Barry Gordy vs. Barry Gordy

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In the middle of reading David Ritz's Divided Soul: The Life Of Marvin Gaye (nice read so far, but Marvin's family was SO messed up, geeze...) and i'm running yet again into some very nasty attitudes towards Barry Gordy. Part of me used to hold him in some high regard because of the track record he had and the amount of great artists he helped flourish.

But when i read about the way he gave his artists the shaft, even while he was still in Detroit (Let alone the big desertion to Cali)it just makes me sick you know. Does anybody know of any good books on him. I'd really like to hear his version of how things were. Not that it's gonna make me think he did a lot of people lousy, but still, would be interested in the read. Not a lot comes up on the net either 'cept the usual "Founder of Motown" hoopla i'm afraid...

― Phil Dokes (sunny), Sunday, 17 August 2003 18:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe if you searched on 'Berry Gordy'...

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Sunday, 17 August 2003 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Totally my goof! No matter how you type it, can't really seem to find any interviews with him or in depth biographies or anything. Maybe there just isn't any...

― Phil Dokes (sunny), Sunday, 17 August 2003 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't read Motown: Money, Power, Sex, and Music by Gerald Posner. I have not read it, but apparently it is so factually incorrect that when his book tour arrived in Detroit a lot of old school Motown people showed up and ripped him a new asshole for being off the money.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Sunday, 17 August 2003 19:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Gordy wrote an autobio recently, I suspect that would be the place to discover his take on things.

Ritz can be melodramatic (viz. his depiction--in the 1st person--of Marvin's death at the end of that book) so I'd read other sources and compare....

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 17 August 2003 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

also posner elsewhere gets wrong the name of the guy who has my favourite JFK conspiracy theory

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 17 August 2003 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Berry's autobiog came out a whiles ago, had a copy but i think its gotten lost... what i remember was that *I* wanted to *read* a book about Berry Gordy and thw story of the Motown label, and *Berry* wanted to *write* a book about how he and Diana Ross are the greatest Romance that never got to happen, and how tragic this was.

― stevie (stevie), Monday, 18 August 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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