Post by kalisa2 on Jan 17, 2003 13:52:50 GMT -5
I've only read half this thing, and so far haven't found Eddie pulling a gun on anybody, but thought this would be of interest to those who care about how the business was run:
Wheneve a producer/songwriter created a song, it belonged to that producer. All the charges for the studio time, the musicians, the engineers, and the sound mixers were charged to the producer until the vocals were laid down. Once an artist sang the vocals, all the charges were then transferred to the artist's account. It did not matter if the artist did not want to record that song, or even if it was never released, it was still a debt owed to Motown. And if two or more artists laid down lead vocals over a pre-recorded instrument track---as happened frequently---the best vocal would get released, but the other acts would still be charged for the costs of the instrumental.
I've seen something similar to that written elsewhere.
So far my feeling about this book is...If you have NOT yet read Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves, Diana Ross (Call her Miss Ross), Berry Gordy, Raynoma Gordy Singleton, Marvin Gaye bios and autobios, and Turner's books on the Supremes and the Temptations, this is a good place to start, as most of his information seems to come from those sources. Kind of "one-stop reading"
.
Wheneve a producer/songwriter created a song, it belonged to that producer. All the charges for the studio time, the musicians, the engineers, and the sound mixers were charged to the producer until the vocals were laid down. Once an artist sang the vocals, all the charges were then transferred to the artist's account. It did not matter if the artist did not want to record that song, or even if it was never released, it was still a debt owed to Motown. And if two or more artists laid down lead vocals over a pre-recorded instrument track---as happened frequently---the best vocal would get released, but the other acts would still be charged for the costs of the instrumental.
I've seen something similar to that written elsewhere.
So far my feeling about this book is...If you have NOT yet read Mary Wilson, Martha Reeves, Diana Ross (Call her Miss Ross), Berry Gordy, Raynoma Gordy Singleton, Marvin Gaye bios and autobios, and Turner's books on the Supremes and the Temptations, this is a good place to start, as most of his information seems to come from those sources. Kind of "one-stop reading"
.
