Original subtitles

[ Chattering ]

** [ Piano ]

[ Man ] It was bigger than we thought it was gonna be.

We didn't know it was gonna be that big.

To be or not to be-- It was bein'.

First we didn't notice what was goin' on.

We were too busy creating the music and the magic.

Finally you know that, uh,

you have, uh, played on hit records.

And the jukeboxes and the radio is playing,

and somebody said, "Oh, boy, that's Motown."

But they never know us. Nobody never mentioned too much about us.

Really a long time it goes, and finally it gets to you.

Finally, when the dust cleared,

it was all over,

and we realized we were being left out of the dream.

It's the end.

And, as the years go by,

we wonder, will anyone ever know...

who we are or what we did. ** [ Tambourine ]

** [ Funk ]

[ Men ] Yeah. What you gonna do?

[ Narrator ] They were the days of American innocence--

of Father Knows Best.

Lady Day passed on,

and Fats Domino enticed the nation to visit "Blueberry Hill."

Elvis Presley burst out of Mississippi like a tornado,

gathering followers from every sphere of American life.

There was a cultural tidal wave in his hips and music.

Radio stations flooded the country with this new sound from the South.

But the roots of that music-- the originators-- remained unknown.

These pioneers of rhythm and blues could be found...

at the far reaches of the radio dial, playing soulfully for their loyal fans.

But they were confined to frustration...

as they watched their white counterparts triumph with the style they'd created.

Struggling to find the key to mainstream America's heartbeat,

scores of black artists and record companies...

searched for a new sound that would free them from the race music label.

In Detroit, that sound arrived.

** [ R&B ]

* Uh

* Now if you feel that you can't go on *

* Can't go on * Because all of your hope is gone *

- * All your hope is gone - * And your life is filled with much confusion *

* Until happiness is just an illusion *

* Happiness is just an illusion * * And your world around

* Is crumbling down

* Darling * Reach out

* Come on, girl Reach out for me *

* Reach out * Reach out for me

* Ha I'll be there *

* With the love that'll shelter you *

* I'll be there

* With the love that'll see you through *

* When you feel lost and about to give up *

* About to give up * Because your best just ain't good enough *

* Just ain't good enough * And you feel the world has grown cold *

* Has grown cold * And you're driftin' out all on your own *

* Driftin' out on your own * And you need

* A hand to hold Darling *

* Reach out * Come on, girl Reach out for me *

* Reach out * Reach out for me

* Ha I'll be there *

* To love and comfort you

* And I'll be there

* To cherish and care for you *

[ Man ] Yeah, we're, uh, doing a documentary about some music.

You know a lot about music? You gotta know something about music.

I know something about music. You know anything about Motown?

- I like to listen to Motown. - Yeah. I was brought up on that stuff.

Do you know about Motown? Oh, yes.

Do you know a lot about music?

- I like to think so. - Yes. I'm from Detroit.

- Yeah. - Motown? Yeah, sure. The sound of Detroit.

I know a little too much about music.

What's your favorite Motown group?

I wouldn't say group. I would go with Marvin Gaye.

- I'd have to say Smokey Robinson probably. - Of course, Stevie Wonder.

- I love the Supremes. - Four Tops.

Would you happen to know who played the music on the Supremes albums?

You know, the instruments and stuff. I have no idea.

Did you ever think about that? Mmm, I think about it with-- No, I haven't, actually.

Do you know who played the music for Smokey? Mmm, not right offhand.

- It's the Miracles. - Um--

It was Gladys Knight & the Pips, wasn't it?

But did they play the music?

- The Pips. - I don't think I know any of the musicians.

Yeah. I'm familiar with Marvin Gaye.

His band? No. Unfortunately, I can't say.

What if I told you it was a group called the Funk Brothers who played on all that stuff?

Wow. I had no idea.

Who are the Funk Brothers? Who are they?

- Really? - If it's true, I would believe it.

They still around?

People will ask, "What is the Motown sound?"

They've asked producers. They've asked, uh, executives from Motown.

"What was the Motown sound?" It was the musicians. Okay?

When these cats cut tracks,

no offense to any of the great artists that sang on them, but anybody could have sang on them.

You could've had Deputy Dawg singing on some of this stuff. It would have been a hit...

because the tracks were just so incredible.

They were musical entities unto themselves.

They had a natural feel for music.

They were just that exceptional.

Being really good jazz musicians, they could swing like crazy.

That's something that's not always present in pop music.

The bass drum had a note. It wasn't a dead-- [ Imitates Flat Drumbeat ]

It was a boom. So you had-- [ Imitating Bass Drum ]

When there's a groove like that,

the subliminal effect is everybody feels good.

They were the groundwork. They were the things that everything else was built on.

It was like a river constantly flowing.

Talent, creations, you know. People come in.

"Who's available? Who's on the list? Well, call them in.

Where are they? This one's out of town? Call the other one."

But it was always the Funk Brothers.

Always the Funk Brothers. First.

Without them, there really wouldn't be a Motown.

That was the sound. That was the foundation.

That was it. That was the essence of Motown.

[ Narrator ] That essence was an overpowering lineup of veteran groove masters...

and trailblazing virtuosos.

Guitarists Eddie Willis, Joe Messina and Robert White...

and keyboardists Johnny Griffith, Joe Hunter and Earl Van Dyke...

wove an irresistible tapestry of instrumental hooks and counter-rhythms...

over the electrifying core of the Motown groove--

a core comprised of James Jamerson, the tormented genius of the Motown bass...

and late-era bassist Bob Babbitt,

percussionists Jack Ashford and Eddie "Bongo" Brown,

drummers Uriel Jones, "Pistol" Allen...

and the explosive Benny "Papa Zita" Benjamin,

the creator of the Motown drumbeat.

The dance floors of the world didn't stand a chance. ** [ R&B ]

* Whenever I'm with him * Oooh-ooh-ooh

* Something inside * Inside

* Starts to burnin'

* And I'm filled with desire

* Could it be the devil in me *

* Or is this the way love's supposed to be *

* It's like a heat wave

* Burnin' in my heart

* Can't keep from cryin'

* It's tearing me apart

* Whenever he calls my name

- * Soft love sweet and plain * - * Yeah, yeah

* I feel right there

* I feel that burning flame

* Has a high blood pressure got a hold on me or is this the way *

* Love's supposed to be It's like a heat wave *

* Burnin' in my heart

* Can't keep from cryin'

* It's tearing me apart

** [ Saxophone Solo ] * Ooh-ooh-ooh

* Ooh

* Ooh-ooh-ooh ooh, ooh

* Yeah

* Sometimes I stare into space *

* Tears all over my face

* Can't explain it Don't understand it *

* I ain't never felt like this before *

* Now that funny feeling has me amazed *

* Don't know what to do my head's in a haze It's like a heat wave *

* Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

* Oh, oh

* Yeah, yeah

* Whoa-a-a-a

* I'm feeling * Burnin', burnin'

* Burnin' I'm feeling burnin' in my heart *

* Like a heat wave * Burnin', burnin'

* Heat wave *

[ Narrator ] After World War II, the auto industry boom...

turned Detroit into an economic magnet for people in search of steady work.

Tens of thousands migrated to the city.

Among them, several future Funk Brothers.

Actually, Jamerson came from South Carolina.

Uh, Eddie Willis came from Mississippi.

Pistol came from Memphis, Tennessee, and I'm from Jackson, Tennessee.

We came north-- mostly our people came north...

to get jobs in the car factories here in Detroit, Michigan.

And, uh,

I worked at Chevrolet myself.

I worked at Chevrolet for about a year and a half.

The last thing we wanted to do was work in the factories.

We really wanted to play music, and that's what we ended up doing.

The Funk Brothers ended up playing music. ** [ Jazz ]

Berry showed up down at Little Sam's one time.

He walked over by the bandstand while we were playing and, uh, said--

He said to me, "Would you have time to talk to me?"

I says, "I got more time than money."

And he explained to me what he was about.

He wanted to set up a record company...

and he needed good musicians.

I thought it was a wonderful idea.

And wanted to know, did I know anybody that could feel the thing.

He already knew Mr. Benjamin-- Benny Benjamin, "Papa Zita."

So he called the first rehearsal over at Claudette's house--

Smokey Robinson's wife at that time.

That was late '58.

And then Papa Zita was already there, and I was there.

We eventually found the great James Jamerson on bass. ** [ Bass ]

[ Man ] I remember my dad saying as a child growing up...

that he would take a stick and take a rubber band...

and put one part at one end and the other part at the other...

and stick it in an ant hole...

and make the ants dance.

** [ Gospel ]

* Jesus, Lord

* All about my troubles

* Whoa, Jesus *

[ Narrator ] When he was a kid on Edisto Island,

James and his friends would slip through a window into their little two-room schoolhouse.

They'd light a fire and play the piano until class started.

After school, they'd continue making music in a neighbor's vacant summer home,

where there just happened to be an old piano and an upright bass.

