On Friday of our Reunion, Vanderbilt Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary David Williams will abandon his legal and athletic duties to teach a seminar on the History of Motown Records, which flourished in his hometown of Detroit, with their studios (a.k.a. "Hitsville") located on Woodward Avenue. The class will begin at 3 PM and conclude at 4:30.
I am hoping for breakdowns on the personnel of the superb Motown "garage" band, and wondering why Marvin Gaye had to break away to form Tamla Records, prior to issuing "What's Goin' On".
Berry Gordy, Motown's dictator, was known to not treat his talented employees too fairly, and perhaps we can learn about the songwriting talents of Nicholas Ashford, Valerie Simpson, Syreeta Wright, and the man Bob Dylan called "the greatest living poet", Bill "Smokey" Robinson.
Let's also hope Mr. Williams can compare Stax Records of Memphis (Isaac Hayes, RIP this week), with the Motown homeboys of Deeee-troit City (as James Brown termed the Motor City).
Prior to David Williams's lecture, Men's Basketball Coach Kevin Stallings, whom Williams backed with great confidence at a rough time early in the 2006-07 season, will lecture at 2 PM about the unique challenges of coaching student-athletes at Vanderbilt. Let's hope Coach Stallings can explain about how real student/athletes can compete against the literal and figurative SEC professionals.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment