What I Learned from “An Evening with Smokey Robinson”
Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy. Photo by John Sciulli.
Hey, folks! So, for this week, my assignment was to watch “An Evening With Smokey Robinson,” do some further research, and report back with some of what I learned.
If you don’t already know, William “Smokey” Robinson (1940-present) is an eminent singer and producer known for his work with Motown Records and in the group Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (a.k.a. just The Miracles).
And, because he kept being brought up so much, I also watched “An Evening with Berry Gordy,” which is the same in approach as the other “An Evening with…” videos, except it’s not available on YouTube. But, you can watch it in its entirety on the Digital Archive, if that’s your fancy. I’ll be discussing a little of both videos in this post. Berry Gordy is a music producer known for founding the Motown record label, which Smokey worked for for many years.
What did you learn?
I learned a great deal from both of these videos about the “golden age” of Motown-style R&B music. What made these two pair so well together is that you get both the perspective of the artist—Smokey—as well as the producer—Berry. While it’s not a clear-cut division (I learned that Berry is also a musician and Smokey later helped run the business side of Motown), it’s interesting how well they complement each other.
For instance, I learned from Smokey that it was standard practice for groups at the time Motown had its heyday to have names that started with, “The.” Think about “The Temptations,'“ “The Four Tops,” “The Matadors,” “The Five Chimes,” “The Marvelettes,” and so on.
What surprised you?
I was surprised that Smokey Robinson was so open about his past problem with drug abuse (unfortunately, apparently a common thing in show business). It’s always good to hear about someone who had that struggle overcome it.
Another thing that surprised me was how deep Motown’s influence goes. This was evinced by the mere fact of who appeared in Berry Gordy’s video: Rev. Jesse Jackson, Valerie Simpson, former President Bill Clinton, and Janelle Monae.
I was also surprised at what a banger the song, “The Tears of a Clown” is. No, really. If you haven’t heard it, check it out below:
What research rabbit-holes did you go down in the database?
One fascinating thing I learned in the HistoryMakers database concerned the early years of Motown Records. Since I had heard so much about the record label in the “An Evening with…” videos for Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, I wanted to see what the archive had to say about it. In the interview with Mary Wilson, a member of The Supremes, she talks about how, at first, Motown was mostly a family-run business. Wilson says, "It was a family--as they say a family-run business and then Berry's father, Pops Gordy [Berry Gordy, Sr.] would do all the maintenance around and you could often drive up and you'd see him up on the ceiling you know or up on the roof repairing things. His mother, Berry's mother [Bertha Fuller Gordy] was there doing things. Mrs. Edwards [Esther Gordy Edwards], his sister I guess, ran the, the business area. His brothers and sisters all worked there, so you know it, they brought in more of a family kind of a feeling for you, for the artists and then the artists became--and said, ‘Hey, Pops.’ You know everyone was family.” It’s just something I found
SBA Update
In regards to my other work as a Student Brand Ambassador, this past week was a really fruitful one for me. One of the most important developments is that I finally landed a meeting with a professor I’ve wanted to discuss The HistoryMakers with since September. Another one is that I’m meeting with a librarian at Northeastern’s library who specializes in collections, and I’m going to work with her to help spread the word about the Digital Archive ahead of the contest in February.
Well, that’s about it for now. I’ve learned recently that we’re going to be allowed a bit more leeway with what we write our blog posts about going forward. So, next week, expect some new content from me about… uh, something interesting that I dig up in the Digital Archive!