The most important pointer that my father taught me--

when I'm playing, if I don't feel it, don't play it.

You know, a lot of guys would just play straight-- ** [ Bass ]

With no feeling. But he would play it like--

You know, put something in it. He just felt life was music.

He used to tell this story--

this one song he did--

he saw a fat woman walking down the street...

and just her butt going from boom to boom to boom, badoom, badoom--

that was his interpretation of music.

He put music to just about anything that had life to it.

There's an indentment right here in the bass...

where he kept his thumb right here as a rest.

That's how old this bass is.

You can see all the dirt on here.

Uh, as he says, "The dirt keeps the funk."

This has been the original bass ever since he started playing,

before he switched over to Precision.

He used this on "Heat Wave," "My Guy," "Shop Around"--

most of the Mary Wells stuff--

"You Beat Me To The Punch," some other earlier stuff with Stevie.

He played with one finger on all those hits just like this.

The finger was called the hook.

It would hook like this. On all them songs that you heard,

basically it was done with one finger.

I have trouble playing with two fingers the line that he played.

You couldn't even touch his timing,

because he could hear another time in his head...

and be playing cut time against what you're playing and it would fit.

There was never a bass player on no coast then--

if there was a West Coast, East Coast-- whatever coast you wanna call it--

that was comparable to a James Jamerson.

It's the height of creativity, you know, and freedom...

and experimentation and fearlessness.

You have to be absolutely fearless to play those notes in that place...

and yet be responsible for your--

for the bottom of the groove like that.

I thought bass playing was played like that all the time.

Little did I know that it was my father changing the course of bass.

** [ "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" ]

Soon about 19 and 60, Berry bought a house on West Grand Boulevard.

This house had a garage...

with a dirt floor.

[ Narrator ] Walk down the four timeworn wooden steps...

into the basement of 2648 West Grand Boulevard,

and you enter a fantasyland--

a tiny, dimly lit room with smoke-stained walls,

where dreams came true for Motown's young stars--

a place where timeless classics like "I Can't Help Myself," "Shop Around"...

and "Where Did Our Love Go" were born.

This is Hitsville, U.S.A.,

the home of the Motown sound.

But to the musicians who worked there, it was just Studio "A,"

affectionately referred to as the Snakepit.

It was the site of countless steamy 4:00 a.m. sessions...

where monster hits were cranked out in an hour or less--

a place where deadly grooves threatened to set the walls on fire.

This was the home of Motown's studio band, the Funk Brothers.

Smokey was the main one that pulled this off. He'd dream of a song.

He'd come in with something written down-- two bars--

or two verses of it on some paper--

It's basically, "Hey, I got a tune. What do you think of this?"

Joe would say, "This is what you're trying to play."

He'd give him the chord and full structure. Next thing you know,

"Hey, hey. Come here, James." He'd make James play this line. In a minute you'd have a song.

That's how the studio was every day.

And they'd fight to get to Studio "A."

This is the first time we've been in here to play since the '70s.

A lot of these people come here for the first time-- they have no idea what's in here.

Because, along with our creativity,

was Berry's prayers in here...

that we would be successful in what we were doing to make those hits.

We used to hear it in his voice, the way he used to talk to us.

We used to hear the artists-- how they would talk to us.

A lot of prayers were in this building, wasn't there, Joe? Yeah.

True. [ Ashford ] You have no idea the gravity...

of what went on emotionally.

I swear to God, when I went in there tonight,

I could just feel it.

I could almost touch it.

It never left that room. Yeah. It's a strange feeling.

It never left that room. It's in there. [ Chuckling ]

** [ R&B ]

* I don't like you

* But I love you

* Seems that I'm always

* Thinking of you

* Whoa-a-a, you treat me badly

* I love you madly

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got a hold

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got

* A hold on me * Baby

* 'Cause I don't want you

* But I need you

* Don't wanna kiss you

* But I need to

* Whoa-a-a

* You do me wrong now

* My love is strong now

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got a hold on me

* Baby I love you *

* And all I want you to do

* Is just hold me

* Hold me Hold me *

* Hold me

* Tighter

* Tighter

* I want to leave you

* Don't want to stay here

* Don't want to spend

* Another day here

* Though, oh, oh I wanna split now *

* I can't quit now

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got a hold on me

* You really got a hold on me * Baby

* I love you and all I want you to do *

* Is just hold me

* Hold me * Hold me

* Hold me

* Got a hold on me * You really got a hold on me *

I was playing up in Boston, Massachusetts...

when I ran into Marvin Gaye.

I didn't know who he was. Someone from his entourage said,

"I want you to meet a famous singer."

I said, "Okay." He said, "His name is Marvin Gaye."

I didn't realize Marvin was standing with the guy. I didn't know who he was.

"You ever heard of Marvin Gaye?" I said, "Nah. Never heard of him.

If he don't play jazz, I don't know him."

I was kind of cocky because all jazz musicians were cocky.

Everybody wanted to be like Miles Davis,

no matter what instrument you played.

So I talked with Marvin, and he was telling about-- He was starting a band...

and would I like to come to Detroit?

No musician turns down a good gig, so I said I'd come.

Was this, like, a garage area? Garage.

It was a dirt floor from the beginning.

They had a piece of plywood in this area with a piano sitting right there.

Mm-hmm. Okay.

And the walls had carpeting.

Cinder block. Yeah.

And the entrance was right about there.

Not being a bass player, not being a guitar player, not being a drummer,

arrangers would come in and just have a general idea of--

or a concept-- and we'd leave it up to the masters.

You were allowed four songs in a three-hour session.

Right. And we would get no less than two.

But that's because the same guys played together all the time. All the time.

So the only thing that changed was the changes. It was like a home.

- We spent so much time there. - It was always usually Jamerson kicking something off...

and, uh, everybody falling in.

Or either Benny. If Benny kicked something off,

Jamerson had something to throw in that fit it.

And, uh, then everybody could come in.

[ Man ] Back then, you guys would have to do the tune all in one take.

[ Man #2 ] Yeah. Oh, yeah. [ Messina ] Yes. From beginning to end.

[ Man #2 ] In the earlier days, they only had three tracks to work with.

[ Ashford ] That was a great school for mixing because we only had one shot at it.

You only had one shot. You had to get it right the first time. That's right.

We felt as though it was our job to lay the groundwork for these kids to have...

as a place to really develop their careers in singing because we had the experience.

They had the talent. We had the experience. They were all really young?

Very young. Most of the producers were young. All the producers were young.

There was a bunch of fellas standing around, drinking a little wine,

called the Contours.

We was up there doing a funny band track-- something I'd never heard before.

They had the charts out--

We start playing, you know-- start playing the chart when the director came up there.

And, uh, after we finished,

I said, "That will never be a hit."

[ Man Laughing ] And the Contours walked up to each one of us like...

a little kid eating ice cream, "Oh, thank you. Thank you. That's a beautiful band track."

I said, "They're crazy." You know what I mean? [ Laughter ]

* You know, you broke my heart

* 'Cause I couldn't dance

* You didn't even want me around *

* But now I'm back

* To let you know

* That I can really shake 'em down *

[ Man ] Oh! * Oh, do you love me

* I can really move * Do you love me

- * I'm in the groove - * Do you love me

* Do you love me * Now that I can dance

* Dance

- * Watch me now Huh * - * Work, work

- * Aw, work it out, baby - * Work, work

* Oh, you're driving me crazy * Work, work

* Just a little bit of soul now *

* Work

* Oh, I can mashed potato

* I can mashed potato * Oh, I can do the twist

* I can do the twist * Tell me, pretty baby

* Tell me, baby * Do you like it like this

- * Do you like it like this - * Tell me

* Tell me * Tell me

* Oh, do you

* Do you love me * Do you love me

- * Do you love me - * Do, do, do, do ya

* Do you love me

* Yeah, yeah

- * Yeah - * Watch me now

* Huh Work, work *

- ** [ Saxophone Solo ] - * Work, work

* Work

- * Work - ** [ Man Vocalizing ]

- * Work, work - * Shake it Shake it up now *

- * Work, work - * Oh, you're driving me crazy *

* Work, work * Oh, a little bit lately

* Do you love me

* Do you love me * Do you love me

- * Do you love me - * Do you love me

* Do you love me

* Now that I can dance *

[ Yells ]

[ Narrator ] In the early days of Motown...

the Funk Brothers played on some big hits, like the Miracles' "Shop Around,"

the Marvelettes' "Please, Mr. Postman"...

and Mary Wells' "You Beat Me To The Punch."

But still there was not enough recording work down in the Snakepit to make a living.

So, in 1961, James Jamerson, Joe Hunter and a few of the other band members...

left to go on the road with Jackie Wilson.

But Wilson was recovering from a gunshot wound...

and didn't have the strength to perform more than once or twice a week.

Realizing their new situation was worse, they returned home to Motown,

where Berry Gordy welcomed them back with open arms.

