Detroit or L.A. - what determined where songs were recorded?

[rovereab]

I have always wondered why Motown chose to record some songs in L.A., especially in light of the different resultant sound.

I can understand there being studio capacity issue for all artists in Detroit and the need to perhaps provide an alternate location for those artists on tour. However, the choice of location does seem strange sometimes, for example with the Supremes A Go Go album. Why wasn't the whole album recorded in Detroit?

Does anyone have an insight into the rationale for the dual location recording regime please?

Thanks

[bradsupremes]

I have always wondered why Motown chose to record some songs in L.A., especially in light of the different resultant sound.

I can understand there being studio capacity issue for all artists in Detroit and the need to perhaps provide an alternate location for those artists on tour. However, the choice of location does seem strange sometimes, for example with the Supremes A Go Go album. Why wasn't the whole album recorded in Detroit?

Does anyone have an insight into the rationale for the dual location recording regime please?

Thanks

I think anything specialty related [[Broadway, standards, etc.) were assigned to be cut in LA or New York. The sound for those songs were in those cities. There were more studios, more musicians, arrangers, etc. familiar with that material. Anything soul/pop related was 90% of the time assigned to be done in Detroit with the Funk Brothers. Sometimes the soul/pop material was done in LA depending on who was out there. Either the studios in Detroit were overloaded and had to delegated out to Hal Davis, Marc Gordon, and Frank Wilson out in LA; the reason why so many of the Supremes A' Go-Go tracks were done there. Sometimes a producer was going for a particular sound.

[lakeside]

This has probably been asked before....but....does anyone know the very last 70's Supremes song recorded in Detroit?

[TomatoTom123]

Probably the Floy Joy album or the Frank Wilson sessions. Not at all specific though lakeside

[rovereab]

I can understand the rationale for "speciality releases" being recorded in L.A. as they do not need to have the Detroit sound. However, for me and not wishing to offend anyone, some of the 60s L.A. recorded songs sound like they need a good "Detroitising" to really cut it as a song wearing the "Motown badge".

[marv2]

I can understand the rational for "speciality releases" being recorded in L.A. as they do not need to have the Detroit sound. However, for me and not wishing to offend anyone, some of the 60s L.A. recorded songs sound like they need a good "Detroitising" to really cut it as a song wearing the "Motown badge".

I hear you! They could have recorded most of that stuff in Detroit. The DSO [[Detroit Symphony Orchestra) was one of the best in the country.

[StuBass1]

I believe that Berry Gordy knew fairly early on that Los Angeles was his future if he wished to move beyond just a single genre focused recording company and beginning to make his imprint on the Los Angeles entertainment scene was best done by starting out in the artform he understood best...recording. As great as The Funk Brothers and the other Detroit musicians were, Los Angeles was his best opportunity to create new musical inroads with the sheer number of top notch musicians, producers, and engineers... James Jamerson was the best example of that. He is arguably the greatest bass guitar player in history...in my opinion, the VERY best, however, James had his patented sound, refused to change his fat flatwound thumper strings to thinner, brighter strings [[cheeze cutters) that the pop music industry was going to. The variety of musicians and available sounds in Los Angeles gave Gordy the opportunity to experiment with newer sounds rather than continuing with virtually the same sound he developed in Detroit with few new sonic ideas emerging in the Motor City. And if you look at Motowns top people here in Los Angeles...it's given them lifestyle opportunities they never would have enjoyed in Detroit...Basically, Gordy realized he would outgrow Detroit sooner or later and cut some of his projects on the west coast to become a familiar figure on the local Los Angeles recording scene...

[StuBass1]

During Motowns early days... a lot of industry regulars at the time couldn't understand why the tambourine and bass were mixed in so prominently. That sound became the accepted standard for Motown recordings and lasted for several years, and to me largely explains why "Motown" ultimately became a genre unto itself. By the 70's, the sound in pop music was evolving to a brighter and crisper sound. That's why bass players began using strings that more closely resembled guitar strings than traditional bass strings like the LaBella flatwounds that Jamerson and Babbitt used, and Jamerson refused to switch to leading to one of his problems finding work on the west coast...Jamerson refused to ever change his strings... There is a story that during a session where Jamerson was having issues performing up to a producers expectations, Paul Jackson Jr gave James money to go out and buy a different set of strings, but Jamerson resisted anything that changed the classic sound he had so much success with in Detroit...

[blackguy69]

T

Probably the Floy Joy album or the Frank Wilson sessions. Not at all specific though lakeside

Floy Joy was done in Detroit. Didn’t the This Is The Story box set state most of Frank’s production was split between LA and Detroit. The Jimmy Webb album was done in Los Angeles

[midnightman]

Some of the sophisticated recordings were done in L.A. or New York. I know Marvin recorded some contents of his standards stuff in L.A. and I think the Broadway stuff in NYC. I don't know when they started recording Motown stuff in L.A. but that might've been around the time Brenda Holloway signed.

[ralpht]

Stu, regarding Jamerson's bass strings: Russ told me his biggest challenge getting a good bass sound in the mix was dealing with the sound of those old strings.

[StuBass1]

I can believe that Ralph...I'd imagine lots of fret buzz, despite how strong Jamersons hands and fingers were...Those fat, flatwound strings produce a muddier sound, but it was worth whatever engineering challenges they caused for the sheer brilliance that emanated from them...

[ralpht]

And therein lies the magic of Jamerson's crappy strings, Stu.