Motown Quotes

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

  Smokey Robinson

  Artist

  61 Copy quote

• Motown was about music for all people – white and black, blue and green, cops and the robbers. I was reluctant to have our music alienate anyone.

  Berry Gordy

  Blue, White, People

  53 Copy quote

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

  Marvin Gaye

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Peace

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• 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

  Smokey Robinson

  Musical, Events, Persons

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• I have this ability to find this hidden talent in people that sometimes even they didn't know they had.

  Berry Gordy

  People, African American, Aptitude

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• I don't think you can recreate anything from the past. You can not do it. If you're going to go out and imitate a Motown sound, you can't do it, it's impossible because of the studios and players involved and the atmosphere.

  Elton John

  Past, Player, Thinking

  "A Q&A With Elton John". Billboard Interview, www.billboard.com. November 16, 2004.

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

  Smokey Robinson

  Myth, One Thing, I Can

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• The Beatles were huge. And the first thing they said when you interviewed them, 'Oh yeah, we grew up on Motown.'..They were the first white act to admit they grew up listening to black music.

  Smokey Robinson

  White, Black, Listening

  12 Copy quote

• Remember Motown? Not just the driving music that swept the nation and the world, but the vibrant energy of the Motor City itself, symbolizing the heyday of America. Today, a derelict Detroit is testament to what America has squandered and what it has become.

  Gerald Celente

  Cities, America, Energy

  15 Copy quote

• When we did a lot of that Motown stuff there were four of us on the front line. When we started the evening we'd start from one end of the band and just go along. The lead singer would change all the time. That's the first time that I actually managed to put it into a record.

  Roy Wood

  Change, Band, Records

  17 Copy quote

• Motown, Motown, that's my era. Those are my people.

  Hillary Clinton

  Hilarious, People, Eras

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• I grew up in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, and my mom and pop had an extensive record collection, so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.

  Jay-Z

  Mom, House, Soul

  5 Copy quote

• Those original, black, spirited, defiant, rebellious musical masters. Chuck Berry was one of the first masters of Les Paul's new electric guitar; he pretty much laid down the gauntlet, and I don't think anybody's ever beat him since. Way before the British Invasion, I was tuned into the black guys that created the British Invasion. Without Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and the Motown hits, there would be no Beatles.

  Ted Nugent

  Thinking, Guitar, Water

  "Ted Nugent & Henry Rollins: American Flag/Black Flag". Elmore Magazine Interview, www.elmoremagazine.com. November 3, 2013.

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• Rock and roll came in and changed my life and changed the whole music scene forever, and then I grew to love R&B and Motown and all black music, gospel music. But I never dismiss any form of music. I listen to everything.

  Elton John

  Rocks, Rock And Roll, Forever

  "Interview: Elton John Talks Gnomeo And Juliet And His Long Career". Interview with Cole Haddon, www.mtv.com. February 09, 2011.

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• I've discovered that Motown and Broadway have a lot in common - a family of wonderfully talented, passionate, hardworking young people, fiercely competitive but also full of love and appreciation for the work, for each other and for the people in the audience.

  Berry Gordy

  Appreciation, People, Passionate

  16 Copy quote

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

  Brenda Holloway

  Policy

  13 Copy quote

• Motown will always be a heavy-duty part of my life because those are my roots

  Smokey Robinson

  Roots, Heavy, Duty

  5 Copy quote

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

  Valerie Simpson

  Dream, Mecca

  13 Copy quote

• One of my strongest memories is my father playing bongos in the living room in Detroit listening to Motown radio. He was this skinny white bald guy, but he was really moved by blues and Motown and funk.

  Sufjan Stevens

  Memories, Father, White

  "Sufjan Stevens". Interview with Kitty Empire, www.theguardian.com. March 21, 2004.

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• I grew up not far from where Motown was founded, maybe 300 miles from Detroit and I've always liked - I used to like the way they made records. I still do, I just haven't had a chance to hear as much. They used to entertain me.

  Rick Danko

  Records, Way, Detroit

  10 Copy quote

• I grew up around music. My father was a professional musician. We used to have a trailer house that we travelled in. I've always loved music. Started out loving to sing to the standards and songs of the early 50s, then that interest shifted to rock and roll, Motown, folk.

  Timothy B. Schmit

  Song, Father, Rock And Roll

  9 Copy quote

• For me, the highlight was meeting all the Motown acts, as I adore black soul music. I met Stevie Wonder who I love, and Diana Ross And The Supremes. I also met The Carpenters. I was actually there in the studio when they recorded We've Only Just Begun.

  Tony Blackburn

  Soul, Black, Wonder

  Source: www.mirror.co.uk

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• When I joined, I was one of the first artists to sign on to the Motown West label when they opened their first studio in California. At the studio, you'd run into Stevie Wonder, you'd run into Marvin Gaye…it was very special.

  Thelma Houston

  Running, Artist, California

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• There were many stars in Motown's firmament - among them, Stevie, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves and Diana Ross - but I happen to have loved the Four Tops most of all.

  Jon Landau

  Stars, Four, Diana

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

  Smokey Robinson

  Artist, Firsts

  4 Copy quote