But their touring days were not yet over.

Like, in the early '60s, you went out with the Marvelettes.

- I went out with Marvin and Stevie Wonder. - Yeah.

Then we did gigs maybe 200 miles outside Detroit occasionally.

- That weren't nothing. - [ Ellis ] Yeah, Joe.

The first really big tour was the 1962 Motor Town Revue,

[ Allen ] Right. where we had 30 one-nighters...

in New England and in the South...

and then ten days at the Apollo. [ Allen ] Oh, man. That's a long trip.

That was a thriller. All that was a thriller.

** [ R&B ]

* Say yeah, yeah, yeah

* Say yeah, yeah, yeah *

[ Ashford ] We were on the road, coming back from up north on that gig,

[ Man ] Yep. and everyone was packed in the car half sleeping.

Mm-hmm. As I think back on that,

Marvin Gaye was the drummer on that gig, wasn't he? Yep.

That was religious. I think he was a better singer though.

You know that's right. And they had us in this big old station wagon.

Right, right. It was about 2:00 in the morning.

Right. And it was freezing.

And Jamerson in the car with you. Ain't that somethin'.

Damn. I know that was rough. Yeah.

[ Ashford ] It was about ten degrees outside.

We were coming down the mountainside.

We were all dozing off. We told all the jokes we could think of.

And Jamerson says, "Can you pull the car over?

Robert, can you pull the car over?"

[ Man In Car ] Damn. What you doin', man?

Hurry up, man. It's cold outside.

[ Ashford ] So, he pulls over to the side of the road,

goes back there to get to the trunk, pulls this brown paper bag out,

jumps back in the car. Man, it's cold outside.

He decides to put his pajamas on in the back of the car.

In order for me to go to sleep, I got to put my p.j.'s on. He's bumping people...

and slamming people's heads and everything.

Everybody's complaining now.

Everybody settles back down again, 'cause we knew about being around Jamerson.

Just try to keep him as tranquil as possible, because he can really get out there.

And all of a sudden that bag rustles again.

[ Rustling ]

[ Man On Radio ] * With other girls I'm calling *

* I needed just a moment [ Sniffs ]

* With you I can [ Man ] Man.

Oh, my God. He got pig's feet, man.

[ Ashford ] Smelled like somebody kicked a doggone skunk in the behind.

Everybody really got ticked about that 'cause it was rancid.

Man, we raised so much Cain in there, he just said, "Okay, okay--"

All right. I might put the top back on. Aw.

I might. You better put the top back on.

That stuff stinks, man. Just to keep the peace.

[ Ashford ] So he put the lid back on it. So he's sitting back--

Everybody's kind of dozing again.

We see a light light in the back. Somebody lit a match. It's Jamerson.

He lights his funky, stogie cigar.

That's it! Hey, Rob.

Rob, pull the car over, man!

He said, "Pull the car over. We're putting him out."

- [ Chattering ] - Somebody need to regulate you, James.

So, sure enough, Robert pulls over to the side. Out goes James...

with his funky pig's feet, his pajamas and his cigar.

[ Chattering ] * You know, you smell so sweet

* You know, you could have been some perfume *

- * Well - [ Hunter ] That's right. That was Jamerson for you.

[ Ashford ] We thought about it and went back.

[ Hunter ] Yeah, to run over his butt. [ Laughter ]

* The way you do the things you do **

[ Man ] Benny played with Dizzy, Charlie Parker,

Ray Charles, Lowell Fulson, Muddy Waters,

Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry.

Benny played with the best was out there.

He was the main standard drummer,

and I was the pianist at that time.

[ Man ] Right. Before Earl got there.

Anyway, uh, we liked to frequent the corn liquor places. He had a taste for corn liquor.

So, this day we went, and we hadn't had too much sleep.

Benny was up there. He was doing a tune called "Hitchhike" by Marvin Gaye.

They kicked off the tune, and Benny was noddin' and dropped his sticks.

So the A&R man went up there and smelled his breath.

He said, "Benny! I see you been drinkin'. Benny!"

He picked up his sticks real quick, and he said, "Papa Zita. Papa Zita."

After that, everybody in the studio started calling him Papa Zita.

He come in the studio one time late, and he told Berry--

He said, "Man, I was on the freeway on my way here."

Said the traffic got tied up...

'cause the circus had just come into town,

and the truck had an accident, and the elephants got out of the truck and got loose...

and was holding up the traffic. [ Man ] Oh, man. Come on.

And everybody knew-- They knew he was lying, 'cause, guess what.

Benny didn't even drive. [ Laughter ]

First of all, Benny was a master at lockin' a tempo.

He was like a-- He's like a metronome.

He would lock it, see. And, uh,

then he had certain kinds of pickups, which, uh, were only unique to him.

For instance, a Benny Benjamin pickup would go like this--

Like that. You know.

That's different. Okay, Uriel Jones would play, you know--

Then, if I was playing four bars or something like that, I'd play--

All three of those pickups came from Papa Zita--

Benny Benjamin-- you know, he originated them.

I'm really curious as to how you all got the name the Funk Brothers.

[ Hunter ] Look here, one day, when Benny got ready to leave,

he walked up them steps, and Benny said,

"You all are the Funk Brothers."

And I'll remember that all of my days.

All of my days. And we are the Funk Brothers.

** [ R&B ]

* I said shotgun

* Shoot him 'fore he run now

* Do the jerk, baby

* Do the jerk now

* Put on your red dress

* And then you go downtown now

* I said Buy yourself a shotgun now *

* We're gonna break it down baby now *

* We're gonna load it up baby now *

* Oh, can you shoot before he run now *

* I said shotgun

* Shoot him 'fore he run now

* Do the jerk, baby

* Do the jerk now

Blow that horn! Come on.

* I said Put on your high-heel shoes *

* I said we'll go down here Listen to me play some blues *

* Gonna dig potatoes

* Yeah, yeah

* We're gonna pick tomatoes Yeah *

* I said shotgun

* Shoot him 'fore he run now

* Do the jerk, baby

* I said do the jerk now

- * What time is it - * Twine time

* Said what time is it * Twine time

- * Said what time is it - * Twine time

* Said what time is it What time is it *

* What time is it What time is it Shotgun *

* Gotta get on Get, get, get get, get, get, get *

* Shoot him 'fore he run now

* Do the jerk, baby

* Gotta get up Get, get, get Got, got, got *

** [ Vocalizing ]

* Do the jerk, baby

** [ Vocalizing Continues ]

* Shotgun

* Shoot him 'fore he run now *

I was raised in Detroit.

I studied classics for about 10, 12 years.

Then I found out I couldn't make any money doing that.

So I went on a rampage of singers.

I worked for so many. I was an accompanist.

So I did some work with Sarah Vaughan.

I did some work with Lou Rawls and Dinah Washington.

She was the queen of the blues,

supposedly, at that time, you know-- until Aretha.

They crowned Aretha the new queen of the blues.

I was working with her at that time. I worked with both the queens.

[ Griffith ] I was working in the club, and first Mickey Stevenson came by.

He told me, how would I like to be a studio musician?

I said, "Well, what is that?"

He said, "Well, come by the studio and listen to what Joe is doing...

and work from that point."

I said, "Okay, fine." [ Chuckles ]

So, I went by there...

and Joe was doing this record.

It was "Pride and Joy" or something like that.

I sit and listen. I said, "What the hell are you doing?"

'Cause we never played to nobody singing.

The tracks-- You just cut the tracks and you just played.

I said, "How do you know what to play?" 'Cause I was used to accompanying.

He said, "Just play what you want to play.

"They don't know what they're listening to anyway.

Just play. If it's too much, they'll let you know."

He was my, uh,

introduction to the-- to the R&B record scene.

** [ Jazz ]

[ Griffith ] Joe was the man around town as far as recording.

He'd been recording for everybody.

Actually, my mother-- she could teach up to around the third grade of music.

So she had a lot of little students in the area.

I was out trying to shoot marbles and play football with the rest.

They didn't figure I had any talent.

But I'd be listening to everything that she was teaching when I was in the living room.

Actually, I thought it was a spiritual thing really, the way that it came about.

I was trying to play "Stormy Weather."

It looked like the keys was just going by themselves.

I was trying to stick my hands into those holes and catch up with the keys.

When my grandmother came in, she said, "Donna"--

That's what she called my mother-- "This boy is in here playing 'Stormy Weather.'"

My favorite classical pianist was Rachmaninov.

I heard him. He had such a terrific left hand.

I said, I wish my left hand could be like that.

I'd put my right hand in my pocket and just play with my left,

trying to get as fast as Art Tatum and Rachmaninov.

[ Narrator ] In the 1960s, jazz clubs were springing up all over Detroit...

with names like the Flame Show Bar, Phelps Lounge, the Apex,

the 20 Grand and the Chit Chat.

