Cut Out of Big 'Motown 60' Celebration, Martha Reeves Will Get to Celebrate After All

[sansradio]

https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/ny-martha-reeves-vandellas-motown-60-black-spectrum-20190509-cnjvmrqqzbfczbu4vghg7pgqi4-story.html

[marv2]

Good......no! Great article! Thank you Sansradio for sharing it.

[sansradio]

Good......no! Great article! Thank you Sansradio for sharing it.

You got it. Wish I could make it to see her, but I'm a working stiff.

[Roberta75]

https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/ny-martha-reeves-vandellas-motown-60-black-spectrum-20190509-cnjvmrqqzbfczbu4vghg7pgqi4-story.html

Pure class and no bitterness and a great lady of real strong faith. Dr Martha Reeves ALWAYS takes the high road. The true First Lady of Motown Reciords.

[midnightman]

As Adele Givens once said, she's such a lady!

[Roberta75]

;):cool::rolleyes: She certainly is.

[jobeterob]

Interesting that she doesn’t want to see the Temptations show and knows the truth

Those that pray must all drop to our knees and pray that the bitterness poisoning our Forum is recognized and the sinner repents and is forgiven before it’s too late

[vgalindo]

Love Martha Reeves!

[lakedistrictlad1]

Unfortunately this link isn't available to us in Europe. Is there any way of sharing the content here?

[PeaceNHarmony]

Cut-n-pasted:
Even though she’s had people dancing in the streets – and in the clubs, and at weddings – for more than 50 years, Martha Reeves was inexplicably slighted in a recent Motown TV special.


But New York knows better than Motown, giving the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer center stage on Friday.


The former lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas will get to share her true feelings and much more when she meets fans for a special event at The Black Spectrum Theater Company in Jamaica, Queens.


Reeves, 77, said she will “not complain but explain to the people how I’m living and walk in the life as a Motown artist and one of the original singers at that company.”





“It’s my turn to share what they want to know and to share with them how grateful I am to still be alive and have such a meeting,” she added about the performance and meet and greet hosted by veteran radio personality Bob Law.


At the event, she’s likely to get the love she didn’t receive when CBS aired its glitzy television special “Motown 60: A Grammy Celebration” on Easter Sunday. Motown’s founder and chairman Berry Gordy closed the show out with a heartfelt speech about dreams coming true and thanking the people who helped make Motown Records “a legacy of love” but a key piece of that legacy was omitted.


“I haven’t seen it,” Reeves told the Daily News this week. “People told me my performance was cut from there.”


The two-hour showcase featured musical performances from Motown legends such as Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, alongside younger acts like Fantasia, Tori Kelly, Meghan Trainor and Ne-Yo singing some of the greatest songs in pop music history.



As far as the music of Martha & The Vandellas was concerned, their 1964 signature song “Dancing In the Streets” was shoe-horned into a pretaped, Vegas-styled medley performed by Jennifer Lopez at the Grammy Awards, that aired in February — which drew much ire on social media.


“For some reason, they gave me very little bit of my song ‘Nowhere to Run’ and not my title song ‘Dancing in the Street’ and it was not presented in the presentation,” Reeves shared. “Once it was edited, they did not show me singing.”


A longtime Detroit resident, who started at the label as a secretary before her group took off with its first million seller “Heat Wave” in 1963, Reeves knows firsthand of the inner workings of Hitsville.



‘Yeah, I’ve learned to handle the decisions that Motown made from the early beginnings,” she said of the snub.


Despite what could be deemed as a blatant omission, Reeves maintains a positive outlook. The Eufaula, Ala., native is proud to be a torch bearer for a musical sound that helped shape culture.


“The history of Motown is in my heart and I guess I’m one of the best people to express it because I’m one of the only people living who can,” she said.



