Motown's distributed labels and artists

[Cadeho]

I have been wondering if artists on labels Motown distributed counted as Motown artists. It seems as though Chisa artists are included while some of the artists that were distributed on the company's Rare Earth label aren't. The Abbey Tavern Singers don't count right? Did some of those that were distributed sign with the company or did it depend on the distribution deal?

[roger]

Judging from the booklet notes for The Complete Motown Singles C.D. Box sets many of those releases on Rare Earth [[apart from the group RARE EARTH themselves and no doubt THE RUSTIX) were one-off distribution deals, often featuring British groups who were signed to E.M.I. [[Motown's U.K. distributor). Certainly a lot of the Rare Earth label releases are missing from those TCMS sets as distribution rights for the recordings no longer belonged to Motown and it was not possible to obtain them for a "one-off" release.

Other "One Off" deals I can think of were the BOB & MARCIA single on Tamla [[a huge hit in the U.K. for The Trojan group of labels) and the HONEST MEN single on V.I.P. [[a huge hit in Holland), though in both these instances the paperwork was cleared so the 45s did appear on TCMS box sets. No doubt Keith Hughes knows the details of all of this if he decides to contribute to this thread.

With Chisa my understanding is that Motown took over the distribution of the label for three years ... at least that is what is said in this article at the BSN website ...

http://www.bsnpubs.com/motown/chisa/chisa.html

With Chisa there did seem to be some cross pollination with Motown, for example HUGH MASAKELA did a great version on Chisa of "You Keep Me Hanging On", JUNIOR WALKER recorded his own version of "Way Back Home" [[originally done on Chisa by THE [[JAZZ) CRUSADERS) and various Crusaders did session work for Motown, most notably on some of the JACKSON FIVE recordings.

THE ABBEY TAVERN SINGERS also must have been a one-off deal [[and what a strange one at that) and I can't imagine that they were ever signed directly to Motown, though it is interesting to speculate what some Irish "rebel-music" version of "Baby Love" or "Uptight" might have sounded like :).

Roger

[radionixon]

It's a grey area, really, and in the absence of a universally-agreed official definition of what is and isn't Motown, I guess it comes down to personal preference.

For me as far as Motown Junkies is concerned, if the TCMS series included it, or apparently would have included it had licensing permitted, it's in, and its makers are "Motown artists". If not, it's more of a judgement call, but I'm planning to include e.g Manticore later on. Your mileage may vary though!

[Hotspurman]

I’d like to say you can find the answer to most, if not all of your question in my book Motown Encyclopedia [[and as far as the specifics about Chisa are concerned, you can actually find the answer on the Look Inside feature on Amazon since it contains the entire book from the start up to The Commodores), but here are my conclusions on those you’ve specifically asked about.

Chisa Records was formed by Hugh Masekela in 1966 and was initially distributed by Uni. It was later handled by Revue, Vault and Buddah and had a spell as an independent before Motown picked up distribution in 1970. As can be seen from the various label scans in TCMS, Chisa was granted its own label identity, but whatever deal Hugh did, when he moved the label on to Blue Thumb in June 1971, he lost the rights to all seven albums that had been released and one that hadn’t [[Letta Mbulu).

Rare Earth was conceived as a rock label but when the time came to launch found they had insufficient repertoire, so using their licensing deal with EMI arranged for a number of European recordings to be given an American release on Rare Earth. Of course, some of these weren’t rock at all – Sounds Nice – whilst others, such as The Pretty Things, Cats etc, were only available as part of the Rare Earth deal and Motown had no later rights for compilations or reissues. Subsequently, these tracks weren’t available to Universal when they came to release the TCMS series.

Bear in mind that Motown licensed in and out during the course of the years 1959 and 1988, so Marv Johnson appeared on United Artists, as did Eddie Holland, and Barrett Strong was on Anna. The deals that were done the other way are equally interesting, so yes, the Abbey Tavern Singers were never a Motown act but an album released by the Irish label ARC was picked up by Motown and released on the VIP label. There were similar deals done over the years for the likes of Bob & Marcia [[their hit was a reggae version of Young Gifted And Black, released by Harry J’s label, not Trojan, by the way) and Chris Rea [[Let’s Dance), which were released on the main Motown label in the US. Other deals were done in a similar nature to the earlier Chisa deal, with the likes of Gull and Manticore being given their own label identity in the US. That accounts for Typically Tropical’s faux reggae number Barbados and an album by crazed rocker Arthur Brown [[best known in the UK for his number one hit Fire) being serviced by Motown.

There were also distribution deals done that enabled American labels to be promoted by Motown – CTI [[which also included Kudu, Salvation, Greenestreet and Three Brothers) and Ju-Par spring to mind. And as radionixon has implied, it certainly makes the potential for Motown Junkies to be much more interesting!

[mysterysinger]

The Chisa situation seems to be the most interesting since Chisa albums have been released on CD on both Motown and Mojazz and then again back on Motown since The Crusaders "Pass The Plate" and "Hollywood" were released on Motown in Japan quite recently. However, Verve also seems to have some rights [[or have licensed them) for release too.

Don't forget either the deals that brought VeeJay and other product to Motown release - Little Richard, Duane Eddy, Jimmy Reed and more famously Hi product [[Al Green etc). There have also been several various artist compilations such as "Girl Groups The Story Of A Sound" and the "Big Chill" albums. Several none Motown artists on those releases.

[keith_hughes]

One factor that might incline people who want to make a subjective judgment about whether these labels and artists were "really" Motown is that various members of the [[Jazz) Crusaders [[notably Joe Sample) doubled in the early days as members of the MoWest studio band, and appeared on a number of undeniably Motown releases from 1969 on. As has been noted above. But I don't think any of the Crusaders were on a Motown salary, as several members of the Funk Brothers had been.

As for what was included on TCMS, I think what's been said above is probably right. As far as I know [[I wasn't involved with that side of things), we included whatever Universal still owned. Again as far as I know, the only sides Universal paid money to license were those by ... wait for it ... Richard Anthony ... we licensed those from EMI. To forestall the obvious q, I don't know in these post-merger days whether UMG would have to pay to license them now.

[Cadeho]

Thanks for the responses and great information! Some of the information out there was conflicting to me. I was aware Motown beefed up its Rare Earth catalog but was not sure if the deal included signing some of the acts. Some of them are listed as Motown alumni and some not, which made it confusing. Discogs shows who released them first, so it started to look to me as though they weren't actual Motown artists. I think I have a clearer picture now. It does depend on how you look at it and what you want to accomplish. I wonder what Gordy would say? Would he be basing it strictly on who and what he signed off on or his empire as a whole? Thanks again for your help!