These venues were oases where the Funk Brothers could escape...

the pressure cooker atmosphere of the studio...

by returning to their roots and playing cool jazz into the wee hours of the morning.

New ideas that hatched in these spirited jam sessions...

often shimmied their way into the Snakepit,

adding new textures and rhythms to the Motown sound.

My stage name was Lottie the Body, and I had a beautiful body.

I was an exotic dancer-- one of the greatest exotic dancers in the world.

As a matter of fact, I considered being the greatest.

I worked with small bands, big, big orchestras.

Teddy Harris' big orchestra. I worked with Count Basie.

You had to know how-- If she moved one cheek,

there was a certain drum she wanted you to hit.

If she moved the left leg, there was a certain drum. You had to catch all this stuff,

plus keep in rhythm with the band.

But after you worked with her a while, you feel her out, and it was a little easier.

But the first time I worked with her, [ Lottie Laughs ]

I swore I wasn't gonna do it again. [ Laughter ]

[ Lottie ] I'm sorry, darling. Oh, it was a pleasure.

You feel like it? Yeah. Let's do it, baby.

Don't kill me, baby. I ain't gonna kill you.

Just kind of make me feel good.

Whoo!

[ Jones ] A lot of the rhythms that we did do in the studio...

is rhythms that came from working with Lottie.

Because we wasn't doing too much what you call Afro-Cuban, you know.

So, just like both "Grapevines." Marvin Gaye's, like-- [ Imitates Drumbeat ]

And Gladys-- [ Imitates Faster Drumbeat ]

All that's Latin stuff. We did all that stuff with Lottie.

This is the spot where a whole lot of stuff happened.

The third-- One, two, three--

The third door over there. That's where the Chit Chat was.

When I was coming here today earlier, and when I passed by here,

I looked over, and I said, "There they are."

It couldn't be no clearer.

The Chit Chat was a place-- Though it was small,

everybody in Detroit knew about the Chit Chat...

and knew what was happening at the Chit Chat.

With Motown being not that far down the street here, you had--

Any Motown act would show up at the Chit Chat,

from Marvin...

to the Four Tops,

Contours, the Originals,

the Temps.

We was still really enjoying our jazz thing then, you know.

But we did things here that we would do in the session the next day.

Right. That was the uniqueness of the Funk Brothers,

because, if we were doing a tune and a change was similar to something...

in one of the jazz tunes that we played,

Earl would say, "Well, do so-and-so, so-and-so like we did last night."

And we would interject that into the change of the song. That's right.

And the song would take on a different color-- something they hadn't planned on.

Of course, the producers-- "Oh, man, That's hip." And they had a hit.

[ Narrator ] The Funk Brothers ruled the nightlife...

of Detroit's club scene in the '60s,

but their realm was a rough-and-tumble world,

where getting paid at the end of the evening...

often proved as challenging as the music they were playing.

[ Hunter ] Benny was working with us.

And Benny used to go in there in the daytime when we wasn't working and drink.

And sometimes I think the waitresses would put a higher tab on him than anything else.

But when the owner got ready to pay us off,

he'd reach up in his thing and pull out a great big, old fat gun--

looked like a German "Lukas" .45-- Mm-hmm.

and popped it on the table and he looked around at each one of us and said,

"Your drummer Benny has over-tabbed."

He says, "In fact, he's gone into y'all's money."

At that particular time, Jamerson pulled out a piece-- his piece-- and laid it down.

He says, "I got to feed my family." He looked.

Then Robert White pulled out a piece--

and nobody expected Robert to pull out a piece-- and he laid his down.

He looked around, and I pulled out my little .22 and laid it down.

He said, "What kind of band have I got here?"

He got so confused until he even paid Benny.

He paid everybody. [ Chuckles ] Yeah.

Motown was really-- It was America's introduction...

to soul music.

It was America's introduction to soul music.

And soul music is powerful. Soul music makes you believe.

Soul music gives you hope in the way that you feel--

in the way that you want to feel.

That's what was coming out of the sounds I heard these men making as a child.

It gave me unconscious hope. I didn't know why. It gave my father hope.

So, for years and years, players...

and producers have been trying to...

find that magic Motown sound and pocket...

as if it's some sort of a formula.

People would always say everything but the musicians.

They would say it was the artist, the producers,

the way the building was structured or the wood in the floor,

or maybe even food.

I'd like to see 'em take some barbecue ribs or hamburgers and throw down in that studio,

shut the door and count out one, two, three, four and get a hit out of there.

[ Jones ] The formula was the musicians.

I'll be Earl Van Dyke.

Take "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," which I think everybody is familiar with.

All right. Uriel, give it to me-- you and Pistol.

See how that feels right there?

I'm gonna put a little bass in there. One, two, three, four.

All right. Now bring a little bit of guitars in there for you.

One, two, three, four.

All right. We'll bring a little Johnny Griffith on keyboard in there.

You see how that feels?

That's part of the Motown sound, right?

Now I'm gonna add my tambourine to it.

Only a beat better.

* I know you wanna leave me

* But I refuse to let you go

* If I have to beg, plead for your sympathy *

* I don't mind 'cause you mean that much to me *

* Ain't too proud to beg

* Oh, you know * Sweet darling

* Please don't leave me, girl * Don't you go

* Ain't too proud to plead

* Baby, baby

* Please don't leave me, girl * Don't you go

* Now I've heard a cryin' man is half a man *

* With no, no sense of pride

* But if I have to cry to keep you *

* I don't mind weepin' if it will keep you by my side *

* I ain't too proud to beg sweet darling *

* Please don't leave me, girl * Don't you go

* Ain't too proud to plead baby, baby *

- * Please don't leave me, girl * - * Don't you go

* If I have to sleep on your doorstep all night and day *

* Just to keep you from walkin' away *

* Let your friends laugh

* Even this I can stand * Whoa, whoa

* I wanna keep you any way I can *

* And I ain't too proud to beg

* Ooh, sweet darling * Please don't leave me, girl

* Don't you go

* Ain't too proud to plead baby, baby * * Baby, baby

* Please don't leave me, girl * Don't you go

* Whoa, no I ain't too proud to beg *

* Oh, I'm beggin' ya, baby

* Now, I've got a love so deep in my heart *

* And each day it grows more and more *

* I'm not ashamed to call and plead to you, baby *

* If pleading keeps you from walking out the door *

* Ain't too proud to beg

* Sweet darling Please *

- * Don't leave me, girl - * Don't you go

* Ain't too proud to plead baby, baby *

* Please don't leave me, girl * Don't you go

- * Whoa I ain't too proud to beg * - * Ooh, sweet darlin'

* I ain't too proud to beg Lord *

* Don't you go * Down on my Down on my knees *

- * Ooh, baby, baby - * On my knees

* Please don't leave me, girl Don't you go * * Ain't too proud to beg *

[ Narrator ] By the time the Funk Brothers recorded Jimmy Ruffin's...

"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" in 1966,

the Motown sound had traveled a great distance from the twist records...

and blues and doo-wop-influenced tracks of its early days.

Advances in recording technology and an influx of skilled arrangers and composers...

had brought about new levels of sonic clarity and musical sophistication.

But the most noticeable difference was power--

raw power.

The added muscle coincided with the emergence of keyboardist Earl Van Dyke...

as one of the central figures down in Studio "A."

He was a natural born leader whose forceful playing style...

was jokingly called "gorilla piano."

Van Dyke became the hub through which Motown's producers and arrangers...

often communicated their ideas to the band.

He was like the glue for everything-- Earl was.

He's-- solid keyboard. He'd have the piano rocking actually.

Actually rocking. That's why we call him Big Funk.

They'd have to have a piano tuner come in and redo things...

after Earl got through playing because he put so much muscle into it.

When Earl came in, that's when we developed the style of two pianos playing--

not together-- but accompanying each other.

But there were so many good days among the musicians in the studio.

[ Man ] You guys had fun. We had fun. We had fun.

[ Van Dyke ] And you must-- Like I've said before--

there were kids like Stevie who we could never get rid of.

Stevie liked to hang out with the guys, him being a musician.

We could never really get rid of Stevie. Stevie was always there.

Stevie and the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye--

They were always in there. Bobby Taylor.

The older guys have always been our favorites.

* How sweet it is to be loved by you *

[ Stevie Wonder ] He was part of the foundation of Motown.

He was one of the first ones to teach me piano.

A lot of the people here today are really, um,

people that were the musical foundation of Motown.

Earl was a great man and, most of all, a spiritual man.

Stevie came here with Mr. Paul-- Clarence Paul.

They were standing on the steps as you go into the studio.

When we got through doing the little ditty,

first thing he walked over to was the piano where I was.

He says, "I like the way you play the piano."

I showed him a few chords. He said, "What's that?"

I said, "That's an E-flat major, and I'm throwing a color tone in there,

which is the flatted fifth," and so forth and so on.

He shake his head, "Yeah."

Finally I found out about a year later he didn't need me.

