While I was in Detroit over the weekend for my cousin's wedding I found some time to visit the Motown Museum and take a tour of Hitsville USA, Motown's company headquarters and main recording studio from 1959-1972 (when they moved the company to LA).
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After driving through some rather run down neighborhoods I turned a corner by a funeral home and found myself in front of the famous "Hitsville USA" building on a nice residential street. I walked inside, happily paid $10 for the tour and joined a group of about 20 folks. There was a family from Cleveland, another from Baltimore, an older couple from The Netherlands, young couple from the UK and even a lone traveler from Japan.
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We went upstairs and saw a bunch of old photos, some of Michael Jackson's old clothes all typical museum stuff. Our tour guide was talking through the history of the building and the company and then did something which rendered me speechless for the rest of the morning.
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We all moved to the middle of the room, he put his hands above his head and clapped once. There was a huge echo which was instantly recognizable to me as the reverb you can hear on the finger snaps in My Girl. I looked up and saw they cut a hole in the ceiling making a tunnel up to the attic. This was the echo chamber where they'd record hand claps, finger snaps, stomps and all the rest. There was even an old crappy speaker mounted in there which they'd play tracks through and record the results to add reverb. I knew it was much harder to add effects before Pro Tools was around, but I had no idea it required power tools and an experienced carpenter.
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It was this moment when I also realized that I was standing in a home studio which turned out more number-one hits than The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys combined. This wasn't a fancy, state of the art, perfectly tuned, acoustically flawless recording studio. It was a duplex house with a hole cut in the ceiling. Totally DIY.
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After walking through Berry Gordy's apartment (he lived above the studio until 1967) and Motown's lobby we went into Studio A, the house's garage which was converted into a recording studio. All of the recording equipment was untouched. It seems that when they moved Motown's operations to LA they didn't feel the need to bring much from Detroit. The old tape recorders and soundboard was in the control room. The studio contained a piano, hammond oragan, a few (now) vintage guitar amps, a vibraphone, a Ludwig drumset and a bass cab which looked like it was made from parts bought at RadioShack.
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I was standing in the room where Smokey recorded Second That Emotion, with the vibes that were used on Tracks of My Tears. Stevie Wonder probably learned how to play drums in this room and definitely recorded For Once In My Life here. The Temptations Ain't Too Proud To Beg, The Four Tops It's the Same Old Song, Martha & the Vandellas Heatwave, The Suprimes Come See About Me plus dozens more all in this room.
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And then I remembered Marvin Gaye's What's Goin On, easily one of the greatest albums of the 20th century was also tracked in this garage in a duplex house next to a funeral home in Detroit.
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Our tour guide then taught us how to dance like The Temptations and we all sang My Girl. This cured my echo chamber induced speechlessness and also made me a Motown certified Temptations impersonator.
