of the Motown Record Corp. George managed to circumvent Gordy's media chokehold and, thereby, come up with a picture quite different from the common myths. This results in two marvelous types of revelations throughout this book: (1) The "dirt" on Motown; and (2) the good, joyful, and uplifting things that we never knew. Get this book!