[ Laughter ] He done learned more than I'd learned.

The same thing with Benny. Benny taught him how to hold his wrists...

and how to use those sticks, and I don't think he needed Benny.

- [ Man ] He fired everybody he worked with. - Yeah.

When I started playing music, I didn't start on drums. I was playing trombone.

At the same time I was playing trombone, I was training down at Brewster Center.

You know, boxing. I was determined to do both of them.

But it was kind of hard, 'cause they was kicking my butt at Brewster,

and when I'd come to class to play trombone, my lip would be swollen.

I'd be trying to play out the side of my mouth.

My music teacher told me, "You gotta make up your mind.

You're gonna either box or you're gonna be a musician."

So I said, "Okay." That's when I started playing drums.

So, I didn't have no full set of drums.

I had a snare drum. I had a high hat. I don't know what I was using for a cymbal.

But I know my bass drum was one of those old heavy cardboard beer cases.

And right to the day, I have never found the sound...

that sound as good as that beer case did.

We were sneaking around town. Different studios. United Sound.

[ Man ] Pack Three. Pack Three.

You know. We was doing a little outside moonlighting.

And you weren't supposed to?

No, see, 'cause some of these guys were under contract-- exclusive contracts.

Motown wanted to keep the sound.

Yeah. Yeah. I guess they was paying for it. I guess a few bucks. You know.

So they started putting spies around in different places.

Like, in hidden cars and behind buildings...

and the shrubbery that was near the studio.

They had spies like that around, you know.

They offered me a hundred dollars a week to be a spy.

[ Man ] How much? A hundred.

One hundred dollars.

Extra hundred bucks a week. Naturally, I took it. I said, "Well, yeah."

Throw it all in the pot. It's all the same to me. [ Men Chuckling ]

I had no intentions of spying on anybody anyway.

When they'd see us coming out, there would be at least a couple of them are gonna say,

"We caught you. You're fired. You're fired.

You're fired."

This is real. And you said to Jack,

"You're fired twice... [ Laughter ]

because we saw you coming out of there yesterday."

Finally they called me in and said, "Look, we're paying you.

You haven't told us anything. Who's doing what where?"

I said, "Well, there's nothing happening."

They said, "Well, no, we've got pictures of people coming out of the studios...

"and, you know--

As a result, you're fired." [ Laughter ]

I said, "Wait a minute. How can you fire me?

"From what I've seen-- James Bond and all these guys--

"the usual spy-- you get a Maserati or you get a-- [ Laughter ]

You gonna give me a hundred dollars a week-- I can't even buy gas."

They said, "Look,

we're still firing you."

So I lost my job as a spy,

but they let me continue to-- to play piano. [ Laughter ]

[ Narrator ] Even during Motown's golden period,

when Hitsville sessions were going on around the clock,

the Funk Brothers were still dashing all over Detroit...

recording for any studio or record label...

that offered them another opportunity to create some magic.

Among the hits recorded outside of Motown were Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher,"

John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom Boom"...

and the Capitols' hit dance tune, "Cool Jerk."

* Cool jerk Well *

* This cat they talkin' about

* I wonder who could it be

* 'Cause I know I'm the heaviest cat *

* The heaviest cat you ever did see *

* When they see me walkin' down the street *

* Hey, hey, hey * None of the fellas want to speak *

* Hey, hey, hey * On their faces they don't wear a smirk *

* 'Cause they know I'm the king of the *

* Cool jerk

- * Whoo - * Cool jerk

- * Come on, people - * Cool jerk

- That's what I'm talking about. - * Cool jerk

* Sho 'nuff funky

* Cool jerk * Yeah, think I'm a--

* Lookin' at me like I'm some kind of fool * * Cool jerk

* But deep down inside y'all know I'm cool *

* Cool jerk * Yeah, let me say now

* The moment of truth has finally come *

* I'm the one that's givin' up the funk *

* Keepin' up the funk

* Drummer hit me now *

* Hey, Bobby Come on, baby Hit me *

* Yeah, Johnny Johnny *

* Johnny Show me those hands, baby. That's what I'm talking about.

Y'all know it's funky. * Funky

* Ain't it funky now

* Uh-huh * Ain't if funky

- * Can we do it, can we do it - * Can we do it, can we do it *

* Can we do it * Can we do it, can we do it can we do it, can we do it *

* Come on, people * Cool jerk

* Well... when they see me walkin' down the street *

* Hey, hey, hey * They think twice before they speak *

* Hey, hey, hey * On their faces they don't wear a smirk *

* 'Cause they know I'm the king of the cool jerk *

- That's what I'm talkin' about. - * Cool jerk

* Oh, Mama, you move me * Cool jerk

* Oh, yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about *

* Cool jerk, cool jerk * Oh, groove on, baby

* Sho 'nuff funky, y'all

* Can we do it, can we do it can we do it, can we do it *

- * Can we do it, can we do it - * Come on, people

* Can we do it, can we do it can we do it, can we do it *

* Can we do it, can we do it can we do it, can we do it *

- * Can you cool jerk * - [ Audience Applauding ]

[ Narrator ] In the mid-'60s, Motown was a permanent fixture...

at the top of the Billboard charts.

As their artists chalked up one number-one hit after another,

they began to emerge as some of the brightest stars...

in the galaxy of R&B and pop music.

But the Funk Brothers remained earthbound and unknown.

While they were beginning to share the financial success,

they missed out on that elusive entity-- glory.

Their last great tour before they became totally studio-bound...

opened their eyes to what fame could mean.

It was the acclaimed 1965 Tamla-Motown revue...

that took England by storm.

[ Ashford ] What amazed me--

they actually knew the musicians.

When we got off of the plane in London,

these little British guys come up to us with these signs,

and I said, "Who are these guys?"

They walked up and said, "We're the James Jamerson Appreciation Fan Club."

I said, "James Jamerson? He's not even with us.

Maybe I'll be James Jamerson. I could use a fan club." That's right.

[ Narrator ] While Motown invaded the U.K.,

the British were invading the U.S., armed with some American weapons--

Motown tunes.

The Beatles landed in New York with cover versions...

of "Please, Mr. Postman," "Money"...

and "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" in their musical arsenal.

John Lennon remarked that the Motown drummer hit a snare with so much force...

"it sounded like he hit it with a bloody tree."

There was no doubt they were listening to Motown's musicians and listening hard.

In subsequent years, other British bands covered Motown hits,

including the Rolling Stones, with their renditions of "Ain't Too Proud to Beg,"

"My Girl" and "Going to a Go-Go."

The Funk Brothers' musical influence had spread to musicians all over the world,

whether they knew it or not.

[ Ashford ] You know, in the mid-'60s when we were at Motown,

we were pretty hot and we would have producers lined up back to back...

waiting to get into the studio to work with us.

They didn't even consider the fact that it was a 12-hour or 14-hour day sometimes.

"Rig" means when you play the song so much...

until it begins to get stiff and everybody's tired,

you'd say, "Rigor mortis is here now."

'Cause you exhausted your creativity on it, you know.

Which happens sometimes, especially when we had a producer...

that we told him he was wasting his money, then he was gonna prove he wasn't.

"Take 64!" He starts floggin' us. [ Laughing ]

Wasn't nothin' really gonna happen then.

[ Ashford ] So we had to find someplace to relax...

because it was really a pressure cooker in the Snakepit at that time.

This one time, Earl came up and said that he'd found...

a funeral parlor that we could go and hide out.

Shit. So we would just do this on many occasions...

because, as I said, we were cutting seven days a week.

The studio finally found out where we were hanging out,

and damn if Motown didn't send somebody over there from management...

to find out where we were hiding. What's that smell?

Just a little embalming fluid.

Earl had had the funeral director trained what to say...

in the event that someone would come over there.

- But I really, really have to go. - Wait.

I want to show you how to use my saw and bone crusher.

We would fall down laughing.

[ Ashford ] You're not gonna believe this. I was forced to play a tambourine.

[ Ndegeocello ] In church? No. With Charles Harrison.

Came to the rehearsal when they were the big tambourines.

Looked like a dishpan. I'd never touched one. Right.

So I got finished doing my solo. He said, "Pick the tambourine up, man."

I said, "Hell, no." He said, "Pick the tambourine--"

He got angry 'cause I wouldn't pick the tambourine up.

So I picked the damn tambourine up.

I didn't know what happened. I said, "Damn, this feels good."

I started playin', and the tambourine just took on a life of its own.

I came from Memphis, Tennessee, and I started--

first began on the drums and everything.

I started in a commerce class, you know, on a Royal typewriter.

You know? I wanted to be a CPA, an engineer.

So we had to take typing class, you know.

So I was sitting there at the desk listening to drum beats,

so I wind up playin' drum beats on the typewriter.

So the teacher'd say, "Hey, what do you want to do? Play the drums or be a CPA?"

I said, "I want to play drums." So she kicked me out, and that's how I got into playing drums.

