Motown Quotations

If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.

Motown was the mecca. It was every writer's dream to work there.

I don't ever balk at being considered a Motown person, because Motown is the greatest musical event that ever happened in the history of music

Motown's policy was to build one act at a time or their favorites.

My mom was a huge Adam and the Ants fan. My granddad listened to a lot of Motown and Elvis and Johnny Cash. So I was kind of well-rounded.

I'd heard a lot of Motown and Stax when I was a kid, but the more well-known end of it. On Jam tours, we had a DJ called Ady Croasdell who ran a '60s club. He turned me on to underground stuff and what people call northern soul. It just blew my mind.

I honed in on a great time, the Motown era, the '60s and '70s. That type of music has always been a staple in my life.

I listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye and Motown records.

My listening changed when I heard music from Stax, Atlantic, Motown because by that age I thought anything that my parents listened to must be square. So I had to find my own rock n' roll, as it were, and I found it in black soul music.

Once you're a Motown artist, that's your stigmatism, and I was there from the very first day

'Let's Get It On' is a classic Motown single, endlessly repeatable and always enjoyable.

Once you're a Motown artist, you're always a Motown artist

Marvin Gaye is an inspiration to me. He was one of the first Motown musicians that my mom and dad introduced me to, and I always thought it would be a good idea if I was ever an artist, and now I am, to make a record called 'Marvin Gaye.'

Definitely just growing up in general influenced me; Detroit happened to be where I was. I feel like the city definitely has made an impact on my life and made me who I am. Detroit has an unmistakable soul - nobody can duplicate the soul we bring to the game. From Motown to J Dilla to Eminem to anything.

I've bought clothes based on record covers. Particularly from the formative music that turned me onto it in the first place when I was a kid, with the Beatles and the Small Faces. A lot of those Sixties soul artists were in really sharp sharkskin or mohair suits, and Motown artists looked amazing.

When we were first started we were doing a lot of Motown stuff, but actually playing it more in a rock way. Everybody in the band sang and we did a lot of harmonies.

We're so influenced by Motown and the mid-'70s and the rock sound Detroit had.

We've stepped up our game by expanding Motown Winter Blast and bringing even more excitement to downtown Detroit. Come Super Bowl Sunday, we expect people to not only talk about which team they're cheering on but also the great time they had at our outdoor extravaganza.

I feel Motown really exploited me.

Motown is the soundtrack of our lives. These are songs we have always wanted to do, and now, happily, we have had a chance to do them.

Music has always been in my family, but it was mainly keyboards. I learned to play classical piano, but when I first heard the amazing bass guitar of James Jamerson, who played on all the big Motown hits of the '60s and '70s, I knew bass guitar was my instrument.

Growing up in Hitchin was comfortable and easy enough. My parents had some great records - and some not-so-great ones - and that's where I got introduced to Motown and the Stones and Springsteen.

We are extremely grateful to our sponsors and partners that make Motown Winter Blast possible. We have created an incredible backdrop for Super Bowl XL and we're excited to share it with the world.

We met each other in junior high back in the '60s. Motown was in its heyday then. So we were no different than most groups in that we wanted to be like the Miracles, the Four Tops and the Temptations. But my brother Scotty and I had grown up listening to groups like the Four Freshmen. Our father was a big jazz enthusiast, too. So what you hear today is an amalgamation of all that.

I was in about in the 8th grade when I started recording R&B, so much of what was on was the Motown sound, and The Beatles had pretty much come over and taken America by storm.

This will be a lot from the '60s, with a little from the late '50s and early '70s. It will have the Motown sound, the British invasion.

WQRL Radio will play 1950s and 60s music specifically for the car show. This is the third year they have offered to provide music that they normally don't play on the air. We will hear more Beach Boys and Motown music than is usually sent over the airwaves.

We talked with other labels, but Universal Motown was really interested in my growth as an artist. This single is a great way to launch my recording career.

As successful as BET has been in the past 25 years, I knew that an aggressive investment in original programming -- in both senses of the word 'original' -- could turn BET from a beast to a monster. I wanted BET to be like Motown -- a soulful beat that the whole world dances to.

Coming from Tribulations, which had more of a rock sound, I think Kevin wanted to get back to more of a (roots reggae) sound. A lot of the early '60s and '70s Jamaican music based itself off the Motown sound, and that was the big thing for Kevin: the vocal harmony and the composition.

A lot of great music got easily dismissed because the baby boomers threw their weight around and we had to listen to Motown 'til our ears bled,

That's one of the things the Tempts have always been, experimental. We decided ... to sit down and come up with using some great songs from the famous Motown catalog and put our spin on some iconic kind of songs that have turned out to be such monster standards in their own right.

Everyone in my record collection -- Sam and Dave, Marvin Gaye, all the Motown acts, Ruth Brown, all the legendary people from the '40s, '50s and '60s -- have still never received any royalties, ... because they still owe money.

The ballads came from being a Motown girl, and my greatest influence was Tina Turner. I must have seen her 10 times. I got to meet her one time, and she asked me to go on the road with her, but I couldn't go. I had a brand-new baby. It was probably good for me because I still had some growing up to do.

I love to sing old Motown songs to myself,or some Patti Smith Edith Piaf or Billie Holiday. That gets me in the mood for singing.

I know that's blasphemous when you are from Detroit, but I was never a fan of Motown stuff. I don't care for the production much.

I knew I wanted to do music at eight years of age. I listened to a lot of Motown growing up, and it got to the point where I started mimicking people - Michael Jackson or whoever. People started to notice I could hold a tone. The bug was always there.

No. I know that's blasphemous when you are from Detroit.

One thing I can say about the Motown acts is that we were a family. That's not a myth

You could've done a killer 20-minute anthology of Motown that would've been educational to kids who didn't know what Motown was. And the people who lived through Motown would've loved its nostalgic value. ... But music is the hardest way to appeal to a mass audience because it's highly fragmented and you never get anything that everyone likes.