Motown and Roots

Cicely Tyson's passing made me stop and reflect on her wonderful career. an amazing actress - may she rest in peace

This made me spend some time on Roots, which was such an amazing mini series. And how it brought together practically the entire world of black entertainment figures at the time. except for anyone or anything from Motown - the largest black owned company

why was motown completely NOT involved with Roots? not asking so much why Diana Ross wasn't in it but that is a valid question. or Marvin or Stevie or someone else. Or why didn't Smokey composed the love theme or music for the series? why didn't motown help finance it?

Well, erstwhile Motowner Leslie Uggams had an Emmy-nominated role in it as Kizzy, remember.
But who knows why the core group wasn’t involved. Maybe Wolper and Gordy didn’t mesh?

Just remembered: Letta Mbulu, who recorded for Motown’s Chisa subsidiary, is a featured vocalist on Quincy’s ROOTS soundtrack.

Just got settled and gave your musings some critical thinking. Here are my takes:

1) Motown Productions was still not taken seriously by the Hollywood powers-that-be; they wouldn't merit serious critical accolades [[Lady Sings the Blues notwithstanding) until Lonesome Dove in the '90s.
2) BG was in direct competition with producers like David Wolper, so a collaborative production would have been highly unlikely.
3) Motown, at its core, always had an aspirational, no-looking-back ethos; a miniseries about slavery may well have been anathema to BG and company.
4) As far as the score was concerned, that was always going to be Quincy's baby. Q was the golden child/Hollywood insider. Besides, no one on Motown's roster could have delivered music with a fraction of the neo-classical gravitas and motherland Sturm und Drang that Quincy more than delivered for this project, IMO--no, not even Stevie or Marvin.

What say you?

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Originally Posted by sansradio

Just got settled and gave your musings some critical thinking. Here are my takes:

1) Motown Productions was still not taken seriously by the Hollywood powers-that-be; they wouldn't merit serious critical accolades [[Lady Sings the Blues notwithstanding) until Lonesome Dove in the '90s.
2) BG was in direct competition with producers like David Wolper, so a collaborative production would have been highly unlikely.
3) Motown, at its core, always had an aspirational, no-looking-back ethos; a miniseries about slavery may well have been anathema to BG and company.
4) As far as the score was concerned, that was always going to be Quincy's baby. Q was the golden child/Hollywood insider. Besides, no one on Motown's roster could have delivered music with a fraction of the neo-classical gravitas and motherland Sturm und Drang that Quincy more than delivered for this project, IMO--no, not even Stevie or Marvin.

What say you?

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thanks!! all very interesting points and makes sense. I didn't really have too much insight into the production of Roots so didn't realize the Wolper-Gordy situation. and excellent point about Q too

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Originally Posted by sup_fan

thanks!! all very interesting points and makes sense. I didn't really have too much insight into the production of Roots so didn't realize the Wolper-Gordy situation. and excellent point about Q too

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And thank you for a thought-provoking post as well.

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Originally Posted by sansradio

Just remembered: Letta Mbulu, who recorded for Motown’s Chisa subsidiary, is a featured vocalist on Quincy’s ROOTS soundtrack.

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I loved the Roots OST album. I also bought a single as it featured the English [[or African) version of Oluwa [[Many Rains Ago) by Letta that wasn't on the album.

That was a lovely song [[quite hard to find these days) and she had a great voice.

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Originally Posted by Levi Stubbs Tears

I loved the Roots OST album. I also bought a single as it featured the English [[or African) version of Oluwa [[Many Rains Ago) by Letta that wasn't on the album.

That was a lovely song [[quite hard to find these days) and she had a great voice.

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Yes, indeed. My brother had the album. Gotta download it.

Scatman Caruthers also had a Motown lp.

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Originally Posted by marybrewster

Scatman Caruthers also had a Motown lp.

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I did not know that.

And this is a serious stretch, but Ben Vereen appeared in the Motown-financed Pippin on Broadway and its Motown-released cast album.

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Originally Posted by Levi Stubbs Tears

I loved the Roots OST album. I also bought a single as it featured the English [[or African) version of Oluwa [[Many Rains Ago) by Letta that wasn't on the album.

That was a lovely song [[quite hard to find these days) and she had a great voice.

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Hey, LST, I see that you’re based Down Under. I did some digging; it appears that the English version of “Many Rains Ago [[Oluwa)” appeared as the last track on the OST on all the international vinyl and cassette versions I could find, including the Australian one. It’s also available on US iTunes. I wonder if you had a bootleg album of some sort—or was the single version different in some way? Or maybe I misunderstood your post: Was the single in Yoruba, English or both? Have a look-see:

https://www.discogs.com/Quincy-Jones.../master/117369

ETA: I now see that the single version is 4:07, whereas the album cut is 4:53:

https://www.discogs.com/Quincy-Jones.../master/419150