And I moved to Detroit, West End, with all the guys,

got into the jazz thing.

Then while at the 20 Grand with Levi Mann,

Benny used to come in and play some of the shows; I met Benny Benjamin.

And Benny said, "Hey, man, you sound good. Why don't you come down?

"You can play this stuff. It's easy.

All you gotta do is play-- [ Muttering Sounds ] and keep your mouth closed."

Fine. I got in.

"Grapevine--" The beat on the tom-tom like that-- Mm-hmm.

It came like the old days, took it from the backbeat. Yes.

** [ Humming ]

With a backbeat to it. So Shank, Joe Messina and three guitars--

Uh-huh. So Jamerson came in-- ** [ Imitating Bass ]

So Shank, Joe and Robert came an octave ahead of, you know, Jamerson.

That's where that funk got to get in. But you got to have that head action.

Uh-huh. You like that?

* Ooh, I bet you wonder how I knew * Yeah, baby!

She's getting down already. Turn the tape on. ** [ Continues ]

** [ "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" ]

[ Audience Cheering ]

* Ohh, I bet you wonder how I knew *

* About your plans to make me blue *

* With some other guy you knew before *

* Between the two of us guys you know I love you more *

* It took me by surprise I must say *

* When I found out yesterday Don't you know that *

* I heard it through the grapevine *

* Not much longer would you be mine *

* Hey, I heard it through the grapevine *

* And I'm just about to lose my mind, honey, honey *

* Heard it through the grapevine Not much longer would you be my baby *

* Well, I know a man ain't supposed to cry *

* But these tears I can't hold inside *

* 'Cause losing you would mean my life, you see *

* 'Cause you mean that much to me *

* You could've told me yourself *

* That you love someone else Don't you know *

* I heard it through the grapevine *

* Not much longer would you be mine, hey *

* I heard it through the grapevine *

* And I'm just about to lose my mind *

* Honey, honey, yeah * Heard it through the grapevine *

* Not much longer would you be my baby *

* Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh

* People say believe half of what you see *

* Son, and none of what you hear *

* But I can't help but be confused *

* If it's true won't you tell me, dear *

* Do you plan to let me go

* For the other guy you loved before *

* Don't you know I heard it through the grapevine *

* Not much longer would you be mine, hey *

* I heard it through the grapevine *

* And I'm just about to lose my mind, honey, honey **

We were all quite happy about the success of... "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."

At the same time, there was a mixed emotion type thing going on with Benny Benjamin.

He had a drug problem, a bad drug problem.

He was just about at the bottom.

But at one point, Benny kind of disappeared for a couple of weeks.

So Earl, you know, started trying to find out what happened to him.

And he, uh-- he found Benny.

And Earl came in just before the session started and said,

"Guys, I don't think there's gonna be no session. See, Benny just died."

And, uh, you know, that was it.

It turned everybody around. Yeah, it turned--

So we didn't do no session that day. Yeah.

You know, when they would pass the music out to the musicians,

every group would get their own little stuff together.

I'd get together with Earl because I played vibes,

and they'd pass the music over to the guitar players.

And they would huddle together like a group of little magpies workin' on it.

They'd be tryin' their parts and laughin' up their sleeves. [ Laughing ]

So Earl would just look at 'em, and he named 'em Heckle, Jeckle and Son.

And they'd jump up and say, "Yeah, we got it. We're ready."

And so, you know-- They'd really tear it up, too, because they really did have it together.

All of it was important, as you know-- the parts.

And we'd just work around each other, and nothin' ever ran into each other.

I think the magic was we'd listen to each other.

And we liked each other, which was important.

Yeah, right, Joe. Yeah. We had a friendship. I think that helped.

I was born in Mississippi. My little town was Grenada, Mississippi.

I built my own guitar out of a broom wire...

and attached it to the house, and I made the house rock.

I moved to Detroit in '52. 1952.

My dad had a guitar in the house. He liked the instrument.

He used to play Italian weddings. You know, they played the Italian music.

[ Willis ] All that influenced me. You know, just anybody.

Whoever was playing guitar. Listening to radio,

and listening to Chet Atkins, B.B. King or Albert King.

[ Messina ] I'd practice all day. At times, I would skip school to practice.

First gig was with this group with Marv Johnson,

and eventually he did take me into Motown and I did a couple of his recordings.

It so happened, everybody liked what they heard, you know.

I was playing some pretty good funk, man, you know.

And they kind of went for it, so I ended up stayin' there.

I end up on the night show with Soupy Sales.

Uh, I was there for 14 years.

We had some very good musicians.

Who used to come there? We had Charlie Parker,

Miles, Coltrane.

I never listened to guitar players. Mainly horn men.

I was more in the jazz vein.

I liked Charlie Parker, so I'd get all his records.

[ Messina ] I was working a club called the 20 Grand...

with Levi Mann, and Berry came in.

And, uh, he talked to me. He asked me if I wanted to record for him.

I said, "Yes, I will."

Did y'all mention Eddie Bongo? 'Cause he was a Funk Brother. All through.

Eddie was a good guy. Eddie kept a whole lot of mess going,

and he was Marvin's right-hand man.

The thing I remember about him most was his conga playing. He could really play.

If there's one guy that kept things loose, it was Eddie "Bongo" Brown.

Bongo's got the music sheets up there. I don't know why they put that music sheet up there.

He couldn't even read. Had the sheets sitting up there. Got the producer tricked.

Bongo's just playing his ass off. He's playing. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

I look over there, and he's got a nudie magazine sittin' up there...

with legs gaped over him with moon feet. [ Laughing ]

Oh, my God! And they swore that he was readin'. Readin'.

[ White ] He invented a couple licks that I hear a lot now--

I think he borrowed them from the Caribbean--

where he'd lick his finger and slide it over the drum and get a great sound.

[ Making Sliding Sound ] He got all kinds of neat little sounds that way.

He'd put 'em in between his licks,

and people would say, "What was that? What was that?"

The producer would go crazy. "What's that? Do that again."

When I started out singing, I used to sing in this little blues bar called Dan Lynch,

and they had this amazing jukebox.

I would go over there pretty much every night after I played,

and I would play that song, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted."

I feel as though "Brokenhearted" is a song that could really live again.

This'll be the audition today, and see if we can--

No, it won't be an audition. You've already passed the test. For me.

It's a good opportunity to see if you really like it after we finish playing it--

[ Laughing ] to see if we still have it.

[ Audience Cheering ]

* As I walk this land of broken dreams *

* I have visions of many things *

* That happiness is just an illusion *

* Filled with sadness and confusion *

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

* Who had love that's now departed *

* I know I've got to find some kind of peace of mind *

* Baby

* The roots of love grow all around *

* But for me they come tumbling down *

* Every day heartaches grow a little stronger *

* I can't stand this pain much longer *

* I walk in shadows searching for light *

* Cold and alone No comfort in sight *

* Hoping and praying for someone who cares *

* Always moving and going nowhere *

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

* Who had love that's now departed *

* I know I've got to find some kind of peace of mind *

* Help me, please

* I'm searching though I don't succeed *

* But someone look There's a growing need *

* All is lost, there's no place for beginning *

* All that's left is an unhappy ending *

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

* Who had love that's now departed *

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

* Who had love that's now departed *

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

- * Tell me, mmm-mmm - * Tell me what

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

- * Tell me, tell me, ohhh - * Tell me

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

- * Tell me, tell me, tell me - * Tell me what

* What becomes of the brokenhearted * * The brokenhearted

* Who had love that's now departed * * That's now departed

* I know I've got to find some kind of peace of mind *

* I'll be searching everywhere just to find someone who cares *

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

* Who had love that's now departed *

* What becomes of the brokenhearted *

* Who had love that's now departed *

* Ohhh, ohhh *

[ Applause, Cheering ]

** [ "My Girl" ]

You know, that's probably one of the more recognizable...

guitar licks of the early Motown days,

and when I originally played it 27 years ago,

I didn't think much about it-- only that it worked.

In the small confines of Studio "A,"

myself and the rest of the musicians didn't realize...

what an impact we'd have on the rest of the world.

He was very quiet, and he had a mystique about him.

But you couldn't find a better, steadier guitarist.

And the chords were jazz, but he made it fit in R&B.

They called us the Oreo Cookie Guitar Section,

because... Robert White sat to my right and Eddie Willis sat to my left.

And the white boy. [ Laughing ] Joseph.

[ Man ] Shortly after Earl Van Dyke died in 1992,

I was going out to visit Robert in Los Angeles.

We went out to eat, and wouldn't you know it,

as we're about to order and the waiter's comin' over,

all of a sudden you hear the guitar line from "My Girl"...

come over the speaker in the restaurant.

And Robert got real excited, real animated, and he said--

as the waiter walked over, he said, "Hey, man, you hear that? That's-- That's--"

And he stopped dead.

Then he kind of looked embarrassed and looked down at the menu, and he says,

"I think I'll have the barbecued chicken."

