Last week on American Idol it was “Motown Night.” Now I will admit, during an occasional season, American Idol is a shameless guilty pleasure. Maybe it was my upbringing with watching “Star Search” as a kid that still glues me to a TV set whenever a singing competition of any sort is on. That being said, this season of Idol, is entertaining and primarily it’s because many of the competitors have real vocal skills and personalities that could easily translate into pop superstardom.
Every week on the show, a different theme is broadcast and the singers usually are given a celebrity mentor of the genre and perform songs of said genre. Motown Night was quite entertaining. First, the iconic R&B mastermind Smokey Robinson was their mentor. I was thinking do many of these youngster contestants even know, appreciate, or understand the magnitude of greatness that is before them? Smokey Robinson is the greatest, most successful R&B songwriter of all time, specifically, and of one of the greats of American music culture, in general. Bob Dylan called him the greatest living American poet and that is no exaggeration. Smokey Robinson’s enormous gift for crafting lyric and melody is unparalleled. Name any great songwriter today and he or she has been influenced by the Great Mr. Robinson. I honestly can’t imagine living in a world without songs like “My Girl” performed by the Temptations, “Tracks of My Tears,” and a personal favorite “You Really Got A Hold On Me.”
As the dominant songwriter and shaper of Motown, Smokey and Motown founder Berry Gordy created a empire of R&B greatness that had one singular mission: music for all people. It was 1959 and the world was in need of serious change. The music Berry wanted to create was far from the previous “chitlin circuit” –era of black soul music. That era which still remains underrated and unappreciated for its ability to create a black signature sound. Beyond the chitlin circuit was the massive success of Ray Charles’s raw and, at times, raunchy brand of soul was said to be “corrupting” white teens and the “morals” of white America. Berry Gordy wanted to challenge that by using the soul aesthetic in a more neatly packaged, wholesome way. He often said he was interested in making hits. Meaning every song had to appeal to all audiences. Right now we are living through perhaps the worst of pop music—aside from a few genuine artists, overall it’s become soulless, unimaginative, and robotic. The pop hits that Gordy was interested in still had to be meaningful, inspired, and most of all, enduring. This was integral to the Civil Rights movement, perhaps, consciously and unconsciously. Rolling Stone considered Motown’s Martha Reeves and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Streets” one of the top five songs that Changed America. Whether the Vandellas knew it or not, lyrics like “…calling out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat?” was consider riot-provoking for such an unsettling time of racial and social crisis in America to the point where radio stations feared playing it. That might even be the moment that Motown was regarded as the essential fabric of the era, the soundtrack for change.
So while watching American Idol last week, I realized what classic really means: the idea that a song is timeless. It will forever live because it has exposed some great human truth that will never change no matter the year in which people hear it. I mean, there are kids in the audience at Idol or even watching TV who have never heard of Smokey Robinson or heard many of the other Motown songs performed that night, but were affected and spent the whole night downloading songs like Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and The Supreme’s “You Can’t Hurry Love.” Or “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” which was shockingly performed with real heart and charm by a 16 year old contestant who even made Simon Cowell lighten up and smile.
One contestant beautifully performed Smokey’s “Tracks of My Tears.” Upon hearing his tender and heartful interpretation, I was deeply touched. The contestant Adam Lambert asked Smokey before performing the song what was his inspiration for writing it and Smokey said “I wondered what if a person cried so much that the tears left tracks on their cheeks.” Ooh. Come on, no one writes with that kind of soulful imagining anymore:
People say I'm the life of the party
Because I tell a joke or two
Although I might be laughing loud and hearty
Deep inside I'm blue
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears..
I need you, need you
Since you left me if you see me with another girl
Seeming like I'm having fun
Although she may be cute
She's just a substitute
Because you're the permanent one..
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears..
I need you, need you
Outside I'm masquerading
Inside my hope is fading
Just a clown oh yeah
Since you put me down
My smile is my make up
I wear since my break up with you..
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears
This sort of poetry will be studied and analyzed in books in years to come. This song, like so many great songs of the era, are apart of our human conscious. They are the emotional landscape of our loves, our pains, and joys. This wondrous, damn-near magical Motown era produced legends like The Temptations, Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Isley Brothers, and the greatest pop superstar in the world, Michael Jackson. The reality that so many legends came from one movement is mind-blowing.
So the cultural anxiety for me comes from the lack of such greatness now. Where are all the legends-in-the-making now? Yes, we have a few contemporary musical geniuses whose music will stand the test of time. But usually finding their music requires some archeological digging. I miss the idea of turning on the radio and being equally excited and moved, instead I’m usually offended and cringing—terrified for a generation to come whose soundtrack will be so escapist and shallow that true love songs to them will soon sound mythological.
The day after watching American Idol, I was headed to work on the R train, and I listened to my Motown collection on my iPod. As many times as I’ve heard these songs over the course of my life, I sat in awe and wonder at such purity and brilliance. And, without a doubt, I fell in love all over again. It's just that good.
And if you don't believe me I dare you to listen to this and not feel something:
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