Review of Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power

Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power by Gerald Posner

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
A highly fascinating subject, and Posner unearths some goodies, but unfortunately, he writes like an investigative journalist and not a literary one. In particular, he does not work to build the sort of suspense that drives a good story, which Motown most definitely is, and he fails to weave the FASCINATING characters together with much depth; rather, he seems to feel like he has a laundry list of Motown dysfunction to go through with each person he covers, from Temptations lead singer, the sadly drug-addled David Ruffin to spurned Supreme Flo Ballard. I wish instead, Posner could re-create what it would have been like to be IN A ROOM with say, Smokey, Ruffin, Flo, Marvin, Berry Gordy, and Diana. Still, I must give credit where credit is due: Posner clearly went through a rear end-load of lawsuits in order to understand all of the contract battles between Motown artists and Gordy. He also rightly keeps Gordy as his center and alludes to the fascinating question–whether intentionally or not–of whether Motown’s legendary CEO was really the music visionary some give him credit for or just the only guy who would get black musicians together to make pop in the late 1950s. I think the latter, in a way. It seems like BG clearly recognized talent but ran Motown like a straitjacket with no appreciation for his artists’ individuality. He actually didn’t want to put out Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On?! That’s almost a crime. Also, he and Diana Ross had a majorly DYSFUNCTIONAL relationship. Not to judge or anything, because I love that reading about that stuff.

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