Then I just ordered my thing, and the guy walked away,

and I said, "Robert, you were gonna tell him that was you, weren't you?"

He said-- He kind of looked embarrassed, and he said,

"Yeah, yeah, but-- I don't know. He'd look at me and say look at this tired old fool.

He'd never believe it." And that floored me.

Because here's a guy who played a guitar line that's the equivalent--

It's like one of the top five all-time guitar hooks.

It's right up there with "Satisfaction" by the Stones...

and "Paperback Writer" or "Come As You Are" from Nirvana.

At that point I realized, here's a guy who's lived for 30 years, this close to his dream,

and yet instead of being inside the dream looking out,

he was on the outside of the dream looking in, never able to touch that dream.

I knew at that point Robert desperately needed some recognition in his lifetime.

But he didn't make it across the finish line with the rest of the guys.

* When it's cold outside...

[ Narrator ] The summer of love introduced the world...

to the soaring guitar and pulsating wah-wah of Jimi Hendrix.

The following year, Sly Stone's relentless Oakland funk swept over an enraptured public.

Mesmerized by these new trends, Motown producer Norman Whitfield enlisted the Funk Brothers,

along with innovative newcomers Wah Wah Watson and Dennis Coffey,

to help fuse these new elements into the Motown sound.

Psychedelic soul had arrived down in the Snakepit.

[ Coffey ] In San Francisco with Jimi Hendrix,

they had a lot of the fuzz tones...

and they had the wah-wah pedal and things like that--

the special effects on some of the guitars.

And what happened was, in one of those earlier sessions...

where we were rehearsing and working with producers,

Norman Whitfield came in and he brought in this song, "Cloud Nine."

And I had a wah-wah pedal with me, and I took it out and started playing it.

And within a few days, I got the call to do the session.

[ Audience Cheering ]

* The childhood part of my life wasn't very pretty *

* I was born on the streets of the city *

* It was a one-room shack with ten other children beside me *

* We hardly had enough food or room to sleep *

- * It was... so hard - * It was hard times

* I needed something to ease my mind *

* My father didn't know the meaning of work *

* He disrespected Mother and treated us like dirt *

* I left home seeking a job I never did find *

* Depressed and downhearted I took to crime *

* Now I'm doing fine

* On cloud nine

* One more time * I'm doing fine

* On cloud nine

* What's that you tell me

* Say, give yourself a chance Don't let life pass you by *

* 'Cause the world around is a rat race where only the strong survive *

* It's a dog-eat-dog world Ain't no lie * * Ain't no lie

* It ain't even safe no more to walk the streets at night *

* I'm doing fine

* On cloud nine

* On cloud nine * You sure can be what you wanna be *

* Cloud nine * You ain't got no responsibility *

- * Cloud nine - * Every man and his mind is free *

- * Cloud nine - * You're a million miles from reality *

- * Reality - * I wanna stay up, up

* Higher * Up, up * Up

* Up and away

* Cloud nine

* I wanna say I love the life I live *

* And I'm gonna live the life I love *

* Here on cloud nine

* Oooooh

- * Cloud nine - * Wish I could be what I need to be *

- * Cloud nine - * You ain't got no responsibility *

* Cloud nine * Every man and his mind is free *

- * On cloud nine - * You're a million miles from reality *

* Reality * I wanna stay up, up

* Higher * Up, up, up

* Up and away

* On cloud nine *

I haven't heard anybody play "What's Going On" like the record, ever. Nobody.

The only person I ever heard do it was Babbitt last week. I never heard Babbitt.

Oh, Babbitt did it last week?

When I heard Babbitt-- I'm sorry-- the other night, it just blew me away, man.

Dang, I felt like I was back, you know, 35, 40 years ago as a kid.

I'm sorry. What'd you say? Ralphe, you remember?

As a bass player in Detroit, I know I came a little later--

You were late. It was '74, '72.

But if you could not play that solo from that record that Bob Babbitt did--

You remember? "Scorpio"? Oh, yeah.

You weren't a bass player. You couldn't get a gig! That's right.

You couldn't play, man. He's tellin' the truth.

You couldn't get a gig. "Scorpio." [ Making Bass Sounds ]

You couldn't get a gig if you couldn't play that. You wasn't doin' nothin'.

See, what was so beautiful about it-- People loved Babbitt. It wasn't about no color.

They just loved his musicianship. That's all it was.

All the cats in the hood. "Man, that's Babbitt."

[ Babbitt ] When I went to--

seventh grade, I guess it was, I was in the choir,

and the same choir teacher was also the orchestra teacher.

She said to me, "I know somebody that's gonna play bass in the orchestra next year."

And I-- Boom, it's me she's looking at and pointing at.

So I started playing upright bass.

I'm supposed to be studying classical, which I am as long as my mother and dad are up.

Soon as they go to bed, they had some stations on the radio in Pittsburgh...

where they had what they call "race music," where you could hear the black music.

And I'd take my bass and go into the kitchen,

turn the radio on while everybody's sleeping, and I'd be playing with the radio.

Around 1967, I had been working live with Stevie Wonder, and...

Stevie brought me in to do my first session at Motown.

You gotta remember, James--

he set the bass style for the Motown sound.

Man, nobody can play this.

What? Nobody could play this laying on their back.

You could if you were James Jamerson.

[ Ashford ] This is the story. This is hard to believe, but it's true.

[ Watts ] You gotta tell me this one.

Let me tell you. Marvin was puttin' this together with "What's Goin' On."

And he was experimenting with a lot of things.

* We've got to find... But what happened-- He decided he needed Jamerson.

** [ Continues ]

So Jamerson was workin' a local club, and Marvin found out where he was workin'.

He went over there to get him. Jamerson was blasted.

So he said, "Well, I gotta get him back, because I got this. I gotta get it off."

Brought him back over here to the studio.

Jamerson really didn't want to do this,

but because of Marvin, he said, "Okay, I'll try it."

So Jamerson couldn't sit up on-- You know, he had a high stool he used to sit on.

He was afraid he was gonna fall. Like a string bass player.

He laid right out where you were laying and started playing this.

No one believed it.

He did a job that no one could do standing up.

He did it laying down. That was James Jamerson. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the master.

- * Oooh - Pressure meant nothing to you?

You felt no pressure? It was like I'd go in, I'd-I'd have to go play-- bang.

Sure there was pressure. I mean, uh, you're sitting in Jamerson's seat.

Right. And... you know what I'm sayin'?

And-And as far as that-- there was--

To do what he did was-- you know, you couldn't-- It was almost impossible.

I'm sure you just were yourself. I tried to do the best I could.

Another strange question.

Watching a documentary that was talking about some of the Atlantic recordings...

with Aretha Franklin-- early recordings.

And she had, like, basically, a totally white band from Nashville.

They were from Memphis and Muscle Shoals. Right. Okay.

And then Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Uh, James Brown started to change his vibe with "I'm Black and I'm Proud."

The whole thing changed, and a lot of people felt,

well, we didn't want to use the white musicians.

Did you feel any sort of--

Coming into this environment, did you feel any sort of racial difference?

There was-- There was such a--

a closeness.

I mean, I can't--

And when Martin Luther King died--

[ Musicians Chattering ] They never expressed to me...

any kind of hostility or anything,

and I was-- I felt as sad as they did.

And, uh, uh--

But I never felt anything from any of those guys.

I always felt like-- I don't know, like--

I was, like, one of them, you know? Yeah.

And-And, uh--

[ Sighs ] I'm sorry. No, that's okay.

[ Narrator ] On the evening of July 23, 1967,

the Detroit police busted up an after-hours blind pig speakeasy...

at the corner of 12th and Claremount, and all hell broke loose.

The Funk Brothers came out of a recording session to a city in flames.

[ Ashford ] Yeah, the sky was red. Everything was burnin' down.

You'd protect your family. That's just the way it was.

And I would've gone down for them, even if it was at the hands of a black brother...

'cause he's invading my territory.

That's just the way I felt. I didn't think about color. These are my brothers here.

So no one had to rally us. It was just, we have to get from here to the car,

and that was the only thing we were interested about.

It was our mission to get our people home safe.

But I also feel at the same time...

that had the role been reversed...

and we had been in an area where it was more predominantly a white area,

and something broke out that I would've took a bullet for Jack.

I believe it. I believe it. I would've done the same.

[ Narrator ] The end of the 1960s found America watching in horror...

as a daily stream of televised death came back from the war in Vietnam.

Back on the home front, the cultural and social revolution...

being waged in the streets was further polarizing the masses.

Motown played a preeminent role in the cultural sound track that framed all these events,

and nowhere more so than in Vietnam...

where terrified and disillusioned G.I.'s...

found comfort in the grooves played by the Funk Brothers...

and in the words and melodies sung by Motown's stars.

But there was no comforting refrain down in the Snakepit.