The former Detroit city councilwoman is looking forward to retelling history and dropping a few gems about her former labelmates like The Supremes [[“Mary [Wilson] and I were always paired together as roommates on The Motown Revue”), Stevie Wonder [[“He’s the only artist at Hitsville USA to get a degree”) and Marvin Gaye [[“He wrote ‘Dancing In The Street’ and I consider it a gospel song").


Even 60 years after being founded [[yes, platinum-selling trap music rap group Migos is associated with the label), Motown Records is still in the zeitgeist.


Just earlier this week, Diana Ross — considered “The Queen of Motown” — made international headlines when she lambasted TSA [[https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ny-diana-ross-tsa-new-orleans-patdown-security-airport-20190505-awrz4ddtwrdtvc5darshxfafim-story.html#nt=instory-link) staffers in New Orleans for making her feel “violated” on Twitter.



Reeves, who has a close friendship to Ross’ former group member and once nemesis Wilson, doesn’t entertain such drama.


“I don’t have a place in my mind for things like that,” she shared. “That means I can’t hear or see what she said, I go through security myself and I have never encountered anything like that. If I see evil coming, I start praying. So I don’t have encounters like that so I don’t want to think of that.”


“This is not the first instance she’s had with security,” Reeves said, recalling Ross’ 1999 dustup at Heathrow Airport, which ended up with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” singer arrested for assaulting a female security officer.



“I pray for my sister because she is a special person and the world has embraced her,” Reeves said. “The only thing that I have to do as a human being is remember that’s what we are and I try to keep my feet on the ground.”


She didn’t spare her feelings, however, when it came to another big Motown-centric subject that has become a hot topic: the hit Broadway musical “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” which garnered 12 Tony Award nominations [[https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ny-dominique-morisseau-temptations-broadway-history-20190502-mxe4vfvsnnaitju5jytv566see-story.html#nt=instory-link) last week.


“I’m not going to see that because I know the Temptations,” she said. “I know the truth.”



“When you take a story and make it noteworthy and just make people pay money to come see it, it’s not always the truth,” she said. “I ain’t gonna go. I refuse to because I’m a real singer.”


On Saturday, Reeves is set to join Wilson for a special “Motown Mother’s Day Weekend Concert” at the St. George Theatre in Staten Island.

[TomatoTom123]

Good article, thanks sans. And thanks PNH for the cut and pastin' :)

[Motown Eddie]

https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/ny-martha-reeves-vandellas-motown-60-black-spectrum-20190509-cnjvmrqqzbfczbu4vghg7pgqi4-story.html

Great news! Thanks for sharing Sansradio.

[PeaceNHarmony]

Good article, thanks sans. And thanks PNH for the cut and pastin' :)Yes, Tom - a very nice piece about Dr. Reeves and gave the lady lots of room to speak her mind. Another poster had mentioned being overseas and unable to access the link so I'm happy that others have had a chance to read this article as originally posted by our friend Sansradio.

[PeaceNHarmony]

Interesting that she doesn’t want to see the Temptations show and knows the truth

Those that pray must all drop to our knees and pray that the bitterness poisoning our Forum is recognized and the sinner repents and is forgiven before it’s too late
If only, my Canadian friend, if only ...

[sansradio]

You peeps are all welcome, and a tip of the hat to PNH for cutting and pasting for our friends across the pond.

[jobeterob]

If only, my Canadian friend, if only ...

I’m not religious-at least not to the kinds of churches that exist

But I was driven to the comment by my inability to understand how possessed and obsessed the odd person is - it’s insane

[marybrewster]

The good Lord is going to snatch that tongue away from Lady Reeves if she keeps telling tales!

She didn't see Motown 60? Girl you lie.

[PeaceNHarmony]

I’m not religious-at least not to the kinds of churches that exist

But I was driven to the comment by my inability to understand how possessed and obsessed the odd person is - it’s insaneA similarity. I follow the classic Stoic philosophers myself. And, of course, yes. How ... unbalanced ... can a person be to give up living to denigrate another person? I guessugo's 'Les Miserables' was not a part of their education! Be well!