Don Gonyea, NPR’s national correspondent in Detroit, tells the beautiful tale of Motown Records and the sense of pride and identity it brought to Detroit. It’s part of NPR’s series of stories during the nations 250th anniversary that illustrate life in America.
“Motown Records — founded in 1959 in a modest house on West Grand Boulevard by a 29-year-old Berry Gordy,” Gonyea says in his report. “The label quickly became so big that it gave the city itself a new nickname. The Motor City was now Motown.”
“Berry Gordy had actually worked on a Ford assembly line. He would write songs in his head to break up the monotony of a shift, with the machinery of the plant keeping time. And he brought some of that mindset into his recording studio — songwriters at one job, engineers another, and so on.”…