Still reeling from the death of Benny Benjamin...

and concerned that James Jamerson's personal demons...

were leading him down the same path,

the Funk Brothers needed a rallying cry to pull themselves together.

In 1970 they found it in "What's Going On,"

Marvin Gaye's anguished plea for sanity in a world gone mad.

Helping Marvin realize his vision,

the Funk Brothers elevated the level of their artistry...

from the dance floor to the world stage.

* Mother, mother

* There's too many of you crying *

* Brother, brother, brother

* There's far too many of you dying *

* You know we've got to find a way *

* To bring some lovin'

* Here today

* Father, father

* We don't need to escalate, no *

* You see, war is not the answer *

* Only love can conquer hate *

* We've got to find a way, yeah *

* To bring back understanding here today *

* Picket lines * Sister

- * Picket lines - * Sister

- * Don't punish me - * Sister

* With brutality * Sister

* Talk to me * Sister

* So you can see * Sister

* What's going on * What's going on

* What's going on * What's going on

* What's going on * What's going on

* What's going on * What's going on

** [ Scatting ]

** [ Scatting Continues ]

* Mother, mother

* Everybody thinks we're wrong Yes they do *

* Ah, but who are they to judge us *

* Simply 'cause our hair is long *

* Don't you know we've got to find a way *

* Bring a little understanding here today *

* Oh, picket lines * Brother

- * Picket lines - * Brother

* Don't punish me * Brother

- * With brutality - * Brother

* Come on, talk to me * Brother

* So you can see * Brother

* What's going on * What's going on

* Going on * What's going on

* What's going on * What's going on

* Going on * What's going on

** [ Scatting ]

* Just wanna know what's going on *

* What's going on

** [ Vocalizing ]

* I wanna know what's going on *

* Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah **

[ Ashford ] When Marvin Gaye first recorded "What's Going On,"

to us, it was a very important record.

Musically, we felt that it was some of our best work.

It was the first record that Motown ever given the musicians some credit on an album.

And little did we know, you know, we were--

we were biding our own time.

But we kept recording for about another year...

and that-- many more hits to come, you know.

So one day...

we went to the studio and we were supposed to record.

There was a big sign on the door saying, uh,

"There won't be any work here today. Motown are moving to Los Angeles."

Wow, what a break.

I suppose they were just looking for a new sound,

I suppose, you know?

So we just kept doing what we usually do-- what we were doing before Motown--

and that was playing in the clubs around the city--

playing our blues, playing our jazz.

That's just about the way it ended.

When Motown left Detroit, there was no warning,

no announcement and no way of preparing for it.

And that's the move they had to make.

A major company doesn't have to explain to every individual that they're moving.

But it kind of left all of us kind of like, "What are we gonna do?"

The funny thing was we always had that idea about how it would never end.

You know, we felt like it would go on and on and on,

but as you can see, it ended.

[ Narrator ] Hoping to hold on to their dreams,

some of the Funk Brothers followed Motown to Los Angeles.

But the west coast music scene was too foreign to them,

and without the emotional support the Funk Brothers' family...

had always provided for each other, they were lost.

He missed his friends, the Funk Brothers.

Just the atmosphere. It's totally different in California than Detroit.

He wasn't getting-- receiving the phone calls like before,

working in a studio-- yeah, to work in a studio.

And... there was a battle there, you know,

of emotions and probably feeling less than a man...

or less than a dad to provide for us...

from what he used to do before.

I've seen a lot of hurt and pain and the illness...

and the struggles with the alcohol.

It wasn't going right for him. He wanted to do everything.

He's used to doing everything for everyone.

And then it was his time where he needed help,

and a lot of times no one was there.

Or he didn't wanna listen, 'cause he could be hardheaded too, so--

[ Narrator ] In 1983, James Jamerson scalped a ticket...

for the nationally televised show Motown 25...

and slipped into a balcony seat.

Two months later, he slipped away... forever.

* A new day is dawning sunny and bright *

* But after I've been crying all night *

* The sun is cold and the new day seems old *

* Since I lost my baby

[ Announcer ] Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to give it up!

Give up the love...

for Detroit's unsung musical heroes!

The drum section--

Uriel Jones and Pistol Allen...

and the late Benny Benjamin.

On the vibes and percussion,

the fabulous tambourine man, Jack Ashford...

and the late Bongo Eddie!

Guitar section--

the one, none other, the brother, Eddie Willis,

Joe Messina...

and the late Robert White.

On the keyboards, Joe Hunter, Johnny Griffith...

and the late, great Earl Van Dyke.

And on bass, Bob Babbitt...

and the greatest bass player of all time,

James Jamerson!

[ Applause ] Here they are.

Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest hit machine...

in music history...

the... Funk Brothers!

[ Cheering ]

* Listen, baby

* Ain't no mountain high

* Ain't no valley low

* Ain't no river wide enough, baby *

* If you need me, call me No matter where you are *

* No matter how far

* Don't worry, baby

* Just call my name I'll be there in a hurry *

* You don't have to worry 'Cause, baby, there *

* Ain't no mountain high enough *

* Ain't no valley low enough *

* Ain't no river wide enough

* To keep me from gettin' to you, babe *

* Remember the day you set me free *

* I told you you can always count on me, girl *

* From that day on I made a vow *

* I'd be there when you want me some way, somehow *

* You know that there ain't no mountain high enough *

* Ain't no valley low enough

* Ain't no river wide enough *

* To keep me from gettin' to you, babe *

* Oh, no, baby

- * No way - * No way

- * No way - * Yeah

* No winter storm * No

* Could stop me, baby

* No, no, baby * 'Cause you are my own

* With every trouble I'll be there on the double *

[ Ndegeocello ] I think it's very important for people of my generation...

to not only know history but to also experience it and allow it to change them.

I have so much respect and so much to learn from these people that came before me.

The people are great people, not just great musicians.

I think that's what I'll carry with me--

just being able to converse and talk to people...

who have done so much to influence...

what I do and what I want to be.

The people bring the place alive, and I think that's very important.

Hitsville wasn't this building. It was the people that were in the building.

And I think that's been made very clear.

* Ain't no river wide enough *

* Ain't no mountain high enough *

* Ain't no valley low enough *

* Ain't no river

* Ain't no mountain high enough *

* Ain't no valley low enough *

- * Ain't no river wide enough - * Ain't no mountain

* Ain't no mountain high enough * * To get to you

* Ain't no valley low enough *

* Ain't no river wide enough *

* Ain't no mountain high enough * * Ain't no mountain

* Ain't no valley low enough * * To keep me from you

* Ain't no river wide enough *

* Ain't no mountain high enough * * Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

* Ain't no valley low enough * * To keep me from you

* Ain't no river wide enough *

* Ain't no mountain high enough * * Oh, baby

* Ain't no valley low enough * * To keep me from you

* Ain't no river wide enough * * Come on, come on, come on

* Ain't no mountain high enough * * Ain't no mountain

* Ain't no valley low enough *

* Ain't no river wide enough **

* Callin' out around the world

* Are you ready for a brand-new beat *

* Summer's here and the time is right *

* For dancin' in the streets

* They're dancin' in Chicago * Dancin' in the street

* Down in New Orleans * Dancin' in the street

* In New York City * Dancin' in the street

* All we need is music

* Sweet music * Sweet music

* There'll be music everywhere * Music everywhere

* There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin' *

* And dancin' in the streets

* Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear *

* Just as long as you are there *

* So come on Every guy grab a girl *

* Everywhere around the world

* There'll be dancin' * Dancin' in the street

* They're dancin' in the street *

* Dancin' in the street

* This is an invitation across the nation *

* A chance for folks to meet

* There'll be laughin', singin' and music swingin' *

* Dancin' in the streets

* Philadelphia, P.A. * Dancin' in the street

* Baltimore and D.C. now * Dancin' in the street

* Can't forget the motor city * Dancin' in the street

* All we need is music

* Sweet music * Sweet music

* There'll be music everywhere

* There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin' *

* And dancin' in the street, oh *

* It doesn't matter what you wear *

* Just as long as you are there *

* So come on Every guy grab a girl *

* Everywhere around the world

* They're dancin'

* They're dancin' in the streets * * Dancin' in the street

* Way down in L.A.

* Every day, they're dancin' in the street * * Dancin' in the street

** [ Continues, Indistinct ]

[ Man On Radio ] We're at the Chit Chat Lounge, and what a crowd we have here.

We took our microphones out to the new Chit Chat Lounge...

located at 8235 12th Street at Virginia Park...

where we present again Operation Jazz.

[ Applause ]

This is Jack Sherell at the Chit Chat Lounge now,

and what a crowd we have here.

We'll be presenting the James Jamerson Quartet,

plus our little jam session and guest stars--

guest artists who will be popping in.

So come on by. We still have a few more chairs--

a few more seats, I should say.

And join in on the fun.

Now the James Jamerson Quartet gets things under way nicely.

** [ Jazz Instrumental ]

[ Applause ]

[ Applause ]

[ Chattering ]